[WIP] Realism mod

[PL_Harpoon]

Here's my attempts at making the game a bit more realistic.

As a result, some things are easier, others are harder. Here are some main gameplay differences to vanilla game:

Torpedoes are far deadlier

 

Any torpedo other that UMGT-1s will kill you instantly and even they can sink your ship after two hits.

They are also harder to evade as I've slightly increased their max pitch angle. You can still loose them by rapidly moving up/down but it's not that easy. Enemy torpedoes have also increased ranges so after you manage to loose it, getting away won't always help as after circling around they may find you again.

I also addressed a possible exploit with knuckles. They are still very easy to form (it's hardcoded) but they stay for a very short while and are effective only at close range. As a result they are more of a last resort thing than a free noisemakers.

On the flip side, detection angles has been halved for all torpedoes so it's slightly easier to get out of the way of an incoming torp.

Your boats move in more realistic way

 

The turn times (times to complete a 360 turn) remained more or less the same. Instead I modified the rudder speed to give them a feeling of weight. With this mod it will take some time for the boat to stop rotating after a full degree turn. It will also take some time to get that rotation speed. Planes/ballast remained the same.

Reworked sensors

 

The sensors work in a different way with this mod. First of all, detection ranges remain the same. But there's no more gap between detecting a contact and maintaining it. It always felt strange to me that your sonar could track the target where it couldn't detect it a minute ago. With this mod you can detect any ship if it's signal strength is at least 1 and you will loose contact at 0.

Ships are also harder to identify at long ranges - especially subs. Sometimes you may need to wait until it gets closer for clear identification. As for other changes, MAD sensors are reduced to 400 yards (based on a document I found - link somewhere in the discussion thread: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=231759) and I've also tweaked dipping sonar and sonobuoys a bit.

Mk-48 are no longer "superweapons"

 

They are still the best torpedoes in the game, however I did some tweaking based on the little data that there is to find.

Firstly, I reduced their sensor range - it's now 1600 yards (I'm planning to increase them a bit when the devs resolve a few torpedo-related bugs).

They are also the loudest torpedoes in the game. They are still a bit quieter than vanilla ones (I used DW and Fast Attack for comparison) - when running at 5 knots in perfectly clear condition you'll loose contact with a Mk-48 at about 13 KYDS. All the other torpedoes however are even quieter and the noise they make is based only on their speed and propulsion types (electric motors and pump-jet being the quietest combination).

On the other hand, wires brakes are much less frequent. When sailing at 5 knots you can literally steer the torpedo around your boat, which means you can also fire them at any angle, provided you're slow and steady.
Another potential drawback is the fact that with this mod reload times are more realistic. Thanks to Shipkiller1 we know that an experienced team can reload a torp tube in 15 minutes but (at least on 688) you can reload two tubes at once. That's why I've set them up to 7.5 minutes. To my surprise this actually had a very positive effect on gameplay - when engaging the enemy you suddenly need to be very cautious when and at what target to shoot.

The warheads have also been changed - you will need one torpedo for most submarines but larger surface ships might require two or sometimes even 3.

Few improvements to the campaign

 

Campaign is more challenging now.
Firstly, it's because there's slightly more ASW groups.

Then the Soviets start at 2 more locations, one ow which is in Norway, so unless they're repelled they're in good position to disable one of the SOSUS networks.

Also recon planes (both Allied and Soviet) have shorter ranges (they'll only detect a group if they fly over them).

Another thing is time in port - it's increased to at least 16 hours. I've also made every weapon require the same time to load - 45 minutes. In case you get sunk you need to wait 2 weeks for the new assignment.

Also, successfully special forces attacks will disrupt a base from anything between 2 to 7 days.

Missions also received a bot of tweaking - mostly their occurrence. Now there is a chance to get a land strike or seal team insertion sooner than before. There are also more sub-hunt missions and much less tankers/tenders hunts (in vanilla all missions have equal chances to occur, but there are 3 different tankers/tenders missions so you got them much more often). When it comes to tankers/tenders I've also removed them from Barents Sea as I thought it's a bit strange to put a refit ship so close to home port.

INSTALLATION

1. Make sure you're running the latest beta of Cold Waters
2. Download mod from here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=5268
3. Place the override folder in steamapps\common\Cold Waters\ColdWaters_Data\StreamingAssets

Currently I do not guarantee compatibility with other gameplay mods. It will work fine with any GUI/graphics/audio mods out there.


Recommended mods to use with

MekStark's reduced visibility mod
My hidden SNS COMP mod
(both available in the download section)

You can discuss this mod here or on the main thread:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=231759
Feel free to point out any inaccuracies (if you can explain them ).