Back in the water!

[Nefaro]

Did it ever slow back down after hitting Pre-Enable before?  I don't recall if it did or not.  Wouldn't be surprised if that only shut off the active seeker but kept chugging along.  ???

[MarkShot]

It does with SC. I need to spend more time with the code. LWAMI had a beta proof of concept where it would drop to hardcoded 40KTS. But I would want to figure out how to pull the speed from the Fire Control Presets and restore that speed.

As much as I love to tinker I am so out of time.

I wonder why LWAMI gave up on this. Maybe it upset game balance too much. LWAMI greatly tweaked the torp SSP. Now, suppose you couLd run a torp out at a quiet 20KTS and then have it sprint forward at 55KTS. Maybe that gives you a devastating stealth attack. Standard DW did not have much of an SSP curve. Besides that you launch below the layer or at PD among all the wave noise.

[MarkShot]

I have been studying the beta doctrine and I think I now know how to detect a pre-enable click. This is, of course, necessary to getting the torp to slow. I already know how to get up to max speed when it enables.

This doctrine language is not documented anywhere. It is not the same "doctrine" language used by the scenario editor.

It would seem that a doctrine task is created with every sim object and initialized. There are no loops in the code. Therefore, there must be a master simulation loop re-entering each document code object every iteration. My guess is the granularity is one cycle per second of simulated time. Finally, it appears that a sim object can have for multiple concurrent tasks. For example, a torp can be running a homing task as it tracks toward a kill, but also running the main body task which would handle it being pre-enabled again. Finally, this is all further complicated by some entry points not being doctrine files, but instead hard coded into the EXE. Also, I believe some UI elements hard coded like the torp shutdown.

I really want to crack this nut by time is so tight!

[Nefaro]

 ;D

I have faith in you!

Besides, it would be cool to have the speed changes back in.  8)

[MarkShot]

I have reached a very important decision point.

Originally, I was trying to duplicate the behavior of SC/SCXIIc-SCU.  In particular, that an enabled torp runs at max speed and a pre-enabled torp runs at preset speed.

I have decided that my DW and DW/LWAMI enhancement will simply cause an enabled torp to run at max speed.  Hitting the pre-enable button will not reset the speed to the preset speed.

Why?

(1)  After much experimentation I came to the conclusion that acceleration is trivial to implement (just two lines of code changes).  Deceleration is much harder to implement (15-30 lines of code).

(2)  For LWAMI unlike DW, there are perhaps 10 or more doctrines files which require modification.

(3)  As any systems person will tell you, complex modifications to a system have a far greater chance of introducing bugs versus simple well understood changes.

Above are technical considerations, the following are game play considerations:

(4)  The purpose of running out a torp below its top speed is either for stealth and/or to increase the range.  At the point of ENABLE either via preset or UI button, it is assumed that the weapon is either in range to acquire the target and/or in range to be detected by a target which would initiate invasion.  Thus, by definition, once the weapon is ENABLE, there is little reason to decelerate it.  The main reason to PRE-ENABLE it is so that it can be readily steered (wire guided) to complete the kill.

(5)  The only argument that can really be made for deceleration is simply for consistent behavior between Sub Command and Dangerous Waters.

I hope to have a mod completed today for both DW 1.04 and DW 1.04 + LWAMI 3.11.

The code to be added is as trivial as:

IF ( AcousticMode == 0 ) THEN {
   PASSIVEENABLE
   DEBUGOUT "Torpedo Passive Enabled"
          ; MK Start - Speed fix
   PreEnableSpeed = MaxSpd
          ; MK End -   Speed fix
} ELSE {
   ENABLE
   DEBUGOUT "Torpedo Active Enabled"
          ; MK Start - Speed fix
   PreEnableSpeed = MaxSpd
          ; MK End -   Speed fix
} ENDIF

[Nefaro]

Ah cool. 

I never really saw the need for setting a torpedo back to pre-enable speed either, since it's already advertised that it's there.   Unless set to passive mode only, anyway, but that has a universal max speed IIRC (or should).

[MarkShot]

Okay, I have been reviewing the LWAMI doctrine files.

In terms of torp speed enable/pre-enable, they are identical to stock DW.

There is one file "TorpedoADCAP_x.txt" which contains code similar to a beta which was release and implements what he calls "AdvTorpControl".  I don't believe this doctrine file is actually bound to a weapon, but it maybe intended to substituted for the standard.  It does play does include a hard coded max speed for a passive weapons.

I am going to load up DW/LWAMI and take a look at the Seawolf weapons.  To see if there are two Adcaps.

This stuff is giving me headaches.  I have to see how turn on the engine debugger and see where the log file is created.  Aaargh!!!

[MarkShot]

Okay, I just found out how to open a debug window.  This should help me to verify what code is running.

(did this without the debug window; just used old fashioned testing)

I have to go out now.  I'll take a look at that tonight.

[MarkShot]

Nefaro,

I made and tested the doctrine file fixes for:

DW 1.04 - 2 files

LWAMI 3.11 (DW 1.04) - 6 files

PM me your email address and I'll send you a zip.  BTW, I am not uploading this anyplace.  I have no doubt someone will find fault with it, others will want more done, ... and really this is for me.  I am not a modder and prefer to stay below the radar.

[MarkShot]

I was doing some TMA practice and comparing sensor effectiveness modeling in the Seawolf between SCXIIc-SCU and DW/LWAMI.

Basically, what you have is stable surface contact at about 35-40NM pick up very faintly on the TB-29 narrow band.  The track was run over about 45 minutes (3 legs) achieving about a 90% range accuracy.

What we see here is how the SC engine always delivered good LOB even in a turn of the towed array.  Whereas, the DW engine corrupts the LOB on the TA in a turn.

The first two are SC and the second two are DW.  Notice, the dot stack corruption in DW at the start of each leg which you must simply ignore while doing TMA.  (I failed to see what the AI autocrew would do with each of these as it would have been interesting.  Generally, I do my own TMA on anything upon which I will actually shoot and then continue full manual while wire guiding.)

[MarkShot]

I was reading a navy manual on TMA plotting. It said that TA LOB's from a turn  should not be plotted, and that each leg should be plotted in a different color. That sounds sensible to me.  :)

[LongBlade]

I was reading a navy manual on TMA plotting. It said that TA LOB's from a turn  should not be plotted, and that each leg should be plotted in a different color. That sounds sensible to me.  :)

I hate to say it, but all these acronyms are starting to lose me. I know you guys are trying to keep interest in the game through AARs and such, but these are inside baseball and I'm not able to follow.

Maybe use this thread the discuss the details and then post a new one in the AAR section when you're doing your next one?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Yup, once you guys starting talking about SC and modding and whatnot, I stopped following.

[MarkShot]

TA = towed array

A passive SONAR array towed behind a ship. This gets it away from the ship's noise allowing it to be much more sensitive.

LOB = line of bearing

The bearing upon which sensor detects a contact. For passive SONAR, this is the direction the sound is coming from. Reported in SC and DW every even minute. This generates an LOB.

TMA = target motion analysis

A way via plots of passive LOBs to deduce contact course, range, and speed. As the modern sub usually avoids active emissions, this is how it builds a picture of the battle space. If you use active emissions, then a single radar sweep or active SONAR pulse will give you bearing and range. A second emission should give you course and speed. However, if you do that, then you have just thrown away your stealth advantage.

I hope that helps.

[Staggerwing]

It does help. What are the mods for Sub Command and Dangerous Waters that you mentioned early on vs. the stock games?