Build roll

[Dimitris]

Build 194
----------------

• Introducing: aerostats.
  
  Aerostats are broadly divided into moored balloons (static) and airships (mobile). Moored baloons can only vary their altitude and direction, while airships roam freely.
  
  For detection purposes all aerostats are treated as aircraft. They can be engaged by both AAW and ASuW weapons (in fact, AsuW weapons are more efficient against them because of their larger and more varied warheads). When using ASuW weapons, the normal CEP rules apply, so a smaller aerostat will be a more difficult target than a large one.
  
  Depending on their size, aerostats are fairly resilient, from 100DPs for the smallest ones up to 3200DPs for the largest. Damage calculations are simpler than ships etc. because there are no armor penetration checks. Component hits etc. work just like with ships, subs & facilities.
  
  
• Includes a bunch of new imports by Mike.

[Phoenix_ryan]

Wow, I must say this game and the team are amazing, I have been following the forums for a while now but felt inspired to register and add my voice to the growing chorus of praise for what appears may be a truely landmark achievement.
Airships, whatever next!!
Keep it up guys I can't wait to get my hands on a copy.

Phoenix

[tonka]

Gotta love a good stealth blimp

[analog]

Does that include Ragnar's invisible baloon?

[Dimitris]

You mean that one?

We have high hopes that we'll be able to get rid of this workaround completely in Command. Invisible-spy units are already obsolete (thanks to variable side-wide detection settings) and the hands-of-God will be replaced with something far more elegant.

[Dimitris]

Build 195
-----------

* New element to underwater warfare: Cavitation.
Cavitation adds 15db to the noise signature of a ship/submarine and thus substantially increases its detection distance by passive sonar. Generally speaking, the more inherently noisy a ship/submarine is, the lower the speed at which cavitation begins to occur.
The maximum speed at which a ship/sub can travel before cavitation occurs is the so-called "tactical speed" (sometimes referred as "silent speed"). Extremely quiet subs like the Seawolf, Virginia etc. have tactical speeds of 22-23 knots.
Subs can delay the onset of cavitation by going deep (the greater the depth, the greater the tactical speed).
When a unit is cavitating, the tactical map displays an orange "CAV" notice under its icon.

* Significant improvements to sub & ship underwater-AI. Subs and ASW-assigned ships will transit to their patrol areas at best tactical (non-cavitating) speed and, once there, will move at creep. Once they detect a mission-relevant target they will manouver to intercept it at creep if possible, otherwise at optimum tactical speed. Subs will attempt to stay deep for as long as possible, rising to shallow only as necessary (to launch weapons etc.).
These changes make subs much more elusive ASW targets, and also make life more difficult for subs against ASW-oriented surface forces.

[stormridersp]

Ranges are not proportionate.



The blue half circle at far north is our SSK. A German Type-212, modern and very silent.
The red square is the enemy ASW Frigate.
Red Xs are shore based ASM batteries which operates radars that can detect periscopes lurking above the water.
The mission is to reach the minimum (yellow circle) range to the "Target" and take photographs without being detected by enemy forces.

Our German captain is moving at creep speed so not to cavitate while moving at shallow waters. He wants to save his batteries to. He's been tracking the enemy frigate for some time now, by listening to its active sonar pings. Every 5 minutes, he marks the position of that frigate on his map. He doesn't know yet what class of frigate is operating in the area, but he's cautious and attaches and "range circle" to that frigate. A distance he doesnt want to close in!

The german skipper knows how be tactically efficient with his nearly undetectable SSKs, by moving as close as possible to shore, so the shore noises cover his own. A perfect disguise. He draws a red and a blue line specifing the minimum and safe depths respectively that he intends to move through.

He was also informed of the position of 2 ASM batteries who can detect his periscope if he raises it. So he draws lines and an area layer and finds the perfect blind spot where he can safely complete his mission by taking his photographs.

[Patman]

Please, make a scenario design of that one, I want to play it!
Great job.

PD: Extra bonus: special forces divers disembark in the island, go to the hotel / lodge marked on the east side, and order a Danish breakfast to go, for all the SSK crew

[Bundy]

Ranges are not proportionate.



The blue half circle at far north is our SSK. A German Type-212, modern and very silent.
The red square is the enemy ASW Frigate.
Red Xs are shore based ASM batteries which operates radars that can detect periscopes lurking above the water.
The mission is to reach the minimum (yellow circle) range to the "Target" and take photographs without being detected by enemy forces.

Our German captain is moving at creep speed so not to cavitate while moving at shallow waters. He wants to save his batteries to. He's been tracking the enemy frigate for some time now, by listening to its active sonar pings. Every 5 minutes, he marks the position of that frigate on his map. He doesn't know yet what class of frigate is operating in the area, but he's cautious and attaches and "range circle" to that frigate. A distance he doesnt want to close in!

