"A good Navy is not a provocation to war. It is the surest guaranty of peace."


UCN Ship Pack [0.8.1.2] - Download Link
Last Updated: 1 June 2018

Contents:
- U.C.S. Spearfish SSN-21
- U.C.S. Swordfish SSN-27
- U.C.S. Daggerfish SSN-42
- U.C.S. Tigerfish SSN-127
- U.C.S. Tigershark SSN-159
- U.C.S. SDV
- UCN Demilitarized - Spearfish
- UCN Demilitarized - Swordfish
- UCN Demilitarized - Daggerfish
- UCN Demilitarized - Tigerfish
- UCN Demilitarized - Tigershark
- UCN Demilitarized - SDV

Changelog:
Pictures: -----------


What is the UCN?

The United Colonies Navy was an attempt to form a realism-focused group that would roleplay Barotrauma as professional military crews. This effort did not get off the ground at the time, however the resources for it were made publicly available, including the submarines. The old ships were playable as of version 0.4.1.6., and it is intended to refit these designs for the latest version of Barotrauma, albeit only through newly added features.


What are these submarines about?

UCN subs are built to reflect contemporary, military submarine design principles. In game terms, they are extremely compact, heavily compartmentalized, equipped with redundancies when able and stocked with supplies oriented towards combat operations. The majority of parts are stock, with few changes to variables such as battery capacity, engine power, etc. For the most part, when these are adjusted, power consumption and other trade-offs are scaled as well, the sole exception being the amount of O2 put out by oxygen generators. This will not make these designs the most efficient possible through the editor (such as infinitely powerful engines, etc.), but they are extremely efficient within the scope of the vanilla game, and when used properly are a fair match against any threat.

Since these are warships intended to serve in wartime conditions, they are stocked differently from most subs you'll find. To begin with, the crew cabins will have standard uniforms for the entire crew (blue jumpsuits) containing standard issue equipment. As of 0.8.1.2., sidearms are part of this kit. Likewise, secure sections of the boat are heavily armed with the intention of supplying boarding parties. Lastly, most lockers contain a standard payload of emergency repair equipment, intended to allow the crew to recover the boat from almost any compartment. All of these features were added with the intention of a well disciplined and organized crew.

To make these designs more accessible to public server hosts, there is a parallel line of Demilitarized boats which have had most of the internal weapons removed and some minor changes made to the layout of equipment. It is highly recommended to use these designs instead, as the military variants will usually result in immediate griefing.


What about the old designs?

Since the original line of subs was created back in 2016, there were many limitations, both in my own experience as a designer and in the game itself. For instance: Heavy walls did not exist until most of the boats had already been made. This makes them flimsy compared to the modern boats, to say nothing of the lack of some essential equipment with newer versions of the game. The designs remain playable even now, but do not reflect the UCN spirit as state-of-the-art warships.

It is was intention to make limited revisions to those designs, modernizing the bare minimum necessary to cover any glaring holes (i.e. parasite vaccines). The overall designs will remain, with their flaws, to reflect an ongoing lore.


What are these subs best used for?

Fighting and winning, I'd say. These boats are mainly the kind of design you would use when playing with a group of trustworthy friends to get missions done, and would make for an exciting sub vs. sub opponent. In a public server setting, however, these designs may frustrate those players who expect wider spaces and fewer electronics that can be sabotaged. As mentioned, there is a Demilitarized variant which will not have as many onboard weapons, preventing what would otherwise be a wild shootout once griefers discover the standard issue sidearms. That said, the designs are still very robust, giving the remaining decent players a fighting chance to survive.


What if I want to modify these boats to be even more server-friendly, or mod-friendly?

Go ahead. I already know that some folks took the Spearfish into BTE, although I haven't seen it posted to this forum. My focus was and always will be on the clan-focused military boats, for vanilla Barotrauma, so all else is gravy. That said, please do not report any bugs or problems with boats that have been modified, since there's no telling what changes will have been made to them. Meanwhile, please do report any problems with my designs here, and I'll be happy to address them.

THE LORE


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Foundation of the UCN

THE UNITED COLONIES OF EUROPA began as one of several early coalitions on Jupiter’s moon. Chartered by member nations which hailed from the same nation on Earth, its mandate was to ensure the sovereignty, security and prosperity of its constituents.

