Sounds great ! I always though the UUV capabilities in DW are just pitiful. What you wrote is how it should work from the very beginning :-).
Few thoughs - I'm not sure an UUV should have torpedo-type active sonar seeker. Unless there are known real -world UUVs that have such sub-detecting sonars (because you are not supposed to detec a mine with it).I'm under impression that real world existing UUVs are using rather high-frequency imaging sonar for mine detecting, not medium frequency targeting sonar... Maybe it should have only very high frequency and passive sensors, or it can be too good ! and as a result you can't hide from it, can't kill it (!!!) and have no idea where it's mother ship is untill torpedo arrives...
Not sure about 20kts speed, maybe 15kts instead ? But it's only my feeling... I suspect UUVs have propulsion optimised for slow running.
Are real american UUVs torpedo-based (Mk-37?) or new construction ? Is it known what speed and range do they have ? Of course sensors should work ONLY in slow mode. Range can be dependant (highly dependant) on speed, so slow mode range would be 2x of burst speed range (or rather burst speed range 2x shorter than normal slow mode range). It can be made same way as with torpedos.
About 32km range - I always thought that original DW UUV range is just pitifull :-) UUVs are said to have dosens of hours endurance, even at 2kts speed it gives reasonable range. I think it could have even greater range at low speeds, if it was little limited in capability (HF & passive sonar only) and speed. You could make recon in enemy port from 20-30nm out :-).Luftwolf, wasn't there a hard-coded time limit for UUV mission ? Or was it just range-limited ? About sub maneuvering limitations - don't think it's wrong, this kind of mission rather don't require high speed maneuvers, you just lanuch your UUV from good stand-off and wait in cover.

P.S. After a while, I think that UUV should have assigned in DB not HF sonar, as it only gives marks, not tracks, but instead "normal" active sonar just tuned for very high frequency so range would be highlly reduced, but detecting capability inside working ranger very good.

The UUV is strictly range limited, no time limit. :)

BTW, I can confirm that the active sonar feedback issue with the UUV is related STRICTLY to 1.03, and will not be a problem after the next patch.

For now, I'm going to disable the active enable feature entirely on the UUV. :up:

Cheers,
David

I should'nt lose sleep on UUV active mode, at this stage, as implementing it would in effect make a
quantam leap forward and impinge heavily on gameplay. It is more than enough (for now ;) ) to have a
passive stealth tool, which with its deployment performance characteristics, creates a wealth of
exciting new tactical possibilities.

:o do you mean modded UUV, or even normal stock UUV doesn't give active intercept return ?? It definitely did in earlier versions of the game...

Ok, sounds good to me. As it is, any reasonable implementation of the UUV active sonar would give you a really good picture of whats going on around the unit in terms of torpedoes etc... you would be able to see torpedoes quite clearly on the UUV, provided you have it oriented correctly.

The changes for this version of LWAMI are going to be very very significant, and I don't want some kind of major imbalance to tilt things without getting a feel for what we've got... so perhaps this is a blessing in disguise right now. :)

Cheers,
David

PS A part of me *still* wants it to work exactly to my vision. :know: :P

Progress has been solid but some of my time has been eaten up bug-testing unexpectedly.

I have a couple more things to do to wrap this up, but I have to go to work now.

The playtest will be ready tonight/tomorrow. :up:

Thanks guys! :up: :rock:

Cheers,
David

sigh.

I'm about 80% with SQ on this one. I wouldn't remove it, but a downgrade seems more appropriate than an upgrade, since what we have is already well outside the bounds of what we should have.

Edit: as senstive as a Xia spherical sensor? Sounds like this is exactly the kind of downgrade I was hoping for...

I don't suppose you can make up your fridgickin mind. :x

Upgraded mission capability with sensors that actually make sense realitve to the other sensors in the game... that's what I've done.

Right now, under the layer, in moderate acoustic conditions, the UUV picks up a 688i going 14 kts at about 5.5nm or so... while the 688i sphere picks up the same contact at about 7nm. Edit: Corrected the last range, I had it a little high before.

Very quiet contacts aren't going to be picked up on the UUV at all, even very close, and very loud contacts will be detected quite clearly, even at long range.

I'm back at my post.

No sleep 'til distribution! :rock:

Cheers,
David

At least someone still loves me. :cry:

ML: Typical Lawyer speak :D - You claim (to the jury) that you are 80% in agreement with SQ - in toto ?
Or are you cherry picking ? Yep I think so because in fact you approve of 80% of the range/speed/depth proposals.

So we are left with sonar performance which is the real issue. I am not in possession of all of the facts but
we have an opportunity to test-bed concepts which can attempt to consolidate reality with effective gameplay.
Heck is that Lawyer speak too !! :o

Edit: A 'night-watchman' eh ? :roll: :lol: There will always be a red carpet in my 'Yellow Submarine' SQ.
(+ well stocked drinks cabinet)

Well, rest assured... the sensitivity of the UUV passive sonar has been MUCH reduced.

This should make it much more useful, as your screen won't be clouded up by so many useless contacts in a busy environment, making the job of interpreting the UUV data a more sim-oriented task, rather than just weeding through a mess of white lines.

The playtest is finished. :)

I just have to write the Playtest Version Readme and create the distribution.

After a very short break. :up:

Cheers,
David

PS :rock: :rock: :rock:

Well I can't say total agreement, because I didn't want to ditch the sensor altogether! But not that it's apparent that in terms of performance, this is a downgrade, I'm probably in favor of the changes...

I don't want to ditch the UUV. I just wish that it was patterned more closely after an existing UUV, the LMRS. As it stands, it's one of the least believable objects in the game.

I'm also not in principle against a "second generation" UUV, so long as it was also patterned off of a real potential future system and has some kind of reasonable way of representing it in gameplay. I think trying to do something Sea Talon-like would actually be very cool.

I just worry that "pushing the limits" is a euphemism for developing super weapons, which no future system is.

I searched for LMRS (finding Little Martian Robots program on google ;) ) and see that's fully autonomous vehicle (no wire) so it can't transmit sonar data to mother ship, and it probably don't have passive sonar, only HF forward looking and bottom imaging sonars, it's meaned to do mine reconnaissance mission ONLY, it can't be useable in sub vs sub mission at all ! It definitely is not the vehicle we are modelling in the game... is there something other closer to in-game UUV ??

Post edited out following the contemporaneous release of the latest LwAmi Playtest. !

No, there's not. Time to change the name of the mod to LW&A Fantasy Land Mod. :yep: :lol:

20knot top speed for a uuv? :nope:

Now there's something I can agree with completely!

How is that darn toy going to tell me about mines without the wire? Am I supposed to recover it manually and somehow edge it into a torp tube or something?

Acoustic datalink.

The other tube on that side would have a remote controled arm loaded in it to place it at the entrance of the tube. The UUV would then “crawl� in to the tube.