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Demortia
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Simulation and Strategy

Flight, Submarine, Management, you name it. Lets hear about it. emoticon

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6/21/2005, 10:29 am

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Demortia
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Silent Hunter 2

Heres another of my fav games, Silent Hunter 2. It is a few years old and Silent Hunter 3 has recently been released.
However, SH3 requires a super modern powerful PC to run, which I dont have... which is a shame sinse SH3 has lots of cool features, even an (almost) living crew! Oh well, SH2 is still good emoticon

And has amazing depth and atmosphere. Before SH3 came out, SH2 was THE ultimate WW2 submarine game.

On patrol, prowling the ocean in search of the prey as a lone wolf.
On this mission the seas were calm so the journey wasnt too bad. The water is fully animated and if you have a good vid card then you get some amazing sunsets and sunrises. In stormy weather is really does make you feel slighty sea sick ( if your not used to it ) as the boat is thrown up and down when you crash through the waves.

Soundman shouts "Low Speed Screws Detected!!" seems we have a contact. Looks like were in luck today, we may have found a convoy at last!
The hydrophone station is basically the eyes of the boat and allows you to find targets many miles away, long before you can even see them. This is the key component in hunting down the prey. The sounds you get to hear arent too great in variety, being ambient underwater noise, High Speed and Low Speed screws. However, this still serves the purpose, and the sounds are very good.

After heading on the sound bearing for a while, the watch spots the convoy far in the distance, heading away from us. To get into a good firing position, we need to get ahead of them.
A few of the stations you can occupy are fully 3D, this is the bridge which you can pan around using the mouse. From here you can use the Uzo ( for firing torps from the bridge ) and binoculars. The AA guns and Deck Gun are also fully 3D and you can fire them manually, or assign a crew member to operate them.

We needed to close the distance so we ordered the engine room to crank up the engines to flank speed.
This is the "Control Room" station and contains all the dials and gauges you'll need for general running of the boat. You dont need to be here all the time as theres a handy "mini panel" that you can call up from any station that allows the same functions. Theres plenty of keyboard shortcuts that are intuative and easy to remember.

Thats about close enough, we try to visually determine the number of ships in the convoy just incase were forced under. These merchants are armed and wont have much trouble sinking us.
All ships are well modelled and the game comes with many kinds. From passenger liners and oil tankers, to destroyers and battleships. There does appear to be some flickering occasionally when ships are spotted at extreme visual ranges, but this isnt anything major and I usually just ignore it.

Plotting an intercept course to take us ahead of the convoy to a good firing position. It'll take a few hours and as long as we stay well away, they wont spot us. Time to run the engines at full speed and hope they dont over heat.

Checking out torpedo stores. we want to choose the best type for the initial attack while they are off guard. Once we attack then they are likely to start "Zig Zagging", making further hits almost impossible.

Time to turn the radar off, it'll give us away if they have radar "Sniffers".
Many features are only available after certain significant dates in the war. Radar only appears in the game if the scenario is set after the date they were really invented.

Finally, we have gained a position ahead of the convoy, time to turn on the final intercept course.

We examine the convoy through the Uzo to select the best target. Preferably the heaviest and closest ship.

Ah crud! they spotted us! we have incoming shells! DIVE DIVE! if were lucky, they'll think they scared us off and wont start zip-zagging.

At periscope depth and heading along at a steady 7 knots still on the intercept course. We cant hear shell splashes anymore so they must have lost us.
When the boat is under the water, the ambience is amazing. Not only is there the noise of water moving against the hull, but the whole boat creaks and groans. The deeper you go, the more intense the creaking. If you go to a dangerous depth, you can almost feel the ship being squashed by the pressure. Go too deep.... and pop, your dead.

The hunt begins. That merchant ship is our target. Time to do some calculations to get range, speed and course. We are in an excellent position, just need to close the distance by 1000 metres

IDing the target, its definately a merchant ship... and we use this data to help calculate distance by measuring the mast height relative to us.
This can all be done automatically to save you the headache of calculations. Getting a firing solution can be a complex task if you dont select this feature to "Auto".

This computer give you the gyroscope settings required by the torpedo to send it on the right course toward the target. If this is set to auto, then the firing solution is done automatically ( by another crew member emoticon

)

Fired a spread of 2 torpedos... most large ships will survive a single torp hit but will be severely crippled and easy to pick off as it gets left behind by the convoy.
This scenario is late in the war, in early war scenarios merchant ships are unarmed and can be finished off with the deck gun ( which you can manually fire if you want emoticon

)

Direct hit! The first "Fish" hits the target!
Explosions arent super amazing, but are reasonable. Tons of water are thrown into the air accompanied by a nice explosion sound.

