PCPP Game Guide 2/PCPP_GG2.iso/PCPP/faqs/fastattk.txt

Text File | 1998-06-02 | 28.8 KB | 488 lines

Fast Attack [FAQ]

Fast Attack Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1. What is difference between the TB-16 and the TB-23 towed array
sonar?
A1. In all probability, a submarine would not have both of these installed,
but we chose to give the player a choice. The TB-23 is modeled to have a
larger diameter and thus more sensitive hydrophones than the TB-16. The
TB-23 also has more hydrophones and is therefore longer than the TB-16.
Because of its increased diameter and more sensitive hydrophones, it is
more sensitive to flow noise when dragged through the water than the
thinner TB-16. This causes the array to become noise saturated above
about 12 knots. The TB-16, on the other hand, is usable at a higher speed.
The increased length of the TB-23 also means it takes longer to deploy and
retrieve than the TB-16. Most modern submarines leave the towed array
deployed when on patrol, retrieving it only for high speed transits.

Q2. Is there any way to estimate the depth of a submarine contact?
A2. Probably the best you will be able to do is determine if the submarine
is above or below the layer. You can do this my making note of the width
of the noise trace on the passive sonar display for the submarine contact.
Then change depth across the layer and see if the trace gets brighter and
wider indicating a stronger signal, or dimmer and narrower indicating a
weaker signal. When you and submarine are on the same side of the layer
the signal will be the strongest. This will be easier to do when the cross
layer attenuation is a larger number. When the attenuation is small, there
may not be a discernible difference in signal strength.

Q3. What causes the 'Can't allocate memory for SMACKER code' error
message?
A3. It means the machine ran out of memory trying to get room to load the
.smk (smack) file from the CD-ROM. You will need use the boot disk
method, or somehow make more memory available. The amount of low, or
conventional, DOS memory is not important, as long as there is some for
the sound card buffers. Total memory free is important, so removing
memory managers such as QEMM or EMM386, disk caches such as
SMARTDRV, and RAM disks such as RAMDRIVE can free up memory.
Fast Attack has its own protected mode interface, so all you really need is
HIMEM.SYS to control the A20 line.

Q4. How do you get the TASM's to work? What's the use of having them if
you have 15 minute old solutions?
A4. We probably made a mistake even loading the anti-ship variant of the
Tomahawk in Fast Attack. In fact, TASM's haven't been carried by
submarines for quite some time because of the difficulty in getting real
time targeting. The submarines grew to hate the TASM because they would
have to spend hours at periscope depth communicating with either aircraft
or getting into a data link with a battle group in order to get targeting data.
This means that they have lost their stealth and might as well be surface
ships or aircraft! So, the submarines don't do it, although they can. The
Harpoon is just as capable a missile at the ranges a submarine can manage
with its onboard sensors and a whole lot cheaper! You can use the TASM,
however, provided that you get 1) either two satellite position reports; OR,
2) a MASTER number on the AO map. The later means that you have
satellite data AND local sensor contact. The course and speed from those
two observations will be used to generate an "estimated position"
(hopefully, the target didn't change course or speed) so the TASM has a
better, but not good, chance. We have actually been able to hit bad guys
with TASMs, but it is not worth the work. I think we'll take them out if we
do an upgrade on this game.

Q5. Why does the crew talk all over each other? One second the sonar guy
will be telling me of a new contact, then the helmsmen interrupts him!!!
A5. This was done on purpose! The control room of a submarine has many
different communications circuits which are just like intercoms and are
called "announcing systems" and given an "MC" designation. In general,
the lower numbered MC overrides, or has priority over, a bigger numbered
MC circuit. The exception is the 4MC, or emergency reporting system,
which has the highest priority of all. The 4MC is like the "911" for a
submarine crew member. All stations on a particular MC can hear the
other stations on the same MC, but not those on another. Except the
control room, which can hear them all! For example, the Maneuvering
room (7MC) has no way of knowing that the torpedo room (21 MC) or the
sonar supervisor (27MC) is using that circuit, so he just talks. In the
control room, the Officer of the Deck and Captain hear them all! Its the
same as trying to listen to two or three radio
channels at the same time. This, in our opinion, adds to the authenticity
and to the "tension" that builds has you get closer to the attack.

