PPI Display
The PPI display is a good start, but some improvements are needed to make it more realistic and usable.
- Contact persistence is too short – the contact “paint” should remain just visible until the next sweep.
- There are no bearing markings around the circumference – There should be a bearing scale marked out in increments of one degree.
- There’s no sea clutter around the center – The center of a real display is fuzzy due to sea clutter, and the distance it extends from the ship depends on sea state.
- Land masses do not show – this definitely needs fixing.
- Relative Only Display – A real PPI receives an input from the gyrocompass. If the operator selects “True” display, true North is always at the top of the display, regardless of ship’s heading. If the operator selects “Relative” display, the ship’s head is at the top of the display. True display is used far more often than relative display. If the gyrocompass input is lost, the display defaults to the relative display.
- No means to designate contacts or to do a scope head Closest Point of Approach (CPA) – contact designation and motion are usually marked directly on the radar repeater scope head. A good old white grease pencil and a tongue depressor borrowed from the ship’s doctor are used by the watch team to keep track of who is who and what their motion relative to own ship is.
- No means to readily get range and bearing from the PPI display – A real PPI has a bearing cursor and a range strobe, which are used to measure range and bearing from own ship.
- The digital bearing indicator window is annoying – please delete it. This should be replaced by digital range and bearing widows linked to the range strobe and bearing cursor. Even linking them to the position of the mouse cursor over the display would be a great improvement.
F7 – Sonar
Not tested yet.
F8 – Main Battery Director
This station seems to place the player in a mish mash of director officer and director crew roles. DC needs to place the player in the role of director officer and leave the range finder operation to the virtual range finder operator. When locked on to a target while in Automatic Mode, the DC player has little to do. He doesn’t even have to spot fall of shot. While in Manual Mode, the player is inputting estimated target course and speed, while at the same time playing range finder operator. This is not quite how it really works and it needs some clean up. Here’s how:
A real Mk 37 director crew consists of 5 crew members. They are:
- Director Officer
- Director Trainer (follows target in bearing)
- Director Pointer (follows target in elevation)
- Range Finder Operator (follows target in range)
- Fire Control Radar Operator (if equipped – follows target in range)
A real director officer has the following responsibilities:
- Overall supervision of the director crew
- Selection of which guns to be controlled by the director
- Selection of ammunition type (accurately done in DC)
- Verifying the director crew are tracking the designated target (accurately done in DC)
- Selection of type of fire (single shot, salvo, rapid and continuous, etc)
- Most Importantly, SPOTTING THE FALL OF SHOT (not modeled in DC)
To realistically simulate spotting the fall of shot in the automatic mode (i.e., the fire control computer is in operation and computing gun orders), the director sight needs mil markings in both deflection and elevation to assist in spotting the fall of shot. In addition, there needs a means to enter deflection and range spot corrections (not currently modeled). Deflection spots are given in mils and range spots are given in yards. For example “Right 10, Drop 200.” These spots fine tune the computer’s calculated gun orders to get the rounds on target. This job requires intense concentration on the part of a real director officer, and if it gets modeled correctly in a future release, will do the same for the player. I can guarantee that one can not fight the battle from the director officer’s station – you’ll lose the tactical “big picture.”
In the manual mode (i.e., Director Local Control, used if the fire control computer is out of action) the player needs to perform the function of the fire control computer. It is the director officer who is calculating the gun orders for any gun mounts he is still in communication with. He needs to lock the target, just as before. However, locking the target should also keep the virtual range finder operator tracking the target in range (i.e., delete the present requirement for the player to do this). A present target range needs to be displayed to the player (it currently isn’t in the current version). What the player needs to do is enter a future range, i.e., his estimate of the range where projectile and target will meet, and a “lead” angle to account for the target’s motion across the line of sight. The “lead angle” is called sight deflection and it measured in mils left or right of the line of sight. The orders would be something like “Sight Deflection: Left 15. Sight Range: 8,750.” If you thought spotting the fall of shot in automatic was tough, this is even worse. This is pre WW I type gunnery.
Mk. 37 system, destroyer installation.
F9 – Main Battery Guns
A nice to have station, but one I rarely use. Local control needs to be the same way I described for director control, except there’s no range finder, so there should be no present range display. Only a real John Wayne gets hits in this manner!
F10 – 40mm AA Guns and F11 – 20mm AA Guns
These stations allow the player to play Gunner’s Mate at an AA station. There also useful to allow the player to take a virtual tour of his ship.
F12 – Torpedo Director
Not tested yet.
PrtScrn – Depth Charge Station
Not tested yet, other than firing a few K guns and watching depth charges sail through the air. The explosion geysers need to be higher.
