Hello everyone!

It has been some time since the last update to the game, and so naturally, people have started to wonder if development has stopped, or if we are low on funds. We want to assure you that everything is proceeding as normal. We are all still working 100% on the game, and we are happy to announce that 2 new developer’s joined the project. Our new team members are Koji and Axel (we are now 4 people working on the game!).

Currently, Oscar is working on the water asset for patch 0.25. The patch has been delayed somewhat, because he was on parental leave last month. Einar is building new compartments for the U-boat that will be implemented in patch 0.26. Koji is working on new ship models for patch 0.27 and Axel is making a new network protocol for patch 0.33 that will support dedicated servers and PVP.

Looking for people to play with, previous Q&A’s or somewhere to discuss the game in depth with other players?

Join our community Discord!



Water system (patch 0.25)

I am currently working on a new ocean system. The reason that I am remaking something that we already have in the game instead of just patching it is that the current water system has so many problems and lacks so many features that we want that remaking it from scratch is the sustainable solution in the long run.

The reason it has taken so long to make is that making an ocean system from scratch is very complicated and that the water is tied to so many of the game’s subsystems. Everything from buoyancy calculations, to character animations, to the enemy AI is affected. The new water will be tied to the weather system. I have also ported the game to the latest version of the Unity engine which will make the whole game prettier.



The water is done as far as functionality is concerned but lacks some graphical polish. Right now I am still doing some integration work and straightening up some bugs but soon we will roll out a patch for the testers.

/Oscar








Complete U-boat interior (patch 0.26)

Looking at our roadmap, version 0.26 will introduce the complete U-boat interior. The new compartments include the engine room, aft and forward torpedo rooms, the crew and officers accommodation areas, the galley and the sonar room. The interior will be re-textured in accordance with the brighter paint scheme used on the historical U-boats, unlike the darker look currently in the game.

A lot of people are wondering whether or not the new compartments will be interactive. Will you be able to manually control the engines, reload torpedoes, eat moldy crackers while boiling cabbage in the galley, etc. We've been discussing this and we do have plans for additional roles and features. However, the initial version will be mainly cosmetic. The new areas will be managed by bots and new roles and features will be added later. It is crucial to us that new roles are fun and challenging and we are certainly open to suggestions.

As of now, I've modeled most of the new interior and texturing is under way. When this is finished animations will be added to the engines, doors, hatches, etc. The compartments shown in the images below are still work in progress. There is a lot more work to be done but we're getting there.

/Einar


Crew accommodation area.


Galley.






Officers accommodation area/mess.


The sonar room is now separate from the radio room.


Engine room with a basic texture applied.




New ships (patch 0.27)

Hello, I am one of the new developers on the block working on Wolfpack. I go by many names but you all may call me Koji. I started to work on building a playable Flower Corvette for Wolfpack back in June of 2019 and late last year was asked to join the team. Other than working on the corvette I have been working to build and create an experience around it and to further Wolfpack by reshaping the entire merchant fleet into historical representations of the most common and notorious of ships. You may say I am also the lead researcher for the Allies.

The Flower Class Corvette is the British nemesis to the U-boat. They are responsible for escorting the convoy safely across the Atlantic to protect them from the elusive U-boats that dare to sink the merchant ships. I thought it was a good fit to take this little ship and make it fully playable to really test the most seasoned of U-boat veterans against some real players.



Alongside the Corvette, the merchant ships have been undergoing quite the overhaul thanks to my efforts to create a merchant fleet. Based on real historical ships and still a work in progress of course, each class had a significant historical role in the battle of the Atlantic, including the ill fated Athenia being the first casualty of war.


(Back row from left to right: Athinia, Empire Star, Royal Sceptre)
(Front row from left to right: Skeldergate and her sister, War Sidrar)


Netcode (Patch 0.33)

Hi people, Axel here (Admiral Squatbar on Discord).

Short introduction about me: 27 years old, I study Game Development at Stockholm University. I spend my free time programming and at the gym..

Favourite game?
Tie between Eve Online and Dragon Age: Origins.

Currently playing?
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which is absolutely gorgeous.

Favourite submarine movie?
K19 - Widowmaker, don't at me.

What do you actually do on Wolfpack?
As you might have guessed from the heading, I am currently busy (and have been since January) with a complete from-the-ground up overhaul of the network code.
There are a couple of reasons why this is necessary, and they are tied to some features on the roadmap important to both us and the community, outlined below.