Q6. Is it possible to load portions of the game onto the HD for faster
access?
A6. Yes, See the readme.wri file for details (not the readme.txt - it doesn't
have the same information).

Q7. Why do all tracks start out at 10,000 yards and 10 knots?
A7. The default solution is ALWAYS 10,000 yards, speed 10 knots, with a
course that points directly at you (i.e. reciprocal of the bearing). This was
built into the real-world Fire Control to support the "snapshot" procedure,
a situation where you suddenly gain contact and want to get a torpedo in
the water like NOW! In the "REAL" mode of Fast Attack we try to emulate
all the systems as accurately as possible.

Q8. Are there some tips you can give for getting a solution using the Fire
Control System?
A8. Yes, here are some that might help. Let's start with some basics: If you
are playing in EASY mode, the solution should already be very close -
within 5-10% and you should really not need to tweak it. In STD mode the
error increases to about 25%, and is enough to cause a miss if you don't
"polish it" a bit. In REAL mode, the solution is just the default solution
(see Question/Answer #7). It is not likely to be anywhere close to the real
answer. Here are some more tips:

1) Unless the contact is very WIDE on the sonar screen, it is
not likely to be 10,000 yards away. It is probably
considerably further away. You will learn that older ships are
noisy and can be heard at quite a distance, newer or better
maintained ships are quieter. If the ship is on the surface,
check to see if you are on the same side of the layer. If not,
and you still have him, he might be close. Look at the cross
layer attenuation value. 6.0 db halves the range of detection.
Since you seldom know anything about the contact initially,
move the range out to 20,000 or so. Use the RIGHT mouse button
to make the change faster.

2) The default 10 knots is a good first guess. After you get a
classification, you can make a better guess. Merchants, for
example, don't get paid by the hour, so they will be moving
faster. Tankers, and BIG merchants can do 18-20 knots. Older
ones 12-14. Patrol craft usually "sprint and drift"; speeding
up to 30+ knots to reposition for another sonar search, than
slowing to 5-10 knots to listen. While you're waiting for sonar
to classify the contact, use the COURSE knob (again use the
RIGHT mouse button) to get the line as straight as possible.
What we want to do is get as much curvature out as possible,
even if the dots move at an angle from the center.

3) After using CSE to get the line straight, adjust RANGE to
get it vertical. You will have to iterate this process. As
soon as you get it reasonably vertical, press ENTER. I'll
explain why in a minute. Now speed up and turn across the line
of sight. (i.e. If the contact was on your starboard side,
turn right to get him on the port side; or vice versa) Turn at
least 60 degrees. As you get close to the end of the turn,
slow down again. You want to speed up during the turn to get
the ship to turn faster. You want to slow back down to be sure
the bearing dots are as accurate as possible. If your original
solution was good, the dots will continue to be vertical. But
this is not likely. The range is probably the bad value now.
Adjust to get back vertical. If the dotted line shows a sharp
"break" rather than a curve, it is likely the contact has
"zigged" (i.e. either changed course or speed). If you suspect
that a zig has occurred, press CLR to erase all the points
prior to the zig; those are worthless. If you make a habit of
pressing ENTER frequently, you can easily delete only the bad
points. If you are remiss, you will end up having to delete
several "good" dots in order to get all the dots straight. It
is more important to have the LAST (newest) 10 or so dots
straight and vertical, than the oldest ones.

4) Watch for target zigs. If the target changes course, all old
dots are worthless. The CLEAR button allows you to delete all
the dots collected above the horizontal time line which moves
to the last dot when the ENTER key is pressed. This is why it
is important to press ENTER each time you get a dot stack that
is straight. Then if you leave the screen and return and the
dots are streaming to the left or right, you can press CLEAR
and start the whole process again.

5) The key to getting a solution "good enough" to shoot on
really depends on getting the range. You *CAN'T* get the range
unless you are either very lucky or you change course about
every ten to twelve minutes.

