Pack Tactics is a party game for 1-6 players* where you each captain a submarine and hunt your target, without them managing to track and hunt you! The game is sort of the inverse of battleship. You need to try and remember where your own ship is, even if you can see your enemies. You can ping to locate yourself and nearby subs, but then everyone knows where you are!
A 2 player campaign is included with 16 levels, but I recommend playing Custom Scenarios with more friends once you get the basics down. PVP is very entertaining.
* I haven't thoroughly tested 6 player games because my computer doesn't have 6 USB ports.
Queueing for play.
Once a level is chosen, the game will prompt all players to press the fire key 🅾️ and confirm they are active. All inactive players will be controlled by Ally AI, unless the game detects it is a PVP scenario. In which case uncontrolled players will become grey enemy AI.
Combat Basics
Helm controls
Each corner of the screen will show the helm controls of a player. As a submarine captain your helm controls are a bit complex. Use the left and right buttons to set your heading. Your new heading is represented by the white line on the circular compass, while your ship's current heading is represented by the red line. Your ship will automatically try to steer to your selected heading. Your speed is determined by the red lever to the side. Full forwards is all the way up, and stopped is the middle.
While you are submerged, reference the helm controls to understand which way you are moving, and how fast.
Sonar
Press 🅾️ to ping with your sonar. This will alert everyone of your position, but not necessarily of who you are. It will also cause ships near you to echo their own ping, potentially revealing submarines near you.
Pinging will attract torpedoes nearby, so be careful! If you are very keen-eared, you can distinguish every class of ship and player by the sound of their sonar.
Torpedoes
Hold ❎ to surface and fire a torpedo. Your torpedo will launch forwards and begin using its own sonar to locate targets. If it hears a return ping, it will home in on the sound. Torpedoes don't have the strongest sonar, so you can use your own to ping your targets up close. The red light on your control panel indicates if you have a torpedo ready to fire. Torpedoes have a arming fuze, meaning you can't fire them point-blank into your target.
Ramming
The alternative method of damage-dealing, ramming is rarely a good idea. Submarines cannot collide underwater, but all surfaced ships can collide and take damage.
Making a Custom Scenario
Custom scenarios are rather simple to make. On the main menu, use the left or right buttons to select a save slot. Then choose edit. From here you should have an empty ocean and a red cursor. Press 🅾️ to drop a ship on the map, or press ❎ to change the player the ship will be. Each player has their own color, and AI vehicles are gray. The colors are as follows:
- Player 1: Red
- Player 2: Green
- Player 3: Yellow
- Player 4: Pink
- Player 5: Tan
- Player 6: Blue
- Gray: AI enemy
Once you have placed your ship, move the cursor to change its starting heading (angle). With a ship selected you can angle it or press ❎ to reposition the ship to your cursor. 🅾️ will confirm the placement of the ship.
Use the pause menu to change the class of the ship you are placing, save the level, or playtest. During playtesting, you can return to the editor using the pause menu. (This doesn't work on the BBS)
Ship Classes
Each ship class has different hitpoint amounts, speed, agility, sonar strength, and weapons. Ships with their HP displayed above them are considered "boss" ships and have a higher difficulty than normal.
- The Cargo Ship has no offensive capability, but it can repair allies nearby. Be aware that these ships can dodge your torpedoes rather well.
- The Frigate is a small ship that has unguided torpedoes. It doesn't pose much of a threat on its own, but it can locate submarines for larger ships to attack.
- The Littoral Combat Ship is a fast and agile ship for fighting in shallow coasts. It is fast enough to hit its own torpedoes, so be careful if you are using one!
- The Destroyer is closely equal a submarine, though it fires torpedoes more often and has a stronger sonar. This is a submarine's biggest threat most of the time.
- The Submarine only surfaces and fires when it thinks it knows where you are. AI Subs are mostly passive and their positions are hidden at the start of each level. Don't let them catch you by surprise, not all sonar pings are your teammates! The Missile Submarine variant is also available for some variation.
- The AEGIS has the ability to calculate very precise shots and remotely guide its torpedoes to their target. It can also self-destruct its torpedoes if it accidentally fires at an ally. AI AEGIS can aimbot, while player AEGIS can steer their torpedoes and detonate their own torps with the fire key. AEGIS are differentiated from Destroyers by their white radar dishes on the sides and front of the ship.
- The Missile Cruiser fires missiles that do splash damage. These missiles can destroy your own torpedoes, giving the Cruiser a level of protection other ships do not have. AI MSL Cruisers will target torpedoes coming towards them instead of dodging.
- The Chopper is technically not a ship class, but it does have its uses. Choppers cannot be shot down, but their weapons are very slow to reload. Choppers also have sonarbuoys to locate submarines, decoy enemy torpedoes, or guide their allies torpedoes to their target. Once a player is dead they are given a helicopter to control. Players 5 and 6 can press the 🅾️ key to join a custom game in a chopper at any time.
Changelog:
1.1
-Updated ship class tables to use strings
-Added a tutorial HUD for the first level
-Reduced AI sub firing range
-Reduced AI chopper firing arc
-Tweaked campaign levels
-Made underwater explosion sfx louder
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