now we really have a submarine simulation

[clive bradbury]

Sailing a IIA in the Baltic, training before I start NYGM2, and got to thinking. How come we can dive the boat, maintain depth, but not rise again except to pd or surface?

Well, now you can. I took a look in commands_en.cfg, and there is a 'set_depth' command which does not appear to be used, so I allocated a key to it. Guess what? It let's you blow the tanks and rise. Now we finally have a proper sub simulation, and trust me it's not that easy.

If you want to be chief of the boat, handle your sub via the keyboard - 'D' for dive, 'A' for maintain depth, and now 'L' for set depth (towards the surface). Of course you can allocate any spare key, I chose 'L' as I never use the target lock.

Handling your boat in this way is tricky, and, to me at least, feels very realistic. Some tips:

1. 'A' does not level you off immediately. You continue to rise or dive for at least 10-20m before coming back to the depth at which you pressed the key. This means you are in danger of hitting the bottom or broaching the surface if you are not careful.

2. Using the 'set depth' command you rise much faster than you dive, so anticipate this when you use the 'A' key. Once you are moving upwards you gain vertical speed quickly, and breaking the surface is all too easy to do - pretty much like the real thing. Takes quite a bit of practice - and I've only had a couple of tries so far.

To acheive this you need to edit your data\cfg\commands_en.cfg file. Find the following code:

[Cmd190]
Name=Set_depth
Ctxt=1
Str=4427

and allocate a key - you can always use the keychecker utility for the precise code. If like me, you don't use the target lock, then this is how to allocate 'L' on your keyboard to this command.

Use notepad to change the above code to read:

[Cmd190]
Name=Set_depth
Ctxt=1
Str=4427
Key0=0x4c,,"L"

Then search the file for the following line:

[Cmd127]
Name=Toggle_lock_target
Ctxt=1
Key0=0x4c,,"L"

All you need to do now is semi-colon out the last line so that the 'L' key is not allocated to two commands, so the above code should now look like this:

[Cmd127]
Name=Toggle_lock_target
Ctxt=1
;Key0=0x4c,,"L"

That's it! Save the file. Obviously make a back up before you start just in case.

Now we have a real submarine simulation...