6) Keep Own ship speed under 15 knots except when turning.
High ship speeds cause the bearings to be less accurate. When
it comes time to change course, go to the helm, increase speed
to STANDARD, click in the new course. Go back and resume
stacking. When the helmsmen reports STEADY, go back to the
helm and SLOW DOWN to 5-7 knots. (The speed boost gets the
ship turned quickly; you can use FULL for even better response,
but you better get the speed off or you may cavitate and give
away your presence.)

7) You can use the periscope without using the ACTIVE BSY
screen by "guesstimating" the range. Assume the ship is 100
feet tall. Then 1 division in 6x yields a guesstimate of 8000
yds. If the target is a small escort, he might be only 60
feet, so the same 1 division is .6 (60/100) times the 8000 or
4800 yards. Return to the BSY Passive and adjust the range to
the guesstimate.

8) After a while, you can use the width of the sonar trace to
guess the range. The width of the display is directly
proportional to the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) of the contact.

9) Don't use active sonar. Don't go fast. Or, you'll find
yourself under attack!

10) Time acceleration works against you when you're learning. The dots
show up faster, but you don't have enough time to think about what to do.
Try to picture the target. The dot offset from the center line is the ERROR
between truth and what you think he's doing. So if the dots are moving left,
then your solution must change the motion across the line of sight.

Q9. Why can we only save the game between missions?
A9. The decision to not allow saving and restoring the game at any instant
was made solely on technical reasons. The shear complexity of saving the
state of all the screens, sub-systems, and engines was daunting and would
have required major design changes. In retrospect, because of all the
comments received, this might seem to be a poor decision, but the decision
process for all features in this game was always biased toward realism,
accuracy, and authenticity. This means we made it behave as close to the
way it really works rather than the way Hollywood or fictional novels have
depicted it. Making the player stand by his decision on a mission and play
it through to completion and evaluation seemed like the more accurate
way.

Q10. Why can't I clear a contact from a Tracker in Passive Sonar?
A10. This situation only occurs in EASY mode. Targets with a primary or
secondary "sink" objective are automatically assigned to available ATF
trackers. These should be the first targets to be fired upon. As these targets
are sunk and removed from the game, ATF trackers become available and
are then automatically refilled with other targets having a primary or
secondary "sink" objective. So as long as there are more "sink" objectives
than trackers, you will not be able to clear a tracker. This also provides a
nice hint to the player: Sonar contacts that are NOT auto-assigned when
there is a tracker available are therefore not an objective, and need not be
attacked (and probably should NOT be attacked).

Q11. How can I change ordered course, speed, or depth faster than one
increment at a time?
A11. By using the RIGHT mouse button on the arrows in the helm screen
or WLR9 screen, depth and course can be changed by 10 feet/degrees, and
speed by 5 knots.

Q12. How can I use the information of the WLR9 Acoustic Intercept
Receiver to advantage?
A12. Active sonar normally searches on a selected range scale of typically
4000 yards, 10000 yards, or 20000 yards. This means the sonar will send
out another sound pulse after sufficient time has elapsed for the previous
pulse to go out to the end of the search range and return. The speed of
sound in water is about 4800 feet/sec (1600 yards/sec). Therefore it takes 2
seconds for the sound to go out to 1600 yards AND return. So for every
second that elapses between the outgoing pulse and hearing the return
echo, the range is 800 yards. When the sonar operator hears a return echo,
he probably would do two things: shift to the shortest possible range scale
to allow him to get more frequent range information on the target, and
switch his sonar to the "range gate" mode. In the "range gate" mode, the
sonar automatically send out another pulse as soon as the echo is heard.
These characteristics can be useful. If the contact stays in a long range
scale, it is likely that he does not have contact on you. On the
other hand, if the contact should start to range gate, you can be 95% sure
he has contact and is moving in for an attack. The WLR9 interval can tell
you the range ONLY IF THE CONTACT IS RANGE GATING. Multiply
the displayed interval by 800 to get the range in yards. You can then enter
that range into Fire Control to initiate a preemptive attack.