The german skipper knows how be tactically efficient with his nearly undetectable SSKs, by moving as close as possible to shore, so the shore noises cover his own. A perfect disguise. He draws a red and a blue line specifing the minimum and safe depths respectively that he intends to move through.

He was also informed of the position of 2 ASM batteries who can detect his periscope if he raises it. So he draws lines and an area layer and finds the perfect blind spot where he can safely complete his mission by taking his photographs.

Thanks for spending the time to do that. Added request to our queue.

[stormridersp]

Please, make a scenario design of that one, I want to play it!
Great job.

PD: Extra bonus: special forces divers disembark in the island, go to the hotel / lodge marked on the east side, and order a Danish breakfast to go, for all the SSK crew

Thanks Pat, the idea was taken from a documentary I saw, by Channel5 I think, called Submarine School, which is the final test for potential sub skippers. I think its also a remake of a BBC series called The Perisher.

I'm looking forward to creating these scenarios, maybe as a submarine training series like, for new players. Each chapter or mission comprising a new aspect of ASW and submarines. Simple missions, but focused on one of few specific aspects of ASW and Submarines.
In these series I'm also inclined to include some cold war historical passages like the USS Scorpion Episode, The USS Cochino and so on.

Un Abrazo!

[Patman]

The Perisher course is the famous evaluation course of the RN that selects their best candidates for commanding officers. It is also attended bay candidates from allied or friendly navies (Chile is among them, off course.)
When the (then.) new type 209 SSKs arrived to Argentina, one of them patrolled the south atlantic for 45 days, cirumnavegating the Malvinas islands very close to the shore doing photo recon of the coast.

[Dimitris]

Build 196
---------

• First implementation of satellites as concrete platforms.
• Significant improvements on underwater AI:
  - Subs that are outside their patrol zone will transit to station at maximum depth and best tactical speed.
  - Subs that are assigned to ASuW patrol will creep inside their patrol area at a shallow depth. If they are ASw-taked they will alternate between listening over and under the layer; if they have a towed array their lower bound is the layer ceiling (so that the array drops under it while the sub stays over it), if they don't have a towed array then the sub physically dives under the layer. The alternation timing is random, so that a human sub driver cannot "time" his way through an ASW screen.
• Added a "held for how long" property to contacts. This is currently used for TMA & sonar classification/ID purposes (see below) but in the future could also be used as a mission objective in intelligence-gathering scenarios (e.g. "Maintain contact with unit-X for time-Y").
• Added TMA & classification/ID process for passive sonar contacts. The more time a contact is held for, and the noisier it is, the easier/faster it is to determine its type, class or even precise ID. TMA allows to progressively shrink a contact's uncertainty area, but is feasible only for direct-path contacts.

[Patman]

Thank you for the good news.
Will LF sonars have their performance reduced in shallow waters? (no CZ, reduced detection chances / ranges.)
Actually I never knew at what depth these sonars start to have their detection ranges reduced. Is there a lineal function of depth vs. detection range or its more complex than that?

Gracias

P

[Dimitris]

Thank you for the good news.
Will LF sonars have their performance reduced in shallow waters? (no CZ, reduced detection chances / ranges.)
Actually I never knew at what depth these sonars start to have their detection ranges reduced. Is there a lineal function of depth vs. detection range or its more complex than that?

Simple for now. The benefits of higher complexity in this case are negligible.

[Bundy]

Thank you for the good news.
Will LF sonars have their performance reduced in shallow waters? (no CZ, reduced detection chances / ranges.)
Actually I never knew at what depth these sonars start to have their detection ranges reduced. Is there a lineal function of depth vs. detection range or its more complex than that?

Simple for now. The benefits of higher complexity in this case are negligible.

We'll be a little more open about models and calculations at release. Beta team has access as they sign a NDA but not about to publish the guts of our game on the www until we've shipped. Our models are one of the few competitive advantages we have being a very small dev group.

[Francois]

How, if you did, do you simulate the towed array sonars that are actually long antennas put to the water on the surface by sailors? The case is more then often.

[Dimitris]

They have some special properties and these have been modelled.

[Dimitris]

Build 198
---------
First implementation of the Event Engine (EE). This is _BIG_.

[Subwing]

Build 198
---------
First implementation of the Event Engine (EE). This is _BIG_.

How big? Give us more details, please! It´s not fair to just mention it like this and go away!
Or maybe you are preparing an entry on the main warfaresims home page?

-

[stormridersp]

Would you give us an insight on Event Engine? It sounds cool tho!