SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Newbie: How much do you "tip-toe"

Three14 · 01-11-06, 10:19 AM

I played slow and sneaky until I went online with the Seawolves back in the 688i days. Then I found that slow didn't matter much in the types of situations typical in the dives of those days.

Now I tend to play in more of that style (faster, bolder), online or off, at least in a nuclear sub (I've tried in the demo Kilo, too. Getting better at it). One big difference is that missions are more often designed with stricter time goals as compared to 688i H/K (in 1997), so hanging out at 2 knots isn't going to cut it. The second is simply that I'm better at evading and the like now, so the cost is much lower than it used to be, especially since single player AI tends to be conservative with torpedoes (though without mods they don't nearly snapshot on bearing enough, making slow and steady more viable).

The third is simply that it's more fun to move through the space. It gives me more of a feeling of making things happen and lets me think of being places far away. If I were in the habit of thinking more like a Kilo, it's easy for me to think about making all my moves within a small circle of water. For me, that takes away the "playground" fun and makes it more a "figure out what the designer wanted" challenge.

Part of why Bill Nichol's missions are always so appealing, I think, is that they have a lot of play to them. For these types of special challenges in a sub, slow and steady is good stuff, since they really don't know what's going on and you have more options going in.

01-11-06, 10:19 AM	#18
Three14 Seaman Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Hong Kong Posts: 39 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I played slow and sneaky until I went online with the Seawolves back in the 688i days. Then I found that slow didn't matter much in the types of situations typical in the dives of those days. Now I tend to play in more of that style (faster, bolder), online or off, at least in a nuclear sub (I've tried in the demo Kilo, too. Getting better at it). One big difference is that missions are more often designed with stricter time goals as compared to 688i H/K (in 1997), so hanging out at 2 knots isn't going to cut it. The second is simply that I'm better at evading and the like now, so the cost is much lower than it used to be, especially since single player AI tends to be conservative with torpedoes (though without mods they don't nearly snapshot on bearing enough, making slow and steady more viable). The third is simply that it's more fun to move through the space. It gives me more of a feeling of making things happen and lets me think of being places far away. If I were in the habit of thinking more like a Kilo, it's easy for me to think about making all my moves within a small circle of water. For me, that takes away the "playground" fun and makes it more a "figure out what the designer wanted" challenge. Part of why Bill Nichol's missions are always so appealing, I think, is that they have a lot of play to them. For these types of special challenges in a sub, slow and steady is good stuff, since they really don't know what's going on and you have more options going in.