Q13. What is the difference between the satellite broadcast and the satellite
recon? Aren't they both from the same satellite?
A13. In the game, a new submarine broadcast begins at 5, 20, 35, and 50
minutes past every hour. On VLF, the broadcast repeats over and over for
the entire 15 minutes. So if your floating wire is exposed for long enough
during a broadcast period, you will be able to receive any traffic for your
sub. The periscope has a built in antenna that can receive the broadcast via
UHF satellite. This broadcast emanates from a communications satellite in
geo-synchronous orbit about 22,000 miles in space. This broadcast method
is NOT repeated: it is sent only once EXACTLY at the time specified. If
your antenna is not exposed, you will miss it. The reconnaissance satellite
is a "spy" satellite that will pass over your area of operations at the times
specified in the mission orders. This satellite is in a low polar orbit about
150 miles in space. This satellite will photograph all vessels that it can see.
Cloud cover or smoke may prevent a vessel from being seen, and, of
course, submarines and submerged or very small objects will also not be
detected. This imagery will be radioed to an intelligence processing center
as soon as the satellite is within range of the station. Analysts will interpret
the data and prepare a message with identification and estimates of course
and speed. In the game, this processing takes fifteen minutes to complete
before the message is available for placing on the next submarine
broadcast. EXAMPLES: Satellite photos are taken at 7:05. The processing
takes until 7:20, and since a broadcast starts at 20 after it will just make it
onto the 7:20 broadcast. This is the quickest this series of steps could
execute. A picture taken at 7:25 wouldn't finish processing until 7:40, and
would not be transmitted until the next broadcast at 7:50.

Q14. My game will occasionally "lock up": The mouse will move, but I
can't click on any icons or buttons to perform any action. What's wrong?
A14. In our experience, this is almost always caused by a sound card not
being set up quite right. When running soundset to configure the sound
card for Fast Attack, do not bypass the tests. The digital device test consists
of the diving alarm, which is two "AooGa" sounds played in succession. If
you only hear one, or if either gets clipped, then your sound card is not set
correctly. The auto detection actually looks at the environment variable
BLASTER that most cards set to be "Soundblaster compatible", so if this is
wrong or not present, then the detection may not work correctly. Probably
the biggest draw back of autodetection under WIN95 is that the parameters
that WIN95 is using, are not accessible to the soundset program. Another
factor that may help alleviate the problem is the amount of time the sound
system gets to play and refill its buffers. The command line switch
/SOSINTRATExxx can be used to adjust this value. The default is 125, but
ProAudioSpectrum boards will operate with this value as low as 50, while
the AWE32 may require a value as large as 250 or more.

Q15. What is the purpose of the blue line that extends outward from the
torpedo on the BSY screen in the Torpedo Mode?
A15. There are two lines drawn from the torpedo's position dot. The blue
line represents the best course for the torpedo based on the current solution.
The yellow line is the steer cursor. If the target zigs (changes course or
speed radically), you may have to update your solution using either the Plot
screen of the BSY Passive Mode. After updating the solution, return to the
Torpedo Mode and notice the blue line has probably moved away from the
yellow steer cursor. This means the torpedo's course should be adjusted.
Using the center knob, click either right or left as appropriate to move the
yellow steer cursor on top of the blue ideal course line and then press the
SEND button. The torpedo will turn to the new course.

Q16. After I launch a torpedo, the yellow search cone passes right by the
target without acquiring. What's wrong?
A16. The problem is that your solution was not perfectly accurate. But
don't worry; it doesn't have to be perfect to get a hit. The Mark48 is a fairly
smart weapon with good detection capabilities and will overcome often
large errors in your solution. About the only error it can't overcome is in
the case where your solution is too long in range. In this case, the torpedo
will not enable (start searching) until it is past the target, and thus miss. It
is always better to under estimate the range. You should also pay attention
to the range to the torpedo when it does acquire the target since this can be
used to update your solution in case you need to shoot another weapon. As
long as the wire is good, the upper left display of the Torpedo Mode
display will show the range from ownship to the torpedo. Note this value
when the weapon acquires and update the range using the Passive Mode to
this new value. Correct the course of the other torpedo if necessary.

