A few new ideas

[Fidd]

61. Valve open/closed position earlier in rotation that full movement.

Having the closed position slightly earlier in the rotation in the closing sense, [edit: and vice versa for opening] would help prevent valves being left fractionally open or closed causing unwanted water being introduced into into tanks, or conversely, prevent air being blown into them. It is usual, at least with domestic plumbing, for taps (faucets) to have a delay in causing water to flow when a tap is opened, and likewise to cease the flow before the tap is fully closed. To my mind this is how our valves should be operating, in order that a positive closure or opening of the valve occurs.

[Fidd]

62. Moving the forward torpedo to the side.

This is necessary to allow, eventually for the controls to set gyro angles, right at the front between the tubes to be accessible. Currently the collider for the stored central torpedo prevents access to this, and the safety and firing levers. It actually makes more sense for the 1st reload to be stored either in line laterally with tubes 1/3, or the opposite side, with subsequent reloads being opposite an empty tube on one side or t'other. In the case of the aft-tube, it should only be on the rack after a torpedo is fired, and probably only whilst the boat is surfaced, owing to the difficulty of operating the emotor with a torpedo hanging centrally - or to one side. I do not think that an aft reload would be left on it's cradle at any time, but would be reloaded when surfaced, as soon as possible.

At some point in the future this change would allow for torpedo man being a playable role, if not, perhaps one with a dedicated full-time player?

My estimate is that the 1st reload would be kept on the suspended cradle for as little time as possible, in order that the two lines of berths was available to the off-watch crew in that compartment, and in-line with either tubes 1 and 3, or the other side in-line with tubes 2 and 4. As the reload process was very noisy with winches and chain-hoists in use, I very much doubt this was done with proximity to the enemy, or, was done at depths making hydrophone detection unlikely. I'd be interested to hear of anyone with further information on reloading procedures.

[Fidd]

63. "Part time" roles/tasks

This idea was born out of thinking about #62. There are some roles on the boat which are not conducive to being played for a long continuous period every game, because tactical considerations and player preferences make it unusual for them to be needed for extended periods in many games. The Dive Officer is like that, as once you've got the boat to PD and trimmed, the extent of the rest of your task is to maintain PD, keep the OP usable with the very very occasional crash-dive! 1st TOI's are almost always surfaced attacks, so it's a "job" where you get more out of it by "being otherwise useful" than you often do by limiting your actions to the specified job.

It occurs me me that there may well be scope "temporary jobs" (such as helping the radioman by decrypting the Enigma for him, or acting as a lookout watching ranges to escorts and so forth, that do not currently have a dedicated role. In the future similar roles for "anyone who is free" - might exist, perhaps involve manual reloading of torpedoes, refuelling and rearming at a Milch-cow or clandestinely at a neutral port perhaps. Checking the batteries for cracked cells, or the bilge for acidity (to prevent chlorine generation) might be a thing, or aiding with damage-control. In other words stuff that doesn't support a full time role for 3 hours, but which, would add content.... especially for those of us who for perfectly good reasons, may find themselves under-employed. Something to think about?

Suggested "drop in" roles:
Winching up torpedoes in torpedo room from under-floor stowage.
Aligning torpedoes vertically and laterally with a given tube, inserting same.
Opening/closing bow caps
Setting gyro angles in torpedo room repeater
Firing torpedoes
Inspecting batteries, isolating damaged ones
Closing isolation valves to stop leaks
Pumping fuel from saddle-tanks to internal ceiling tanks
Cooking at the galley (meaning "I am afk-meal")
Toilet (meaning "I am afkp") (illuminates the toilet occupied light, 1 of 2)
Radio assistant (meaning "I am afkphone")
Running to torpedo room (assists in getting bow down in crash dive, player nominal-weight x 4)
Fire-fighter
Medical Officer - applies bandages/casts to crew injured in DC attack, allowing them to resume duties. In intervening minutes crewman unavailable to work controls.
Hydrophone operator
"Off-watch" - puts crewman avatar in a bunk (meaning: "I am extended afk")
Compressor duty
On deck - manning deck-gun, AAA or on watch/UZO. Cancelled by hatch being closed with player inside.
Enigma decryption with "publish to orders and radio-log" buttons. (it was a terrible error making this radioman only) imho, as neither real-morse use, or decryption are tolerant of interruptions?












In effect these would be "things to do" which any player not currently engaged in activity could drop into as role, whilst not giving-up his current role. So you might see if you pressed the tab-key: "Bloggz" Dive Officer/(Battery examiner). This would indicate that he's usually the Dive Officer, but it currently examining the batteries for damage after surfacing. The role he's currently doing being in bold. If he's doing a role, then any protections - such as non-machinest roles being unable to operate the trip switches or engines - would be removed, allowing another to operate them if required. On resuming his normal role, such protections would be re-imposed.