Dedicated Servers
The current netcode uses the Steam Lobby-framework. There is nothing wrong with this system whatsoever, it is however, designed for shorter and smaller coop-games, such as Left 4 Dead or Counter-Strike which makes it suboptimal for Wolfpack.

Dedicated servers will allow communities to host their own servers - and as we move away from a peer-to-peer style netcode, the matches can scale better in terms of player count and size.

This does not mean we are removing the possibility to host a simple match with your friends like you can do today - I aim for this experience to be more or less seamless and identical whether you are playing offline (online connection not required), solo, with your friends or on a dedicated server.

Included with this is of course functionality in terms of a server browser, some Steam Community integration and similar.

Player Versus Player
I think the heading speaks for itself on this one, what is better than sinking AI? Sinking real people of course! This is still in a conceptually early stage, so design details will be a bit limited as of now, and I am currently mostly concerned with preparing for it in the network code.

Anti-Cheat
With the aforementioned versus-mode, anti-cheats are of course necessary. This is something we are integrating in the network code from the ground up - Wolfpack will use a server-authoritative network architecture. This means that clients (players) do not command anything on their own, they politely ask the server to do something for them - the server might or might not grant this depending on the game state.

We are also doing some work in regards to network visibility. This more or less means that clients will not be able to see information in the current match unless they explicitly need too.
This has two pros; it significantly decreases the ease of cheating and also helps improve both server and client performance (Known technically as Network Visibility).

As of now, I will not be using VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) to actively detect cheating while running the game. However, server hosts will have the option of enabling VAC authentication on servers which will block players with earlier VAC bans and/or players with invalid clients (usually modified either due to piracy or cheating).

And that’s it for me! If you have any questions, suggestions or otherwise - do not hesitate to mention me in the Wolfpack Community Discord, I’ll try to answer as fast as I can!

Hello everyone! Here is a short video showing some progress on the new water asset we are working on. The next step will be adding foam and wakes.

Hello Everyone!
This week we've been working on the new buoyancy system. Here is a work in progress video.

Hello everyone!

Patch 0.24 is now released. This patch contains a mission editor with Steamworks support. To make a mission, choose Workshop in the main menu, and then select Create mission. To play Steamworks missions, select Workshop in the lobby menu, then select browse workshop. In the workshop menu, click on the mission you want to play and choose subscribe. When the mission is downloaded, you can play it by selecting play.

Patch notes:
Added a mission editor with Workshop support.
Map colors can now be changed in the options menu.
Mouse buttons can now be bound to actions just like keyboard keys.
Added 3 additional stop watches.
Added log book to recognition manual.
Updated the Enigma model.

0.24 : Simplified mission editor.

This patch introduces a simplified mission editor, as well as Steam workshop support. This is a stopgap measure before we introduce the real level editor in patch 0.30. In this mission editor the player can set mission parameters for an open sea mission, and share the mission with the community through Steam workshop.

0.25 : New water asset, all torpedo types.

In this patch we will design a new water asset. The new water will be more dynamic, it will support both calmer and more stormy weather conditions. The new water will be dynamically deformed by ships and will create wakes and foam in a realistic manner. This patch will also introduce all relevant torpedo types, including FAT and LUT torpedo patterns, as well as realism options for torpedo failure. The player will be able to choose a torpedo loadout depending on the in game year.

0.26 : Complete U-boat interior.

In the current version of the game only the conning tower, control room and radio room are implemented. In this patch we will add the rest of the U-boat interior: The aft and forward torpedo rooms, engine room, galley, officers and crew accommodations as well as new sonar and radio compartments will be modelled and textured in great detail. The control room and conning tower will be retextured using the correct paint scheme.

0.27 : New damage system for ships.

This patch improves the damage model for enemy ships. The new damage model will have detailed interior colliders for each part of the ship, and the ships will be able to deform, burn and break apart in a realistic manner.

0.28 : Global world map.

This patch introduces a global world map with correct land height and barymetric data for the entire world.

0.29 : New AI, Aircraft.

In this patch we will rewrite the enemy AI, making it more capable. This patch will also introduce aircraft, aircraft carriers, torpedo boats, enemies with forward throwing weapons and enemy radar.

0.30 : New level editor with land/global location.

This patch will introduce a complete level editor, using the global world map. The level editor will be used by us to create a campaign (a series of one off missions), and will also be made available to the player community. The editor will enable us to make missions that take place near the coast, such as harbour invasion missions. This patch introduces coastal defence, mine fields, anti submarine nets and block ships.

0.31 : U-boat flooding and damage.

In this patch we will build a realistic damage model for the U-boat. We will also model dynamic flooding of the U-boat interior.

