If the boat has suffered damage where the boat has to surface, then whether the captain orders the precise moment or manner of it's doing so is besides the point. That is an involuntary surfacing. The same applies to one forced to surface for want of oxygen, one with chlorine spreading from the battery compartments and so forth. As RN destroyers (and aircraft) attacked until a particular u-boat was demonstrably sunk, or it's ammunition was expended, this was not uncommon.

My general point here is that a contact was not captured once, depth-charged once and then assumed to be sunk with the escort then returning to the convoy; which is what currently happens in game. If a u-boat did go down to 185m, it would become very difficult to hit, because of the interval in time between the asdic contact being lost, and the escort firing the charges, and for those charges reaching the u-boats depth, if indeed they were fused as far down as that depth. On the other hand, even a near miss at that depth would potentially much more damage as a much shallower DC.

20. Reworking of attenuation. I think attenuation within a metal-hulled u-boat is overdone currently. It should be like farting in church - loud and heard over considerable distance, given the acoustics of such an environment. I really like the the idea of attenuation, but for example, it's over done in the case of say the conning tower to the control room where intervening hatches are open. Naturally if doors or hatches are closed, then that's a completely different situation. So I think that voices should carry well to the adjacent compartment unless if no intervening hatch is open, likewise louder sounds: the e-motor, torpedo reloading winches (one day) the diesels should be heard more or less throughout the boat, if all the hatches/doors are open.

EDIT: To clarify, what I meant here is that the attenuation (reduction of volume with distance/intervening bulkheads etc) is basically fine, but the reverberation is massively overdone.

21. Huff-Duff (High Frequency DF)
Whenever the radio is used, there should be a % risk per character sent, of escorts getting a bearing of the transmitting u-boat. After a short interval, (where the escorts would share the frequency being used by the u-boat and it's approximate DF bearing) any further transmissions would have a higher % per character of being detected. If a second DF bearing is gained by the escorts, a tribal or Bittern is sent at full-speed to that fixed position, and there executes an asdic search, and opens fire if the u-boat is on the surface. If the escort makes no contact at the DF'd position, it returns at full-speed to the convoy. Not more than two escorts at a time would be detached.

Not sure when "Huff-Duff" was implemented? I hope eventually that the game will model the technical progress for both u-boats and escorts, and the counter-measures of each....

22. Crouching/kneeling/Sitting position?

In the aft torpedo room there's provision for a torpedo to be in the ready to load cradle, however it's not present, unlike the single torpedo in the forward torpedo room. The reason for this is, I believe, because the (standing) chief would not be squeeze between it and the e-motor controls either side?

It would be nice, if eventually the lifting cradles operated to retrieve under-floor and their associated lateral worm-gear to bring them to a ready to load condition for a particular tube. It's forseeable that one day there might be a playable torpedo operator in the torpedo rooms, operating the loading kit, setting gyro angles, and firing torpedo's according to whatever signalling system the Germans used. In order to be able to do that, some means of "wriggling around obstacles" or alternate viewing angles from poses (seated/crouched etc) maybe required to allow torpedo settings and e motor controls and dials to be seen whilst "ready to load torpedoes" are hanging on the cradle, in any of the positions for forward or aft tubes?

Other possibilties are for the sonar/radioman, and chief to adopt sitting positions in chairs or platforms where these exist.

23. Rework of crush-depth, incremental damage/flooding from deep operation and session randomisation.

One of the weaker areas of this game, if I may be permitted to suggest it, is the reliability with which all manner of dangerous manoeuvres or assumptions may be made, because "values are known". Examples of this are visual ranges, where escorts may safely be regarded as unable to see you, crush depth, ability to drop to 185m and be unlocatable by enemy hydrophones and so forth.

I think the game needs more randomisation, within a wider set of values, so that these assumptions about how deep the u-boat may safely dive, where you can and cannot be seen, and the AI of DCing are made more "fluffy" as values.

For example, if "the ability for the AI to see" xyz was semi-random to a degree, then it'd no longer be possible to rely absolutely that an escort has not seen you because you're at such and such a range.

Similarly, to my mind, I'd like to see semi-random small leak events occurring in the boat as the boat gets below the semi-random crush-depth of that u-boat on that play-session. Meaning that it'd no longer be possible to dive the boat to 10m above the known crush-depth with no complicating issues of leaks, and without the certainty of the crush depth.....

