More stuff from TMO2.2/RSRD 5 to report.
Had some night time playtime on the Philippine/Rabaul shipping route. I noticed two new things. First of all, the stars twinkle. Actually, they DON'T twinkle, they flash like marker lights out there! That is awful. No, THAT IS AWFUL!!!! I don't know if you've been at sea at night but the sky is very different from what you think it is living in populated areas.
First all, twinkling is not flashing off and on, it is the image of the star moving around quickly in a random pattern within a small quarter degree (or so) area, while it simultaneously whips in and out of focus several times per second, due to the lensing action of bubbles of warm air rising through the colder ambient air. The going in and out of focus makes the brightness appear to change quickly: bright, dim, bright, dim in a very quick and irregular pattern. They do not go out as I was disgusted to see here.
Also, the twinkling happens over land only! If you're out to see the stars are completely motionless and do not twinkle. It's as if an artist painted them up there and you can see triple the number of stars you ever thought existed. Even if you're an amateur astronomer, as I am, and get to see the truly dark sky at sea on a moonless night, you see so many stars so clearly that it takes half an hour of intense study just to recognize easy constellations. That effect can't be done in SH4.
But the hokey flashing gots to go! It's just terrible.
The other thing I noticed was that I was out on a moonless night. But there was a bright reflection of the moon on the ocean's surface. I've never seen that in SH4 on a moonless night. That was even worse than the stars, and I wonder if a target could have seen me if I were in the glare of that bright streak from nowhere. I'm going to check that out. But it shouldn't be there at all. Guess I should repost the problems in the TMO thread in case Ducimus is checking it out.
I don't care if Zeros didn't carry bombs. I never look at the planes unless I use the external camera in a moment of boredom. They could be paper airplanes for all I care. But I have to look at the night sky and water every time I play. Yuk.
Had some sonar glitches too. The first is a stock issue of the sonar detecting targets in Rabaul harbor area when there is land between you and the target. I could ping them and get a straight line range too! Great sonar! Not so realistic though.
But the worst part was that for days after I sunk the Funky Maru I continued to find him on sonar with manual sweeps. No sonar spikes were plotted though and I couldn't ping him no matter how close I was to the position. Drove me crazy for awhile until I figured out what I was finding. I triangulated it......
Yeah, I know, unload RSRD and then bellyache about stuff...
The Good Stuff!
Turned off the phonograph and listened to Ahab,
Call of the Wretched Sea whilst hunting. Magnificent! But perhaps an acquired taste.
The airplane that spotted me from 5.4 miles was a fluke. I tried other airplanes (lots of chances near Rabaul!
) and they were safe out to 5 miles. When I was decks awash one passed inside of 4 miles without spotting me at 10 knots. Speed is important in being spotted. 15 knots will get you spotted when 10 knots won't. I only changed my procedure by coming to periscope depth, shooting up the radar antenna, then surfacing. It hasn't found anything since that first plane, which definitely spotted me. The planes are great!
So on that clear moonless night with the stars flashing brightly and the moon reflection glaring to the west of me I found a target on radar and decided to try a night surface attack from under 1000 yards. Got lots of screenshots for a later Bag of Tricks post, so I won't post them here.
First of all, it was DARK! I couldn't visually see the Funky Maru (900' long) until it was about 2000 yards out and then only by TBT on radar bearing. That was absolutely GREAT! What an improvement over stock.
I set up for a Dick O'Kane and worked up a tools tutorial for that attack. When he got to 2000 yards, I flooded down to 32', decks awash. I shot from the TBT and hit two to put him on the bottom with one defective torpedo. Surface attack was just incredible and TMO gets an A+!