A few new ideas

Fidd · 10-02-23, 11:26 AM

60. Lip movement when talking: Using the amplitude of in game voice comms signal for a given speaker causes their lips to move in proportion to volume of speech. (those of you old enough will recall the kids program with puppets called "Thunderbirds" which used this same principle to cause the puppets to appear to be talking" synchronised with pre-recorded speech. The same thing could be done with our in game avatars in real-time.

Fidd · 10-02-23, 11:39 AM

61. Valve open/closed position earlier in rotation that full movement.

Having the closed position slightly earlier in the rotation in the closing sense, [edit: and vice versa for opening] would help prevent valves being left fractionally open or closed causing unwanted water being introduced into into tanks, or conversely, prevent air being blown into them. It is usual, at least with domestic plumbing, for taps (faucets) to have a delay in causing water to flow when a tap is opened, and likewise to cease the flow before the tap is fully closed. To my mind this is how our valves should be operating, in order that a positive closure or opening of the valve occurs.

Fidd · 10-07-23, 12:37 PM

62. Moving the forward torpedo to the side.

This is necessary to allow, eventually for the controls to set gyro angles, right at the front between the tubes to be accessible. Currently the collider for the stored central torpedo prevents access to this, and the safety and firing levers. It actually makes more sense for the 1st reload to be stored either in line laterally with tubes 1/3, or the opposite side, with subsequent reloads being opposite an empty tube on one side or t'other. In the case of the aft-tube, it should only be on the rack after a torpedo is fired, and probably only whilst the boat is surfaced, owing to the difficulty of operating the emotor with a torpedo hanging centrally - or to one side. I do not think that an aft reload would be left on it's cradle at any time, but would be reloaded when surfaced, as soon as possible.

At some point in the future this change would allow for torpedo man being a playable role, if not, perhaps one with a dedicated full-time player?

My estimate is that the 1st reload would be kept on the suspended cradle for as little time as possible, in order that the two lines of berths was available to the off-watch crew in that compartment, and in-line with either tubes 1 and 3, or the other side in-line with tubes 2 and 4. As the reload process was very noisy with winches and chain-hoists in use, I very much doubt this was done with proximity to the enemy, or, was done at depths making hydrophone detection unlikely. I'd be interested to hear of anyone with further information on reloading procedures.

Fidd · 10-18-23, 05:44 PM

63. "Part time" roles/tasks

This idea was born out of thinking about #62. There are some roles on the boat which are not conducive to being played for a long continuous period every game, because tactical considerations and player preferences make it unusual for them to be needed for extended periods in many games. The Dive Officer is like that, as once you've got the boat to PD and trimmed, the extent of the rest of your task is to maintain PD, keep the OP usable with the very very occasional crash-dive! 1st TOI's are almost always surfaced attacks, so it's a "job" where you get more out of it by "being otherwise useful" than you often do by limiting your actions to the specified job.

It occurs me me that there may well be scope "temporary jobs" (such as helping the radioman by decrypting the Enigma for him, or acting as a lookout watching ranges to escorts and so forth, that do not currently have a dedicated role. In the future similar roles for "anyone who is free" - might exist, perhaps involve manual reloading of torpedoes, refuelling and rearming at a Milch-cow or clandestinely at a neutral port perhaps. Checking the batteries for cracked cells, or the bilge for acidity (to prevent chlorine generation) might be a thing, or aiding with damage-control. In other words stuff that doesn't support a full time role for 3 hours, but which, would add content.... especially for those of us who for perfectly good reasons, may find themselves under-employed. Something to think about?

Suggested "drop in" roles:
Winching up torpedoes in torpedo room from under-floor stowage.
Aligning torpedoes vertically and laterally with a given tube, inserting same.
Opening/closing bow caps
Setting gyro angles in torpedo room repeater
Firing torpedoes
Inspecting batteries, isolating damaged ones
Closing isolation valves to stop leaks
Pumping fuel from saddle-tanks to internal ceiling tanks
Cooking at the galley (meaning "I am afk-meal")
Toilet (meaning "I am afkp") (illuminates the toilet occupied light, 1 of 2)
Radio assistant (meaning "I am afkphone")
Running to torpedo room (assists in getting bow down in crash dive, player nominal-weight x 4)
Fire-fighter
Medical Officer - applies bandages/casts to crew injured in DC attack, allowing them to resume duties. In intervening minutes crewman unavailable to work controls.
Hydrophone operator
"Off-watch" - puts crewman avatar in a bunk (meaning: "I am extended afk")
Compressor duty
On deck - manning deck-gun, AAA or on watch/UZO. Cancelled by hatch being closed with player inside.
Enigma decryption with "publish to orders and radio-log" buttons. (it was a terrible error making this radioman only) imho, as neither real-morse use, or decryption are tolerant of interruptions?

