[TEC] Thermal Layers (how things work)

[Peto]

Having been tweaking with sonar for "a few" hours, I think I've made a discovery of how Thermal Layers work in the game.

The following line is taken from data/Cfg/sim.cfg:

1 means no signal reduction,5 equals signal reduction to 20%

I started out wondering why the devs wouldn't have made it so a layer couldn't be 100% effective with this setting. Why 20% max? And then through some relatively simple tests, I discovered that a setting of 5 was often Much more effective than 20%. In fact, I now think that each factor of 1 is equal to a potential 20% loss of sonar effectiveness.

It's a fairly simple test I use. My sonar range is set to a max of 2400 meters. I allow an escort to close my submarine and as soon as I hear his active sonar, I use external view to check his position. I then duck beneath the layer and his pinging ceases. Then I wait until I hear his sonar pings again, go back to external view and see where he is relative to where he was before. And he can cover well over 20% of the distance before I can hear his pinging resume.

What does this mean? Stock game has the Layer set to 5 in the sim.cfg. Stock sonar Range varies--lets use 1200 meters here. If my theory is correct (I'll let you decide) an escorts sonar effectiveness is reduced from 0-100% when I'm beneath a layer. Use an average--the escorts sonar effectiveness is reduced to 50%. That gives him a new max range of 600 meters. With the stock sonar deflection angle (90-100), if I'm at 300 feet, he won't detect me at less than ~500 yards--I'll be beneath his cone. That means he has about 100 meters where he can detect me and if I go to 400 feet his chance is 0.

That's why eveyone is getting away from escorts so easy except in TM where Ducimus has reduced this value!

Now--I would like this variable IF layers weren't so common and weren't typically found at shallow depths. As it is--IMO, the layer is really taking away the challenge of the Cat & Mouse gameplay.

How to fix: I don't know but I have a couple ideas. Unfortunately, I don't have the knowledge to make either a reality (at least not without serious assistance).

1. Make the layers depth random and as deep as 600 feet. That means that even a Balao would struggle to reach it.

2. Create a method to randomly change that number in the cfg file before each mission.

Personally--I would like there to be a 50/50 chance of a layer being present in the 1st place. In SH3, people wanted layers. In SH4, they gave us layers. I'd like to find a way to create a middle ground.

Thoughts and Suggestions Welcome...