Things have been rather quiet for some time, but now we can finally share with you the single most important piece of news since the very announcement of Destroyer! Iron Wolf Studio is proud to announce the beginning of collaboration with Daedalic Entertainment, the new publisher of Destroyer: the U-boat Hunter! That’s right! We are very excited to share the news with you, and we are confident that the expertise and publishing support that Daedalic Entertainment can contribute to the project will allow Destroyer to reach new heights and appeal to broader audiences.
At the same time, it has become apparent that in order to realize the new scope of the game that we are now able to deliver thanks to Daedalic’s Support, the release will have to be postponed until Q3 2022. We are sorry to break the news to you so late in the process, but only now are we sure that we will be able to introduce new features into the game that would have been otherwise unfeasible.
Speaking of which, Destroyer will receive a plethora of new and exciting features, including an all-new tactical mode that will vastly reduce the learning curve for casual players! This special mode will transform the game into a third-person perspective & RTS hybrid, focusing on presenting the convoy battles in the most intuitive and spectacular way!
Just to make things clear...
The tactical mode WILL NOT impact or simplify the simulation mode of the game in any way, so all our hardcore simulation fans can rest assured that the experience that they are waiting for will be as realistic and as deep as they have come to expect (or even better!). The tactical mode, simply put, will be the same demanding game, but presented from a more casual and easily digestible perspective, allowing even less experienced naval warfare enthusiasts to dive right into the fray. The two modes will be completely separate, so, in the end, it will be like getting two great games at the price of one!
Please stay tuned for more information and new materials, as we are now stepping up our efforts in a bid to deliver an even more polished and complete product. With Daedalic Entertainment joining forces with Iron Wolf Studio, we are confident that Destroyer: the U-boat Hunter will deliver a truly unforgettable experience, and will take its rightful place as the most exciting destroyer simulator ever made.
Today, we would like to show you a brand-new video from Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter. It shows some of the game’s new features, lots of visual improvements and a general overview of what the full experience will bring.
There is a lot going on, so we would like you to stay updated. You can also expect major announcements very soon, revealing the most important facts about the current status of the project.
Today is the day- STEAM NEXT FEST WINTER EDITION 2022 IS OPENED!
Join Madnetic Games on 07:00 PM CET, 21.02.2022 on Steam!
From today till 28th of February you can test out what our friends from Madnetic Games had prepared for you after the recent playtests of WW2 Rebuilder.
And what have they prepared, exactly? You will visit a renewed and improved version of Gimbert Station:
We have been working a lot on the visual side of our game, and although this is still work in progress, we would like to share some of the new VFX that we have been working on. In the meantime, the tactical side of the game is undergoing heavy testing, and we hope to be able to showcase some of that aspect of the game in the near future as well.
Therefore, although things have been quiet for some time, please rest assured that this is only because we are totally swamped with the amount of work still to be done. That being said, we are making constant progress and we are confident that you will be happy with the final result!
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Join our Discord to be the first to get updates and information on the game development. Thank you again for your involvement!
Following the Steam Next Fest release of our demo, we have once again gathered a lot of feedback, taken a deep breath, and we are now taking the project to a whole new level. Destroyer is growing, and to give you the first glimpse of what is to follow, we would like to show you one of the new stations that has already been prepared for your upcoming fights against enemy wolfpacks.
That’s right!
In its final form, Destroyer will be just as much about your own ship’s maneuvers, as it will be about commanding your whole escort screen against an entire wolfpack. Because of that, we need to empower the player with new systems and ways of tracking and gathering data on the steel wolves attempting to ensnare the convoy. Perhaps you can remember the two stations from our gameplay trailer that did not make their way into the demo. Well, the reason for their absence was simply because they weren’t necessary back then. In the full game, however, they will help you deal with multiple enemies and evaluate the overall tactical situation.
One of those stations is a board for keeping track of multiple contacts. It was very early in the project when I decided to use it in the game in order to let the player keep track of all the essential information on multiple foes. And well, whaddya know - it actually serves the exact same purpose as it did on an actual warship, so it’s not like we are reinventing the wheel here. Regardless, I really like how it blends with the rest of the design and how it allows the player to immediately see all the most recent information about every contact encountered.
As you can also see on the board, we are currently fighting against two U-boats and, from our initial testing, we can already tell you that the board is of great help, especially if you lose contact with one of them. The reason is that once the contact has been lost, the board still holds all the last known information about it, allowing you to plot its position from the point in time where you lost it. So, you can simply backtrack to your own destroyer’s position on the given time on the DRT, and that will allow you to roughly plot the estimated contact position based on that data.
What is also important, selecting a contact on the board switches all the reporting to that particular contact, with only the most crucial information on other contacts being given (lost, regained, etc.). This way, the player can filter among the reports to hear only reports about the selected contact. After all, the chosen contact is the one that the player will track and attack first.
With the ‘contacts’ board up and running, we are currently working on getting the tactical display working as well. This will be the last station added to the game, so once it is ready, we will no longer need to work on new stations and will be finally able to focus on perfecting and polishing everything we have done so far. At least from the destroyer side, that is, because there is still TONS of work to be done on the U-boat AI, escort vessel AI, and how they interact with one another.
That, however, will be discussed in the next devlog
We hope that the new, tactical level of gameplay introduced by commanding your AI escorts against multiple U-boats will add a new and exciting layer of decision-making to the game.
We would also like to thank everyone who has played our demo and shared their feedback - it is much appreciated, and we will do everything we can to make the game cater to your anti-submarine cravings. We also hope that you will stay excited about Destroyer and that you will keep following the game and help it thrive with your feedback until the official release.
Lead designer Artur Salwarowski plays Destroyer: the U-boat hunter demo for an hour, answering your questions about the game, new demo functionalities, as well as the further development of Destroyer.
New Destroyer demo at October Steam Next Fest!
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!
