Destroyers Discussion what were you guys on?

[Der Teddy Bar]

I recently had a look at the end products for the thread "Destroyers Discussion (getting rid of pin point drops)" http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=45370

I am sadly amused to see the additions to the Sim.cfg files in the GW & CB versions. They show a total lack of proper testing and understanding of moding.

Now before anyone gets too bent out of shape about this lets just look at this sensibly.

A CFG file is a file that allows easy changing of variables. That’s it, end of story. It is not code, it is not 'run' by the program, it is simply read from and the relevant values taken and used by the program.

The use is very precise, that is, there is no wishy washy use it if it sounds like... The program says "if you find A use the value listed there, if you do not find A then use this", that’s it. There is no "oh OK, there’s no A, but I found a BA (or a AC etc) so I will use that one instead"

The idea that just because you take add additional 'data' under the group heading it will get used is just silly.

What I am referring too are these additions...
Grey Wolves
Already tracking modifier=20 ;[detection probability modifier]
Decay time=150 ;[>0] already tracking bonus decay, in seconds
Uses crew efficiency=true ;[true or false]

And in CB's one...
range factor=1 ;[>=0]
fog factor=0 ;[>=0]
light factor=0 ;[>=0]
enemy speed=0 ;[>=0]
aspect=0 ;[>=0]
sensor height factor=0 ;[>=0]
already tracking modifier=20 ;[detection probability modifier]
decay time=150 ;[>0] already tracking bonus decay, in seconds
uses crew efficiency=true ;[true or false]

Now in the situation of GW they have kept all the original Hydrophone entries with some small alterations, so in essence all they have done is add some useless values.

Now CB has really hacked it up. He has removed the original entires of Detection time, Sensitivity & Height factor. Then he has added a lot of useless values.

Unlike the GW version which keeps the formula intact, CB has removed 3 values Detection time, Sensitivity & Height factor from the formula.


I do not have the Escorts AI code, so I will use the SHIII formula Noise Factor (a U-boat sensor formulas) to show you what this means.

P noise = Noise Factor * (RPM current / RPM prag - 1)

If P noise <= 0 then object undetectable


Let’s use the value of 1 for the noise factor, RPM as 116 (or 0.40 of maximum of 290 revs) & of course RPM prag is 0.40.

P noise = 1 * (116/0.40 – 1) so in this case P noise=1.9


Yes CB did leave the ‘Noise Factor’ value in, but as this is an exercise to show the effects of his changes along with this is not the correct formula, I will substitute a 0 to represented the effects that his many omissions will have generated for the real unknown formula.

P noise = 0 * (116/0.40 – 1) so in this case P noise=0

So basically the formula has stopped working.


While this post is critical of the work and by default the authors, it is not meant to be anything more than looking at the facts in a hope to fix the escort detection for real this time and to highlight the issue of improper procedure & testing in the hopes that next time there will not again be thousands of hours wasted.


Cheers,

Teddy Bär