First' date=' great comments.
Subs slowing down - yup, the inertial calculations are a bit lame and so they stop rather too abruptly.
The Merchants - we modelled the actual turning radius of these giants and as close as our current physics system let us get to acceleration/decceleration profiles.
DD's - We initially had them much less agile, boy where we surprised when we went back to the historical videos, accounts from guys who served on DD's etc. The were amazingly spry and had a pretty good acceleration profile when underway. One thing that probably throws you is the fact that the DD's tend to run at 2/3 and will push it to flank when under direct torpedo fire. Corvette's could turn within their own length and DD's could juke and jive pretty well too.
We are working on replacing the current physics model as it doesn't allow us to fully utilize the damage model we are putting in so many of these issues will tie more directly into the ships themselves instead of being structured performances based on research etc. In real life DD's could outrun a torpedo with sufficient warning.
Jeff Herne helped us with the stopping distances and turning radius numbers at speeds for the various warships.
Multi-selecting to give orders is already on our list of upgrades to the Big-Tactical screen. I too hate having to go one by one.
Some missions do start too close to battle. The philosophy behind Enigma is to follow a "cinematic" approach to the game. In single-player especially you start no more than 2 minutes from your impending battle. Things like reload times are also changed to allow a more "hollywood" level of battle without slipping into a full-on arcade shooter.
AI submarines are very difficult to kill precisely because they employ real-life tactics (with some exceptions) in their attack/defense cycles. And while the missions are staged, we almost never script what is going to happen. We give the AI orders and the AI determines how best to carry them out. Some will abandon their orders and come hunt you down, others will stay on convoy duty if that is their assigned order. The submarines will hide well below 100 meters and they utilize silence, depth changes, visibility intervals (the 15 seconds after a DC goes off for example you will usually find them twisting and turning at Flank to change their aspect to you).
If you have your settings on easy, we show exact direction, range, etc. in the visibilty rules. If you have it set on difficult, your speed, direction ,etc. are all factors in your picture of the battle. At 500m with you at flank in a destroyer, you will likely only see the last known positions of a submarine and nothing else. If you are in a sub - same deal...last known positions only because your hydrophone guy can't hear squat at flank.
Some of the reload times, etc. will likely get adjusted as we go forward in the future upgrades to the game. They will never be realistic because we aren't trying to be a ship simulator. We are simulating the experience of being a commander on a boat/ship, staged in a Film style environment. Some of it we pull off well, the rest of it, well...we're working on it.
--East
I agree you should be able to select targets directly from the view.[/quote']
I think you guys got the balance between full realism and arcade spot on. Ok' date=' it might take longer for a sub to coast to a stop in real life, but this is not real life...[/quote']
