[Ducimus]

While im still trying to get a reasonable min surface value for air visuals, i think this constitutes a major change in gameplay on two fronts.

First, Planes are once again deadly. From various readings i gather the pacific was rather clear, or rather, that a shallow submarine easy to detect, and that subs typically cruised at 100 ft or so, if they weren't doing a periscope patrol. Once a plane was spotted, they'd go down to 100+ feet regardless. Assumably because a subs silloutte wasnt visible at that depth. This mod is an attempt to recreate that. So, again, planes have teeth now. Where as before, theyre just a nuisance.


Second, plane detection is a start of a chain reaction that will make the game a whole lot more intresting. First, one must understand that once a unit has made contact with the player, it sends out an "SSS" of sorts. Nearby units will come around to see.

How long they do this is dictated by the lost contact time. In SH3, and SH4, up until patch 1.2, a lost contact time of say 30 mins, meant that once a player is detected, all nearby units will come to investigate, for as long as the lost contact time is. If at the end of 30 minutes no contact was made, they'd go home.

In patch 1.3, im told that how lost contact time work,s was fundamentally changed.

In short, for a non convoy escort unit, lost contact time is decided by the following formula:

2 * (skill * 4 + 2) * lost_contact_time * -/+30%. ( Skill being 0 - 1 where 1 is elite. )

So for a typical crew rating 3 unit, (forgive me if my math is ,off, its late and im tired)

2* (0.75 * 4 + 2) * 15 * +/- 0.30
2 * (3 +2) * 15 +/- 0.30
2* 5* 15 = 150 * +/- 0.30 = 45
150 + or - 45 = 105 to 195 minutes.

So a typical crew rating 3 escort, will hang around from 105, to 195 minutes. However, the kicker is, this timer is started when the escort arrives on location. So then.... a plane detects you, which sends out the red flag, which means more tin cans will start sniffing around the area it reported you at.


Ill give an example. Tonight, near Palau islands, i had an SD radar contact of two planes coming. I dived, but they detected me anyway. (still fine tuning that part). So they bomb the area, and i go away submernged at 160 feet. About a couple hours later, i get a sonar contact of a 2 ship convoy. I then go to periscope depth, (hoping theres no planes about), take a peek, dunk the scope, start plotting this convoy, and realize im in a good position for a submerged attack, which i press. Along the approach doing periscope observations, i came accross a frighting discovery. Two escorts that i didnt hear were in my baffles at about bearing 180. My first thought, was "hello, where did you come from?" I can only guess that they were sniffing around the vacinity the planes had reported me earlier. All told, i had 4 tin cans in the area. One was the convoy escort, two were sniffing around in the general direction of where i had crash dived to avoild the planes, and a 3rd was poking around a bit further south of the two that crept up behind me. With the exception of the convoy escort and the 2 merchants, all of them were looking for me.


Planes..... im starting to love them.