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Fidd · 05-15-23, 02:57 PM

My take on it is that the duties of a Dive Officer are pretty short-lived. Once the boat is at depth, be it periscope or at 180m, there's very little to do, as the boat may be readily kept at either depth with only minimal input by the DO. In other words, there's not much to do. The knock-on effect from this is that the boat is not behaving in the vertically unstable fashion it should be when either being disturbed by DC's above or below, by poor trim or changes in salinity.

Having the ability to set the difficulty for the DO by it being possible to configure the game to make fore-aft balance tanks operable and relevant, and by making the boat more dynamically-unstable (when affected by an external force) seems to me a better solution than simply lowering the overall difficulty by simplifying it....

Apart from any other consideration, the anxiety caused to all players, by an event causing an out of control descent towards crush-depth, or to an involuntary surfacing, is ultimately what keeps the game replayable, and therefore adds to the overall number of players in game. The simplified diving can be used to teach newer DO's the basics of the trade, with the configurable extra difficulty in depth keeping, maintaining PD etc being added later. Perhaps on a per-boat, rather than per-lobby basis.

05-15-23, 02:57 PM	#4
Fidd XO Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Blighty! Posts: 424 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	My take on it is that the duties of a Dive Officer are pretty short-lived. Once the boat is at depth, be it periscope or at 180m, there's very little to do, as the boat may be readily kept at either depth with only minimal input by the DO. In other words, there's not much to do. The knock-on effect from this is that the boat is not behaving in the vertically unstable fashion it should be when either being disturbed by DC's above or below, by poor trim or changes in salinity. Having the ability to set the difficulty for the DO by it being possible to configure the game to make fore-aft balance tanks operable and relevant, and by making the boat more dynamically-unstable (when affected by an external force) seems to me a better solution than simply lowering the overall difficulty by simplifying it.... Apart from any other consideration, the anxiety caused to all players, by an event causing an out of control descent towards crush-depth, or to an involuntary surfacing, is ultimately what keeps the game replayable, and therefore adds to the overall number of players in game. The simplified diving can be used to teach newer DO's the basics of the trade, with the configurable extra difficulty in depth keeping, maintaining PD etc being added later. Perhaps on a per-boat, rather than per-lobby basis. Last edited by Fidd; 05-22-23 at 04:09 PM.