Give players the option to make enemy torpedoes more visible

[jeeweej]

Right now I get the feeling that the AI has a weird and somewhat annoying advantage over the player when it comes to torpedo gameplay.
Whenever my ships launch torps, the AI IMMEDIATELY changes course as if their lookouts do nothing but look at the torpedo launchers of my ships.
While I, on the other hand, am just left guessing if a ship is launching torpedoes or not, even when it's just a few hundred meters away from my fleet. I'm not even getting a notification except "<SHIPNAME> is avoiding torpedoes"...if I'm lucky.

Now, I realize that the "invisible" torps are done from a historical perspective, but even then ships had lookouts watching for telltale signs of launches or bubble trails. So I would suggest an option giving the player a bit more feedback on enemy torpedoes. This could be just making the AI torps visible when within a certain range (depending on tech for example), or a message saying "lookouts from <SHIPNAME> report incoming torpedoes".

Long story short, a little more info would be nice from a player perspective.

[blarglol]

May 29, 2023 6:34:54 GMT -6 jeeweej said:

Right now I get the feeling that the AI has a weird and somewhat annoying advantage over the player when it comes to torpedo gameplay.
Whenever my ships launch torps, the AI IMMEDIATELY changes course as if their lookouts do nothing but look at the torpedo launchers of my ships.
While I, on the other hand, am just left guessing if a ship is launching torpedoes or not, even when it's just a few hundred meters away from my fleet. I'm not even getting a notification except "<SHIPNAME> is avoiding torpedoes"...if I'm lucky.

Now, I realize that the "invisible" torps are done from a historical perspective, but even then ships had lookouts watching for telltale signs of launches or bubble trails. So I would suggest an option giving the player a bit more feedback on enemy torpedoes. This could be just making the AI torps visible when within a certain range (depending on tech for example), or a message saying "lookouts from <SHIPNAME> report incoming torpedoes".

Long story short, a little more info would be nice from a player perspective.

If you look at the logs after, you will see the AI launch a lot of torpedoes that never hit you. If you got a message for all of those it would just be spam that would break into the game.

The "*Insert ship name* is maneuvering to avoid torpedoes" message is essentially the same thing. It's assumed that ship captains are trying to avoid spotted torps. I once had a "lucky" captain get a special message about barely avoiding one with a last minute helm order.

[wlbjork]

May 29, 2023 6:34:54 GMT -6 jeeweej said:

Right now I get the feeling that the AI has a weird and somewhat annoying advantage over the player when it comes to torpedo gameplay.
Whenever my ships launch torps, the AI IMMEDIATELY changes course as if their lookouts do nothing but look at the torpedo launchers of my ships.
While I, on the other hand, am just left guessing if a ship is launching torpedoes or not, even when it's just a few hundred meters away from my fleet. I'm not even getting a notification except "<SHIPNAME> is avoiding torpedoes"...if I'm lucky.

Now, I realize that the "invisible" torps are done from a historical perspective, but even then ships had lookouts watching for telltale signs of launches or bubble trails. So I would suggest an option giving the player a bit more feedback on enemy torpedoes. This could be just making the AI torps visible when within a certain range (depending on tech for example), or a message saying "lookouts from <SHIPNAME> report incoming torpedoes".

Long story short, a little more info would be nice from a player perspective.

The best info you can have is to activate the torpedo range ring (blue dotted line).

If any enemies are within that range ring, manoeuvre away from them every 2-3 turns. If they make a sharp turn away from you, you make a sharp turn away from them. Assume they have either launched torpedoes or are preparing to launch torpedoes and change course to mess with their aim.