The idea here is to provide other tasks for players to do, that are not sufficient to warrant a single player being allocated to doing that, but which players who are predominantly doing another role can drop into during periods where they otherwise do not have much, or anything, to do.

[Fidd]

64. Neutral ships in workshop. The image below is a fairly typical one of the carriage of painted flags and the ships nationality when it was neutral. It would be a cool feature if ships could be assigned as neutral in the Workshop, and then have two things happen in game:

a) that the ships carry such neutral graphics
b) that tonnages from sinking them can be i be normally recorded, ii have a negative effect on tonnage and equal to the neutral tonage set, or iii have a punitive 2x tonnage penalty for sinking; all settable in the lobby.

https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/cdn-c...al.451705/full

[Fidd]

65. Ability to mark ships as "Do not sink" on the "identified ships" page. This might be used to avoid sinking a "neutral" or to help prevent aiming at the target of another boat.

[Fidd]

66. "Rauchen verboten" (no smoking) in dull-red on inside walls of bunker. This was written on at least one wall of every bay containing u-boats, in letters about 4 feet high.

[Lignite]

67. A "spawn unit" addition to the mission editor. Whether it be a simple timed event, or more in-game variables (such as, 'spawn on contact' for example). I expect a some additional enemy AI may be required as well, such as 'go to radio location' or perhaps just 'rejoin convoy'.


Would certainly be fun (scary?) for an unexpected destroyer to arrive in an hour or so, or dare I hope for aircraft to arrive? Perhaps with the inclusion of a random 'spawn circumstance', a completely replayable mission of uncertain future could unfold. Dare I say the beginning of a possible campaign? I've said too much.




You have sure compiled a good list of suggestions Fidd, most are great ideas and many could some day see the light of day perhaps, with time.

[Fidd]

Originally Posted by Lignite

You have sure compiled a good list of suggestions Fidd, most are great ideas and many could some day see the light of day perhaps, with time.



I believe we talked about it somewhere else here at Subsim.com but I believe another usefull addition:


A 'spawn unit' addition to the mission editor. Whether it be a simple timed event, or more in-game variables (such as, 'spawn on contact' for example). I expect a some additional enemy AI may be required as well, such as 'go to radio location' or perhaps just 'rejoin convoy'.


Would certainly be fun (scary?) for an unexpected destroyer to arrive in an hour or so, or dare I hope for aircraft to arrive? Perhaps with the inclusion of a random 'spawn circumstance', a completely replayable mission of uncertain future could unfold. Dare I say the beginning of a possible campaign? I've said too much.

Thanks! That's an excellent idea. I've not used the workshop myself, but I know from others who do that it's pretty limited in terms of what can be fettled with to give a wide variety of events. Being able to bolt in more random events such as ships joining or leaving the convoy, or aircraft arriving towards dawn, would be a brilliant idea! Thanks for contributing that one. Really and truly someone who uses Workshop regularly should start a "Workshop - new ideas" thread all of it's own. I'm not saying they don't belong here, merely that it would be good to have such a thread concentrate ideas for it there... Please EDIT your post above and make it # "67."? It should certainly be there.

[Fidd]

68. Segmented "liftable" centre deck-plates

I'd be interested to know if this in fact exists of the centre deck-plates along which we walk in the two torpedo rooms, currently some 25 feet long, were in fact made of more, shorter plates. Underneath these was the storage for spare torpedoes and (I think!) access to the bilge, battery compartments (probably under the messes?) and the aft thrust block and engine shaft glands. Taking these one at a time, eventually I can see having these liftable and segmented o aid same, would be great for:

Torpedo spares access: attaching cables/chains for lifting new torpedoes as part of a player operable reloading sequence. Lifting and replacing the deck-plates being the beginning and end of that sequence, allowing for more of the submarine to be seen and accessed.

Bilge access: allows for damage control tasks to pump or move water from one area of the bilge to another. (as in Das Boot)

Thrust block access: ditto. These glands were a vulnerable area for leaks in a submarine under depth charge attack, and allow for the boat to commence sinking by the stern, or to allow it to become out of longitudinal trim, adding content for both a damage-control party but also the dive-officer to have to offset said longitudinal trim change by pumping water forward. Said change (addition of longitudinal trim) would also add (optional?) difficulty for the dive officer to need to control longitudinal trim not just for the scenario of water ingress at the glands, but to need to offset weight loss due torpedoes being fired, especially at PD....

Battery access:
This models a new part of the hull, allows for strapping (isolating) damaged battery-cells as a damage control task, but if the bilge is also filled, for the whole problem of chlorine generation to occur if salt-water meets battery acid from cracked cells. This in turn implies that the overall current storable by the battery can be reduced due to batteries being damaged. Not to mention the player having to don a gas-mask with limited field of view, fogging lenses, darkness as they slide along the battery compartment on the "trolley". Above this would also imply the need for breathing-bottles/masks, and not being able to talk for more than a few seconds at a time, NPC's coughing etc etc.

