[REL] Depth Charge noise mod

[schlechter pfennig]

Depth charges are an anti-submarine warfare weapon, intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water in the close proximity of a suspected submarine's location, and then detonating, which subjects the target to a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock.

Their effectiveness required the combined resources and skills of many individuals during an attack. Sonar, helm, depth charge crews and the movement of other ships had to be carefully coordinated. Even so, there were two major drawbacks even the best-trained depth charge attack crew faced: one was that, in order to deploy its depth charges a ship had to pass over the contact, dropping them over the stern; sonar contact would be lost just before attack, rendering the hunter blind at the crucial moment. This gave a skillful submarine commander an opportunity to take evasive action. Secondly, in the minutes immediately following the explosion of a depth charge passive sonar was unable to track contact due to the massively disturbed and displaced water churning as a result of the explosion, and even active sonar/ASDIC had severe difficulty reacquiring contact right afterwards. This gave the aforementioned skillful submarine commander yet a second chance to disengage and evade.


The depth charge noise mod simulates both the short-term, immediate, and the long-term, lingering, effects of a depth charge explosion. When a depth charge explodes it creates a spherical explosion, leaves behind a large, roughly globular area of water churning with acoustically noisy bubbles. The depth charge noise mod still displays the visual effects of the depth charge explosion, both above the surface and beneath, but now adds a pocket of bubbles that remain behind each explosion. Each depth charge explosion now creates two invisible Bolds, one with a lifetime of five (5) minutes, an apparent surface area of 900, and a noise level of 10, and a second with a lifetime of one (1) minute, an apparent surface area of 300, and a noise level of 75. (I have no idea what effect the "noise" setting have for any given value, as that is not explained anywhere; as well, the basic Bolds have their noise value set at "0". I suspect that that value is set at the time of deployment, but I have no way of ascertaining that. )

In tests I have been able to (usually) carefully creep away under silent running from a group of eight destroyers actively hunting (and pinging) my test submarine, after the first couple of depth charge runs had created a lot of water disturbance. The escorts usually wind up repetitively depth charging the location of the "bubbled" area . . . usually. The effectiveness of the enemy escort sonar operators (whether Poor, Novice, Competent, Veteran, Elite) helps determine the effectivity of the masking effect of the disturbed water area, which means the more dangerous the enemy is, the more likely they are to successfully reacquire contact with you. As well, escorts that have been fooled by the noise disturbance into reacting to it over and over, do not get trapped into a loop and never stop attacking the hidden bubble cloud; eventually they figure it out, and leave to go hunting elsewhere.

The depth charge noise mod is meant to simulate real behavior of a specific object: that of a depth charge. It is not meant as a "Get out of jail free" card, or to make evading enemy escorts easier just to make that easy.

Feedback and comments are appreciated!

--------------------------------------

Revision history:

Version 1.0: initial release; WAC 5.0 only

Version 2.0: Usable now for 4 different game versions [stock (vanilla), GWX Gold, NYGM, and WAC 5.0]; altered the "bubble" appearance; added a second noise effect; (readme file is still for version 1.0 release; will be updated next revision)

Rev. A: (hopefully) fixed the save-and-reload-CTD bug; made adjustments to the disruption sizes, noise levels and lifetimes.

[J0313]

Originally Posted by schlechter pfennig

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=5326

Depth charges are an anti-submarine warfare weapon, intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water in the close proximity of a suspected submarine's location, and then detonating, which subjects the target to a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock.

Their effectiveness required the combined resources and skills of many individuals during an attack. Sonar, helm, depth charge crews and the movement of other ships had to be carefully coordinated. Even so, there were two major drawbacks even the best-trained depth charge attack crew faced: one was that, in order to deploy its depth charges a ship had to pass over the contact, dropping them over the stern; sonar contact would be lost just before attack, rendering the hunter blind at the crucial moment. This gave a skillful submarine commander an opportunity to take evasive action. Secondly, in the minutes immediately following the explosion of a depth charge passive sonar was unable to track contact due to the massively disturbed and displaced water churning as a result of the explosion, and even active sonar/ASDIC had severe difficulty reacquiring contact right afterwards. This gave the aforementioned skillful submarine commander yet a second chance to disengage and evade.


