SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Observations on Realistic Realism and gameplay

DaveyJ576 · 04-14-09, 11:40 AM

Here is one of my takes on "realistic realism" (I love that term!).

SHIV is actually harder to play in one aspect than real life! That is the concept of "spatial vision" during an attack, i.e. being able to maintain a mental picture of what is going on above you.

While in the conning tower, especially while using the periscope, you have many visual, aural, and physical cues to tell you which direction you are looking, and in which direction the enemy is in relation to you. For instance, if you are looking out of the scope and the helmsman is to your left, then you know you are looking to starboard. If you are on #1 scope and while turning it your butt hits #2 scope, you know you are looking ahead. Once you become finely tuned to the environment around you, you can even make a fairly accurate guess as to the actual bearing you are pointed to, even without looking at the bearing ring above your head. Even after you have lowered the scope, all of these cues, when combined with what you saw allows you to develop a three dimensional picture in your head of the tactical situation on the surface. This greatly aids in effectively maneuvering your boat either for attack or evasion, especially when things go south and you have to make a snap decision on how to maneuver.

SHIV is two dimensional and is utterly lacking in all of these cues. If you are using the scope and spinning it around, the only way to know which direction you are looking is to glance at the bearing display, but to do that you have to take your eyes off of the scope picture! And then for a nub who may not know right away that 000 means dead ahead, 270 is on your beam to the left, 180 is astern, etc. it is even more confusing.

I think that the game adequately makes up for this situation by providing you with the map updates with the boat and ship cursors.

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't SH1 use true bearings instead of relative bearings used in SHIV? That makes it even more difficult because you have to constantly convert true to relative and vice versa.

Interestingly, the brand new Virginia class SSN's no longer have a traditional periscope. They use a "photonics mast", which is essentially a sophisticated TV camera on an extendable mast. The image from the camera is displayed on a computer screen in the attack center. The mast can be turned left and right and the camera rotated up and down. The true bearing to which the camera is pointed is displayed on the screen with the image. This puts our modern day submarine warriors in the exact same situation as we are in with SHIV! I am obviously simplifying the situation a little and our modern submariners have other tools to work with, but I can see it providing some problems with spatial vision and the mental picture of the battlefield.

04-14-09, 11:40 AM	#3
DaveyJ576 Officer Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Norfolk, VA Posts: 241 Downloads: 30 Uploads: 0	Here is one of my takes on "realistic realism" (I love that term!). SHIV is actually harder to play in one aspect than real life! That is the concept of "spatial vision" during an attack, i.e. being able to maintain a mental picture of what is going on above you. While in the conning tower, especially while using the periscope, you have many visual, aural, and physical cues to tell you which direction you are looking, and in which direction the enemy is in relation to you. For instance, if you are looking out of the scope and the helmsman is to your left, then you know you are looking to starboard. If you are on #1 scope and while turning it your butt hits #2 scope, you know you are looking ahead. Once you become finely tuned to the environment around you, you can even make a fairly accurate guess as to the actual bearing you are pointed to, even without looking at the bearing ring above your head. Even after you have lowered the scope, all of these cues, when combined with what you saw allows you to develop a three dimensional picture in your head of the tactical situation on the surface. This greatly aids in effectively maneuvering your boat either for attack or evasion, especially when things go south and you have to make a snap decision on how to maneuver. SHIV is two dimensional and is utterly lacking in all of these cues. If you are using the scope and spinning it around, the only way to know which direction you are looking is to glance at the bearing display, but to do that you have to take your eyes off of the scope picture! And then for a nub who may not know right away that 000 means dead ahead, 270 is on your beam to the left, 180 is astern, etc. it is even more confusing. I think that the game adequately makes up for this situation by providing you with the map updates with the boat and ship cursors. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't SH1 use true bearings instead of relative bearings used in SHIV? That makes it even more difficult because you have to constantly convert true to relative and vice versa. Interestingly, the brand new Virginia class SSN's no longer have a traditional periscope. They use a "photonics mast", which is essentially a sophisticated TV camera on an extendable mast. The image from the camera is displayed on a computer screen in the attack center. The mast can be turned left and right and the camera rotated up and down. The true bearing to which the camera is pointed is displayed on the screen with the image. This puts our modern day submarine warriors in the exact same situation as we are in with SHIV! I am obviously simplifying the situation a little and our modern submariners have other tools to work with, but I can see it providing some problems with spatial vision and the mental picture of the battlefield.