[LuftWolf]

To be sent to Bill very soon after some final testing, LWAMI 2.02 for you enjoyment! :|\

Here is the 2.02 addition to the readme:

LuftWolf and Amizaur’s Weapons and Sensors Realism Mod v2.02
Hosted by www.subguru.com
Readme by LuftWolf
Edited by Amizaur

Amizaur has made a more substantial and significant contribution to the creation of this mod than me. Tgio has made a significant and direct contribution.

Specific changes for v2.02:

Sphere and Hull Array Modeling—THIS REPRESENTS A SIGNIFICANT GAME-PLAY CHANGE. All Sphere and Hull Passive Arrays, playable and AI, have had their sensitivity increased significantly from stock DW. These arrays should be much more useful now for detecting and tracking civilian traffic, torpedoes, loud and close submerged targets, etc. Expect to use these arrays much more frequently for general situational awareness and establishing TMA on surface traffic, meaning the TA is now going to be used primarily for tactical awareness, e.g. finding and establishing a track on hostile submerged contacts (or that sneaky FFG stalking slow and quiet). Establishing the correct bearings of Master contacts has never been easier! I have also increased the baffling of all Sphere arrays ACTIVE AND PASSIVE to 120 degrees directly to the stern. The most dramatic effect this will have, in game-play terms, is on the FFG player, who no longer has nearly omni-directional awareness from active sonar, and in submerged stalking of escorted convoys, making it easier to get in behind the escorts. All of these changes are dramatic (in my opinion) and may need to be tweaked later on, hopefully not the day after we release the mod… ;-)

Sonobuoy Modeling—THIS REPRESENTS A SIGNIFCANT GAME-PLAY CHANGE. To better reflect the way different sonobuoys are utilized in actual practice, the VLAD Shallow has been given the depth of 800ft, and the VLAD Deep has been given the depth of 1200ft, to prevent the use of VLAD’s in shallow water, as is realistic. The DIFAR buoy (90/400ft) MUST now be used in shallow water in the game, as it is the preferred buoy for shallow water operations in the real world. You may also want to take DIFAR Deep buoys along if you feel there may be a shallow surface duct and you want to have a good above-layer passive buoy option, that is a personal player preference. The DICASS Deep has also been given the depth of 600ft, to give an under-layer option for medium to shallow surface duct environments. Be aware, that this will change the game-play balance further in the direction of submarines for littoral operations, and possibly slightly in the favor of air-platforms in open ocean operations, given the option to put VLAD’s under layers in deep waters. Just remember NOT to load any VLAD’s if you are going to be operating in water that is shallower than 800ft. New buoy depths at a glance:
DIFAR 90/400
DICASS 90/600
VLAD 800/1200

AEGIS Ship Behavior BETA—The Fire Control radars of AEGIS cruisers and destroyers were previously limiting their engagement range to an unrealistic degree. We are currently in the process of thoroughly reworking the entire radar modeling treatment in the database. However, in the meantime, we have changed the FC Radars on the AEGIS vessels to enable missile intercept behavior at the limits of the horizon, and slightly further if there is a linking platform, simulating decreased response time. These changes are essentially modeling the realistic engagement ranges on incoming missiles for AEGIS vessels in the real world, meaning that AEGIS ships will now provide effective fleet defense against missile threats at range. Mission designers, enjoy! Note: From a simulation standpoint, the way this has been accomplished WILL change in the next version to better model the way these platforms work in RL, however, from a game-play standpoint, the effect will be nearly the same. This version’s modification also includes a change to the CIWSAttack doctrine, which will be altered again in the next version of the mod. Also, as part of this temporary fix, I have changed the E-2 Hawkeye and E-3 Sentry radars, as previously they were only scanning half of the sky, meaning these should now be much more effective link participants.

Decoy Modeling—I have added a Passive Sound Level of 60 for active decoys, as the cloud of bubbles created by the active decoys have to make some kind detectable broadband sound. I have also added a small Active SL of 40 to passive decoys, which is still significantly less than torpedoes, as should be expected from any metal object in the water of comparable size.

Torpedo SL and Thrusts—Due to our error, torpedoes were much too quiet in LWAMI 2.01. This has now been corrected. We have introduced some variability in torpedoes to reflect real-world differences and have altered the thrust values to make possible, in some cases, deep running, slow, stealthy shots, but this tactic still cannot be relied upon, especially given the near-universal TIW calls, which we can’t change.

MANPAD (sub-launched SAM’s)—We have reduced the effectiveness of MANPAD’s as follows: Stinger (FIM-92) 75%, SA-N-8 65%, and SA-N-5 60%, to reflect what we believe would an accurate representation of the real world effectiveness of these should-launched weapons. And… also to further discourage the gamey and unrealistic use of SAM’s from submarines in missions.

TASM and Harpoon—We have reduced the radar signature of the TASM to 45 and the Harpoon to 40 (verses all other missiles which are 50), making them marginally more effective (read: detectable at slightly closer range) against defended surface targets than before, and giving another slight advantage to the Harpoon over the TASM. All missiles will be looked at when we remodel the radars. This is not a drastic change, but should help a bit when attacking with these missiles.

Maverick Missile Fix—The Missile.txt doctrine has been altered to prevent the missile from homing in and destroying submerged targets and aircraft. This constitutes a total removal of the “Magerick Missile Cheat,” however more testing is required to proclaim it totally dead without consequences, but we are 95% certain it’s gone with no residual traces.

SubAvoidWeap.txt—We have changed the submarine avoidance routines so that AI subs will always throw an Active CM when attacked and will evade incoming torpedoes at 100 to 140 degrees from their initial incoming bearing. This constitutes a simple yet dramatic alteration in the AI submarines’ ability to evade torpedoes in all conditions. Expect AI subs to avoid the first pass of ADCAP’s or UGST’s from less than 5nm as well as just about every LWT fired at medium to long range. I believe this to be a major game-play improvement for AI platforms, but more work is required to make evasion routines more complex.

Torpedo.txt Doctrine—I have decided to include the full Torpedo Doctrine Mod in this release featuring random circle/snake direction, the anti-surface casualty mod, the correction from meters to feet so that AI subs will launched torpedoes set at proper depth for submerged targets, and the variable randomized search depths for airdropped torpedoes, meaning sometimes torpedoes will be fired under layers. We don’t believe there to be any bugs in this full modification at this point, but, as always, all feedback is welcome on this or any aspect of the mod! In case you experience any crashes or undesired behavior, I have included the standard non-casualty torpedo.txt doctrine, which will be placed in your main DW directory for backup purposes. So, in the unlikely event you need to install this backup, just delete the “torpedo” doctrine installed with the mod in the Doctrine folder, and change the name of the “torpedo.avoidcasualtyonly” to simply “torpedo” (without the .txt, this extension is stored by Windows XP automatically) and place it in both your Doctrine and LwAmi.doctrine folders. But like I said, it shouldn’t come to this.