Q17. Why do some torpedoes appear to shutdown within 1 minute of
launch?
A17. The Mark48 torpedo uses a fuel that contains its own oxidizer so it
can burn underwater. This fuel is hard to ignite and needs a high heat
source to get it started. So, in order for the torpedo to get up to speed, it has
a small solid fuel booster that burns for about 60 seconds which is usually
enough to get the liquid fuel burning. However, sometimes it is not
enough, and the solid fuel runs out without achieving "crossover" and the
torpedo will shutdown. This happens about 5% of the time and is done to
add realism. This is why you should always have a backup weapon ready to
go.

Q18. Sometimes I notice that the Mission Log reports a Harpoon or
Tomahawk missile as having shutdown. What happened?
A18. Missiles are not 100% perfect in real life, nor are they in the game.
All missiles are given a 88% chance of overall success. This means they
may shutdown on a fuel system failure, or maybe the homer won't work
12% of the time. And remember, just because the odds of a heads or tails is
50%, doesn't mean you can't flip heads 5 times in a row.

Q19. Are there any "cheats" in the game?
A19. Yes, there are three cheats that can be enabled separately with
command line switches. Command line switches can be entered in several
ways. You can edit fast.bat to make them permanent, or, if you are running
from WIN95, you can add them to the COMMAND LINE field of the PIF.
Of course, in DOS you can just add them to the "fast" line when you start
the game (i.e. type FAST /Switch<enter>). The first cheat allows you to get
a perfect solution on a track in the Plot screen. Here's how it works: First
enable the cheat with /PLOTSOLN command line switch. Then, when you
are in the PLOT screen, select a track and press ALT-F5. The exact
solution will be displayed. To use it, press SEND. The second cheat allows
you to look at the "big picture" and see all the ships, aircraft, mines,
weapons, etc. and their motion. To enable this you use the /TEDISPLAY
switch. Then, while playing any scenario, press ALT-~ (Alt key and tilde
key) to activate the display. Use the ICON bar buttons to exit the display. It
is not a good idea to have time accelerated when in this screen, as this will
cause some missiles to miss. The third cheat isn't all that useful, but it
allows you to play a sequence of missions without being penalized for
failure to complete primary objectives. This switch allowed testing the
medals and promotions aspects of the game without having to plod through
every single mission. To use this, simply enter /SWSGOD as the switch. At
the end of a mission, you will still be rebuked for not accomplishing the
primary objectives, but as soon as the next mission begins, all will be
forgiven. It will then proceed as though you had been perfect.

Q20. Why do missions have time limits?
A20. Each mission was given a time limit as part of the overall scoring
plan, and to add impetus and excitement. This is part of modeling life in
the military. You just aren't allowed to take forever to get that report done,
or, in this case, sink the bad guys or find the mines. In reality, if you took
too long to find the mines, as an a example, ships could be sunk because of
the delay.

Q21. During Battle Sets, when are the replenishments scheduled?
A21. Replenishment occurs PRIOR to the start of the indicated mission in
the
following table:
Campaign Missions
Persian Gulf 4, 7
Sea of Japan 4, 7, 10, 14, 18
Adriatic 4
Mediterranean 4, 6, 9, 11, 14
GIUK 5, 7, 9

Q22. What has to be done in order to complete a Secondary objective of
"plotting" a target?
A22. In order to successfully get credit for a PLOT objective, the following
must be done:
1) Classify the target on sonar. To do this you must of course
have sonar contact and then press CLASSIFY and wait until the
target is classified. How long this takes is a function of
signal strength and time (i.e. strong signals classify
quickly, weak signals take longer); AND
2) Obtain a solution that is within 20% in range, course, and
speed.

Q23. When attempting to launch Tomahawk missiles, I get stuck in the
VLS screen with "1 Away" displaying over and over at the bottom of the
screen. What's going on here?
A23. Unfortunately, this is a bug that got by our QA testing. This only
occurs when you have SPEECH set to OFF in the PREFERENCES screen,
so the work around is to be sure that SPEECH is set to ON when launching
Tomahawks.

