Question about Mission designer

[Deep_Nukem]

Alright, in a nutshell here's what I would like to do, but I don't know how to do it (or if it's possible).

I am an American, (not relevant) but I absolutely fell in love with the Akula. That is one bad hombre'. I played 668i, Sub Command and now Dangerous waters. So my skills are there, I get it, I understand it, but they are very very rusty. I would like to sharpen my skills. Practice. Get comfy again with sonar, TMA, the whole 9 yrds.

Is there a way where I can select the Akula as MY drivable sub, while creating a random generated mission in the mission editor?

The idea I have is I would be in the Akula, placed in a fairly random spot, either with goals, or without, (makes no difference to me) but the the thing is, I want the computer to GENERATE RANDOM adversaries. The idea being I know some (1 or more?) "bad guys" would be out there, somewhere, but I wouldn't know WHAT those adversaries were. Wouldn't know if they were surface or submerged. Wouldn't know what their intentions were.

The purpose of this to me seems obvious. It would literally put me in a blind scenario where I would be forced to hone my Sonar, TMA, Etc..etc..

I can create missions and place units myself, sure, but in the end if I do it, I know where they are, I know how many there are, and I know what kind of threat I'm dealing with. So it is not appealing to me this way. Seems like I already know what's behind door number #3 before I even start the mission. Sort of kills it for me.

Is there a way to make this happen? One more thing.....I'd really rather NOT have to face Air Threats. Sub searching Helo's, etc.....at least not yet.
Hopefully someone can help me figure this out????? Must be a way to do it, even it is some sort of work around. But you get the idea. Thanks.

Real Quick. Using DW+1.04+Lwami 3.09+Lwami 3.10 Mod. Thanks.

[TLAM Strike]

In the quick mission generator? Look at the picture of the sub in the left corner. Select the drop down box below it. Pick what platform you want.

In the normal mission editor place a sub on the map, select the project 971, on the second page for that item select the playable platform option.

For the random enemies place all the different ships or subs you want on the map and use dynamic groups on the platforms. Make sure they have a prob of inclusion equal to the number of ships in the group (IE: 2 = 50% each, 4 = 25% each and so on). Use each group to add a different platform on the map. You can also have groups in groups IIRC. Also use Random boxes so they will appear at different spots on the map.

[Deep_Nukem]

Alright my friend. Sounds promising. Thank you. If I may? I read many moons ago that in order to really SEE narowband "faint" contacts, you should adjust the gamma level, brightness level, something level (lol) in order to really be able to pick out those very faint signals.

Assuming this is still true in LWAMI, and I don't know why it wouldn't be....can you recommend some settings for this?

I assume perhaps it would be by trial and error based on your current monitor settings and so forth, however, is there a way to run DW in a windowed mode so one could adjust the brightness , gamma, etc levels in a "real time" visual?? I do understand I can then set a specific game profile in my video card drivers for DW once I have them tweaked to my liking. But I'm not sure how to go about doing this in a windowed environment while I fiddle with the settings to my liking in real time.

Thanks so much for your help.

[Deep_Nukem]

TLAM, I understand the concept of what you are saying and I just tried to set up the scenario like you said. As far as getting the Akula for me as the playable sub, I got that figured out. Thank you.

But setting up the dynamic groups, and random start points, I didn't quite understand that. I tried it, thought I did it right, fired up the mission and turned truth on just to see and I was all by my lonesome out there. No other ships. I had selected 2 surface ships and 2 subs. Could you please take that part step by step? Or show me another "guide" that does it step by step? I'm sorry. I tried. Twice. Both Failed. But at least I figured out how to get in my Akula. Thanks for that.

[OneShot]

Try looking at the CADC here www.commanders-academy.com or the Dangerous Waters Wiki here www.commanders-academy.com/wiki for some useful information.

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Deep_Nukem

TLAM, I understand the concept of what you are saying and I just tried to set up the scenario like you said. As far as getting the Akula for me as the playable sub, I got that figured out. Thank you.

But setting up the dynamic groups, and random start points, I didn't quite understand that. I tried it, thought I did it right, fired up the mission and turned truth on just to see and I was all by my lonesome out there. No other ships. I had selected 2 surface ships and 2 subs. Could you please take that part step by step? Or show me another "guide" that does it step by step? I'm sorry. I tried. Twice. Both Failed. But at least I figured out how to get in my Akula. Thanks for that.

Bring up the settings for the dynamic group and make sure the platforms all appear on the list and that you have a minimum number of objects in group that is greater than zero.

[Deep_Nukem]

Guys, I promise, I have done some research. I really did. I used the search forum here. I went to the links provided above and there is a "Mission Editor" section at that site, but there is no links provided that take you anywhere. It's like that section hasn't been completed.

I did find the Mission Editor PDF in the DW/Manual folder and tried REALLY hard to follow along but it is written as if you already know what you are doing. And I don't.

So I am here on my knees....asking....would some kind soul be willing to make me at least one mission where :

I am driving the Akula, and there may or may NOT be surface ships, enemies or friendly, where there may or not be sub enemies around as well?????

But it has to be dynamic. When I start, I don't want to know where I'll be everytime, or the enemies, or how many there are. PS.....there really doesn't have to be any type of "mission" objectives....I just want to practice finding, identifying, and TMA'ing contacts.

I tried guys, but I just can't get it. Please?

[Molon Labe]

This should do the trick.

[Deep_Nukem]

Thank you. I appreciate it. Will get back to you and let you know how it turns out. Just saw this. Going to go test it out.