0.32 : New character models/character creator.

In this patch we will build new character models and a character creator. The new characters will have greater variety in appearance and a larger selection of clothing and accessories.

0.33 : Dedicated servers.

In this patch the net code will be reworked in order to support dedicated servers.

0.34 : Playable corvette and Versus mode.

A playable corvette will be introduced to the game as well as game modes for U-boat versus corvette combat.

Hello everyone!

This week we are releasing patch 0.23. This patch includes in-game voice chat, and a number of bug fixes. Settings for the microphone and voice volume can be found in the options menu under Audio options. The push to talk key button can be bound in the key bindings menu. In the game lobby, the host can choose if the game should be played with or without realistic voice attenuation.

With realistic voice attenuation enabled, voices are hindered by walls. Without it you can hear players all over the boat. In both cases, the direction of the voice is calculated. In realistic voice mode you can also use the voice tube on the bridge.

Patch notes:
Added voice chat.
Added realistic voice attenuation.
Added bridge/control room voice tube.
It is now possible to clear keybindings by using backspace in the keybind menu.
Convoys now change direction after going back to idle on normal difficulty.
Convoys now periodically change direction on hard difficulty.
The starboard EOT now has the command to increase RPM on both engines, while the port EOT decreases RPM on both engines.
Added description and uptime to lobby list.
Fixed flying sub bug.
The top hatch now blocks voice communication.

Hello everyone!
This week we have worked on the radio, and fixed some bugs. The new patch adds rebindable hotkeys for sending morse, and in game notepads for plain and cipher text. The patch also adds four rebindable iambic hotkeys. These will allow the player to send perfectly spaced dots and dashes. This patch also addresses some AI bugs that were present in the last patch.

Patch notes:
Added rebindable morse send key.
Added plain and cipher text input fields in morse key and Enigma use states.
Added iambic morse buttons with custom keybindings (thanks Folko).
Added ability to raise and lower direction finder antenna.
Added toggle for morse alphabet in send view.
Fixed escort not pursuing bug (thanks gurudennis).
All sunk ships now count towards objective completion, even if the responsible u-boat gets destroyed while the ships are sinking.
It is now possible to use the chat while looking at the map.
Fixed UI interaction bugs.
Reduced maximum compressor depth.
Reduced compressed air cost for torpedo firing .
Reduced compressed air cost for starting the diesel engines.
U-boats can no longer receive radio messages below send depth.

Hello everyone!
This week we have finished work on the new radio system. The new system has two modes: Simplified and advanced. The mode is set in the lobby settings before starting the game. In simplified mode, players type in messages using the keyboard, but unlike before, the message can be typed out in full, without having to pause between each letter while it is being sent. In advanced mode, the morse key functions like it does in real life. Players will have to learn morse code in order to use this system. The new system uses fixed receive channels for each U-boat. Channel 1 is used to broadcast to all U-boats.

Other changes:
The diesel engine now stops working at 8 meters.
Increased underwater friction when running diesel engines.
Enemy ships are now more prone to ramming U-boats.
Periscopes can now be damaged by collisions.

Hello everyone!
After a lot of work the new patch is finally up and running. This patch changes the way that the clients connect to the host. Before this patch, clients connected to a Steam lobby, and used that lobby to exchange data. If the player’s connection to the lobby (the Steam server) was severed, they got disconnected from the game. If this player was the host, everyone got disconnected. The new system only uses Steam’s servers to announce the game, everything else happens peer to peer. This should solve most connection issues. This patch has taken a lot longer to make than we anticipated, and we are sorry that you had to wait longer than expected.

But why haven’t we finished making the Scapa flow mission yet? What’s taking so long?
Instead of just making a single mission, we have decided to build a general purpose mission editor. This mission editor will be made available to players, and missions will be shareable via Steam workshop. To that end, we are making a global world map (2D and height map), so that we can make missions everywhere in the world. This is what’s taking so long.

We are aware that it's been a while since the last patch, and that you are eager to see new content in the game. We understand this, and we try to make decisions that will enhance the game's development in the long run even if it seems tedious at times. To facilitate more frequent patches, we will be releasing some of the other items on our roadmap before the Scapa flow level (and level editor) is completed.

Best regards,
Oscar & Einar

Patch 0.21
Reworked netcode.
Fixed Navigator bot plotting bug when reversing.
Calibrated papenberg meter.

Merry Christmas everyone! We will be taking a break over the holidays, but we will be back in January with the regular updates.

God jul!
Oscar and Einar