DSubs - abstract multiplayer subsim

[xnonix]

Hi subsimers,
more feedback for Boris:
On my last run I made 5 kills without even TMA or active pinging. My tactic was be quiet, listen, snapshot what you hear, on enemy ping or transient, launch decoys and run, then repeat.

1. I still think the scenario is too small. You can't make tactics. You don't have enough room to evade torpedos properly as well.

2. Almost any snapshot is a kill.

3. Enemies are spawn too near to your sub. That's not good for the tactics as well. I am reloading and snapshoting every second I can.

4. I can't imaging a proper tactic based on stealth on this sim.

5. I'd like to spend more time tracking, classifing, instead of snapshoting like a machine gun.

6. Enemies pings should create a contact line on Tactical view for you to snapshot fast.

7. Closing torpedos pings should be audible for you to figure how close they are.

I like the sim a lot. Thx for the hard work on it. Hope it gets better and better.

Regards

[Boris-Barboris]

Ok, that was a funny snapshot at ~16:40 GMT, well done, you watch your baffles well.

Indeed, Minoga's sensor appears to be to strong, and I can agree with your low TTK (time-to-kill) and torpedospam argument. I'll try to do something with it on this weekend.

[xnonix]

Originally Posted by Boris-Barboris

Ok, that was a funny snapshot at ~16:40 GMT, well done, you watch your baffles well.

Indeed, Minoga's sensor appears to be to strong, and I can agree with your low TTK (time-to-kill) and torpedospam argument. I'll try to do something with it on this weekend.

You got spawned too near to me! Hehe!
Was a nice run. 24 kills in 2 hours till death. I'm getting the hang of it. Was fun!
I got your points of how sub warfare should be. Fast moves, listen, shoot, evade and run for another position.

3 torpedos for reload circle is very good. It makes you displace a lot on the map.

Can you make spawn distance bigger between players? This is: If you spawn point is too near to another player, the system should try another one, etc.

Sensors are ok for me. But torpedos speed seems too fast. With a bit slower torpedos, hits will be harder to achieve.

Thx for the game. I'm enjoying it a lot.

Regards.

[xnonix]

Hey Boris,
great work on v0.2.1. Now the game is much more balanced.

Feedback:

1. I had several crashes to desktop when I drop a contact that is merged with an active source or marked ping on BB.

2. Torpedo range is too short even with the lowest "speed to activate" settings. I have to see the replay to see if this is correct.

3. If we could change bearing of data samples by draging them would be nice. I'd like to change wrong samples of a tracker that followed the wrong target after crossing.

4. For the first time I tried the active sonar and now is much more usefull because targets are far enough for you to feel safe on using it.

You fixed lots of my suggestions about the sim and I only can say thank you very much for the good work.

Regards.

[Boris-Barboris]

Originally Posted by xnonix

Hey Boris,
great work on v0.2.1. Now the game is much more balanced.

Feedback:

1. I had several crashes to desktop when I drop a contact that is merged with an active source or marked ping on BB.

2. Torpedo range is too short even with the lowest "speed to activate" settings. I have to see the replay to see if this is correct.

3. If we could change bearing of data samples by draging them would be nice. I'd like to change wrong samples of a tracker that followed the wrong target after crossing.

4. For the first time I tried the active sonar and now is much more usefull because targets are far enough for you to feel safe on using it.

You fixed lots of my suggestions about the sim and I only can say thank you very much for the good work.

Regards.

1. For the life of me I cannot reproduce the bug. Can you start the game from the command line? Shift+RClick empty space in the dsubs game folder, "Open command window here", then type dsubs_client.exe and press Enter. After the crash it should print something useful.
More precise/simpler reproduction procedure is welcome.

2. 11200m, maybe, let's this how the current value plays out. I'm not sure having an all-map-ranged (14km) weapon is a good idea.

3. yeah, this one is planned.

[xnonix]

Hi,

I want to talk about the BB screen a bit more.

Trackers: Trackers lose it sound source for a louder one quite easy. I think in reality every sound source has it own signature and trackers follow this signatures (tonals). Only in the case 2 sources have the same tonals, then the tracker could lose the correct one.

What do you think about it?

[Boris-Barboris]

Originally Posted by xnonix

Hi,

I want to talk about the BB screen a bit more.

Trackers: Trackers lose it sound source for a louder one quite easy. I think in reality every sound source has it own signature and trackers follow this signatures (tonals). Only in the case 2 sources have the same tonals, then the tracker could lose the correct one.

What do you think about it?

Unfortunately this is very hard to do in Dsubs. I don't plan to do any DSP/narrowband stuff on the client in the near future, so I'll have to improve the existing code and make the process of fixing tracker mistakes easy.

Dsubs does not abstract away tonals from the actual sound like DW does, but streams the sound to you, so you can use your ears, and it's hard to extract tonals from the sound properly. Maybe after the release there will be a proper spectrum analysis, but certainly not soon.

I'd like to focus on scenario and unit variety now.