Matrix Games Forums

I'm having numerous Submarine matches where at some point I'm unable to change speed/course/depth. I will upload a game save where I can't change depth and speed.

Hi Gazorgan,

There are times when a unit may ignore your plotted course / speed / depth orders if the AI takes over to engage a target or evade a threat. When this happens you will see 'Engaged Offensive' or 'Engaged Defensive' in the right side panel. I think what you're seeing is the 'Engaged Defensive' case. If this is not what you're seeing, please provide step by step instructions for reproducing what you are seeing using the saved game.

If you want full, manual control of the unit you can change this behavior using the doctrine settings. These are in the right side panel (scroll down) or in a separate dialog (hit Ctrl+F9.) If 'Automatic Evasion' is set to 'No' the unit AI won't do anything when it detects a threat and will respond to your course/speed/depth orders.

As a side note, there is another setting for 'Ignore Plotted Course When Attacking' that is set to 'No' by default (meaning stay on your plotted course even when engaged offensive.) If you set this to 'Yes' a unit will decide its own course when attacking a target, even if you have ordered it to go a different direction with a plotted course.

I'm playing a scenario, attached, in which my sub Suffren on a plotted course keeps changing it depth. It is not attacking or evading anything.

I have run it twice for 20 minutes game time at high accel. It varies a few meters along its path. But you have it set to run under the layer and the layer varies up to 10 meters around that area. So the sub adjusts its depth.

Thats what I see in build 1147.14.

btw, its on a mission. As soon as I take it off manual depth handling, it goes right to the mission depth.

I've been puzzled by this before I started looking at the Mission or other behavior (auto evade, etc.).

It would be nice to have a UI pop-up or some other means to tell the player, "Manual Control being over-ridden by "xxxxxx"."

It's common enough that it would really help the gameplay and ease the barrier to enjoyment.

To the OP: Do you understand now why it is behaving this way?

I'm sorry, I gave the wrong sub in my post. The Sub 603 Casablanca is on a plotted course and keeps varying its depth despite the order to be just above the layer.

OK, can help a little by putting this in a separate thread with the correct info in one post, as the devs usually ask? We now have two tech reports and a feature request mixed into one thread and I'm worried the OP's original ask will get lost.

OK, I checked S603 also. It stays just above the layer (-246 ft) until just past Sicily. The depths start to shallow out and the layer creeps up to -108 ft. At that point, S603 starts to rise to stay above the top of the layer. For the 100nm leg that takes it past Sicily, the depth varies a few meters to account for changing layer top.

I checked S606 also just in case you made another mistake. In the future, if you have an issue with subs, it helps if you turn off the "realistic sub comms" setting. It saves anyone looking at the issue a step or two.

I ran the scenario some more. S603 is in deep water and keeps changing it depth. I'm using the latest update 1147.14. I tried turning off auto evasion with no change in behavior.

ORIGINAL: JPFisher55
I ran the scenario some more. S603 is in deep water and keeps changing it depth. I'm using the latest update 1147.14. I tried turning off auto evasion with no change in behavior.

New thread, please. NO PILING ON, PLEASE. You've been on this forum for how many years, for Christ's sake....

Hello?

After numerous discussions with other players, and some digging I've found several issues. Mainly the game is unplayable out of the box. The default behavour for the units pretty much doesn't work for any given scenerio. My buddy spends an hour or 2 undoing some settings some units will do what he wants (like not fire 2 weapons at a target, or setting muitple waypoints so you can flip a unit to plan B). I don't know what the solution is. You want a submarine to dodge torpedos. In my case it wasn't a defensive manuver. in fact the inability to make a change leads to quick death.

So I've written off the $80 for the game. After the next patch I may wander back to it, and make a cheat sheet for default behaviours. I really do understand emcon and other engagement rules, and this isn't a FPS sim. It's just gameplay wise it is a lot of work and not much fun. I need to look at some of the downloadable campaigns, that might be more helpful.

I'm taking my ball and going home.

Thanks for the feedback, different horses for different courses.

For DLC I would recommend Northern Inferno, Shifting Sands or Desert Storm. These have a gentle start and become progressively more difficult. There's also a selection of tutorials which explain how to play the game.