A detailed list of changes is below:
Campaign
* Moved to 1990, eliminated older Soviet units, added the 688i and Akula I
* New backstory, to help better explain the lack of other allied naval and air forces taking part.
* Added patrol zones to the strategic map and modified mission orders to reflect this. In reality, submarines would often both move and patrol in specific zones to deconflict them from other allied units.
* Simulated an initial surge of Soviet submarines into the North Atlantic, and generally increased enemy activity overall.
* Increased Landing Force and ASUW surface group speeds from 8 knots to ~15 knots, or one knot less than the maximum speed of the slowest ship in the group. This helped to eliminate the “spawning within active sonar range” bug. The downside to this is that surface groups now zip around fairly quickly on the campaign map.
* Simulated attrition of enemy forces. At the beginning of the game, most forces you encounter will be more modern (Oscars, Victor IIIs, Udaloys, etc) As the game progresses and these units are damaged or destroyed, you will start to see less newer vessels and more older ones thrown into the battle.
* Added new missions and mission locations.
* Modified all surface ship missions so that there is always the proper mix of AAW and ASW escort ships.
* Modified TLAM missions to start as far away as possible from the target sites, in deeper water. Don’t get too excited here - I was limited by the fact that the targets must still be visible on the tactical map for the mission to work. Added back TLAM launch baskets.
Sensor Changes
* Added variants of the BQQ-5 series (A-C), TB-16 series (A & B), and the Shark Gill series (MKG-400, -503 and -540)
Vessel Changes
* Significantly lowered most ship and sub acceleration values based on the type and size of the vessel and the type of propulsion plant. It now takes a 688-class about 1 1/2 minutes to go from 5 to 30 kts. An Alfa will take around 45 seconds, while large diesel cargo ships might take 3-4 minutes to reach max speed.
* Lengthened torpedo reload times. The original reload times in the game were far from reality. For Mk 48s, it takes time to pump a tube dry, open it up, discard the previous wire spool container, load the next torpedo, hook up the new wire spool, close the inner door and flood the tube. Heck, just opening and closing the inner tube door takes around 15 seconds each way. Also, most subs have enough space and torpedomen to reload two tubes at the same time, one on each side, but this is not modeled in the game. So with these two factors in mind I set US sub loading times at 7 minutes per tube. With Soviet design philosophy focused more on automation, their reload times were set at 5 minutes. While I think these times are a good compromise between game play and realism, torpedo reloading is going to seem agonizingly slow.
* Modified default torpedo tube loadouts for US subs. Removed the MOSS decoy (US attack subs normally never carried it) and lowered Harpoons to four. Total number of weapons in the initial loadout was reduced by one - One free space is needed to move weapons around and switch out weapons in tubes without firing something first. Of course, the player can add back the MOSS or change weapon numbers to their liking before leaving port.
* Upgraded Soviet torpedo loadouts, replacing SET-65 with -65M and TEST-71 with -71M in all but the oldest units.
* Significantly improved Soviet ship anti-missile capabilities. Fixed a major problem in the firing arcs of most Soviet ships that left them completely vulnerable to a bow-on missile attack. Also added simulation of defensive missiles. So ships carrying SA-N-4 point defense missiles are more difficult to hit, and ships with SA-N-6 or -9 are much more difficult to attack. Don’t even try attacking a Kirov unless you are shooting all of your VLS and torpedo tube-launched missiles at it, and even then most of your Tomahawks and Harpoons will likely be shot down.
* Made all surface ships 3-5 db louder. This was part of the fix to eliminate the “spawning within range of active sonar” bug.
* Made Soviet diesel subs between 2-5 db quieter.
* Changed some sonar signature profiles. Made the Tango closer to the Foxtrot, instead of similar to the Kilo (pet peeve of mine), and made the Kashin and Krivak a little more different from each other. Also made the Trawler signatures more unique from other ship types.
* Slightly increased American submarines’ TMA rate, while slightly lowering Soviet subs. This simulates the significant computing power advantage the Americans held at the time.
Aircraft Changes
* Reduced the number of depth bombs carried by patrol planes and helicopters, in some cases replacing them with an extra torpedo. This was done to reduce the effect of the unrealistically high accuracy of these weapons in the game.
Some Important Things to Remember
* Many missions will now send you to a particular patrol zone. You will need to remember the name of the zone when going from your orders screen to the strategic map.
* Surface group speeds are much faster on the strategic map. You will have less time to react to surface groups.
* Given the much longer torpedo reload times, it will be extremely difficult to reload torpedoes at the beginning of a mission. Always remember to reload tubes at the end of the previous mission!! Under time compression, each tube will take about 45 seconds of real time to load. This is also the perfect amount of time to reload your drink.
* TLAM missions will spawn farther away from targeted facilities. Those facilities will be at the very bottom of the tactical maps. It will be difficult to directly target them with TLAMs but that doesn’t matter. You just need to fire the missiles in a southernly direction and they will aim themselves once fired.
Initial settings
These changes were designed to be used with game version 1.15g and the following Game Option settings:
Difficulty - Realistic
Distance Scale - 1:2
Speed Multiplier - 1.0
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