This popped up on my sonar this morning: HMS Marulken

It's a multicrew WWII sub sim, and I was wondering if any of you would be interested in trying the demo tonight or later this weekend.

hmsmarulken.se/ (demo download)
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=501529353
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1655728789/hms-marulken-reboot

I pledged 400kr. (about 60 Canadian pesos), so if/when the game is delivered I'll have 3 copies to give away.

DDG YouTube play through:

NSFW warning: strong language and a total lack of nudity.

Thank you! I have always wondered what a properly done warship simulator with all the stations manned would be like, even before coms and the internet were an established reality. I did dream of something like a Nachi class cruiser in a Java Sea scenario, myself, but a sub will certainly do. Such a lot of possibilities, I'm glad it is finally being explored.

(Only problem, everyone will want to be fire control and no one engineering or damage control, lol!)

PS: Might pledge a small amount myself, thinking of it. Hope they are serious, though.

I'm totally down for an engineering spot! Heck, I'd even try my hand at the radio/sonar operator station. Someone else has to be Captain of the Boat, though.

yeah im getting this now lets try it alter together

OK, I'll do fire control, then. Just let me "refresh" on trig with this first!

JK! I'll download the demo a bit later.

EDIT:

That's pretty awesome, with the range finding optics, acoustics and the TDC. So cool! Simply have to do work up on this sometime, guys.

As Naro isn't volunteering for a specific post, perhaps he should be the Captain?

This looks awesome!

It is. I hit a destroyer bow on that was coming to get me, operating the sub like a one man band, lol!

I've got three copies to give away now, too, so hands up here on the 99th if the project takes off and you want one!

I also have 3 copies to give away.

I had a blast playing tonight

Engine room, Come right 5 degrees, maintain 5 Knots. lets play some Yahtzee

That was a legendary comment under depth charge attack!

It was great fun, and we managed to definitely sink one destroyer, and another believed sunk earlier. I nearly got left out on the deck during a dive while I had been fiddling with the deck gun. Wasn't bad teamwork, for a first attempt while learning the sim. Magnet was sterling on engineering, and Sweeper earlier was showing his flair for getting to grips with sensors again.

However, we were getting spotted too much; "Angle on bow; Zero" should be a rare situation. It was the normal call from 'scope for us, lol!

PS: And yeah, it's got me reading submarine books again; "The Hunting Submarine", by Ian Trenowden, for starters. Loads on iBooks.

Some great room reviews on the Subsim.com HMS Marulken forum by "Chromatix":

In the Radio Room (build 144)
In the Engine Room (build 144)

Also check out some of the other posts by veteran submarine sim players in there. A wealth of good info.

Cygon, when's our next patrol?

Also, this.

Indeed, I had addressed some of the points with the devs that are mentioned in Chromatix's posts, particularly the hydroplanes, and the implementation of trim tanks, necessary for both immediately after firing torpedoes and long term task of maintaining boat balance due to fuel consumption. This would be a very neat inclusion in the sim for an added layer of realism, along with an added crew member for the job.

Chromatix's mention of the grouping up or grouping down of electric motors in series or parallel is highly valid, too, as it was standard procedure on WWII boats for battery endurance / performance reasons, depending on the situation during an action.

Hydroplanes they tell me are already implemented, but the feature was not included in the demo, so no fear there.

Torpedo room and associated controls are indeed being implemented, and can optionally be AI or crewed, I am told.

One point about the sonar I mentioned; operators very soon got to the level of experience that they could count prop revolutions and give a pretty accurate estimate on speed, for blind engagements. This feature, they assured me, is actually being included.

Lots of promise for this sim, from well motivated and clued-up devs. Hopefully they'll achieve their kickstart goal and deliver!


I'm on leave at the moment, so I can do my TDC station any evening / night, to perfect our crew drill.

PS:
Forgot to add; I asked about Damage Control. The answer is yeah, on the drawing board. They don't want it feeling too "gamey" (I assume he meant from the content of what followed that they don't want a "plan view screen" of the sub which you just click on to fix an item, but that you actually "find" the damage by walking around checking).

Interesting.

So I take it that we loose our give away copies?

Personally, I'm a bit disappointed it went U-boat, despite my usage of German terms in game (lol!). I would much rather it had gone British, Japanese, or USN, in that order, if there was going to be a change. I know there have already been several sims about Dönitz's wolf packs before (last one I played was one way back in 1995, think it was called U-boat Command).

I was looking forward to something different. The Japanese, particularly, undertook or planned some very special sub missions, including an underwater aircraft carrier type - if my memory doesn't fail me from what I read years ago, one sub was designed for attacking the US base at Galapagos and the Panama Canal(?).

And hopefully, the devs will resist what will most probably amount to pressure to make it "gamey".

In any case, if that's the sacrifice they felt was needed to get it off the ground (or running under water, as the case may be), so be it. I thought the Kickstarter was progressing well, myself.

PS:

However, nor am I devastated by the news, I might add.

And...

A correction: I looked it up, the game was called "Command: Aces of the Deep" .

as long as the game maintains its sim-ish setup, i will be happy honestly. i was having a literal blast playing this so far. and i hope you guys get your copys, that would be very upsetting if you dont.

Agree, Naro. It is the concept that is fun to the core, even if the scenario had said it was a submarine manned by invading Martians taking advantage of WWII to further their gains.

My very slight disillusionment was based on it being forced into a conformity of popularization, regarding the wolf pack scenario, like they were the only submarine force of the war.

But, no doubt the marketing will be more successful this way, so best of luck to them, and I can continue to air my few words of German with some justification!