Isn't the TMA a little too perfect?

[Destex]

TMA algorithms produce all kinds of quantified parameters to indicate the accuracy of the solution. They should be referred to with suspicion, of course, but for a rather simplified game such as CW, I don't see anything drastically wrong with representing solution quality with percentage.

[banryu79]

Originally Posted by Destex

TMA algorithms produce all kinds of quantified parameters to indicate the accuracy of the solution. They should be referred to with suspicion, of course, but for a rather simplified game such as CW, I don't see anything drastically wrong with representing solution quality with percentage.

Exactly...

[Shadriss]

Originally Posted by Julhelm

Consider that the dot stack shoes error between detected bearings and generated bearings. Our percentage is kind of like an inverse of that, and much easier to code.

Originally Posted by Destex

TMA algorithms produce all kinds of quantified parameters to indicate the accuracy of the solution. They should be referred to with suspicion, of course, but for a rather simplified game such as CW, I don't see anything drastically wrong with representing solution quality with percentage.

Originally Posted by banryu79

Exactly...

All fair enough... I look at it as the AO's estimate of the solution's accuracy. But that it's a percentage isn't the point - the point is that tying certain elements to that percentage (IE, plot tracking at 95%, course estimation at XX%, etc) is an issue.

At any point, I should have all three parameters - it's a solution. Not a good one (percentage applies here!), but a solution. It's the Captain's job to weigh all that's going on, how he feels about that solution, and attack when he's ready. Under this system (the CW one, to clarify), I feel like I have no choice but to wait to shoot on a 95% solution because it's the only one that provides me any feel for relative motion since I can't look at PBB data.

There are times when a bearings only shot is needed, I don't argue that point. But for any type of deliberate attack, this system almost forces you to wait longer than you might really need to.

[Julhelm]

You should get speed and course already at around 50%, with range being the final factor. There's no real provision for plotting 'wrong' solutions, so instead we assume that only data which your TMA team is confident about gets plotted.

If you remember the first two Silent Hunter games, they also used a 0-99% solution indication, where the solution for your torpedoes built up over time as you made sonar/radar/visual observations on the track. In those games though, the map was still the 'all or nothing' realtime plot. We just use the solution to drive the plot display instead and let you aim your weapons as you see fit.

[Shadriss]

Originally Posted by Julhelm

You should get speed and course already at around 50%, with range being the final factor. There's no real provision for plotting 'wrong' solutions, so instead we assume that only data which your TMA team is confident about gets plotted.

If you remember the first two Silent Hunter games, they also used a 0-99% solution indication, where the solution for your torpedoes built up over time as you made sonar/radar/visual observations on the track. In those games though, the map was still the 'all or nothing' realtime plot. We just use the solution to drive the plot display instead and let you aim your weapons as you see fit.

The problem then lies in the assumption - all data gets plotted regardless of confidence, simply because what you aren't confident about now may well turn out to have been correct all along. A solution has three parts, and you never pass along a solution without all three of them, no matter how you or your team may feel about individual portions of them. The Captain and the rest of the control team has to steer off of something, and a single data point on the plot that never moves doesn't cut it. Even a vector arrow indicating direction of motion would be a huge improvement. As it is now, it is very difficult to determine the difference between a lag and lead geometry in the early going, and the vector arrow would help in that.

Speed and Course may well show up in the data block in the corner at 50%, but I rarely look at that block because it SHOULD be represented on the plot in a quick visual reference for use in tactical decisions.

As to Silent Hunter games, I've only played the 4th and 5th (and still play them quite a bit). It's hard to compare the two, though, since the systems that drive the plots are very different, as you point out.