Ahh feedback. Thanks :D

Sounds like sonar is fine.

Depth charges, do i need to open them up a bit more, or they fine as is?

Hydrophones.? I was contemplating dropping the thermal layer variable from 2 to 1.75 on that. (bout to run a career game with said settings infact) Your thoughts?

Visual, i feel needs more work too. Only minor tweak im thinking about right now is lowering the speed factor form 9 to 8. After that i might lower the surface factor OR the wave factor. Not sure yet.

Did some testing with the prop_fact_dive_plane_F value .... check this out ... at periscope depth, requested to surface, moments later I porpoised out, then shot back into sea tail first ....

When Prop_Fact_Dive_Plane_F = 8
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...5-4-2007_0.jpg

If i didnt know better, i'd swear you have Bernard in your diesal room :88)

I tested that ... by increasing the value of the prop_fact_dive_plane_F (bow plane) I was able to shave off 1 second of time per 10 meters traveled while at submerged flank speed (gato 9kts). The default value of 0 had a change like 6 sec/ 10 m. With that note, it basically couldn't get any better (values between 0.95 and 2 seem to max it out) since that "fixed" value is keeping the sub at constant rate.

My thoughts on the "fixed" unknown value go to buoyancy. I haven't tested this but let me explain my idea based on reading about buoyancy and stability ...

Quote from THE FLEET TYPE SUBMARINE book :

We all knew that ... but, basically a rock will sink faster than a lighter object of the same shape (editted, removed mass)... right? (again, I've been know to be wrong) :oops: .

So, if you look at the values in the subs *.sim file you'll see this for the Gato :

mass = 0
displacementSurfaced = 1520
displacementSubmerged = 2460

Compare with the Shiratsuyu DD or any surface vessel in the game :

mass = 1685 (shiratsuyu)
displacementSurfaced = 0
displacementSubmerged = 0

Obviously the game doesn't care about the DD's displacement, but I'm wondering if we make the sub "heavier" by changing the mass OR by changing the submerged displacement, whether or not the sub will sink faster.

This can be a good/bad situation ...If it does work, we can dive faster :up: but we won't be able to surface quickly :down: , unless we use compressed air (which by the way, IMO, isn't modeled right since we use the air to blow out the negative tank and the other tanks during a normal submerged operation, again - commmon knowledge for seasoned skippers here).

Another quote from the book, about Neutral Buoyancy ...

We are stuck with a basic game routine which doesn't model all the tanks and such. Perhaps there is no way to fix it, but hey, what's a skipper to do but to try!

The mass variable was played with by the GWX team in SH3. As i recall, for a sub to have a positve boyancy effect, its mass had to be approximatly1 less then its displacement. If the mass exceeds the displacement, it sinks. Even while on the surface.

The result of using mass to give a positve effect is that the boat will broach if standing still, or not moving at a given rate to maintain depth. Use mass thats much less then the displacment, and the boat can't dive. And again, using mass greater then its displacement, it sinks like a stone.

One other possibility to increase the subs dive/surface rate when a sub speed is greater than 0 kt would be moving the bow plane (numerically not 3D physically) closer to the center of buoyancy, and applying a value of 1 or 2 to the pro_fact.

The location of the planes in reference to the center of buoyancy, ie the arm length, on the Perch (real world):

Stern = 140 ft (primary effect - angle of boat)
Bow = 114 ft (primary effect - depth)

The only value I quickly see changing in the SIM file is called fr_ratio. I don't know what this is but is falls under the gc_height which might be the center of gravity height, I dunno. So, fr_ratio might be the longitudinal location from gc. I noticed that most (I say most because I haven't checked all) of the ships in SH4 have a fr_ratio of 0.5 . I can say, I've changed the fr_ratio for aircraft to a negative value and it immediatly crashes upon loading it :huh: . As a matter of fact, increasing it made the planes crash as well after they dove on me, and I never played with it since. One of those "whats this do" type of check.