In the early days, exploration of Europa’s icy depths had been mainly a civilian affair. But as the scope of the task became clear, so did the need for the means to defend against the many, often unforeseen threats which lay in waiting. No one had expected that Europa’s indigenous life would be so prolific, or so deadly. No one had expected the presence of prehistoric alien ruins, or the unspeakable dangers that lay within. No one had expected the Colonial Coalition, established at the very start of Europa’s settlement, to buckle so quickly under the weight of scarce resources and competing interests. Nor had anyone expected the rise of renegade shipping, armed shipping at that, which cast the dark shadow of frontier lawlessness over a thin crust of civilization.

The United Colonies were the first to recognize the need for an organized, disciplined and heavily armed flotilla, soon to become a fleet, and then an entire navy, built from the very start to sweep the oceans, protect the shipping lanes and neutralize any and every new threat that slithered out of deep. The days of civilian research and commercial vessels plying the waters in blissful ignorance were over. What lay ahead was nothing short of war.

HARMONIA LINEA, the United Colonies’ largest port of call and industrial powerhouse, was at the heart of the effort. History may say that her shipyards had the dubious distinction of starting an arms race that would haunt the people of Europa for generations to come. But one would be hard pressed to find colonists within her cavernous walls who would hesitate for a moment to make the same decisions again.


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The Early Days
The “Sharp” generation of military submarines, 2245-2250

Yet the road to naval superiority was paved with false starts and squandered efforts. The first ship truly worthy of addition to the fleet was the U.C.S. Spearfish (SSN-21) launched in 2245. Patterned on designs dating back to the era of nautical warfare on Earth, this class carried the flag of the UCN through the dark days of the Abyssal Scourge. A primitive design, the Spearfish was extravagantly wasteful in men and material, having been built at a time when the fleet had few safe harbors beyond the homeland. It was ill-suited to grappling with the worst of Europa’s fauna and, after the tragic destruction of the U.C.S. Pike (SSN-23), earned an infamous nickname: “The Nuclear Toothpick.” Even still, the survivors of this venerable class have remained in service to this day, albeit in a training capacity.
SPEARFISH-CLASS

By this point, Harmonia Linea Shipyards had been officially incorporated under government control, and the Spearfish was declared but the first of the new “Sharp” series of nuclear attack submarines. Bitter lessons had been learned and applied in the next class of ships, designated the Swordfish-class. A line of more economical, “medium” attack submarines, the first example, U.C.S. Swordfish (SSN-27), set sail in 2247. This line would go on to form the backbone of the Colonial fleet for the next five years. One such ship, the U.C.S. Orca (SSN-30), had the distinction of being the first to engage a comparable submarine in combat during the Sparti Stand-Off. Commander Neal Stein (UCN ret.) received the Silver Comet for assuming command of the battered ship, run aground upon a ridge, and destroying his overconfident opponent by a sneak attack from directly below.
SWORDFISH-CLASS

This period of success began to wane as early as mid-2248. Foreign powers had not only managed to duplicate the design features of the Spearfish, but had already begun producing warships (often disguised as “hazardous-research vessels”) in sufficient quantity to simply overwhelm the leading Swordfish-class. A crash program was started for the next design of warship, taking the risky step of downsizing once again into an entirely different category of subsurface combatant. The resulting Daggerfish-class, affectionately referred to as “Minnows” by their crews, brought the United Colonies’ industrial power to bear through quantity rather than quality. The concept of the Spearfish had been pared down to the bone, leaving a sleek and slender, light attack boat able to run circles around whatever it could not outgun. So numerous were the Daggerfish that they became synonymous with sealane policing duties, and would be a regular sight under Europa’s ice across many colonies participating in the Coalition.
DAGGERFISH-CLASS


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The Modern Navy
The “Tiger” generation of modern attack boats, 2251-2252

But for all the blood, sweat and tears, Navy brass remained concerned. Even as the U.C.S. Daggerfish (SSN-42) rolled off the assembly line in 2249, it was painfully obvious that the design methodology of the Sharp generation had reached the limits of its usefulness. Despite asserting dominance through constant presence, the Daggerfish-class was obsolete before it had even hit water. Cynical banter from civilian crews to the effect of being “First to arrive, and first to dive” cast a pall over planning sessions in boardrooms and crew cabins alike. The refit program of 2250, which demanded much and promised little, was postponed in favor of a concerted effort to regain the qualitative edge.