The target is already in flames as the second fish strikes. Time to turn our attention to another target before they start evading.

Selected another target and fired another 2 torpedos. Were still in a good firing position and very close to the convoy.
AI isnt too bright, but doesnt do stupid things. Once an enemy destoyer spots you, it'll relentlessly hunt you down, pinging its sonar and dropping depth charges. The only way you'll survive is to go deep, sometimes hovering right above crush depth so they cant get a sonar trace.
Believe me when I say that listening to depth charges exploding near you will almost make you pee yourself.
If you ever get the chance to play this game, get a destroyer to spot you on purpose to experience the ultimate sensation of fear emoticon

The convoy has begun evading and our torpedos miss, both of them! We can still hear explosions coming from the ship we had already "killed" as its cargo ignites.
When a ship sinks, you hear the creaks and groans as it begins to go under. The most haunting sound is hearing the bulkheads pop as they rip apart under stress and pressure.

Quickly checking the boat for holes, it'll take a while to reload the forward tubes so were going to have to stay under for a while.
The boat schematic displays various areas and components of your ship. Damage is colour coded to show the damage severity. There is also the possibility for fires and flooding of various intensity. Your crew members are also tracked, the more crew you have then the faster they can stop flooding and put the fires out. Dont forget the all important CO2!

Going Deep. Heading to a depth of 100 metres so we can reload the forward torpedo tubes in safety. The convoy will probably get a good lead and we'll have to start the process of gaining a position ahead of them once we surface. And the hunt begins all over again untill we complete the mission, or run out of torpedos.

Last edited by Demortia, 1/8/2006, 7:56 pm

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1/7/2006, 9:38 pm

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Sub Command

Since I've previously done a review for Silent Hunter 2, I figured I should move on to a modern form of sub warfare.
With SH2 the gameplay was about hunting, and running away after the attack, and was filled with massive ammounts of tension and fear while trying to survive being depth charged to hell! Modern sub warefare is about stealth, and detecting/killing the enemy without being counter-detected. Modern subs are a whole new ballgame indeed. I cant possibly detail every facet of the game, theres just too much, I would recommend further research, theres plenty of reviews out there the best in my opinion is at Subsim.com

The game is a couple of years old, and recently Dangerous Waters has been released, the next stage of sub sim evolution ( but in my opinion isnt fair or well ballanced ). The makers of Sub Command ( Sonalysts ) actually make simulation software models for the navy for training purposes, so they know what they are doing.

Although various aspects may sound very complex, there are numerous options available to make things easy for beginners. Show Truth and Autocrew can make the simulation into a click and fire acrade game with a small ammount of strategy. However, I crave realism to a simulation so never opt for this ( I do use Autocrew on the TMA station though to speed things up a bit, a sub captain shouldnt have to do all the work should she emoticon

Anyway, lets get on with it !

Welcome to the Los Angeles class 688i ( i=Improved) By far my fav boat. Its old, clunky but has a certain charm emoticon

Sub command lets you take control of 3 different subs, the Seawolf, the 688i and the Russian Akula. One thing you cant get a good impression of in a screenie is the size of these boats, they are massive!

This is the Helm station, first place to check when starting a mission to make sure the towed sonar array is deployed.

I started up the campaign for the 688i and the very first mission is a training excercise, performing dummy attack runs at a small group of "ownside" ships. The goal is to move within a certain range of them without being detected.
So, first thing we do is go to the "eyes" of the boat, the sonar station to get bearings on everything in the water.
This is the broadband "waterfall" display, the bright lines are ships ( sometimes even whales ) or anything else moving in the water.

The boat has several different sonar arrays, each one listens to the water for different frequencies of sound. This makes each array usefull for tracking and detecting various different objects that broadcast noise on various wavelengths. For example, an enemy sub might not show up on the Sphere ( Bow ) array, but will be spotted ( feintly, depending on speed and distance ) on the towed array.

The ships we are hunting are also trying to find us, so are actively "pinging", broadcasting their relative bearing. Our active intercept picks up these pings and gives us an exact bearing, with the signal strength giving us a rough idea of range. Also, the stronger the signal, the more likely we are to be detected, and end up with several torpedo's heading our way.
These days, Torpedo's are very deadly, with thier own sonar seekers and wire guidance just one ADCAP can break a battleship in half and toss it right out of the water!

