Crush Depth: U-Boat Simulator

Crush Depth: U-Boat Simulator is a planned submarine simulation about the Battle of the Atlantic. Its stated aim is to depict the campaign’s brutality: 765 of the 1,156 commissioned U-Boats never returned to port, along with 30,000 of the roughly 40,000 men who served in the U-Boat arm. German submarines sank at least 2,603 Allied merchant vessels, with at least 30,000 people lost at sea.

The submarine simulation

The game is planned to feature a Type VII-C U-Boat recreated from original blueprints, alongside other ships and planes modeled from blueprints and building regulations. Its physics simulation is intended to account for hydrostatic pressure, viscous resistance, electrical conductivity, sound propagation through different mediums, salinity, temperature and Boyle’s law. The world is planned as an oblate spheroid with bathymetry and height data accurate to 15 arc-seconds.

Failures and missed torpedo shots are intended to follow from the simulation’s physics rather than random chance. The game aims to offer an honest depiction of the Atlantic campaign.

Running the boat

Interactive tutorials are planned to teach you the boat’s systems and procedures, from coordinating engine management, ballast and rudder controls to diving, operating an Enigma machine to encode and decode radio traffic, and preparing Eintopf for the crew. You will be able to adjust the level of complexity: tasks such as starting a compressor can be simplified from around ten steps to one, or assigned to the AI.

Life at sea and ashore

The main planned setting is a persistent MMO environment around the U-Boat base at Lorient, France. You and your crew will depart from there on patrols in the Atlantic and elsewhere. Onshore activities include repairing and restocking the boat, planning the next departure, coordinating radio traffic with crews at sea and spending time at the local bar.

On board, you will be able to interact with the boat’s machinery and other items, and take part in activities such as playing chess or skat with crewmates, having coffee or trying to take the captain’s binoculars. You will also be able to customize your character’s physique, clothing and accessories, and earn medals and other insignia over the course of a career.

Game modes

Alongside the persistent MMO setting, the planned modes include historical encounters that place you in the time and location of real skippers’ missions, customizable encounters where you choose the ships, location, time and conditions, and interactive training missions. These modes are planned to support solo play or groups of friends over a network.

The game also plans to include a playable Elco PT-Boat, with the possibility of other Allied units. Development is temporarily paused, and the features described are aspirations rather than content currently available.