SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Various Questions On Game Engine And Game Play

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Various Questions On Game Engine And Game Play

Now, I don't have the game and I am on the fence, I'll probably wait until I see more of how the game developement progresses and in which direction. That being said, I have for starters one question (for the time being).

Different games have different ways of dealing with lighting conditions for an attacking sub. In https://www.history.navy.mil/researc...t-convoys.html there are a couple of snippets that read

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Moonlight Nights.

On moonlight nights submarine will probably operate on the surface with very little buoyancy. Under these conditions they are very hard to see, especially if their position is well chosen with regard to the moon. The Germans are known to possess very good night glasses, which give great assistance in enabling them to make out ships and patrol vessels without being themselves seen.

A submarine captain will not get between the lines at night if he can avoid doing so, as he will be exposed to close-range gunfire if sighted, but will probably try for a shot from outside the escorting craft on the flanks, or, closing in after they have passed, try and pick off any stragglers.

The submarine is most dangerous to the convoy when on a bearing away from the moon, and this position should always be guarded, if possible, by stationing one of the escort on that bearing, but outside the short-range escort.

Quote:

Unless the sun and moon have a high altitude, a submarine will prefer, if possible, to attack from the direction of the sun's rays and, at night, from a direction opposite to the bearing of the moon.

Is this something that will matter in this game?

I don't believe moon-path or sun position makes any difference - yet. That will likely change if and when we get playable escorts where human lookouts will be scanning the surface of the sea. At which point using the position of sun and moon to not present a readily visible silhouette to the escorts will be important.

I'm guessing here, but I would be surprised if visibility to AI escorts was kept to shorter distances than that of a human crewman. Plainly having it the other way around would defeat the whole point of playable escorts! Personally I'd like to see the current bands of visibility (in different light levels) done way with, so that U-boat commanders cannot know, with the current certainty, that they remain undetected; nor indeed if a particular escort is player manned or AI....

Detection or not is, of course, in the code and there are several ways about it. In some games, it's distance and distance alone with a set distance within which the sub is detected, regardless. A more sophisticated algorithm takes daylight and rarkness into account effectively giving you 2 distances, one for each half of a 24 hr day. A more sophisticated algorithm deals in probability for detection and here ambient lighting conditions could be one of several factors alongside distance.

Having the light in the sub during night ops either turned off or set to red could also be coded to make a difference.