The future of Submarine simulations

Julhelm · 08-20-13, 03:41 AM

I honestly would like the plot solutions completely separate from the TDC. In these games 'realistic plot' always means you can only ever plot a solution for one target at a time, and have to go through all the motions of setting up a new solution if wanting to fire at a second target. When we were doing manual plots during my time in the navy we had no problems at all maintaining 4-5 different contacts using visual observations only. And in real life when doing a manual plot you can use dead reckoning to update your map contacts even if visual reference is lost. Yet in these supposedly realistic sims dropping down the periscope means contacts disappear from the map instantly, lol.

And that's not delving into other strange design decisions in these games like tying the TDC solutions to the periscope only, such that you need to operate the stadimeter to enter range. Or not being able to save presets for different tubes - surely the weapons officer can write down torpedo settings on a piece of paper so he can set them up quickly for successive shots?

And I have to say I disagree about having more work to do on patrols in-between battles. My greatest issue with SH games is how patrols are conducted in real-time with player controlled time compression. It means hours and hours spent for maybe half an hour of tense combat. And tbh I don't have the time to spend untold hours driving around the sea aimlessly - even less so now that I have kids in the house. It worked much better in Silent Service where you had a strategic transit part and a combat part.

I would actually prefer a U-Boat sim to eschew the 'patrol' aspect completely in favor of a strategic meta-game similar to what was in Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe where you basically get to be Dönitz and can direct the overall campaign.

08-20-13, 03:41 AM	#11
Julhelm Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: The Icy North Posts: 690 Downloads: 189 Uploads: 0	I honestly would like the plot solutions completely separate from the TDC. In these games 'realistic plot' always means you can only ever plot a solution for one target at a time, and have to go through all the motions of setting up a new solution if wanting to fire at a second target. When we were doing manual plots during my time in the navy we had no problems at all maintaining 4-5 different contacts using visual observations only. And in real life when doing a manual plot you can use dead reckoning to update your map contacts even if visual reference is lost. Yet in these supposedly realistic sims dropping down the periscope means contacts disappear from the map instantly, lol. And that's not delving into other strange design decisions in these games like tying the TDC solutions to the periscope only, such that you need to operate the stadimeter to enter range. Or not being able to save presets for different tubes - surely the weapons officer can write down torpedo settings on a piece of paper so he can set them up quickly for successive shots? And I have to say I disagree about having more work to do on patrols in-between battles. My greatest issue with SH games is how patrols are conducted in real-time with player controlled time compression. It means hours and hours spent for maybe half an hour of tense combat. And tbh I don't have the time to spend untold hours driving around the sea aimlessly - even less so now that I have kids in the house. It worked much better in Silent Service where you had a strategic transit part and a combat part. I would actually prefer a U-Boat sim to eschew the 'patrol' aspect completely in favor of a strategic meta-game similar to what was in Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe where you basically get to be Dönitz and can direct the overall campaign.