The depth charge noise mod simulates both the short-term, immediate, and the long-term, lingering, effects of a depth charge explosion. When a depth charge explodes it creates a spherical explosion, leaves behind a large, roughly globular area of water churning with acoustically noisy bubbles. It still displays the visual effects of a depth charge explosion, both above the surface and beneath, as well as creating a pocket of bubbles remaining behind each explosion. It effectively creates an invisible Bold decoy with visible bubbles. Each depth charge explosion creates an invisible Bold, with a lifetime of five (5) minutes, an apparent surface area of 300, and a noise level of 1.5.

In tests I have been able to (usually) carefully creep away under silent running from a group of eight destroyers actively hunting (and pinging) my test submarine, after the first couple of depth charge runs had created a lot of water disturbance. The escorts usually wind up repetitively depth charging the location of the "bubbled" area . . . usually. The effectiveness of the enemy escort sonar operators (whether Poor, Novice, Competent, Veteran, Elite) helps determine the effectivity of the masking effect of the disturbed water area, which means the more dangerous the enemy is, the more likely they are to successfully reacquire contact with you. As well, escorts that have been fooled by the noise disturbance into reacting to it over and over, do *not* get trapped into a loop and never stop attacking the hidden bubble cloud; eventually they figure it out, and leave to go hunting elsewhere.

The depth charge noise mod is meant to simulate real behavior of a specific object: that of a depth charge., It is *not* meant as a "Get out of jail free" card.

At the moment I can only assure compatibility with WAC 5.0 (WarAceCampaign 5.0), which needs to have itself, and all its associated, mods, enabled before enabling the depth charge noise mod. These must be enabled before enabling this mod. Assuming there is sufficient interest I may make variations for other major mods.

Feedback and comments are appreciated!

Have you seen this? (TDWs DC Water Disturbance v4.0). Been around along time.

[schlechter pfennig]

Originally Posted by J0313

Have you seen this? (TDWs DC Water Disturbance v4.0). Been around along time.

No, I hadn't seen that. Then again, as it seems meant only for SH4 and I only play SH3 (and my mod is only meant for SH3) I'm not surprised I hadn't seen it before.

[J0313]

Originally Posted by schlechter pfennig

No, I hadn't seen that. Then again, as it seems meant only for SH4 and I only play SH3 (and my mod is only meant for SH3) I'm not surprised I hadn't seen it before.

No, its not just for SH4. In fact I believe it was made for SH3 first. You need to do a little more research Friend.

[J0313]

In fact if you go to Plisskens mod archive and look under Racerboys mods ( that was The Dark Wraiths old subsim handle ) you will find it available for download. He even has 2 versions for SH3 commander that can go buy date or randomly. Can't remember where to find those but I do have a copy of the by date version.

[schlechter pfennig]

Originally Posted by J0313

In fact if you go to Plisskens mod archive and look under Racerboys mods ( that was The Dark Wraiths old subsim handle ) you will find it available for download. He even has 2 versions for SH3 commander that can go buy date or randomly. Can't remember where to find those but I do have a copy of the by date version.

I've downloaded and examined the TheDarkWraith_DC_Water_Disturbance_v4_0_SH3 mod. Without any readme, or other explanation, just looking at the file name really told me nothing about what it was, did, or was intended to do. As well, the only example of his mod here on subsim's download site was the TMO2_fix_for_TDW_DC_Water_Disturbance_v2_0_SH4, so forgive me for assuming that was his only version. (I did say "Then again, as it seems meant only for SH4", after all).

I've examined the .dat file and it seems that all it does is spawn the decoy bubbles along with the depth charge underwater explosion. I'm curious as to the results others have had when using this mod, and would also welcome any explanation as to how the TheDarkWraith_DC_Water_Disturbance_v4_0_SH3 actually works.

[rudewarrior]

Keep in mind that the Water Disturbance Mod has been known to cause CTD's (See here and following). I had CTD's when I used it on my old system. Haven't tried it on my new one.

[schlechter pfennig]

Originally Posted by rudewarrior

Keep in mind that the Water Disturbance Mod has been known to cause CTD's (See here and following). I had CTD's when I used it on my old system. Haven't tried it on my new one.

I haven't had any CTDs with mine, but I haven't tested it against every mod (and, as I've mentioned, so far it's only designed to work with WAC 5.0). If anyone does experience problems I'd like to know about them.

