Quote:
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Originally Posted by Amizaur
In real life I suppose no one sane captain would dive even CLOSE to his boat's crush depth even if running for life...
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When a weapon is in the water, and you are the target, all bets are off. You use every bit of the performance envelope that you have. Redline a reactor plant for the extra knot or 2?? Take her deeper cause there is a layer 200 feet deeper but not quite at crush that MIGHT save your butt?? Oh yeah, count on it. You would 'break the rules' on the performance envelope if you have to in order to stay alive and come back to kill the OTHER guy.
We used to have discissions about it all the time in the division and with other divisions on the boat. Little "What if's" in the corners of the boat while tossing cards around. We even joked about it. It ended with 'the shipyard can fix it if we are still around to get it there.'
Added:
One thing here that probably irks us real bubbleheads is that there are operating limits and absolute limits on submarines. The game deals in absolutes while we think in terms of the operational limits that were imposed on us. You have a safe range of speed and depth that work inside of. Outside of this range you are getting into dangerous areas. Too fast and too deep mean you hit your crush depth before you can recover from flooding etc etc. Crush depth is an UNKNOWN thing till you find it the hard way.
I think the game does a good job in balancing the the various classes but what needs to be done is something on the same order. I realize that is can not be done my a mod probably. What you do is make variable ABSOLUTE limits and impose operational limits. That way a player has an envelope to play in but then makes a choice to operate outside those limits and risk breaking things or crush.
Put down that a 688i has a safe operating max depth of 800 feet (otherwise known as test depth). Crush depth is something deeper than 1200 feet but put a variable on it. It might actually be 1141 for that ship. Maybe the welders had a good day and on another ship of the same class crush depth is 1487 feet. Make it random each time you dive for each ship. That way you can not guess how deep you can REALLY go.
Why did I bring this up?? With all the discussions of changing speed someone asked what does a knot or 2 matter? It can literally be the difference between life and death. Remember back when I started posting I said something about how FAST a bell is answered. That normally the throttleman will NOT cavitate unless ordered but when told to GO, he answered it quickly and without hesitation. When torpedo's are in the water speed IS life. You will get told to stand on the power and the boat will speed up REALLY quickly. Speed gets you out of the detection cone of the weapon. Speed gets you clear of the datum and tosses his solution out the window. Speed makes the boat more manuverable. Speed is more imporant than depth in a lot of ways when weapons are in the water.