Taking out these predictable behaviours and predictable sight ranges, crush depths, noise acquisition ranges etc will I think improve the game in the long term. Currently, as things stand, once you've mastered roles, and have learned "the values" of the things I cite above, it really removes any scope for further interest in the game. Which need not be the case....

Single player
 

Is the single player going to be somewhat simplified in u-boat management... with some less entertaining activities&procedures to set to simplified or automatic ?
(20% closer towards Silent hunter 3/4/5 gameplay)

:k_confused:

I am fanatic of Submarine single player sims (veteran player) but I guess that 60% of market is horrified by the obligation to gather a team of players each time they want to play and enjoy the adventure.
(Family people, working people, elderly fans, non English speaking players...) could simply avoid the game - that would force them to torture themselves with gathering a team.

If I understand you correctly, it already is via the "bots" system. With the new "engine patch", the really critical thing will be to make the rate at which the bots can change engine configurations SLOWER than those achievable by a player working the controls. The problem being, that if bots are more effecient, then few will use - or want to see used - the new chief role, as the bot can do it quicker. This would render all that work - and testing - essentially worthless, just as the advent of "simplified radio" rendered actual enigma use and morse-code unusable, because there's almost never a critical mass of trained radio operators, and captains prefer the faster communication simple radio confers.

Well, it's up to the predictions - is it going to be a sure "blockbuster" in submarine warfare closer to Silent Hunter... or aimed to fistful sub/crew management fanatics...
I bet that my generation of Grey wolfs veterans will not have a patience to feed, entertain, train, heal,...the crew >or to check out engine room - valve by valve...
The smartest approach would be to offer simplified, medium and realistic options - with a customize each detail option.
This way you would grab 99% of sub-simulation fans market.
People who work or learn, care about real kids and elderly parents > certainly will not have inspiration to care about "crew members".
:doh:

welcome back!
 

I think the new Chief role will give some much needed new skills to learn. provided the bots arn't quicker, it should work well. Of course there'll be 2 weeks of total chaos as we get out heads around it! So the game should cater well for both solo players, and also those who enjoy the challenges of a game with multiple crew manned by real players.

Thanks mate!
In fact, It was not a "radio silence" but I served in Luftwaffe, at high altitude combat sims (Cliffs of Dover, Battle of Stalingrad, B.o. Normandy...)
It is not a topic of the thread... :oops:
Just popped in to see what's new (are the Cpt.Lehmann and Jimbuna still lurking arround)

24. Packet-loss indicator for first 10 minutes of a game.

When playing an organised game with 4 full boats, it sometimes arises that the host of the lobby has a fast connection - but a poor packet-loss or high latency. It can take time to realise this, leading to a great deal of detective-work of odd game behaviour before we mutually agree to have someone else host the game. If we had a packet-loss indicator for the 1st 10 minutes - and perhaps a command we could use in the text-buffer in which packet loss for that user could be established, it might save a lot of faffing about.

25. Ability to toggle in-game voice mic and in game voice sound off and on, ideally independently. Either at the lobby host level, or at the player level. This would help make things simpler for those of us who prefer in-game voice for casual play but who are compelled to use Discrud for organised games. There's usually a bit of a palava remapping keys etc when changing session types. Toggling would make things easier?

26. Better star-shells. These were usually fired 4-5 at a time, and could illuminate a large area, reducing in area (but increasing illumination) as the flare fell. As things stand, star-shells have virtually no illumination and are fired as singles. The game "Destroyer" does the illumination fairly well.

27. Radio - medium complexity?
It might be nice to have a third setting that allows the radio man to type and automatically encrypt and automatically send morse ("as with simple") but still requires the radioman to manually decrypt the Enigma, with (if this is not the case) the keys illuminated rendering the plain-text automatically on the radio mans booklet, the radio log and the orders tab. The problem with securing enough radio operators is essentially that of mastering morse. It's great when it works, but if there are 4 good radio ops using "non simple radio", then if one logs during a game early - every boat has a problem.... So the ability to change between simple radio, medium radio and complex radio on the fly may be actually a better solution. Either way the medium complexity as outlined above might prove a happy compromise?

