Wolfpack is a realistic U-boat simulation under development. When released, the game will be played over the internet via Steam. Created especially as a cooperative multiplayer sim, Wolfpack will allow four players to man a station on the U-boat. The players will need to cooperate in order to control the ship and succeed in their mission. The players can move around freely inside the submarine and can access the bridge and forward deck. Unlike previous submarine sims, Wolfpack is designed for players to procedurally manage the submarine through manual interaction of valves, levers, and controls. Each player will need to bring a serious, responsible attitude to their duties.

There are four roles to fulfill, each with his own duties: Captain, Chief Engineer, Radio/Sonar operator, and Navigator.

The Captain manages observation, determines intersect tactics, operates the periscope, and issues the proper commands to meld the other players into an effective fighting machine. He will use the Ship ID book to correctly estimate target speed and mast height, and the periscope stadimeter to gauge range. He will feed the bearing, range, speed and Angle on the Bow data to the Navigator who mans the Torpedo Data Computer. In his role, the Captain directs the other three crewmen, just as in real life. The crew lives and dies by his judgment and actions, because only he can see the enemy. The Captain will be responsible for his boat and his crew. He will need to exercise good judgment and aggressive tactics in order to smash the enemy and bring his boat home.

The coolest thing I've seen in a long time.

"It's really unique, it's got a lot of really cool features including the Enimga machine, the sonar, just everybody manning everything. It is amazingly fun, I'm really excited to see what the future holds for this game."

The Chief carries out the Captain's commands for course, depth, and speed. He manages the diesels, the battery loads and recharging. The Chief player will need to develop skill at coordinating many activities simply to dive the boat or hold it at periscope depth. In Wolfpack, diving is not as simple as pressing the "C" key. In order to execute a crash dive, for example, the Chief will need to a. use telegraph and switch from diesel to electric motors and order ahead flank, b. silences alarm bell, c. set the planes to forward hard down, aft midships, d. manually open the vent valves allowing seawater in the main ballast tanks, e. manually open the vent valve allowing seawater in the negative tank, f. establish a down angle for the boat between 8 to 15 degrees, g. when the boat is down by the bow, immediately set the rear diving plane up appropriately to avoid an excessive down angle; h. close vent valve for negative tank and blow tank to control dive; i. the ordered depth is obtained by the Chief's operation of the dive planes without overshooting, j. finally, the Chief will close the MBT vent valves and report the depth to the Captain. And keeping the boat steady at periscope depth while destroyers search nearby will require skill and nerve.

This is how it should be

"This game's awesome! You have entire sub you can walk around in, and go up to every single console and work with it. Thank you, yes, thank you, please God!"

The Radio/Sonar operator will have his hands full, too. When the boat is submerged, he is the ears that the Captain and crew depend on. The Sonar player will listen for contacts on the hydrophones and relay that information to the Captain. When the Captain is focused on getting a firing solution on a fat merchant, the Sonar player is crucial--only he can tell if a destroyer is approaching. When on the surface he is searching for radio transmissions to intercept. If he is given the frequency in the mission briefing, and he can try to unscramble coded Allied messages. He has an Enigma with which to decode orders from BdU. And he will operate the Direction Finder gear to locate the enemy based on radio transmissions.

The last position is the Navigator. He has a crucial role and that is managing the Torpedo Data Computer (TDC), target calculations, and torpedo status. He updates the manual map and keeps the Captain informed of their position and the position on known ships. The Navigator will stand watch on the bridge when surfaced, and operate the deck gun when they close in to deliver the final blow to sinking ships. In addition, the Navigator handles damage control.

War Campaign

"This is wonderful news both in that the sim will be funded and in the new historical German type VII aspect. Keep up the great work guys!"

Wolfpack will also allow players to join other U-boats online for true wolfpack battles with as many as five submarines.

Wolfpack started as an alternate history Swedish submarine game HMS Marulken and that demo can still be downloaded here. Since the time of the demo's release, we received a lot of favorable feedback and decided to design the game as a U-boat simulation. The plan is to complete the game with a skirmish mode that will generate random convoys and ships, and a historical campaign that will take the crew through the entire Battle of the Atlantic and let them experience all the iconic U-boat battles and missions, such as Scapa Flow, passing through Gilbraltar, Operation Drumbeat, massive convoy battles, and more. Then, it's on to player vs player....