AOD: Submerging ahead of a convoy for an attack.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

Whew. Survived a 9/41 escort attack. Barely. Took damage on the surface, boat leaking with minor damage.
Crash dived and the escorts involved pounced. Had to buy time for the repairs to stop the leaks but the only way to do so without sinking to crush depth because of the leaks, was via repeated blowing tanks to a shallow depth, sinking, blowing tanks, etc., etc.
Meanwhile the escorts are hounding me the entire time and knock out my fore hydroplanes and fore torpedo doors. Out of compressed air, low battery due to the above maneuvers.

Finally get the repairs done after a game time hour of this. Finally can hold my depth with not having to worry about leaks.
Fortunately, between the pack I had called in diverting one escort and various maneuvers shaking the other before it too had to leave, I was able to surface, recharge my compressed air and batteries, and escape back to port. Not without an aircraft spotting to boot.
Not a torpedo fired the entire 45 day patrol, but the boat made it back for repairs.

That is the key to making a successful simulator ambience!

Ability to make various repairs .. intelligent enemies ... assistance from allies ...attention to the vehicle's subsystems - Dynamix really took the limited technology of the day and produced something special.

I think of Dynamix and Microprose in the 1990's every time we get a raft of excuses from modern companies about how this or that feature can't be implemented "because it's too complicated". Despite the massive CPU power and countless Gigabytes of storage you have on even an average PC/console these days. What a sick joke.

Not to beat a dead horse or be rude to the Silent Hunter series dev's, but it's kind of shocking that the FLAGSHIP U-Boat series of the early 2000's produced three sequels without ONCE, for instance, having properly functioning AI submarines.....a feature only implemented thanks to the gargantuan workarounds of h.sie, Sergbuto, and other unsung heroes who toiled for hours with no pay and no big name backing.

I mean, imagine Combat Flight Simulator III/Il2 with only the user's plane in the squadron, or the Battlefield/MOH series with the player-controlled soldier as the only friendly unit. Some omissions are just inexcusable.

Randomizer shouldn't have to pretend that the moon makes a difference when you attack in SH3, it should have been done right about 15 years ago.

When I was in my late teens I was confident that the 2000 - 2020 would be an era of incredible simulator titles, due to how much better computers had become. Talk about youthful naivete! Never underestimate the usual gaming suspects' ability to [foul] things up. Anyway, rant off.