Torpedo realism question...

Sturgeon · 10-04-05, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beery

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sturgeon

My gut feeling (being completely ignorant of historical fact) is that the simulation is very accurate in the damage model, but it's us players that are not 'realistic'. Even though we fight it, we know in the back of our heads that we can start a new campaign if something goes horribly wrong....

An important part of good simulation design is compensating for this element. A really good simulation will make you want to fire as many torpedoes as real commanders did, despite the fact that you know it's only a game. One way to do it is to lessen the torpedo effectiveness so that it has a range of effectiveness that randomizes the resulting explosion - so that one torpedo might sink the ship as effectively as a real torpedo, or it might not. This has the effect of making the player want to fire more torpedoes at the target because he knows one torpedo alone may be ineffective.

But there is always the trade-off. Making torpedoes less effective than they really were would create the same complaints that the sim is not 'realistic'.

What is my ultimate point, you ask? I don't really know. Maybe I am saying that there are some areas of the sim that definitely need improvement, but this isn't one of them.