The narrowband sonar is used mainly for identifying a contact comparing its sound signature to a database of known profiles. We picked up a small but very noisy contact and have identified it as a fishing boat by its sound profile.

Using our tactical map/Navigation chart, we select the contact marker and select its type and alliance, in this case, a neutral fishing boat. The confidence level we give it is a measure of how sure we are that it actually is a fishing boat.
SC gives you a fully 3D world you can view, but this is the really clever part....
You only see what your boat sensors see and what you identify it as. If you ID a fishing boat as a super tanker, then you see a super tanker. If you mark its range wrong, then it appears in the 3D enviroment in the wrong place.

TMA or Target Motion Analysis has to be the most complex part of sub operations. This is used to gain a firing solution on a target. When a contact is detected you only have one piece of data, its bearing. You need to know its speed, distance, and heading in order to effective fire a torpedo at it. You want the target to be in a predicted point when the torpedo arrives nearby so its own seeker cone can lock on and take over its guidance.
A solution is gained through patience. All you need to do is track a target for a few minutes to see how its position changes relative to your own. Through triangulation you can work out its exact location in the water and its speed. The process itself is slightly more complex, but thats why the Autocrew is useful.

We have positively ID'd one of the targets in our excercise, so we classify it. The 3D world model changes to refect what we have classified the ship as. Nothing is for sure but if you can get close enough, you can take a photo with the periscope and ID it by a visual database. The photo can also be used to determine its exact range, and heading.

We head over to weapons control and assign the track we have on the target to a torpedo.

We then set various torpedo presets, such as its speed, its run depth, its maximum and minimum depth, how far it goes untill its seeker goes active.

We then flood tube 1, equalise the pressure, and open the muzzle door. And ready to fire! Although very tempting to fire, were not allowed as its a training excercise. This game is all about stealth and detection, you wont actually get to fire any weapons untill several missions into the campaign. Its all very "Cold War", and very real.

We have completed our mission goal so head up to periscope depth, and raise the antenna to see if we recieve a broadcast. It seems we get a message saying theres a Russian Akula in the area! and its tracking our excercise! we have new orders to find it without being counter-detected!
And the mission continues.

The campaign missions are cleverly linked together. There are several goals to complete but arent required to successfully complete the mission, but following missions reflect the failures or successes of the previous mission. For example, if the Akula detects us, our next mission will be much more difficult. But if we detect the Akula successfully, we are placed in a much better position to complete the next mission.

SC is able to recognise voice commands, so you can issue verbal commands into a mic and the sub crew obays! eliminating many of the keyboard and mouse commands.

Heres the Seawolf, they say its the most deadly and quiet sub in existance. To keep this sim ballanced though, some compromised had to be made. It is however, an amazing piece of technology.

The Helm station of the Seawolf, most of the displays are touch-screen ( in the real thing, were stuck with mouse clicking )

The weapons control screen. Each sub ( 688i, Seawolf and Akula ) has very different station screens and all are accurate and well drawn.

The whole sim is ultimately as real as it can get. Modern subs offer a different kind of gameplay, to something like SH2, so its all down to a matter of preference.

Well, due to maximum post size, thats about all I can squeeze in. Check out the review section for SC over at Subsim.com for more detailed info.

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A Guest once said to me "Oh I like Roleplaying, I just dont like it when people stand around pretending to be Vampires!"

6/21/2006, 1:07 pm

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Demortia
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Silent Hunter 3!

As some of you know, I'm a bit of a Sim-Nut, and when Silent Hunter 3 first came out, my PC hadnt a hope of running it ( which was very dissapointing ).
But, with some recent upgrades to the PC, I am now able to run it and jumped at the chance to buy it, new and sealed, for £5 off Ebay!

SH3 has been labelled the King of Sub-Sims, and quite rightly so, what they have managed to do is bring total player immersion to the Silent Hunter series, Not to mention it scored 100 out of 100 on Subsim Review.
You can read the full review for yourself at :

www.subsim.com - SilentHunter3 review

This sim also boasts a full "Dynamic Campaign", this means everything, from convoy encounters to air attacks are randomly generated. Also historical accuracy is almost perfect when it comes to convoy routes and air cover zones ( you even get a paper world map chart detailing the various naval/convoy routes and enemy air cover zones, as well as authentic Kriegsmarine co-ordinate system all plotted out for you! )
You'll never play the same game twice!

