Game download and FAQ

[Onkel Neal]

Game download




FAQ

1. Scoring:
- Mission 1 (200 pts for every minute of HF & 100 pts for every minute of any other sensor)
- Mission 2-4 (300 pts for every minute of HF & 200 pts for every minute of any other sensor)
- All missions start with 1000 bonus pts for fuel and 1000 bonus pts for MF usage
- fuel pts are decremented 1 point for every 10 seconds at max speed; the time to lose a point increases as the inverse of the square of the speed / max speed
- each MF ping costs 1 point
To maximize score:
Maximize contact time
Minimize fuel usage, going slow helps
Minimize ping usage
Don't get close to neutral ships

2. Graphics
To improve the frame rate, turn off "3D Clouds" on the 3D page in Options.



Question 1#: Seems like the engine will be similar to the DW engine. If that is the case, then are changes in ACTUV tactics obtained via our changes in its doctrine files/behavior?

The game checks for modifications and will notify the user when they try to submit the results. It won't send the results along if it determines the files have changed. You can continue to play, however. Additional checks are made to the results during the analysis phase.

Question 2#: Will mods be an option?

No.

Question 3#: The DW engine has been known for a lot of bugs. Will bug/glitches be addressed by SCS or will the community be allowed to repair them ourselves like in the Reinforce Alert project?
DARPA is the customer and will decide if issues need addressing, if any occur.

Question 4#: Are the ACTUV scenarios one vs one, or will wolf pack tactics be a part of the simulation?


One vs one. There is a series of campaigns for each variant of the ACTUV, and a multi-player mission where the sub can be played vs. the ACTUV. (this mission is for fun, it's not part of the analysis program)

Question 5#: How will points be allocated?


- Mission 1 (200 pts for every minute of HF & 100 pts for every minute of any other sensor)
- Mission 2-4 (300 pts for every minute of HF & 200 pts for every minute of any other sensor)
- All missions start with 1000 bonus pts for fuel and 1000 bonus pts for MF usage
- fuel pts are decremented 1 point for every 10 seconds at max speed; the time to lose a point increases as the inverse of the square of the speed / max speed
- each MF ping costs 1 point


Question 6#: The AI in DW never seemed to really needed to use triangulation or TMA (it just instantaneously knew the speed/course/range of any contact it detected). Will the ACTUV need to use TMA?

The ACTUV will have automatic TMA; since all sensors are active, the solutions come quickly. The target SSK has very capable active intercept sensors, as well as passive sonar; thus it will detect the ACTUV quite often. In multiplayer, the SSK player has autocrew TMA on the Geoplot.

The Leader Board scores FINISHED campaigns only... so to get on it you have to have completed the campaign with that version of the ACTUV.

The player controlled SSK is not part of the main simulation, and is simplified in operation. Sensor data and Target Motion Analysis (TMA) are marked on the Geoplot map, as if the player was the Captain. It's included for basically for fun... although we're interested in any after-action reports people care to post.

If the game won't run, or minimizes itself on run, try turning off antialiasing on your graphics hardware. The DW engine has problems with this on some graphics hardware.

Players with triple-head graphics cards will see the triple-head resolution on the 3D options screen. This isn't fully supported and will cause the graphics to look wonky.

Troubleshooting: If the game crashes on you, it might leave a dump file (.dmp) in the "My Documents/Sonalysts Combat Simulations/DW ACTUV directory. If you get one, we'd appreciate it if you could send it to "computergames(at)sonalysts.com". That would help with debugging efforts.

In the same directory, there is a "dangerouswaters.ini" file. It's a standard .txt file, so you can look at it and edit it with Notepad or Wordpad. This has most of the options from the options screen in-game, and if you're having trouble getting the program to run, or it minimizes itself, you can find in the [Graphics] section the "RunInWindow" entry. Change it to "Yes". This will sometimes allow the program to run. If you mess the file up somehow, you can delete the file and run the game. The game will rebuild the default file.

UPDATE: there is a known crash if you complete a campaign and then hit the "replay" button. A patch will be forthcoming.

UPDATE 2: Score submissions: If you run a mission, and decline the opportunity to send the results to DARPA, that mission will never be sent. So to get full score for the campaign, send your results every time! The leaderboard will use the highest score for each mission in the campaign if you've run and submitted multiple scores.