[Deep_Nukem]

Molon, first of all, thank you again for your effort. I only played one scenario so far and it (well the ONE) was pretty much dead on perfect what I asked for.

Couple things of observation: Truth was off. Noticed right away a large red circle in the ocean and it had red text that said something to the effect of "Platform not found in database"

^ now, don't get me wrong. Took nothing away from the experience. In fact, I kind of liked it because I sort of figured that all the bad guys would be inside this red circle and sure enough, they were. But I've never seen that before. ????? (I don't care, just sharing)

Second, and down to the nitty gritty...DUDE!!!! What is up with the Autocrew??? If I may be blunt, they suck! Both TMA and Sonar suck.

Ok, so the mission had 1 surface, and 2 subs. Surface was Oliver Perry and active pinging. So that one was easy. The sonar on the two subs was very weird though. In short, near the end, there was a sub literally less than 3000 yrds away going 7 knots RIGHT AT ME and yet was only picked up by one of the sensors. I turned, I went below the layer. I came back above the layer. Only when the sub was less than 1500 yrds away did my boat pick it up with another sensor. And I tried looking at the sonar myself. No noise except from one sensor until right at the very end.

Also, the TMA autocrew. Wow. Bad. Here's what I did. I'd travel for 8 minutes in one direction, same speed. Then I'd turn 80-90 degrees and travel for another 8 minutes, same speed, then I'd turn again...etc..etc.. and even though the sonars had good contact pretty much the whole time, the TMA was a mess and all over the place. Except for the Active Pinging Oliver Perry. Did a pretty good job with that one.

Understand, I know all that above has nothing to do with you, or the way you designed the training. I do know that. Ok? I'm just letting you know my experience so far and asking a few questions about the sonar and Tma autocrew.

As far as playing, I had a blast but it was kind of weird. Going to play another one. Will report back. Thank you again. You are the MAN!

[Molon Labe]

I hope I didn't accidentally put a 3.11 platform in there. Sorry about that.

Randomness unfortunately might mean you start on top of one of them. It can happen.

aTMA generally starts off bad and then gets refined. At a lot of the time the solution loosens immediately after a turn, but it will get better shortly after.

Sonar autocrew does suck.

[Deep_Nukem]

Lol. Alright then, let me ask you this. Suppose you did put something in there that wasn't part of the database.....would that have any effect on the weapons for the akula? The reason I ask is because I can't hit the broad side of a frickin' barn man.

Check this out: I got frustrated with the AI always defeating me so I changed the weapons load out. I put Anti ship missles in all 6 external tubes. Started up the mission and soon heard the familiar "pinging" from that horrible surface ship. I got a good bead on him and fired all 6 missles. He defeated all of them.

So then, I got more frustrated and said screw this. I'm killing something. So I turned truth on. I saw a sub out there. Cool. Got the bearing and distance, and launched a SS-27-ASW at it. What happens? The dang surface ship who is "pinging" me fires more missles at my missle and kills it again. I wasn't even shooting towards that surface ship.

Every time I have played, I have been defeated. I have tried using torps too. They outrun the torps, and then counter fire. I have had some success in evading too so that's a cool experience. But I'm starting to wonder if I had a nuclear bomb, they would still defeat it, and then kill me.

Any hints because this is getting ridiculous. Thanks.

[TLAM Strike]

ASW missiles are target practice for any decent surface ships.

As a rule of thumb fire your torpedoes from half way inside their maxim range, that way the target can't simply out run them.

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Deep_Nukem

Lol. Alright then, let me ask you this. Suppose you did put something in there that wasn't part of the database.....would that have any effect on the weapons for the akula? The reason I ask is because I can't hit the broad side of a frickin' barn man.

Check this out: I got frustrated with the AI always defeating me so I changed the weapons load out. I put Anti ship missles in all 6 external tubes. Started up the mission and soon heard the familiar "pinging" from that horrible surface ship. I got a good bead on him and fired all 6 missles. He defeated all of them.

So then, I got more frustrated and said screw this. I'm killing something. So I turned truth on. I saw a sub out there. Cool. Got the bearing and distance, and launched a SS-27-ASW at it. What happens? The dang surface ship who is "pinging" me fires more missles at my missle and kills it again. I wasn't even shooting towards that surface ship.

Every time I have played, I have been defeated. I have tried using torps too. They outrun the torps, and then counter fire. I have had some success in evading too so that's a cool experience. But I'm starting to wonder if I had a nuclear bomb, they would still defeat it, and then kill me.

Any hints because this is getting ridiculous. Thanks.

No, if there is something in the mission that's not in your database you just get the in-game error message that you've seen.

[Iron Chef voice] If memory serves me right[/voice], the surface ships can be an LCS, Perry, Burke, Tico, powerboat, or trawler.
6 Klubs will defeat a Perry, and maybe an LCS, but it won't defeat a Burke or Tico. If you've ever played an RTS, you can think of the AEGIS ships as being the counter-unit to antiship missiles--attack them with something else. Enable range is also a factor, if you allow the ship to engage the missiles while in their subsonic stage they are easily defeated.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Molon Labe

Enable range is also a factor, if you allow the ship to engage the missiles while in their subsonic stage they are easily defeated.

My philosophy is to use Subsonic missiles from close range (About 8 miles) from the target to give the target the least reaction time to the attack. With the two stage N-27 I maybe attack from double that range (Although there is something to be said for the point blank N-27 attack at 6-8 miles). While this reduces the range advantage missiles give it makes interception very difficult.

But Molon is on the right track about "counter units". Save the ASMs for the ASW ships and the torpedoes for the AAW ships. (Although you should save both for the HVA if possible).