Quote:
Originally Posted by The Bandit
After looking at some of the game files, there's a couple of things I'm wondering about in regards to the respective self noise rates. These seem to be in decibels but I have to question some of the settings.
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These are moddable even now, here's what I wound up doing to the numbers and why for your reference.
1) The Los Angeles I bumped
upwards to 120. I think I've seen that before for early 688s which is what we are, with the late 688s being about 10 less. Besides, stock I have a ridiculous TWENTY-TWO decibel acoustic advantage over the Victor III (which is the "strongest" common opponent), not counting the sonars, which seems a bit much considering the gap should no longer be dramatic. I'm supposed to be able to beat Victor IIIs but I have to be careful around them, not with impunity... and they are supposed to have a chance without active sonar.
2) The Sierra, I left at 125.
3) The Sturgeon 84 I left at 130.
4) The Victor III was quietened down to 132. I did not
quite say they are quieter than Sturgeons, but they should be quieter than the Permits. Now, I am down to a 12 decibel acoustic advantage, which also makes things much more interesting.
5) The Permit 84 I left at 136. I think the 6 decibel gap is reasonable.
6) The Sturgeon 68 I jacked up all the way to 138 (8-decibel climb). In 1968, they would be on the first few Sturgeons, and submarines lose as many as 10 decibels during the course of their construction as flaws are squelched and minor improvements worked in.
7) The Skipjack 84 I left at 140. I actually
agree with you that the gap is a bit small. On the other hand, if they are much louder than this, they'll be completely unusable. I decided to pretend that they are running on batteries in ultraquiet, which is actually referenced in the 2014
Submarine Torpedo Tactics, An American History.
8) The Victor II was quietened down to 142. The current game has it at 152, exactly the same as Victor I. I think that was based on the American historiography that the Soviets "suddenly" found out from Walker and suddenly modified the Victor III from the Victor II proferred by people such as Stuart Slade for one. However, the 671RT is actually the first of the Soviet attack subs with rafting, and they should get some credit for that. As for
how much credit I decided based on Polmar's quote that the Victor II was estimated to have similar noise level to the Sturgeon from 5 years ago, and that Victor IIs are mistaken for Victor IIIs on occasion, so I gave them a level reasonably close to a 1968 Sturgeon (142 v 138 - this is also part of the reason the Sturgeon 68 had to get noisier).
9) The Permit 68 was bumped to 144 (basically it is keeps the "6 more" than a 68 Sturgeon). Reading your essay, I'm considering trimming it an inch to 142 or even 141.
10) The Alfa also got a downtrim to 147 - some sources actually place their level as close to V-II, and I decided to go halfway, since they do get noisy when fast.
11) The Skipjack 68 was increased to 148 - I actually considered just making it 150-2 so it is equivalent to the Victor I (like the Russian side suggests) and also the gap is a bit thin with the Permit, but on the other hand I'm also OK with it being a bit quieter than V-I.
I also trimmed some of the Russian SSGNs in line with this thinking, but that's about it.