After what seemed like an agonizing year, the project bore fruit in the form of the Tigerfish-class. It, too, was a light attack submarine, but this time was unhindered by the limitations of material science, dockyard facilities and lack of experience which had plagued the boats that came before. With the completion of U.C.S. Tigerfish (SSN-127) in 2251, the Navy was finally given a breath of fresh air. Here was not a rushed design based purely on economy, but a thoroughbred built with the sole intention to fight, and keep on fighting. The standard model of compartments had been condensed to the smallest possible volume, trading space for a smaller target, more armor plating and survivability features far in excess of what the Daggerfish had to offer. Underway production machinery, once standard issue for every boat expected to sortie unsupported, was replaced by auto-loading weapon magazines which could feed munitions across the entire length of the boat. Railguns had been repositioned to improve the fields of fire, and the standard payload of nuclear munitions had increased significantly. All of these combined to create a warship which, pound for pound, had no equal under the ice.
TIGERFISH-CLASS

When the first combat reports rolled in, it took only moments for the civilian leadership to approve the latest entry to the dizzying arms race that had engulfed the moon. Seeking to exorcise old demons, the Navy wiped away the old distinction between medium and heavy boats. The same philosophy that guided the Tigerfish would now guide the Tigershark-class of heavy attack boats, the first of which, U.C.S. Tigershark (SSN-159) was launched in 2252. Despite being of comparable size to the Swordfish, it packed nearly twice the armament of the Spearfish and retained all of the safety features of the new design school. Yet the builders went even further, taking advantage of the increased scale to provide system redundancies that the old “Nuclear Toothpick” so desperately needed years before. Heavily compartmentalized, with the ability to cross-feed ballast tanks to combat flooding, the Tigershark was everything that the UCN could have asked for, and more. The deployment of the Mark II Swimmer Delivery Vehicle was the capstone of the year, and it is no coincidence that renegade activity paused for an entire month after the first Marine raid had been conducted.
TIGERSHARK-CLASS
SWIMMER DELIVERY VEHICLE (SDV)


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The Future

As the UCN enters 2253, it remains to be seen how future developments will affect the force. Europa is becoming a more dangerous place with each passing day. But the planets and stripes still wave proudly against a sea of foes, undaunted, and undefeated. As the dedication plaque of the Spearfish reads, "ODERINT DUM METUANT."


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I absolutely love the designs of these subs, one of the best authors I've come across so far. Keep up the great work!

lt25607 wrote:I absolutely love the designs of these subs, one of the best authors I've come across so far. Keep up the great work!

Thanks for the encouraging words! My goal is to refurbish the old boats, but after that, who knows?

UPDATE FOR MAY 19:

Added the refurbished Spearfish-class Heavy Attack Submarine. This was a Seawolf-class mockup that kicked off my efforts to create the UCN. It's not the first sub I ever designed, but it's close to it, so don't be surprised! I've updated features that bring it in line with 0.8.1.2 such as docking ports, external lighting, sidearms for the crew, periscopes and Husk parasite vaccines. It retains the split depth and engine control stations for the sake of immersion and making it tough for the crew, but you can hitch up one of them to the nearby wifi and set to channel 2 to use the engines. The Spearfish also has twin reactors, Reactor A being for the engine almost exclusively. That means the poor thing will blow out fairly often if you're rough on the throttle, but that's all part of the game.

Like the new boats, I've added a demilitarized variant that comes with the helm already linked up and other changes intended to make it more pub-server friendly (although this is probably the least-friendly boat I've ever built).

Also made a few changes to existing boats, so please reference the change log. The demil SDV won't work correctly without this update, so please pick it up if you're a server host!