[schlechter pfennig]

Although I've experimented a lot with the depth charge noise mod before releasing it, I would value any and all input regarding its performance. I believe I've adjusted the available parameters to provide a reasonable/realistic result, but I'd appreciate feedback as to how well (or not well) it performs.

At the moment, due to the files that are required to be modified for functionality, I can only guarantee it works with WAC 5.0. However, if there are others that would like to use/test the mod that don't use WAC, let me know and I'll make the necessary adjustments for you.

Although I wasn't aware of TheDarkWraith's TheDarkWraith_DC_Water_Disturbance_v4_0_SH3 mod before, I've gone through that release thread and, based upon what I've read, the depth charge noise mod so far seems to avoid those problems (for example, CTDs, and of simply not at all distracting the destroyers).

Again, I'd appreciate any and all feedback/observations.

[makman94]

Originally Posted by schlechter pfennig

Although I've experimented a lot with the depth charge noise mod before releasing it, I would value any and all input regarding its performance. I believe I've adjusted the available parameters to provide a reasonable/realistic result, but I'd appreciate feedback as to how well (or not well) it performs.

At the moment, due to the files that are required to be modified for functionality, I can only guarantee it works with WAC 5.0. However, if there are others that would like to use/test the mod that don't use WAC, let me know and I'll make the necessary adjustments for you.

Although I wasn't aware of TheDarkWraith's TheDarkWraith_DC_Water_Disturbance_v4_0_SH3 mod before, I've gone through that release thread and, based upon what I've read, the depth charge noise mod so far seems to avoid those problems (for example, CTDs, and of simply not at all distracting the destroyers).

Again, I'd appreciate any and all feedback/observations.

hello Schlechter pfennig,

Your mod is really interesting and ,if it works, will be a must have addition for my setup.
TDW's mod never worked for me and i had to left it behind so it will be nice to test and see if your mod is working.
Can you please make a version of it for the stock game ( for tests, i believe that only one mod must be enabled) and a single mission that will serve the needs of such tests ?

All the best to this really interesting mod

[schlechter pfennig]

Originally Posted by makman94

hello Schlechter pfennig,

Your mod is really interesting and ,if it works, will be a must have addition for my setup.
TDW's mod never worked for me and i had to left it behind so it will be nice to test and see if your mod is working.
Can you please make a version of it for the stock game ( for tests, i believe that only one mod must be enabled) and a single mission that will serve the needs of such tests ?

All the best to this really interesting mod

Here is the link to the stock/vanilla version, along with a quickie test mission included.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=5327

[LGN1]

Hi schlechter pfennig,

thanks for your work! I will test it as soon as possible!

One question: What is the purpose of the sensors.* files? Are they required or are the particles.* file sufficient?

Best, LGN1

[schlechter pfennig]

Originally Posted by LGN1

Hi schlechter pfennig,

thanks for your work! I will test it as soon as possible!

One question: What is the purpose of the sensors.* files? Are they required or are the particles.* file sufficient?

Best, LGN1

The particles.* are sufficient on their own. However, I've released a version 2 of the mod which is an improvement.

[schlechter pfennig]

Version 2 of the depth charge noise mod. When unzipped there will be four mod folders, one each for stock (vanilla), GWX Gold, NYGM, and WAC 5.0. Place the applicable folder into your MODS folder and enable using jsgme.

Version 2.0 change log:

• Usable now for 4 different game versions
  • if DepthCharges.sim is altered by an additional mod this one will overwrite it
• altered the "bubble" appearance
• added a second noise effect

When a depth charge explodes you will have an area of long-term, low-grade noise lasting for five minutes, plus a short term, extremely high-grade noise. This (hopefully) simulates the water/acoustical disruption a real depth charge caused:

• an initial disturbance of loud noise rendering both active (ASDIC) and passive (hydrophones) unusable. This lasts for just about a minute, and can provide an opportunity, if the situation permits, for you to sprint off in a short burst without being detected.
• a lingering effect whereby passive (hydrophones) still have difficulty hearing you, but active (ASDIC) can now ping and detect you. This lasts for about 5 minutes, and can attract the attention of escorts, and often trick them into thinking they have reacquired contact.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=5329

[Rhodes]