[Wiz33]

Originally Posted by Shadow

Yes, people keep asking for this, but I've yet to see anyone think it through and say how it makes sense in a hot zone like CW's theatre in the middle of World War III.

Neutral vessels would stay the hell away from warships (warned off as required), and constantly broadcast their neutrality to avoid being accidentally sunk. So it'd behoove them to have both sides aware of their position at all times.

Friendly units, you'd know where they are at all times, like you do the P-3 Orions and NATO satellites, but you wouldn't come anywhere near them to prevent friendly fire incidents. A submarine's job is to remain hidden, unknown and alone most of the time.

So, in practical terms, you would never find friendlies and neutrals within the same mission area as hostiles. And outside, you wouldn't have any interactions with them due to your job (and would never confuse them with enemies due to strategic intel), so at best blue and green icons would only clutter the strategic map.

That kind of target identification gameplay is better suited to Harpoon-esque flashpoint scenarios, in which you might be carrying out operations in relatively small areas where non-combatants might be puttering about doing their thing. But a World War is very much not business as usual.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know much about the doctrines which would kick in during this kind of high-intensity conflict, but from the logical standpoint I can't see how surface groups wouldn't have ample exclusion zones around them, preventing non-mission (neutral/friendly) units from wandering in, in Cold Waters' context.

Yep, until we get to regional warfare. Neutral unit doesn't make any sense. Allied unit will add flavor to the game and give sense that's it's just not the player against the world. I actually started a thread about how to incorporate allied unit in game here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=232525