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So you think SH4 night time scope will be just as visible as the one in SH3?
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We'll see. One thing to consider (probably not modeled though) is there's a lot more phosphorescence in warm PAcific water than there is in th eAtlantic.
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I think it would be wrong but like you said games have a hard time with the detection stuff. If the scope is all blacked out perhaps the only way to do it in SH4 would be get in position at night then submerged attacks in the morning.
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Night surface attacks were favored in the PTO. All the tactical advantage lies with the sub. The problem in games has been a desire to not make them too hard for most players, or too slow to develop, so games have changed the distance-detection-accuracy-reaction-time mix away from reality. For example, how long does it take a surface target to return with gun fire in SH3? Seconds. In relaity gun crews had to muster, cast off guns, load, train, etc. It took some time. SH3 also makes even tramp steamers detect at about 1300 meters more or less. Without radar, on a dark night, that's too far out. But it gives the AI a fighting chance.
Another thing that's hard to AI-model is convoy panic after a first attack. SH3 mods addressed this a bit, but stock SH3 has ships sailing placidly onward even as their mates explode next door. Panic was a sub CO's friend; it allowed him tactical options to flee or to displace in the melee so ASW assets had to begin again. For the best example I know of look up USS Parche's night surface attack where Cdr. Red Ramage won his MOH. Utter panic exploited to the Nth degree. Here's the citation, but I've seen plots of the maneuvers--wild, to say the least.
"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Parche in a predawn attack on a Japanese convoy, 31 July 1944. Boldly penetrating the screen of a heavily escorted convoy, CDR Ramage launched a perilous surface attack by delivering a crippling stern shot into a freighter and quickly following up with a series of bow and stern torpedoes to sink the leading tanker and damage the second one. Exposed by the light of bursting flares and bravely defiant of terrific shellfire passing close overhead, he struck again, sinking a transport by two forward reloads. In the mounting fury of fire from the damaged and sinking tanker, he calmly ordered his men below, remaining on the bridge to fight it out with an enemy now disorganized and confused. Swift to act as a fast transport closed in to ram, CDR Ramage daringly swung the stern of the speeding Parche as she crossed the bow of the onrushing ship, clearing by less than 50 feet but placing his submarine in a deadly crossfire from escorts on all sides and with the transport dead ahead. Undaunted, he sent 3 smashing "down the throat" bow shots to stop the target, then scored a killing hit as a climax to 46 minutes of violent action with the Parche and her valiant fighting company retiring victorious and unscathed."