28. As an alternative to #27, might it be possible for radio complexity to be on a per boat setting, rather than a per lobby one? That way, if a boat lacks a morse and enigma-trained radio operator, the untrained chap can simply use simple-radio with his plain-text being automatically encrypted and sent, but incoming traffic can arrive as plain-text to him. This would allow those who wish to play on full-complexity to do so, and those that can't or don't, to send and possibly receive plain-text that appears to the other boats as cypher-text..... More to the point it would allow, in a large organised game, for boats not to be completely reliant on their radioman remaining in the game until the end. As things stand, if a radio operator logs/or otherwise loses connection, the remaining crew can communicate without necessarily having the morse/enigma skills required.

Hello everyone.
Don’t you think that the visibility through the periscope is TOO good? :hmmm:
There is no reason to go up to the bridge for observation when the submarine is on the surface.

I'm not sure that's a given. German wartime optics were extremely good, due their pre-war camera production with Zeiss, Voightlander and Leica, who were world-leaders in their day. The periscopes were good enough to take clear photographs through them....

http://www.uboataces.com/periscopes.shtml

It's impressive how many inaccuracies they managed to fit in such a tiny article. I don't think it's appropriate to use it as a reference.

Schnorkeling boats traveled at 5-6 knots with the attack scope fully extended - the engines make you deaf, you can't be blind as well. They were able to spot airplanes despite the supposed vibrations.

A good reason to not go fast at periscope depth in range of the enemy is that it makes you much more visible.

edit: AP was used on the Type VII boats, on Type IX they could use either AP or OP, so they used the OP

welcome aboard Balcon!
 

O yes there is!:Kaleun_Salute: https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SmoothDeli...an-max-1mb.gif https://i.makeagif.com/media/8-24-2015/SrIBX2.gif:arrgh!::Kaleun_Party: https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...22&postcount=5

29. Post game replay of specific events from exterior view.

It would be useful as a training feature, as well as a cool feature generally, to be able to watch a replay of your torpedo hits (or misses within a certain distance?) the location and depth of DC's within a certain distance of your u-boat, and location of escorts actively pinging you boat on asdic. If these replays could be saved, and replayed, ideally as a file-type readily uploadable to youtube, then it would serve both as a training tool, as well as an "advertisement" for the game....

30. Observer position (aka compressor chap)

In order to shew new players the game at it's best, it would be helpful to have an extra crew position with very limited operable controls, so they can be aboard a multi-player boat in a multi-boat game, without being a liability, or without taking the place of an another more experienced player. A few tasks should be open to them - perhaps:
IMPLEMENTED (sort of)
running the compressor
viewing through periscopes raising/lowering same
steering but not using throttle
hydrophones
decrypting Enigma
using the echo-sounder


It would give them a good opportunity to see and hear a well crewed boat operating, as well as to feel part of the team by being given some simpler tasks to do, prior to being trained up properly in a role? As things stand, I think a lot of newer players are caught in the following situation:

Most lobbies are locked to them
They lack the knowledge to start a lobby of their own
And the complexities of the boat are tough to deal with as an ab-initio player
And they lack a circle of steam-"friends" able to bring them into locked lobbies or to help train them.

These issues in sum, I believe make this a somewhat inaccessible game. One thing that might help is to new players names presented at the lobby-selection screen, with some text-based means of asking them if they'd like to join a lobby. I do a bit of training of new players when I become aware of them, but as there's no means of being aware of them, nor means of communicating with them outside discord, it's not a new-player-friendly environment?

A simple text-based means of being able to see new players who are online, and the means to PM them, would be useful?
Conversely, there could be a "I need training" button for new players to operate which could pm every trainer online at that time. This might cause their name to change colour or similar so they may be readily identified and contacted.

31. Improved stop-watches, 1 "count-down" stop watch and (say) a couple of regular count-up ones. Consideration of a bevelled U-boat watch view, where the bezel can be set to a TOI, which used in conjunction with the count-down stop-watch (ideally with both simultaneously in view, can allow a known TTI (time to impact) being matched. Second hands on the clocks would also aid in this. I believe it's the case that stop watches were mounted, rather than held on the person usually? A view at the AP periscope not at the eyepiece with mounted count-down stopwatch and wrist-watch view in view, as there was in SH3 (?) might be useful. Ticking clocks and watches would be a nice touch when the sub is running at silent-running? IMPLEMENTED (addition of "second-hand" to clocks)