In my eyes NF just gave the non ss class ships 3 weapons... sonar, hh and dc to combat them. I would have liked to see a bigger picture where they made the subs more powerful when submerged and weaker when they are surfaced.... just like the real ww2 combat.


First the aspect for sub itself:
I would give the subs extra under water lvls (like the airplanes) where they can cruise around instead of just a surfaced, submerged and crit dive lvl. The way I see it I would give them the surfaced, periscope depth, -1 lvl, -2 lvl, silent running/crit dive lvl.
Surfaced and periscope depth will be used to attack surfaced ships or submarines just like we are used to now. The submarine hast the longest overheat and biggest speed when surfaced and at each lvl they dive they get a bigger penalty in OH and speed. If for example a sub goes OH 40 knts surfaced for 2 minutes, I would make them go 38 at periscope depth for 1m30, 36 for 1m at lvl -1, 32 at lvl -2 for 1m, and 26 for 1min at crit dive lvl . I would give all subs the same speed to make it more attactive to play ss1 and ss2. The benefit of the higher tier subs will be te same as this of the bb, more dp and higher damage (torps).

At lvl -1 and -2 a sub can only attack another sub if he is on the same lvl. So I make it a guessing game for them now... more skill and perhaps luck required to dodge torps by switching the -1 an -2 lvl. So if subs A is at -1 he will miss his torps when the other subs is at -2... yes even the proxy torps. This makes it more challanging.

At crit dive they are invisible for eachother and all the rest of the ships ofcourse but they go extremly slow. I would remove the crit damage the subs takes.... unless it's over 70% damaged.

In adition I would give the subs a bit longer air supply because of the more difficult and more time wasting gameplay the will have and make them stronger against HH and DC or make HH and DC weaker in damage. Because in my system subs will be vunerable when they engage at periscope depth... if you read further. But only through testing and balancing you can truly find the good solution about the asw weapons. I also woudl give all types of torpedos the possibilty to make them go fast or slow and that you can adjust their time or distance to explode if they don't hit something at impact. So this means torps of torpedobombers included.

I would give the 4 depths different sprites. The lower it is the darker the sprite.

1 more addition I would like to add is a 3d sonar area. I think that a sonarman at surface (for subs AND surface ships) can spot the ss at periscope depth in a bigger area then when they would be at -1 and even smaller when they are at -2. But the same goes for subs when they are at -2. They can see there enemy in a bigger area at -2 and the area gets smaller at -1 and smaller at periscope depth and surface. So you force them to come up to see more if they are alone and have to hunt surface ships.

Now for the cvs
Just like in WW2 the planes had a big role to spot subs. I would give the cvs a extra plane to use... the radar plane. It has less vision then a recon/scout plane. This plane can be used by a recon pilot. So cvs have to make a decision if they go for the vision of for the sub hunting.
The radar plane would be given 3 special abilities:
radar: where they can spot subs at periscope depth, -1 lvl and -2 lvl. sonarbouys (make them indestructable because they would be to small for any ship to shoot at it), depth charges and mines. These last 2 things I would also keep for scout planes. In adition I would give the scout plane and perhaps every other plane the ability to spot subs only at periscope depth.
Sonarbouys will be able to see subs passing by at lvl -2 in a certain area around it that should be determined by testing. Subs can spot these bouys aswell so the can crit dive pass them if they want to remain their stealth. I would also limit the bouys to a max of 10. It's also time that SDE makes cvs able to switch the ordance on their planes, give the AP bombs a future but also make them able to switch from sonarbouys to DC or mines.
About the mines... they will only engage ships at surface, periscope depth and -1 lvl. The depth charges will be adjustable at what lvl you want them to explode. Depth charges will be the only weapon that can hit a sub when at crit depth. But because it's invisible there it's a guessing game for the attacker, but the fact the sub goes slower there makes it more difficult for him to escape. I would also make the damage area of a depth charge 3D. So If I set them at -2 they hit the hardest at -2 but still do like 30/40% of their damage at 1 lvl under and above the lvl you set to explode. In adition I would also give the DC explosion new sprites. When they explode at periscope depth the water splashes higher then when it's set on crit dive. Ofcourse the lower the DC has to go, the longer it travels so the more time it takes to explode. I would like to make the DC set of after 1 sec at periscope lvl, 2 sec at -1, 3 sec at -2 and 4 sec at crit dive.

And cvs still have torpedobombers with torps that engage at periscope depth. The only thing you have to be certain about is that you have to be sure if the sub is at periscope depth.

Sonar can't be used on cvs anymore.

About the scouts I would see something changed... a more dynamic vision area. At altitude 100 they get the 100% vision area NF has listed now. But if you let them fly at altitude 50 I woudl decrease the vision with 50%. This is for all planes by the way... But I would not touch the max vision area itself. This makes it more challanging for aa ships. The vision area also includes the CV spotting with recons (periscope depth).
For the radar plane I would do something else... they are more focussed on scouting under water so their vision area ofr surface ships should be comparable of that with torp bombers. But they will be more effective in looking under water. Their radar area under water should decrease at every depth though. But the fact planes are fast and you can sweep big areas with them should make that a negative point. What also would be cool is if they also spot enemy planes and even give them a color depending on what type of plane it is. But I'm not sure they used radar planes other then spotting subs in WW2.


Now for all the other surfaced ships
Depht charges have been explained with the cvs. HH would only be possible to engage subs from surface to lvl -1 or -2. I'm sure about this yet... because of the high density and damage of hh I would like to give the subs a fair chance and give them a safe spot for hh at -2. But this way you force them to go there and engage the subs waiting for them over there and also the fact Depth charges can be adjustable to more depths and the DCs were the weapon that was used the most. So a smart more skilled sub player would use the other lvls while a noob gets pwnd at the lv he thinks he is safe... -2 lvl.
I would also make the bulge stronger against splash damage... subs can't carry lots of bulge so they just get a bit stronger against DC but not compared with the BBs. another alternative could be the bulkhead... not ve