In effect these would be "things to do" which any player not currently engaged in activity could drop into as role, whilst not giving-up his current role. So you might see if you pressed the tab-key: "Bloggz" Dive Officer/(Battery examiner). This would indicate that he's usually the Dive Officer, but it currently examining the batteries for damage after surfacing. The role he's currently doing being in bold. If he's doing a role, then any protections - such as non-machinest roles being unable to operate the trip switches or engines - would be removed, allowing another to operate them if required. On resuming his normal role, such protections would be re-imposed.

The idea here is to provide other tasks for players to do, that are not sufficient to warrant a single player being allocated to doing that, but which players who are predominantly doing another role can drop into during periods where they otherwise do not have much, or anything, to do.

Fidd · 10-20-23, 08:53 AM

64. Neutral ships in workshop. The image below is a fairly typical one of the carriage of painted flags and the ships nationality when it was neutral. It would be a cool feature if ships could be assigned as neutral in the Workshop, and then have two things happen in game:

a) that the ships carry such neutral graphics
b) that tonnages from sinking them can be i be normally recorded, ii have a negative effect on tonnage and equal to the neutral tonage set, or iii have a punitive 2x tonnage penalty for sinking; all settable in the lobby.

https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/cdn-c...al.451705/full

Fidd · 10-23-23, 08:11 PM

65. Ability to mark ships as "Do not sink" on the "identified ships" page. This might be used to avoid sinking a "neutral" or to help prevent aiming at the target of another boat.

Fidd · 10-23-23, 08:13 PM

66. "Rauchen verboten" (no smoking) in dull-red on inside walls of bunker. This was written on at least one wall of every bay containing u-boats, in letters about 4 feet high.

10-02-23, 11:39 AM	#2
Fidd Captain Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Blighty! Posts: 542 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	61. Valve open/closed position earlier in rotation that full movement. Having the closed position slightly earlier in the rotation in the closing sense, [edit: and vice versa for opening] would help prevent valves being left fractionally open or closed causing unwanted water being introduced into into tanks, or conversely, prevent air being blown into them. It is usual, at least with domestic plumbing, for taps (faucets) to have a delay in causing water to flow when a tap is opened, and likewise to cease the flow before the tap is fully closed. To my mind this is how our valves should be operating, in order that a positive closure or opening of the valve occurs. Last edited by Fidd; 10-06-23 at 10:45 AM.

10-07-23, 12:37 PM	#3
Fidd Captain Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Blighty! Posts: 542 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	62. Moving the forward torpedo to the side. This is necessary to allow, eventually for the controls to set gyro angles, right at the front between the tubes to be accessible. Currently the collider for the stored central torpedo prevents access to this, and the safety and firing levers. It actually makes more sense for the 1st reload to be stored either in line laterally with tubes 1/3, or the opposite side, with subsequent reloads being opposite an empty tube on one side or t'other. In the case of the aft-tube, it should only be on the rack after a torpedo is fired, and probably only whilst the boat is surfaced, owing to the difficulty of operating the emotor with a torpedo hanging centrally - or to one side. I do not think that an aft reload would be left on it's cradle at any time, but would be reloaded when surfaced, as soon as possible. At some point in the future this change would allow for torpedo man being a playable role, if not, perhaps one with a dedicated full-time player? My estimate is that the 1st reload would be kept on the suspended cradle for as little time as possible, in order that the two lines of berths was available to the off-watch crew in that compartment, and in-line with either tubes 1 and 3, or the other side in-line with tubes 2 and 4. As the reload process was very noisy with winches and chain-hoists in use, I very much doubt this was done with proximity to the enemy, or, was done at depths making hydrophone detection unlikely. I'd be interested to hear of anyone with further information on reloading procedures. Last edited by Fidd; 10-07-23 at 09:41 PM.

