Quote:
Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp
Yes, I must admit, though this was my very first foray into Truk lagoon, I was rather surprised at the relative ease with which I was able to enter, and then linger about. Maybe they thought an enemy sub would never dare to enter the lion's den.
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The game doesn't model atolls at all (snicker).
Sneaking into harbors or places like Truk is cheating, frankly, given the game engine. No reefs, weak terrain and sea modeling (shallows, sand bars, currents, tides). Sneaking around Truk should be scary from a TERRAIN standpoint, screw the IJN. Think about currents, for example. Read PRs, and there were times during long DC attacks, etc, where boats were moving more from currents than under power submerged. Sneaking someplace underwater means conserving juice... imagine if you had to use ahead full submerged just to make headway...
Since the AI ships have to be able to get out, any reefs, etc, cannot be too closed in, or the AI will crash. Mines or subnets (the latter as subnets, or analogs for reefs) cannot be too shallow for the same reason.
Bottom line is that it will always be far too easy. Back when I was working on my campaign, I liberally seeded all the deep water at Truk with mines. The deep bits INSIDE, that is. Wake them up then try to sit in a deep pool... bad idea.
It was more punishment for people sneaking in, frankly.
Monitored mines would go a long way. You'd pass the entrance, and every ASW platform within many miles would make a beeline for you. (these are in effect mines with hydrophones, they don't explode, they detect you. While they were mostly used around Japan, my plan was to liberally dose harbors with them to keep players honest.