I take LGN1's point that the sensors are probably the result of a complex mixture of several factors.
This must be especially true of visual sensors, where weather and fog will always be a factor, and the night/day distinction will be complicated.
However, I guess (without any evidence) that the asdics are coded much more simply than the visual sensors. Night/day is irrelevant, fog is irrelevant, wind speed has a negligible effect, Asdic range is simply ON/OFF, depending on the distance of the U-boat. U-boat depth is certainly important, but that is modelled already by the angle of beam. Sensitivity for the particular type of asdic is a constant.
Sea-depth is also important, and is not modelled. If Minimum Surface is changed for asdic, it is difficult to imagine what adverse effect it might have on other variables for the asdic sensor. What other variables are there?
The idea of introducing a *random* on-off effect for changes in Minimum Surface has been introduced. Technically, this is very easy to add in code. However, there remain two issues:
1. The code is called at millisecond intervals, so in order to have any meaning the random factor would have to be sampled every game-hour or thereabouts.
2. What exactly would the random number mean? For example, if the code says that there is a 20% (or an 80%) chance of changing the Minimum Surface value, what does it mean? That there is a 20 (80)% chance that the U-boat is next to a rock rather than next to soft mud?
In fact the presumption is already made in my code that, at shallower depths, you are more likely to be moving next to something that confuses asdic (a rock, a wreck, a shallow tidal flow). So, in my opinion, the changes in Minimum Surface reflect *the average* of these random changes already.
Another suggestion, that to sit on the sea-bed without moving should provide further protection, is a good one, and perhaps this can be modelled with a further increase in Minimum Surface for asdics. However, in real life the idea of sitting on the sea-bed was to pretend to be a rock or wreck, it had no effect on the function of asdic. So perhaps we can think of a better way to implement this new idea. (Already, you will be safe from detection by hydrophones.)
Stiebler.
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