No more Active! Instantly made the 1968 Campaign more fun!

[Skyhigh]

Disabled the Active Sonar on all 1968 subs (in the files in Vessels folder).

So much better. They can still do a good job tracking you on Passive, but at least they don't give themselves easily away, or spoil the stalking by suddenly going active. You can nicely sneak up on them to pump a MK37 into their baffles.

(Mind you: when a sub has a towed array the towed array needs to be disabled too, like for the Yankee SSBN. If this is not done the game goes bonkers).

Of course it's possible in 1984 as well, but doing this makes the MK48/US Sub combo even more Godlike. But for 1968 it works well.

It's not that much easier - they still fire torps (and a lot) if they get you on passive. And they also fire snapshots.

For me it's more satisfactory. And the surface vessels remained untouched, they can ping away. But subs stay silent. As subs should.

[JhonSilver]

The thing is that the power of active sonar is pretty low.

I went through the 1984 campaign with Skipjack, with a noise level increased to 150 dB. And Russian active sonar reinforced by +10 dB,
on ultra complexity.
It was very interesting.

The main problem of the 1984 campaign is that missions are designed so that Russians use very little helicopters.
But helicopters are the basis of ASW tactics.
(and there not any "Godlike")

[FPSchazly]

Man, sometimes I feel like I need that active on the Skipjack to find anything haha

[Skyhigh]

Well my problem was this:


Once you fire a torpedo, every single sub in the neighbourhood goes active. So much for secrecy ey.
To me, that's just not much fun. Doesn't matter if the power is low - even at Active at -50 you still see the yellow bearing line, and so it will reveal the enemy's location.

But you are right, FPSchazly... sometimes you can't find the enemy anymore. That's either a lost mission or you go active yourself to wake them up... Sometimes they fire a bearing-only torpedo and it gives you a hint of where they are.

[Julhelm]

Mk48 is too good. I have actually been working on rebalancing the sensors, noise values on US vs Soviet subs and the campaign missions themselves. 68 in particular plays much better once formations are smaller and more dispersed, and you can use the Mk16's a lot more efficiently.

I think they should use active *sometimes* but not sure what the parameters for this should be. Perhaps once they are evading weapons and go fast, then they should start pinging so that they can return fire on you.

[Skyhigh]

Originally Posted by Julhelm

Mk48 is too good. I have actually been working on rebalancing the sensors, noise values on US vs Soviet subs and the campaign missions themselves. 68 in particular plays much better once formations are smaller and more dispersed, and you can use the Mk16's a lot more efficiently.

Excited!!

I think they should use active *sometimes* but not sure what the parameters for this should be. Perhaps once they are evading weapons and go fast, then they should start pinging so that they can return fire on you.

Yes "sometimes" is fine, but now it is just too much and seemingly random.
I myself would think of going active too when I am flanking away, since my loudness will give me away anyhow. So if the AI could do it at >20 knots or something, yeah why not?

[Kazuaki Shimazaki II]

Originally Posted by Julhelm

I think they should use active *sometimes* but not sure what the parameters for this should be. Perhaps once they are evading weapons and go fast, then they should start pinging so that they can return fire on you.

I think at least from a gameplay perspective, it is OK as it is. It makes for a nice unpredictable game, which is a lot less exploitable than you always getting to sneak up into the baffles using sonar superiority.

[jmr]

Originally Posted by Julhelm

Mk48 is too good. .

But isn't that true according to publicly available data or do think it needs some adjusting solely for game play purposes?

[Capt Jack Harkness]

Originally Posted by Julhelm

Mk48 is too good. I have actually been working on rebalancing the sensors, noise values on US vs Soviet subs and the campaign missions themselves. 68 in particular plays much better once formations are smaller and more dispersed, and you can use the Mk16's a lot more efficiently.

I think they should use active *sometimes* but not sure what the parameters for this should be. Perhaps once they are evading weapons and go fast, then they should start pinging so that they can return fire on you.

On the note of rebalancing noise values, I discussed in another thread the gap between the Skipjack and Permit noise vs the gap between Sturgeon and Los Angeles. Currently there's a huge difference in quieting between the Sturgeon and LA (15 dB, if I remember right) and a small difference between Skipjack and Permit (4 dB) despite the fact that rafting the turbines in the Permit supposedly made a huge difference to radiated noise... Was the anechoic coating and other tech just that much more effective on the LA or was rafting not actually as big of a factor in comparison?