I haven't play tested all of them so far, but I'd have to say my favorite thus far is the Tigershark. A lot of my Discord group seems to agree. The build quality is just astronomically better than anything I was able to cobble together in a weekend. One of the brilliant ideas I absolutely love is your use of overhead storage. I had never even thought of storing junction boxes or using cabinets like that. Also your execution on the ballast tanks on the Tigershak totally eradicates some of the reservations I had with some of the stock subs. I still haven't explored all of the content here so I will definitely be posting back later. Thank you so much for sharing this with the community though. My friends are enjoying these new subs.

lt25607 wrote:I haven't play tested all of them so far, but I'd have to say my favorite thus far is the Tigershark. A lot of my Discord group seems to agree. The build quality is just astronomically better than anything I was able to cobble together in a weekend. One of the brilliant ideas I absolutely love is your use of overhead storage. I had never even thought of storing junction boxes or using cabinets like that. Also your execution on the ballast tanks on the Tigershak totally eradicates some of the reservations I had with some of the stock subs. I still haven't explored all of the content here so I will definitely be posting back later. Thank you so much for sharing this with the community though. My friends are enjoying these new subs.

Glad you liked it!

Stowing water-sensitive objects up high makes sense, as it buys you time in the event of flooding. Granted, fill the whole compartment and what's done is done, but water has to fill up to it first. It'll keep parts dryer for longer, and can also give each compartment a little bit of "give" in the sense that you can temporarily open it to get somewhere else, even if it's flooded on the other side. Building the entire boat that way would look horrible (also imagine never being able to sit down) but the junction boxes and batteries are no-brainers, the reactor has standby incendium rods for when it's flooded, and so on. Cabinets just plain save room.

The stock subs go about ballast in some pretty eccentric ways, so that's understandable. But having the tanks at the bottom of the boat is already a step in the right direction. With the addition of valves, you can now turn all adjacent tanks into one big tank, which allows you to use all ballast pumps simultaneously. This can let you stop some amount of flooding simply by pumping it off the boat. Ideally you want your boat to remain buoyant with one compartment totally flooded besides.

Let me know if you have any questions or run into any issues with 'em. The Spearfish has much clearer labeling than the new boats, but most of the systems are identical. 2 letters usually means two words.

UPDATE FOR MAY 21:

Added the refurbished Swordfish-class Medium Attack Submarine. This is effectively a more streamlined Spearfish using the same (old) design principles. It's not as tough as the new Tigershark, but it's much roomier by comparison. Demilitarized version was included with the usual changes. Please note that because this sub has so few compartments, I didn't feel right in locking the medical bay behind an ID card this time.

That leaves one last military boat and then the August Richard, which will be a real bundle of fun.

Hey Warhawk, I am so glad you are back on creating/revamping your subs! I remember loving the detail in your subs. Although the Unterseeboot 1914 is far from detailed, I am very certain I took inspiration from yours when creating this first sub, attempting to give it atleast the shape of a submarine. Unfortunetaly, after a community vote, your subs had to be removed from the list as they have not been updated. Since then I have been waiting till they would be brought up-to-date.

I have tested your current set of submarines and the two new subs (U.C.S. Tigerfish SSN-127 and U.C.S. Tigershark SSN-159) are in excellent condition. They are ready to be added to BT Public #1 and #2. Unfortunetaly, a classic one since I remember some of your subs had this problem before , U.C.S. Spearfish SSN-21 is having some electrical problems. I took a picture of this to provide you with information.

U.C.S. Spearfish SSN-21 A fire started soon after bringing the sub in motion.

I am planning to add new submarines soon!

Hey Landon, long time no see!

Sadly the Spearfish is what it is. When you rig an entire reactor to be almost nothing but the engine, it's gonna blow if you don't nurse it all the way. That means being gentle on the throttle, and having a dedicated engineer keeping an eye on it at all times. From the very beginning the Spearfish was put together to be deliberately difficult to use so that it gave a good team something to do at all times. Changing the power system to make it user friendly requires a complete overhaul of the boat from stem to stern, which would suck the life out of it. It's totally understandable if you want to keep that out of the public rotation as a result. It was never intended for public servers in the first place, and even the demilitarized version can only be simplified so much before it's a totally different boat. If you can believe it, it used to be worse; the engine used 6000 power when the static load was under 100. That's been reduced to 3000 with a static load of around 300. To make a part waste tons of power just to balance that goes against my design philosophy of sticking as closely to vanilla parts as possible. I'd encourage you to use the Swordfish instead.

Out of curiosity, are you using the demilitarized versions like recommended? If not, you'll rapidly find folks shooting revolvers and poison darts everywhere!

Also, please re-download the pack whenever you're ready to add to the rotation. I've been churning through these quick with little feedback on bits and pieces I've missed, especially the ID card permissions, so sometimes I'll sneak in an update or two.