[REQ] Removal/lowering of thermal layer

[TheBlobThing]

Hi all!

I'm trying out Nisgeis' AI mod. A bit better but the thermal layer still completely baffles the DD's. I would like to lower the temperature gradient to at least 100 m or remove it completely.

Please note that this is not a request for more historical accuracy, I know there were reachable thermal layers in some locales (re: the recent debate) but purely because the AI is so stupid it needs all the help it can get.

So, can anyone either mod this for me or explain how to change it myself (if it's just some tweaking of a text file. Anything more complex than that will leave me behind).

[sergei]

Open up your sim.cfg

In it you'll see a block of text for controlling the escorts sensitivity.
It'll look something like this.

[Hydrophone]
Detection time=2 ;[s]
Sensitivity=1 ;(0..1)
Height factor=0 ;[m]
Waves factor=1.0 ;[>=0]
Speed factor=15 ;[kt]
Noise factor=1.3 ;[>=0]
Thermal Layer Signal Attenuation=3.0 ;[>0], 1 means no signal reduction, 3 equals signal reduction to 33%
Min Signal Strength=0.2

[Sonar]
Detection time=5 ;[s]
Sensitivity=1 ;(0..1)
Waves factor=1.0 ;[>=0]
Speed factor=20 ;[kt]
Enemy surface factor=520 ;[m2]
Lose time=30 ;[s]
Min Signal Strength=0.2
Thermal Layer Signal Attenuation=5.0 ;[>0], 1 means no signal reduction, 5 equals signal reduction to 20%


Change Thermal Layer Signal Attenuation to 1 to disable the effects of the layer.

DISCLAIMER: I have no idea how seriously this is going to effect your game, as I have not tried Nisgeis' AI mod.
I'm just telling you how to do it :DL

EDIT: I know of no way of altering the depth of the layer.
It may be possible. Who knows?
(Wasn't in SH3 or 4 though)

[TheBlobThing]

Awesome! Just what I was looking for mate. Thanks a bunch! :yeah:

[Ducimus]

Thermal layers were introduced in SH4. While you can turn them off, to the best of my knowledge there is no way to dictate what depth they occur at. It's random.

[TheBlobThing]

Thermal layers were introduced in SH4. While you can turn them off, to the best of my knowledge there is no way to dictate what depth they occur at. It's random.

So I understand. I've just toned them down a bit. Now if only I can decipher what the rest of the entries in sim.cfg does... :hmmm:

[Nissum]

I was watching an interview with Otto Kretschmer one of the last surviving german uboat aces. When he was asked a question on thermal layer he shook his head and said that there was no such thing in these days of the Kriegsmarine. There was nothing in the uboats that could detect a thermal layer if there ever was one. The only thing he knew about it was what he had heard in later years after the war but during the war there was no such thing as a thermal layer that could protect the uboat from enemy destroyers asdic. When the enemy found you, there was only one thing to do, go deep and change direction often and hope that the destroyer lost contact with you.

Not my words but the words of one of the top uboat commanders of the WWII.:hmmm:

On www.uboat.net (http://www.uboat.net) there is a discussion on thermal layers. A thermal layer is sudden dramatically change in water tempertur and happens at different depths from sea to sea. The reason that the german commanders proberbly didn't know about it was becourse that in the Atlantic the change happens from 600 to 800 ft of depth much longer down than the german uboat could dive, so even if they had known about it they would have been unable to use it.

[sergei]

Now if only I can decipher what the rest of the entries in sim.cfg does... :hmmm:

Further reading
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6421019045/m/6241064475?r=9581006475#9581006475

A thread from the UBI forum.
It's quite old, but should still be relevant.
Will give you a rundown of what some of the other entries are responsible for controlling.

I couldn't figure out how to post a link for just the relevant post.
You'll have to scroll down about halfway, to post 10.

Good luck :)

[TheBlobThing]

Thanks again for the link sergei.

I was watching an interview with Otto Kretschmer one of the last surviving german uboat aces. When he was asked a question on thermal layer he shook his head and said that there was no such thing in these days of the Kriegsmarine. There was nothing in the uboats that could detect a thermal layer if there ever was one. The only thing he knew about it was what he had heard in later years after the war but during the war there was no such thing as a thermal layer that could protect the uboat from enemy destroyers asdic. When the enemy found you, there was only one thing to do, go deep and change direction often and hope that the destroyer lost contact with you.

Not my words but the words of one of the top uboat commanders of the WWII.:hmmm:

There's another thread about this somewhere. I'm not trying to discuss the realism of it. As it is now, the AI is almost crippled already.

Oh, and there are a section in a tactical handbook for U-boat captains about temperature gradients at specific locales so it wasn't completely unknown.