[Audal]

Those of us who have played this classic sim know how deadly accurate and crafty the AI can be, especially when it comes to surface ASW. But when it comes to the ordnance itself, well...

1. Probably the single most effective way to dodge a torpedo is to head straight for it.

Obviously this works best when you detect the torpedo at a distance, and it is a slower, long range type... it's not very useful against, say, an SS-N-15 missile. But anyway, when you have enough distance to do this, the fish almost always loses you. This makes some sense, but what doesn't make sense to me is that the fish now gets VERY confused.

What do I mean by confused? well...

the behavior of one type of torpedo in active LR configuration when it loses track of the target for more than a short period of time (since there can be intermittent losses) is to hold depth and move in a wide circle, pinging rapidly, until the target is at least briefly re-aquired, then head in the direction of the contact. Simple and effective, although it could potentially result in the wrong target being tracked.

BUT, about half the time, if this torpedo reaquires its target during the loop, rather than heading that way, it begins to move randomly. Depth, direction, and speed all change completely at random, until the torpedo runs out of fuel. Similar strange behavior can be observed in other ordnance

2. Mk. 48s seem to have a NASTY tendency to run circular! I don't know if this is accurate. Something tells me it isn't. But... suppose you fire a Mk-48 long range or high speed, at a sub (this doesn't happen with surface targets). And the sub maneuvers and attempts to evade the torpedo. The 48 will make course corrections, but particularly in high speed mode it can be out-turned by the submarine, and swing wide. If this happens and as a result the torpedo is now closer to you then to the target, about 80% of the time it will start to track you! If it is no longer on the guidance cable, you had better hope that it reacquires its intended target before it hits you (which it usually does... but not always!)

3. The worst problem, thankfully, was fixed, only appearing in early versions of the game. You're fine if you have the CD-ROM classics version or even if you got it more then a month after it came out. This problem involves the sea lance. If a target is destroyed with a Sea Lance still in the water heading toward it, no matter *where* you are the Sea Lance will *always* head towards you. This doesn't apply to ones fired by friendlies, only by you - except for one fired by another player in a co-operative multiplayer game. Of course, it will usually run out of fuel long before it reaches you. But still...

[Audal]

Edit: D'oh! Double post!