long missions

[Kapitan]

anyone want to do long and i mean realy long missions ?

i do missions that can last upto 2 or 3 weeks in total my computers are on 24 hours a day and are never switched off so in order to keep my laptop happy i leave DW on over night.

my missions take me all over under the ice mainly tracking other submarines but first i have to leave port and some how get accross a busy shipping lane without getting smashed to bits

anyone intrested in these missions just say and il try build you one if i can please not this is for akula and kilo drivers only

sorry

[Bill Nichols]

Kapitan - I'm not able to play a long multiplayer mission like you describe, but if you build a long, underice mission that can be played single-player, then I'm game!

[Kapitan]

ahh yes forgot to mention that thanks bill i cant realy make long multiplayer missions for simple reason i cant even play multiplayer but yeah single should be no problem

[FERdeBOER]

Hello, Kaptain.

The cuestion is very interesting, but in my opinion is very hard to do.

I´m finishing a short 5-mission campaign (hope on sunday) and all the missions are in the same area map.
There was a time (about between the 2nd and 3rd missions) were I considered seriosly to make a "single-long-mission" despite a 5 short missions campaign.

But after a time considering I get this points:

- The playing time. This is not SHIII and we can't accelerate 4.000 times the game, so, if I make a commando deployment, then going to attack a harbour 20 miles down, then going 80 miles to open sea to join an AOR and reload missiles and torpedoes, then run to intercept a convoy...
You, and maybe others (me included, I like hardcore missions) would like that "waste of time" navigating without no many threats, but I´m sure that a lot of players would like more action times than "dead times".

- Complexity. Making a variated long mission involves many variants, "what if's", creating and deleting civil traffic and warships... one mistake or you forgot something, the whole mission goes to the trash and you have to start again.

- Unable to test and finish it completely. There will be allways somebody who will find a way to "break" the rules.
Attack a civil ship -> make a trigger forbidding this, but maybe later the things change and we will have to sink her -> make a ROE change.. attack a non-hostile sub -> make a trigger to forbidding this, but maybe later... one player discovers that sometimes a ship you are waiting for, stacks on the shore... and so on, and so on... this will add a LOT of triggers and scripts that would be easily avoided making a campaign.

The above are considerations about the campaign I'm making and other similar long missions.

It's possible to make simple long missions, with few and simple goals and elements, but remains the problem of the long time navigating.

That's what I think. Hope not boring anyone and I have explained well.

[Kapitan]

missions are track transit data collection and survailance exercises sinkex and last attack (when at war which im not)

the missions are hardish at the moment ive transited through the bearing straight which is very very hard cause theres ice above and water can only get to 13meters under keel even at PD

AI subs dont like our subs following them they do make radical changes of course speed depth

if you keep it like that you dont need triggers maybe a few radio messages but nothing like 500 triggers and such its not that complicated

[SeaQueen]

I've done some missions that lasted a couple days before, just single player. Low sweep rates can make some surface ASW missions run A LONG LONG TIME.

Originally Posted by Kapitain

anyone want to do long and i mean realy long missions ?

i do missions that can last upto 2 or 3 weeks in total my computers are on 24 hours a day and are never switched off so in order to keep my laptop happy i leave DW on over night.

my missions take me all over under the ice mainly tracking other submarines but first i have to leave port and some how get accross a busy shipping lane without getting smashed to bits

anyone intrested in these missions just say and il try build you one if i can please not this is for akula and kilo drivers only

sorry

[stormrider_sp]

The problem with these long missions is that you know what will happen, cause you created it. It would be good to play other people´s missions. I created a few very long missions before. The cool part was not playing it, but creating and testing.

[SeaQueen]

Originally Posted by stormrider_sp

The problem with these long missions is that you know what will happen, cause you created it. It would be good to play other people´s missions. I created a few very long missions before. The cool part was not playing it, but creating and testing.

It depends. When I make a long mission, it's long because I made a HARD problem to solve, with a lot of randomness involved, not necessarily a complicated plot, so I really don't know what will happen.

The one I have that often takes two days is a simple area clearence problem with the FFG and one other warship, trying to find a single submarine in an acoustically dynamic area. It doens't always take two days, though. Sometimes it takes an hour. It just depends on luck. The sub is just out there, I have no idea where.

[Kapitan]

well not realy after about 3 hours in and i forget where everthing is that and playing with truth off helps

[FERdeBOER]

It will be interesting to take a look to some of the long missions you are talking.

If is easy I can make some.

[Kapitan]

it is easy get a big area fill it with ships dot a few radio message goals around and bobs your uncle

obviously it has to have some structure

[SeaQueen]

Originally Posted by FERdeBOER

It will be interesting to take a look to some of the long missions you are talking.

If is easy I can make some.

It's not hard at all. Pick a 50 x 50 Nm square box just off the coast of Port Said, the mouth of the Suez. Put lots of commercial shipping going to and from Port Said. Choose sea state III/IV and a surface duct environment. Randomly place a Kilo patrolling at about 6kts. in the box.

Use the FFG to find and destroy the Kilo, or even try it with a Foxtrot. It's not a quick mission at all. Add another warship (I like the British DUKE class) or a P-3. That's a lot of square miles to sanitize and to find the kilo you're going to have to get close. Be careful or your initial detection will be a flaming datum.

It's easy to come up with enormously time consuming ASW scenarios. That's just the nature of the game.

[FERdeBOER]

Thank you for your help.

I will try to do one.

One more cuestion: do you place the civil traffic with random course in the area, or you set a specific course for them?

[SeaQueen]

Originally Posted by FERdeBOER

Thank you for your help.

I will try to do one.

One more cuestion: do you place the civil traffic with random course in the area, or you set a specific course for them?

You can do what you want. I tried to make it look like ships transiting to and from the canal, so they're mostly going one direction or the other.

[Kapitan]

yes you do what you want i do but AI units are dumb if you got a ladder box say and it touches land sometimes the AI units run aground

anyways yesterday afternoon i pulled into vladivostok after a sprint lasting since last monday eveningish