10-18-23, 05:44 PM	#4
Fidd Captain Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Blighty! Posts: 542 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	63. "Part time" roles/tasks This idea was born out of thinking about #62. There are some roles on the boat which are not conducive to being played for a long continuous period every game, because tactical considerations and player preferences make it unusual for them to be needed for extended periods in many games. The Dive Officer is like that, as once you've got the boat to PD and trimmed, the extent of the rest of your task is to maintain PD, keep the OP usable with the very very occasional crash-dive! 1st TOI's are almost always surfaced attacks, so it's a "job" where you get more out of it by "being otherwise useful" than you often do by limiting your actions to the specified job. It occurs me me that there may well be scope "temporary jobs" (such as helping the radioman by decrypting the Enigma for him, or acting as a lookout watching ranges to escorts and so forth, that do not currently have a dedicated role. In the future similar roles for "anyone who is free" - might exist, perhaps involve manual reloading of torpedoes, refuelling and rearming at a Milch-cow or clandestinely at a neutral port perhaps. Checking the batteries for cracked cells, or the bilge for acidity (to prevent chlorine generation) might be a thing, or aiding with damage-control. In other words stuff that doesn't support a full time role for 3 hours, but which, would add content.... especially for those of us who for perfectly good reasons, may find themselves under-employed. Something to think about? Suggested "drop in" roles: Winching up torpedoes in torpedo room from under-floor stowage. Aligning torpedoes vertically and laterally with a given tube, inserting same. Opening/closing bow caps Setting gyro angles in torpedo room repeater Firing torpedoes Inspecting batteries, isolating damaged ones Closing isolation valves to stop leaks Pumping fuel from saddle-tanks to internal ceiling tanks Cooking at the galley (meaning "I am afk-meal") Toilet (meaning "I am afkp") (illuminates the toilet occupied light, 1 of 2) Radio assistant (meaning "I am afkphone") Running to torpedo room (assists in getting bow down in crash dive, player nominal-weight x 4) Fire-fighter Medical Officer - applies bandages/casts to crew injured in DC attack, allowing them to resume duties. In intervening minutes crewman unavailable to work controls. Hydrophone operator "Off-watch" - puts crewman avatar in a bunk (meaning: "I am extended afk") Compressor duty On deck - manning deck-gun, AAA or on watch/UZO. Cancelled by hatch being closed with player inside. Enigma decryption with "publish to orders and radio-log" buttons. (it was a terrible error making this radioman only) imho, as neither real-morse use, or decryption are tolerant of interruptions? In effect these would be "things to do" which any player not currently engaged in activity could drop into as role, whilst not giving-up his current role. So you might see if you pressed the tab-key: "Bloggz" Dive Officer/(Battery examiner). This would indicate that he's usually the Dive Officer, but it currently examining the batteries for damage after surfacing. The role he's currently doing being in bold. If he's doing a role, then any protections - such as non-machinest roles being unable to operate the trip switches or engines - would be removed, allowing another to operate them if required. On resuming his normal role, such protections would be re-imposed. The idea here is to provide other tasks for players to do, that are not sufficient to warrant a single player being allocated to doing that, but which players who are predominantly doing another role can drop into during periods where they otherwise do not have much, or anything, to do. Last edited by Fidd; 11-06-23 at 09:01 AM. Reason: typos and new suggested "drop in" roles

10-20-23, 08:53 AM	#5
Fidd Captain Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Blighty! Posts: 542 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	64. Neutral ships in workshop. The image below is a fairly typical one of the carriage of painted flags and the ships nationality when it was neutral. It would be a cool feature if ships could be assigned as neutral in the Workshop, and then have two things happen in game: a) that the ships carry such neutral graphics b) that tonnages from sinking them can be i be normally recorded, ii have a negative effect on tonnage and equal to the neutral tonage set, or iii have a punitive 2x tonnage penalty for sinking; all settable in the lobby. https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/cdn-c...al.451705/full Last edited by Fidd; 10-20-23 at 09:09 AM.

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10-02-23, 11:26 AM	#1
Fidd Captain Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Blighty! Posts: 542 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	60. Lip movement when talking: Using the amplitude of in game voice comms signal for a given speaker causes their lips to move in proportion to volume of speech. (those of you old enough will recall the kids program with puppets called "Thunderbirds" which used this same principle to cause the puppets to appear to be talking" synchronised with pre-recorded speech. The same thing could be done with our in game avatars in real-time.

10-23-23, 08:11 PM	#6
Fidd Captain Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Blighty! Posts: 542 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	65. Ability to mark ships as "Do not sink" on the "identified ships" page. This might be used to avoid sinking a "neutral" or to help prevent aiming at the target of another boat.

10-23-23, 08:13 PM	#7
Fidd Captain Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Blighty! Posts: 542 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	66. "Rauchen verboten" (no smoking) in dull-red on inside walls of bunker. This was written on at least one wall of every bay containing u-boats, in letters about 4 feet high.