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!