dctoedt 4 hours ago

> Developing an intuition for these situations is hard. They never happen in real life, and we practice them in high-fidelity trainers where time is precious, so young officers don't get many reps. I thought it would be fun to cheaply simulate close range engagements on a laptop, and play against my friends on the web.

I remember reading, decades ago, that the U.S. Navy's flight school in Pensacola had a student who'd done unusually well in the course because he'd bought a copy of an early version of Microsoft's Flight Simulator software (IIRC) with maps of the nearby Navy airfields used for student training. That led to the Navy adopting PC-based flight simulator software generally. (I couldn't find a reference.)

  • cckolon 4 hours ago

    That's exactly the type of thing I was going for here!

Boogie_Man 4 hours ago

>Some games, like the early-2000s Sonalysts simulations, accurately simulate TMA, but they are so complex that they are hard to learn. As a qualified submarine officer, I still couldn't figure out how to play Dangerous Waters.

We love our wargamers don't we folks

dave333 an hour ago

Seems like a good strategy is to circle slowly until you pick up a sonar trace and then try to follow it and get in the opponent's baffles. Converting the sonar trace into a map of the opponent's position over time is the essential skill and is something that I'm sure is automated in real submarines.

ilikebits 3 hours ago

This is great! I loved playing Sub Command as a kid, and seeing the very familiar waterfall display was a real blast from the past.

spike021 4 hours ago

One of my first Game Boy (Color?) games was a sub combat game. I think it was the first thing I ever ordered off amazon.

AcerbicZero 3 hours ago

I love submarines, military history, and all things that this should fit with, but I can't seem to get the hang of this. I kinda wish I could play it solo to just to figure it out.

  • cckolon 3 hours ago

    I didn't make a solo game mode, but you can play against yourself by opening the link in a new tab if that's helpful

derbOac 2 hours ago

I think HN sunk the battleship game?

azalemeth 8 hours ago

This is very cool. On the tutorial page, if you confirm the torpedo (and it fits) should you get a 'congratulations' popup?

  • cckolon 8 hours ago

    yeah I love that!

fred_is_fred an hour ago

Playing this for a few turns and you will see why they developed the banjo and then the Torpedo Data Computer. I am currently reading a fiction submarine warfare book (entertaining with warts) and they cover the switch over.

The book is Sink the Rising Sun.

The TDC is described well here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_Data_Computer

Manual for the banjo here. Imagine a slide rule that could solve the problems in this game (given perfect input data) - https://maritime.org/doc/banjo/index.php

ge96 5 hours ago

Not sure if it's obvious/implied should say multiplayer