There seem to be a few omniscient Catalinas out there. Dunno about you, but the only subs I can see from a Catalina are on the surface or breaking the surface on some way (and if that’s just periscope you need to be very close). I might make out a sub at periscope depth if I’m almost on top. The only other hints come from surface ships shooting at subs which are in some way above surface, and those markers are visible across the map, of course.
A few times now I’ve been bombed the moment I reach periscope depth after a spell hiding at 60m, but without the periscope or any part of the sub being at or breaking the surface. Lucky guess I expect. Catalina just decided to start an attack run on some random bit of ocean and ‘wow, look at that,’ there just happens to be a sub there when the bombs land.
It’s quite balanced and just fun to use. Longer range Torpedos would be nice :D
I hope there will be an implementation into the game outside just an event and if so, it will probabaly require a new game mode…but this event is really fun!
I think, the reward for sinking Cargo ships should be drastically increased. At the moment in many battles most of the U-Boats fight at the spawn points, because the reward is much higher in killing a destroyer. If you want score points the convoy shouldn’t be your target.
There should be a kind of score multiplier for the number of sunken Cargo ships for the U.Boat team + for surviving Cargo ships for the DD team.
The “winner” of the battle should be defined by the team score of both teams.
e.g. if only one Cargo ship survived this was a big loss in reality not a win.
I know that’s not easy to balance but I hope there are more events ahead to test this
Blind spots- Ships using sonar had a blind spot due to their own propeller noise.
Noise decoys- Subs could release noise decoys while changing direction and speed, confusing pursuers. Maybe Add
Thermocline Layer- A depth where a sudden change in temperature can cause sounds at or near horizontal to reflect. Submarines can use the thermocline to hide from sonar.
Two things:
Submarine is slow and fragile and the only adventage is concealment. If you make them spawn all in the same location and give that location to the enemy the subs are already dead when the battle starts if the hunters are at least half competent.
The “sonar” is too powerful. It requires no imput from the player, has no limitations except for range and is almost impossible to defeat. Maybe if you were considering adding subs to the core gameplay, you could split it into passive hydrophone and actual sonar which the player would have to control to add some actual need for skill. Just gonna leave this picture here.
Yes we are aware of this, as mentioned here already some time ago.
Sadly reward for AI ship is part of global setting (as far as I understand) and could not be changed exclusively for this specific event.
But as I said, we are aware that’s an issue.
The win conditions aren’t working properly. My team sank 11/13 enemy cargo ships but we still lost. 2/13 isn’t 20%, so why did the Allies win? @Stona_WT
Because for the win you need to sink all 13 cargo ships. The US team objective is to defend the convoy so as long as at least 1 ship is alive they win.
After playing a few times, here is my personal feedback.
The submarine team (or submarines in general, if this is coming to regular naval) needs more spawn points. As it stands, its super easy for the Escort team to intercept the submarines, because you know exactly where they will be coming from.
2a. The submarines make too much noise for arcade. it should either be tuned down all together (still make full speed noisy) or let traveling at lower depths be quieter.
2b. Alternatively (and preferably, for me) it could be based on crew skill. ASW officers with more skill can pick out a sub from amidst the battle noises and from farther out compared to a new recruit. Subs with higher maintenance stats could generate less noise.
While it might be too complicated for now, subs should have a way to be “lost in the noise”. Meaning the more screws and explosions near the sonar and/or the target, the easier it is for sonar to lose track of the target. Later subs would have the ability to launch decoys. Ships that are still sinking could make excellent “zones of noise”.
Aircraft designed for ASW and that have radios should have a way to “spot” subs for the supporting fleet.
Actually…yeah… the type viic in particular could go 17-18 knots surfaced, but only 7-8 submerged.
Ww2 uboats had 2 engines, a diesel for surface travel and an electric for submerged. Oft times they would NEED to surface and would spend a lot of their time on the surface because the electric batteries would run out and need charging via the deisel engine. (Unlike nuclear subs which dont need oxygen for internal combustion and can run underwater indefinately) The invention, or atleast application of the submarine snorkel during the war years helped by allowing subs to remain indefinately at periscope depth.
