Hello everyone!
This month we have focused on implementing missions and new game modes.
New game modes
In the current version of Wolfpack, two game modes are supported: Skirmish mode, and User generated missions.
The new version of Wolfpack will support two (other) game modes: Scenario mode and Career mode.
Career mode is a long form game mode, where players are free to roam the open world using fast travel, completing missions and returning to port to stock up for the next mission. A career is subdivided into chapters.
Scenario mode is a more focused, short form game mode, where the players are tasked with a single, smaller mission that can be completed in one play session.
Both modes are made with the same editor tools, and these will be made available to the players, so that they can create their own scenarios and careers. In both game modes, the game can be saved and continued later.
Career mode, missions and chapters
A career is subdivided into chapters. A chapter has a start and end date. A chapter is finished when the players have gathered enough victory points to win, or when the time runs out, in which case the chapter is lost.
During gameplay, the players are given missions. When a mission is successfully completed, each U-boat that participated is given a number of victory points, according to how much they helped to complete the mission.
In career mode, each u-boat must return to port to hand in these points to the global pool of victory points to complete the chapter. If the U-boat is destroyed on the way back to the port, the points are lost. In scenario mode, points are handed in as soon as the mission is completed.
Career mode can have any number of submarines participating at any given time.
Missions can have several different end states, and these can lead to different missions, depending how a mission was completed (or how it failed).
Mission Editor
Missions can have one or several mission objectives. These can be things like “Destroy a specific unit”, “Sink x tonnes of merchants within a given area” and similar. In the mission editor, the victory conditions are represented as a graph of objectives. Objectives can be combined and negated in this graph using and/or/not statements.
This allows the user to set up arbitrary end states for missions, allowing the user to create multiple ways to complete (or fail) a mission. Since each end state can lead to another mission, multiple missions can be chained together to create cohesive story arcs.
World Editor
Missions take place within the global world map. The world editor allows you to place air, land and sea units as you deem fit anywhere in the world. Units can be grouped and set up with various factions and nationalities, and directed with logical waypoints. You can also place static objects (docks, houses, mine fields, alarm loops and much more) for decorative and gameplay purposes.
You can place triggers and construct complicated logic chains with conditions to create long, in-depth missions that dynamically react to player actions, or to tell a more cinematic story.
Missions can be instantly played and paused within the editor to save time when authoring missions.
Chapters (containing a world state and one or several missions) can be shared on the Steam workshop directly from the editor, and can also be exported as standalone files.
Models
We have added a range finder and a sextant to the player inventory.
What’s next?
Next month we will continue to work on the editor and other server side systems. After this we will start to look at the client side and UI/UX work. Once we have a stable version of the game, we will release it to the testers, and then to the public beta. At this time, we will also begin authoring the “official” Wolfpack campaign. This campaign will also double as a tutorial for new players and mission authors looking to create their own missions and campaigns.