What makes this Sub-sim so special? Well, lets just say, you really are there onboard the sub, and every crew member advances in experience, gains qualifications, and suffers from fatigue and psychological effects of being at war!
Not to mention the graphics are superb!

As with the previous title ( SH2 ) you still have a large variety of subs to choose from, all available at historcally accurate times of the war, and can upgrade the subs systems with better guns, better Sonar equipment, better engines, etc... and all are available at the right dates.

Heres what you see whan you start a mission :

A fully 3D control room, with 3D crew. You can pan your view around in "Freelook" mode, and by clicking on any Officer, dial, or hatch cover, you can interract with it or move to other area's of the sub. Each sub type has its own different 3D enviroment ( this one os a type VII ) and they all rock and roll around in the ocean!

A view from the other end of the control room. The crew members are all fully animated, right down to blinking their eyes to scratching their chin.
You can literally play the game without a keyboard by clicking on various "hotspots" to bring up Nav-Map, crew management, or even take over an officers station and operate it manally.

By clicking on the ladder, it takes you up into the Conning Tower where the attack periscope is located ( all subs has 2 periscopes, one is an attack scope, the other is an observer scope, each has its own specific function. )
To return to the control room, you can click on the hact cover in the floor, or to go up onto the bridge, swing your view upward, and click the hatch cover above.

By clicking on a crew member, you can request reports or issue specific orders ( you can choose whether they speak German or English, and have the text in the text log area in english or German )
Specific offers at specific stations have different functions and orders they can carry out.
You really are the captain here, and it is the duty of your crew to do what you tell them, but it is the captain duty to look after his/her crew and bring them home alive.
They will even whisper when you are in Silent Running Mode, and respond fully to what is going on around them! for example they will duck and grab onto something when and explosion happens nearby!

Here is where you manage your U-Boats crew, by clicking and dragging crew member icons, you can assign them to specific stations/compartments. They do suffer fatigue so to rest them, simply assign them to Quarters to rest. There are buttons to automate some functions of assigning crew to save a bit of time.
Each crew member is practically alive, can earn experience, gets tired and gets scared. You can improve a ships crew by awarding medals, giving them qualifications to do specific tasks aboard the boat and promoting them in rank.

Watch Duty on the bridge. These guys have the entire crews lives in their hands.

The Hydrophone guy. This is another 3D area of the sub and also contains the radio equipment ( and even a Gramophone that can play any MP3 you put into the SH3 Gramophone folder )

The level of detail is stunning! Right down to the food stashed in various places around the sub. These even swing around as the boat rocks.

The sea even looks and behaves like water! It has to be seen to be believed.

Even at Periscope depth the sub rolls due the the effects of the surface. You have to get deeper to get a smooth ride.
Here the detail is also amazing, right down to the bubbles that rise from the various areas of the sub.

The Uzo, used for making surface attacks against ships, wise to only do this at night. The boat has a helpful "Stealth Meter" ( can be turned off ) to let you know just how much you are risking being seen by the enemy. Various factors affect your stealth capability.

The Attack Periscope, the primary scope used for submerged attacks. Has better maginfication than the Observer Scope, but less angle of a field of view, also is more stealthy than the Observer Scope due to being smaller.

The damage model used for various U-Boats and ships is impressive too. Depending on where you hit a ship determines the effect of the damage.
Hit a ships engine room and you immobilise it, if you hit its hold and it is carrying ammunition supplies, them BOOM! a really big bang. Hit the same place twice and you wont do much damage with the second hit.
Yu can blast pieces off the target, which go spiralling up into the air! Sometimes ships break in half and sink.

I could go on for the next 2 weeks about how "real" this sim is.... it definately deserves the title of King of Sub-Sims...
However......
Silent Hunter 4 is on the way, and I have no chance of running it on this machine.
Doesnt matter though, SH3 is just too awesome to look at another Sub-Sim!

Last edited by Demortia, 2/8/2007, 2:29 pm

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2/8/2007, 2:17 pm

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Demortia
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Re: Simulation and Strategy

Looks like people have been real busy making some cinematic movies of SH3. Some of these are damn good too! Check em out!

SH3 Movies

Last edited by Demortia, 5/18/2007, 2:21 pm

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5/18/2007, 2:20 pm

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