Hello Destroyer fans!
We would like to thank everyone who has taken part in our steam playtest. We are about to close it, as we are preparing to roll out a new demo for you to enjoy!
October is upon us and Steam Next Fest is just around the corner. As you know, we have already released the first playable version earlier this year through steam playtest. It met with a lot of praise and we received a lot of quality feedback from the naval warfare and subsim community. Now, we are getting ready to release a new version at Steam Next Fest in October.
And here’s what the new demo brings to the table:
- 7 new language versions
We believe that Steam Next Fest could help us reach a lot of new players, and so we have translated the game into 7 new languages (text only), including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Russian, and Polish. We hope that this will facilitate onboarding for non-English speakers and introduce many new fans of the genre to the game.
- Improved AI
We have applied a few tweaks here and there and we hope that you will welcome the small improvements. The U-boat is now a little easier to control and suppress, but, on the other hand, should be able to surprise you with a few new tricks!
- Easier onboarding for new players: automatic plotting and targeting
We believe this can be a game-changer for anyone who is totally new to navigation and target motion analysis. Those functions can now be automated, so you can feel more like a captain, with the CIC doing all the dirty work for you. This can, of course, be switched on and off in the pause menu, so everyone can determine their preferred level of automation.
The same applies to depth charge targeting: the speed and depth can be set by your recorder officer, so the only thing you will need to do is to adjust the transparent plotter bar angle and press ‘fire’ at the right time. The TRR is one of the more tricky parts of the game, but can help you A LOT with your accuracy, provided you set it right - this feature does exactly that for you!
- Relative bearings
The feature that was most requested by naval warfare veterans is here! You can now switch between true and relative bearings not only on the sonar console, but also with the gun director and lookouts. Again, you have full control over how you wish to play, so feel free to configure everything to your liking.
- New audio reports
Your lookouts can now spot torpedo wakes, sonar will report on torpedoes in the water, the gunner will confirm hits on target, and more. While not game-changing, we hope these new lines will make the audio part more complete.
- Destroyer and U-boat physics
While there wasn’t enough time to address this issue in full, we have nevertheless managed to slightly improve such characteristics as acceleration and deceleration, turning, inertia, and so on. There is still a lot of work ahead of us in this regard, and even more in terms of the visual presentation of water effects, but we didn’t want to leave this issue unaddressed, and so we hope you will find the small fixes satisfactory.
- New camera options and hotkeys
A lot of players requested a free look mode for all stations, as well as an external view. You can find both of the above in the new version. We have also started introducing hotkeys, so you can change between stations by pressing keys from 1 to 6.
More features like this will be added as the game matures and we can focus more on improving overall user experience. There are a few other features that we hoped we could deliver (such as various depth charge patterns, improved audio report queueing, and U-boat AI), but there wasn’t enough time to test them fully. Rest assured, however, that we are working on them and that they will make their way into the game.
See you at Steam Next Fest!
With all that said, please make sure to try our new demo at the October edition of Steam Next Fest. Tell your friends, give it a try, and, most importantly, let us know what you think about it!
Thank you!
Iron Wolf Studio
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272010/Destroyer_The_UBoat_Hunter/