In conclusion, much interesting, if occasional content, could be added were these underfloor areas accessible and or viewable. In order to make sense of the deck-plates, imho they need to be broken up into shorter lengths for easier removal and stowage?

[Fidd]

69. 2nd strike of the C key causes that series of menus to disappear, same with M key, provided the "write" key in navigation is not "on". Ideally the write key should revert to a another function if the map is closed in the interim.

[Fidd]

70. Other boats hits and sinkings represented on logbook in parentheses, with u-boat number, with seconds for hits only.

Eg, in logbook view:

19:22:35 (U96) launch tube 1
19:23:05 (U96) launch tube 3
19:24:57 Heavy tanker 12 hit (U96)
19:25:02 Heavy tanker 8 hit (U552)
19:25 Heavy tanker 12 sunk (U96)
19:26 Heavy tanker 8 sunk (U552)

A check-box in the logbook would remove all hits, sinkings of other boats from view, giving in effect, the current logbook mechanism.

This would be a very useful utility for post-game analysis of which captains are hitting early, and by how much, without removing the fog-of-war, as captains can choose to play the game with the view of other boat's hits etc being suppressed from their logbook view.

[Fidd]

71. Reform of "workshop" tool.

This game, imho, is at it's very best, in organised games written in the workshop, exploring the full envelope of what's possible to vary, rather than the standard settings invariably used for casual lobby skirmish games; especially with full crews and 4 boats. I've not used workshop myself, but am aware from talking to those that do, that the current "tinkerable" workshop settings are still overly restrictive, meaning that in organised games it is exceedingly difficult to diverge much from the "standard" game. Please submit your ideas for additions or changes you'd like to see able to be created for workshop missions and I'll edit them into this post. To start with:

1. Ability to spawn outside of hydrophone range, to allow for initial convoy position and mean heading to be sent on Enigma to all boats, then requiring navs to plot an intercept until hydrophone and thence visual range may be established.

2. More varied weather, wind, precipitation, fog, mist, volumetric and stratiform cloud.

3. Aircraft patrols/attacks, Catalinas or Sunderlands or Wellingtons.

4. Ability for ships to either detach from the convoy, or, to join it at a particular time or position.

5. Hunter-killer groups able to join, or be attached to, a convoy, or, to be away from the convoy but able to intercept u-boats attempting to get to, said convoy.

6. Ability to define start position, heading and speed of convoy, as well as -u-boat starting bearings and distances up to 100km from convoy

7. Ability to define start positions for u-boats relative to convoy defined at the instant they spawn in. (allows for sequenced or irregular-timed log-ins/positions without causing undue delay)

8. Ability to have AI Condor, AI Ju88's when in range (most of all sea-areas), presence of Escort carrier in convoy precludes Condor arrival until it is sunk.

9. Ability to set minefields in coastal sea-areas

(Please add your own)

[Fidd]

72. Avatar customisation as persistent player appearance with the following features:

1. Build: "thin, "medium", "heavy-set".
   
2. Height: 5 foot 3" to 6 foot.
   
3. Age: 18-35 affecting facial-hair, build and facial appearance.
   
4. Facial hair: - clean-shaven to bearded.
   
5. Clothing: Civilian, Military, Spectacles, Hats, for trousers, shirts, hats.
   
6. Rank insignia: when military clothing is selected (resettable each game if desired to change).
   
7. Dirt: Degree of dirt applied to items of clothing.
   
8. Haircuts: From German military to longer. Longer-hair rank-dependent.

The aim of this is to make fellow-players with whom one plays more recognisable by appearance as distinct and unique individuals.

[Fidd]

73. Sea bed composition

Hitting the sea bed may, or may not, generate loud noise and/or damage "subject" to both how hard it is struck, and by the composition of the sea-bed at that locale. So soft silt or sand will create one one set of outcomes, and rock quite another. Rather than go to all the trouble of mapping it manually, if it could be done at all, I suggest a simple algorithm is used whereby the rate of change of depth away from any x/y location is used to determine the sea-bed composition. If the rate of change of depth is very small, then the sea-bed is more likely to be silt/sand, if high, then more likely to be rocky and injurious to the u-boat if it struck?

I suggest that different advantages and disadvantages be applied for impacting the sea-bed. Possibilities might be:

Rock - considerable noise to listening hydrophones on escorts, some damage to hull/u-boat hydrophones/planes/single propeller. Difficulty for asdic getting a firm fix on the u-boat.
Might lead to prolonged, but inaccurate depth-charging if under 180m depth?

Sand/silt: quieter impact, sound related to both forward and vertical speed. Possibility of damage to hydrophones, once stopped no enemy hydrophone detection possible. Asdic detection possible, but at less range than a u-boat in the water-column without the sea-bed being proximate? Of use in shallow-seas.

[Fidd]

74. Ability to save images of the map, logbook, radio-log and mission-end screen with a single command. And/or automatic save configurable when missions ends. Would be of enormous use to captains for debrief purposes in organised games.