Helicopters / Aircraft

[vincentvanouch]

Guy's, I'm playing Dotmod 2.0 ... the 1986 north Atlantic, BUT almost every time I'm near winning the senario, the Helo/Aircraft come out of nowhere and take me out, A.I Knows where I am, what I'm doing and even how deep I am, just now I've been 30 seconds in and ... 2 Air dropped Torpedoes on my head, Slipped 1 the other got me, they're killing the game for me .... Is there a way to alter what they're doing ??? Thanks in advance for any help.

[The Inept European]

In the vanilla game - stay deep to avoid MAD. Watch for when the helos are dipping. Watch for when the MPA drop bouys. Stay quiet when they are dipping and when bouys are near you. And of course, do not raise your masts or surface. These are all the ways that aircraft detect you.

If you are detected, it should be possible to evade 2 air dropped torps. The air dropped torps from aircraft are small, and have limited range/endurance. And the aircraft only carry a small number of torps.

Try these tactics first. If that still does not work, you can reduce the MAD detection range by changing the ini file.

[vincentvanouch]

Lots of missions around the Norway coast, Landings ... 200/300 Feet depth, Escorts are easy, Hunting is when Helo's strike, I'm at 5 Knots and no time to do anything Before Boom Boom Boom, If A.I has been set to 100% kill, It needs addressing.

[The Inept European]

Shallow missions against aircraft are the most challenging, because it is hard to evade MAD.

The AI has not been 'set to 100% kill'. It is entirely possible to survive these missions and beat them.

If you are being attacked immediately at the start of the mission then you are moving too fast on the strategic map. Move slowly.

I'm guessing you have not played the vanilla game, but have gone straight into DotMod? It might be a good idea to play the vanilla game first until you get the hang of that, before adding DotMod.

[vincentvanouch]

Well, I've been in this game now for a while, 2 years ish on and off, never had problems like this before, so I know where you're coming from, A.I is just crazy sensitive, I'm 1700 deep, at 5 knots .... the Helo sweeps in and I'm Dead, I refuse to Die like that so, every time I complete a mission, I save the game so I can start over if anything goes wrong ... 2 / 3 Days in a row until I find a way to beat it, it would be great to know if possible, how to tone the helo down by half in the game files but, still giving me the challenge.

[The Inept European]

MAD should not detect you at 1700. I think the standard depth is 1000 ft, slant distance, so that's only if they are right on top of you at 1000 would they detect you.

Everything except MAD, you can beat by stealth.

Is this in the campaign game or in the single missions? If in the campaigns, the most likely cause of being attacked right at the start of the mission is moving fast on the strategic map. You need to right click to go slow instead of left click to go fast (iirc).

Back in the day, people who said they knew, said MAD detection in this game was too good. I have no idea what DotMod sets MAD detection to, but there were suggestions to turn it down to say 500 to be more realistic. If you are interested I will look up the ini setting.

[vincentvanouch]

If you would take a look, I don't know what to look for .. i.e Tweeking the settings.

[The Inept European]

The modding guide is here

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=938593459

But TBH I could not find the config setting for MAD sensitivity in there.

[The Inept European]

Here is a discussion from FIVE!!! years ago about what happens if you turn off MAD or reduce its effectiveness. But frustratingly it also does not give the name of the relevant key in the config file.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/541210/discussions/0/2183537632750558852/

I don't have the game installed at the moment but I suggest if you read the modding guide and then inspect the config file, there will be an obvious key name that has 'MAD' or 'Magnetic' in it, that just isn't documented in the modding doc.

[The Inept European]

If you search MAD in this forum you get some interesting topics that discuss real life performance of MAD and in-game tactics to evade. For example if you run deep and fast, or even shallow and very fast, you are pretty much immune to depth charges from MPAs because they fail to lead the target with their drops.

And as I think I noted above, they run out of torps quickly and the torps are relatively easy to evade compared to other torps.

[vincentvanouch]

Wow, that's a lot to take in, I read the MoD's discussion about the problem, talking about taking the MAD file out, Pleased it's not just me being thrown off a Wall, at least now I have a chance to find the nastie file and do some tinkering ..... Thank you for this Inept European, you're a star.

[The Inept European]

You are very welcome.

I reinstalled the game and found the right key

in file

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Cold Waters\ColdWaters_Data\StreamingAssets\default\config.txt

the key you want to change is:

MADDetectionRangeInYards=400