Q24. Why can't I get more information from Sonar, such as Turn Count,
Blade Rate, and speed or aspect changes on targets?
A24. The modern sonar is designed using advanced signal processing that
allows detection of ships at very long ranges. Detections display visually as
a brightening on the CRT display. This allows the display of many
contacts. While there is ONE audio channel available to actually listen to a
contact, turn counts, blade rates and such are usually measured using a
frequency domain display which, because of its complexity, was not
included in the game.

Q25. Why can't we control the settings on the Mark48 Torpedoes to take
advantage of the thermal layers, and such?
A25. We decided that allowing the player to chose settings for his
torpedoes did not add much to the game. For any given situation, there is
an optimum choice for running depth, etc. that the player would have to
learn, and once learned, would be used consistently. So what we did, was
to automatically make the optimum selections: the Mark48 always transits
to the enable point on the opposite side of the layer from the contact, and
goes to the best search depth for the type of target.

Q26. Why does the animation show the 688 with fairwater planes, when
the 688I class doesn't have them?
A26. Seven 688 class submarines were built that had the vertical launch
system and fairwater planes, so there is no inaccuracy here. The latest 688
class, however, do have the planes moved to the bow for better under ice
capability.

Q27. Are there helicopters or other aircraft in the scenarios? What is there
capability?
A27. Yes, several missions have helicopters or aircraft. In some cases,
these are hostile, while in other situations, they are friendly. Regardless of
their alliance, the aircraft are usually equipped with active and passive
sonobuoys and a very effective search radar that is optimized to spot a
periscope. The patrol aircraft (BEAR, P-3C, etc.) will carry air dropped
torpedoes, and harpoon missiles, while the helicopters will carry no more
than two torpedoes.

Q28. After I've been sunk, the mission log says that I was hit by an SS-N-
14 SSM. If I'm submerged, how can a surface-to-surface missile hit me?
A28. The SSM (surface-to-surface missile) designation is generic to any
missile launched from a ship at or under the surface at another ship at or
under the surface. An SS-N-14 is a long range Anti-Submarine Weapon
carried by some Destroyers, Cruisers and Frigates.

Q29. Why is the range to a contact that is displayed in the sonar screen
always so far off? Can't the sonar operators get better information?
A29. The range to a contact, no matter where it is displayed, is always the
current Fire Control solution's range. This means that depending on the
Difficulty Level (see Q/A #7), it is no better than what you, the player,
have entered. If you haven't changed it using either the PLOT or the BSY
PASSIVE, then it will just "generate" from the initial solution. One of the
basic principles that must be learned early in the life of both a submarine
officer and sonarman, is that you cannot get a range with any accuracy by
listening. A guess would be just that: a guess. About the only thing you can
say is that a contact with a high bearing rate is "near", and the concept of
"near" depends on what maximum speed capability you want to give it. On
board the submarines, a sonarman's guess of range will only erroneously
bias and slowdown the plotting team's effort to get an analytical solution.

Q30. Why can't I always get an active range from sonar? My solution looks
good and the range is under 20,000 yards, but I can't get a return on active
sonar.
A30. There are several possibilities. First, your solution may not be as
accurate as you think. If you haven't confirmed your solution with radical
course changes (see Q/A #8), this is probably the most likely reason.
Second, the contact may be "cross-layer" and the combined cross layer loss
to the outbound ping and then to the return echo might be reducing the
sound level below what can be heard. Third, the contact may have a low
reflectivity, either because of its aspect (bow or stern gives less surface area
than broad on the beam), or because of an anachoic coating which absorbs
the sound rather than reflecting it. Of course, you could have a
combination of these reasons.

Q31. Immediately after starting the game, I get a report that the ship is
cavitating and that I'm about to run aground. What's going on?
A31. We can't say for sure, but we were able to duplicate this symptom on
a computer that did not have a math coprocessor. Fast Attack! requires the
math coprocessor that is part of all Intel 486DX and Pentium chips. Some
"486" chips do not have the coprocessor, such as the Intel 486SX series,
and some from AMD or Cyrix. The MSD utility that is part of DOS can
tell you if you have a Math Coprocessor installed.