Just watched "silent service" History channel documentary

pythos · 09-22-08, 12:36 PM

When finished watching this a thought came to my mind

Sh4 is in serious need of a revamp.

Though the simulator is fun, it is actually really lacking reality. Something that caught me was the statement that US submarines ran on the surface at night, with radar tracking the target to do an end run attack AND that Japanese escorts LACKED radar. In sh4 even early war Japanese warships seem to have surface radar, and zoom right in on you when you are doing an end run out of visual range.

Also, as I had thought for a long time, the silhouette of the submarine was very difficult to see due to how low in the water it was. Sh4 it seems the enemy can see you when they are a speck on the horizon, even with the great mods this seems true.

The discussion of "holy wood" explosions is suspect to say the least. From the footage shown it seems one torpedo was enough to take down even a large freighter. This was due to what the freighter had aboard. The explosions were pretty large.

Running the game with Auto TDC is pretty acurate, as it seems all the figuring was done by the attack team, not the skipper (usually). If there was a way to make the transfer of info to the TDC less clumsy (perhaps a key for range and bearing, as opposed to having to click a small icon, would make manual targeting more accurate.

ULTRA messages are sorely lacking. It seems this was in fact a huge strategic weapon used by the Silent Service. Is there a way this can be better implemented in the game?

I highly recommend viewing this documentary. It has a lot of info about the TDC, and other aspects of the submarine war in the pacific.

09-22-08, 12:36 PM	#1
pythos Grey Wolf Join Date: May 2005 Location: Somewhere over there Posts: 834 Downloads: 46 Uploads: 0	Just watched "silent service" History channel documentary When finished watching this a thought came to my mind Sh4 is in serious need of a revamp. Though the simulator is fun, it is actually really lacking reality. Something that caught me was the statement that US submarines ran on the surface at night, with radar tracking the target to do an end run attack AND that Japanese escorts LACKED radar. In sh4 even early war Japanese warships seem to have surface radar, and zoom right in on you when you are doing an end run out of visual range. Also, as I had thought for a long time, the silhouette of the submarine was very difficult to see due to how low in the water it was. Sh4 it seems the enemy can see you when they are a speck on the horizon, even with the great mods this seems true. The discussion of "holy wood" explosions is suspect to say the least. From the footage shown it seems one torpedo was enough to take down even a large freighter. This was due to what the freighter had aboard. The explosions were pretty large. Running the game with Auto TDC is pretty acurate, as it seems all the figuring was done by the attack team, not the skipper (usually). If there was a way to make the transfer of info to the TDC less clumsy (perhaps a key for range and bearing, as opposed to having to click a small icon, would make manual targeting more accurate. ULTRA messages are sorely lacking. It seems this was in fact a huge strategic weapon used by the Silent Service. Is there a way this can be better implemented in the game? I highly recommend viewing this documentary. It has a lot of info about the TDC, and other aspects of the submarine war in the pacific.