Got my first kill!
 

Okay, I managed to put a few hours into DW and I am starting to make some progress. First, I did the Seawolf demo mission where your whole crew is sick and you need to get back to base ASAP. This was a piece of cake, especially if you are used to maneuvering with the Seawolf from SC. No problem.

Then I did the FFG demo called Dirty Atoll. This one proved more difficult than I first expected. Maneuvering the ship so close to land was instructive in itself---a FFG handles like a pig compared to a SSN. Now I understand why bridge crews always appear so tense when they are docking the ship! It must be like dancing with an elephant! Well, after three tries, I finally did manage to reach both waypoints without grounding my ship. :) However, once the mission changed to getting the terrorists---well, that one has bested me so far. The FFG is a very complex platform and I think I need to wait for my printed manual to arrive before I can properly decipher all the weapons and sensors. I put that one on hold for now.

My last mission was the MH-60 demo where you hunt the Victor III. That was fun! It was a perfect scenario to teach you about using the various sonobuoys. I am proud to say that after a 2 hour search, I nailed the sub with a Mk 50! :rock: Boy that was fun and very realistic! The sub almost got away because, at first, I didn't understand how to read the buoy contact info. Each buoy seemed to be detecting a sub on a different portion of the map. It confused me...until I noticed that all the bearing lines were intersecting in one general area. Bingo! Triangulation at work! I dropped my MAD gear and made a lucky pass over the sub. Then a dropped a few DICASS buoys (accidentally scuttling two :oops: ) and with an active search using my dipping sonar---bingo! I had bearing and range (which I determined without crew help!). The rest, as they say, is history. :D

Great game! This might actually pull me away from SH3 for a few days.

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/8...tinsubs6ns.jpg

Congrats.

when playing your first multiplayer game, preprare for man-portable infra-red guided shoulder-launched Surface-To-Air
missile (SAM), that will blow you out of the sky
*g*

Congrats on your first kill!
Be sure to check my site for tutorials and other goodies :|\

The FFG seems very daunting at first, but I just started playing DW a few days ago (Though I played SC for a long time before) and I have a very good grasp of the systems.

Actually you will be very thankful you have so much available to you on the ship, you're really able to do a lot. And you can sure make life difficult for submarines if you have 2 helos aboard, and if you have a P3 in the area you can be a real danger.

Make sure to learn how to use the towed array of the FFG and then learn TMA afterward. The mission "Seikan Tunnel" is an excellent way to learn all of the systems of the FFG, including CIWS and the SM2 missile, I was once shot at with a missile in the seikan tunnel mission :o

Learning the TA in the FFG is probably the most or second most important thing you can do. In the seikan tunnel mission you can learn about the various depths the towed array can be set to which will either drag the array on the ground, or put it at a deep enough level to get the best contact detection, etc. There are enough surface ships around to make it challenging. You'll have to learn to use your contact list in the sonar suite (look at the signal to noise ratio) to see which contacts are possubs and which are trawlers or other large ships. And you'll need to learn about the LOFAR (narrowband) to make sure you're not shooting the Harushio Japanese sub by accident, or a trawler. You'll also be given the opportunity to use your active sonar or high frequency sonar to detect and mark contacts in the water at close range.

The other thing you need to learn about is using the helo, but to be honest it's extremely simple, press F3, set green deck, click the "ship" link button and figure the rest out yourself.

Learning how to operate the GRAMS and deciding when it's best to use OTS buoys vs heli buoys is another important thing. A good mission for learning these is the spratley island resupply mission. That mission will also teach you about radar, SM2 and CIWS.

I really like the "seikan tunnel" mission for practice also. The enemy has a random start position.

This is a bug in the (modified?) doctrines, I think. Or perhaps a feature gone wrong?

Thing is, if you're not identified as friendly, and you ping (or launch in their general direction, even if it would miss widely), the AI tends to assume you're hostile (ping -> preparing to launch a torpedo at them - makes a bit more sense against subs, at that), and try to get ahead of you by launching first.

Doesn't tend to happen if you're constantly pinging I think...


Either way, this creates a lot of blue-on-blue situations.

I admit I was concerned about the computer pulling that on me.

BTW: how active is the online community? Is it easy to find an opponent?

Already have----GREAT site! :up: I can't wait to try the RSR campaign (now that I am re-reading the book for a 9th time!!!).

I am making TMA the last thing I learn. I tried to understand that in SC but it just drove me crazy. The AI crew seems to do good enough on its own, so I am not in a rush.

How well does the AI handle helo ops? Do I always need to micro-manage helo operations?

Update: I finished two more scenarios. I did the Kilo demo. That was pretty decent. The Kilo seems to be a straight-forward sub. The only problem I had was when I launched two 53-65 torps---for some strange reason they just disappeared! They were running normal and then---poof!---disappeared from the map. Bug?

Now I am doing the P-3 demo when you hunt an Akula. I killed one, but I know there is at least one more out there. I hope I am more lucky with this one as it took 4 torps to kill the first (it takes practice to drop the torp on target---I kept over-shooting from a late release).

Q: Are all hits a "kill"? Or are enemy targets sometimes damaged too?

Q2: I see that the P-3 had FLIR. Is it any good when hunting a sub? I would expect not---unless the sub is snorkeling.

Q3: Is there a screenshot key? I would like to memorialize my victories! :D

1.) Depends on the targets size - for subs usually one hit = kill.

2.) Its good for hunting subs in real life (catching them snorkeling ..) in the game tho it's not and subs cant be seen unless they actually breach the surface. Funny enough you can see Active Shallow Counter Measures from subs with it.

3.)POS1 (German layout) / HOME (US Layout).

P.S. : There are only two Demo missions, Kilo & Helo ... :hmm:


Cheers
OS

I'm guessing they hit the sea bottom. You always need to take care that the 'floor' setting is shallower than the bottom... the AI weapons officer isn't smart enough to do that on his own :-?

Or they might have reached maximum range. They don't stop and sink when that happens, they just stop existing in the game world.

Right. The P-3 Demo is actually called SOSUS Handover. Seemed like a demo to me! LOL!