[TheGeoff]

Originally Posted by Mixolyde

I found this game via a roguelike thread in the GamersWithJobs forums (which is an amazing place): http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/3...omment-2916772

First, I just have to say that it completely blew me away in terms of awesomeness, presentation, surprises, complexity, and fun. The detail is fantastic, and I'm looking forward to more updates.

Second, I was messing around with game options and encountered a few bugs. I'm not sure which option(s) caused this issue, but I changed
player_nation = USA
sub_reliability = 90
advanced_damage_model = 0
sub_radar_model = 2
And whenever I start a game like this, I cannot use the periscope at all. The game doesn't crash, but an officer will go to the periscope and nothing will happen. Also with these settings, the Misc Panel that should list damaged systems never lists anything, no matter what goes wrong.

Third, the game pegs my CPU usage, even when it's at the main menu, and even when alt-tabbed. Slowing it down or pausing when alt-tabbed would be nice. It kills my CPU even before I've started a game. This is on win XP.

Some general interface suggestions:
Where possible, please show current heading, speed, depth and desired heading speed and depth, and depth under keel on more screens. It may not be "realistic" to show all of this info on all of the nav/periscope/map/main screens, but I think it would make it more playable.
Similarly, being able to use -/+ to change depth from other screens would be handy, too. Alternatively, change -/+ keys for depth to some other keys, or change the -/+ keys for menu up/down to some other keys so that you can change your depth from anywhere, even in a menu.
When a seaman is getting equipment, hitting backspace should take you back to the "view crew member" menu, so that you can immediately assign them to work, instead of having to hit 'v' again.
If you hit 'z' a second time on a crew man, they should go back to their post, instead of to the bunks and then back to post.
Pressing Enter over the equipment storage should give you a list of current equipment in storage, and maybe show the equipment that has been taken and who has it.


Now general suggestions/enhancements:
Be able to store preferred depths or speeds and recall them
Have crew automatically move to another tile of fire or repairs when they finish a tile
Have crew automatically return to positions after all fires or repairs are completed in their current room.
Pop up a message warning when you assign a crew to go inside a room with high rad count and they don't have a rad suit on, or low O2 and they don't have SCBA.
Another blinking color for crew that indicates that they are not feeling normal (e.g. - dizzy, fever, etc). So you don't have to keep cycling through your crew to know if something is wrong.
Of course, a pause button that still allows you to view the game would be great. But that could be an option you set before you start a game.

That laundry list should keep you busy for a while. ;-)

Questions:
Is there a maximum that reliability can be set to?
Do rad suits prevent breathing in irradiated air?
How long after you scram a reactor does it stop producing radiation?

Super huge thank you for making such an amazing and interesting sim!

Glad you're enjoying it! Looks like you've put a lot of thought into possible improvements - I appreciate the suggestions.

Firstly, thanks for pointing out the periscope bug. Turns out there's a bunch of problems when using the old damage models ("advanced_damage_model = 0"), meaning the periscope and misc systems panels will not work properly. I'll fix this in the next version, but from now on I recommend always using the advanced damage models anyway.

Not sure about the CPU usage. While the game is playing I imagine it would use a lot (lots of calculations in the simulation for reactors, radar, sonar etc, as well as managing the AI for more than a thousand ships and aircraft) but while paused it shouldn't use much at all. I'll see what I can do to reduce it further.

I like the interface suggestions about the equipment storage and will probably add them to the game very soon. And the 'pressing z twice' thing is something I've been meaning to fix for ages. I'm hesitant to add depth controls to every screen though - I'll think about it, and maybe add an option for it.

Your general suggestions are excellent too. I've just made it so crew blink yellow if they are not feeling well (tired/irradiated/low on oxygen etc) and it seems to work well. I'll look into implementing the others in the next update.

Again, thanks for the feedback, glad you're enjoying the game and welcome to Subsim!

A quick question about the SubDeveloper. I created a sub and took it for a test sail. I dived to 20M and my luxuriously spacious torpedo room filled with water! How do you seal the tubes against the incoming deluge?

edit: never mind, I realised I was missing the pressure hull, so I basically had four gaping holes to let the sea in through!

Also:

Damn me this has suddenly got harder! I remember when you could steam around at periscope depth and very few ships would look twice at you. Now I've just been depth charged into oblivion by a small Egyptian Frigate that I couldn't shake in 30M of water.

Yeah, you still need pressure hull under the tubes! I'm sure the crew appreciated the fresh air though

And the next version includes an even more dangerous opponent than the frigates and destroyers - enemy attack submarines! You will also get a much better sonar system to deal with them though...

hi i'm new here and i need to say i fell in love in this game the dev did a really good job (it's also the reason why i register to this site)i downloaded it around 9AM and played it for 19 hours already your game is really great i feel addicted to it thanks for such a beautiful game

Welcome to Subsim! Thanks for the comments, glad you like it

Five subs in and all five have caught fire doing somewhere between 5 and 7 knots, about five minutes from base. If this was accurate The Hunt For Red Oktober would have been a much shorter movie.

Not aided by the fact that the crew can't be bothered to do anything about the fires. "The crew report an explosion." Yeah... that's what happens when you ignore a fire in the generator room forever.

I even turned the sub_reliability up in the .ini, in the hopes of getting out of dock without exploding. On that mission the Maneuver Control Panel broke and then the fire suppression system malfunctioned and then the sub caught fire.

I feel like the Monty Python guy who built his castle in a swamp.

Since a lot of people are commenting on how accident prone the subs are, I will explain a bit more about what sub_reliability actually does.
Basically, the mean time between failures is 10 + 2*sub_reliability seconds. So if you use the default value of 100, there will be an accident on average once ever 210 seconds. If you set it to 0, there will be an accident on average once every 10 seconds. If you set it to a value less than -4, there will never be random accidents on the sub.