Blah blah , blah blah. I'm all talk but no action or knowledge behind my babbling! :lol:

Shows how far behind the times I am in modding!!! I liked the GWX mod, espeically the NYGM addition, alone the NYGM was very nice. I guess the subject is mute ... I need to get back to playing and leave the tweaks up to the pros.

Hehhe i will admit i took the easy way out by upping the MBT_floodrate.

edit:
>>I need to get back to playing and leave the tweaks up to the pros.

No, don't do that. Keep experimenting if you want. Thats how new stuff is discovered. Besides, most of the "pro's" are permanent fixtures in Ubootland, so they're arent as many "pro's" working on SH4. (and Im a rank amature, as any "pro" will tell you :D )

I just posted a new thread on something completely different (I hate opening up new files .... :hmm: ) ... it's getting me into trouble.

I figured I'd ask first before doing ...

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=113228

Ok, back to this thread and staying on topic here ....

Ducimus,

I'm going to see if there's a link for the Radar ON/OFF switch that can be directed to the SD. Am I right by saying your "R" keyboard command back in your previous versions didn't turn off the SD?

Looking at the SNS and UPC files makes me wonder if the Metox can be installed since they show radar warning entries. I know you did something in your tests but I don't know if you considered the SNS file. As a matter of fact, looking at the revelant SNS for the Gato show's the radar warning as such :

;Radar Warning
[Sensor 13]
NodeName=C01
LinkName=NULL
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19451231

Perhaps the LinkName needs to point to the NSS_EarlySD and the sensor either modded to a metox (type=4) or left alone, and Sensor #13 needs to be added or activated on the sub ... somehow, maybe related to NodeName, dunno.

Holler at me if you've "been there, done that" :D .

Ducimus,

Regarding the RPM's being too high in your other post and replying to whether the escorts are good or bad .... if the RPM values are higher than normal could this data be used by the DD's passive sensors to detect us?

Off topic about RPM ... If you jump into a Gato, head to the control room and look over the helmsman's shoulder, just below his chin are the RPM gauges. They peg out at any setting from Standard and above. Either the gauge needs replacing or the rpm's need lowering, eh?

The funny stuff you see when you patrol after a week!!! :doh:

>>Holler at me if you've "been there, done that"

Yup. Been there, done that.

>> Diesal RPMS. (irrelvant in terms of AI detection)
I was noting that they are lower when compared to SH3 RPM values. Probably correct if we were dealing with 4 seperate (smaller) engines then the two jumbo's that the germans would run, but if the game is in action, still only emulating 2 engines in the simlation, then the RPMs could probably be upped.

>> RPM Dials: (one for each engine)
Out of scale, but they do correspond to the RPM values in the sim file. Speaking of interior dials, most of them don't work. :roll: Nothing new with that unfortunatly.

Haha. I don't know who Bernard is but I gather he's a big fellow, huh?

Thankfully, no one was injured during the test run but my crew has requested a transfer to a less dangerous post along the coast of Honshu!!!

You have them set at 10m max radius right?

Eh, I'd spread them out a little. One idea would be to bring them back to 20m radius, but at the same time bring the efficiency down. Else I think even a somewhat larger radius would be fine - 15m or something like that - it's just that the enemy has fairly narrow drop patterns for the most part, and you have to be really careless to fall inside that 10m radius.

That would be okay I guess. Generally I'm careful with silent running and have no probelm keeping quiet. It's the active sonar that concerns me more below thermal, and as far as that - to me it seems pretty much perfect as it is.

>>You have them set at 10m max radius right?

14 :88)

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.



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In other news, i just got the Gar class to work on its own files, so it can have its own set of specifications to differentiate it from the Tambor. Ive been trying to find the differences between the two, and at least a couple sources ive found on the net say it had more fuel then the tambor. Some cite a bit faster surface speed, and others cite an 11 kt submerged top speed (yeah right, like i beleive THAT ).

So i think in the next mod revision, im going to put the Gato back to its original avialablity date, and give the Gar a bit more fuel, and maybe up its crush depth so its a wee bit better then a tambor, but still less then a gato.

Theoritically, you could do what i just did for the other S class boat as well.