Titane-class heavy artillery submarine
READ THIS FIRST:
1) This is still a WIP submarine, so some elements are suboptimal.
2) This is a very complex submarine, both in controls and raw hardware use. RTFM very strongly applies.
I released earlier versions of this submarine concept a couple of months ago, and, well, many points were in sore need of improvement, as it was told to me in no uncertain terms, so I pulled it out for a bit until I could redo, optimize and improve things towards a useable design, which I believe is the current state of things now with this. So, without further ado, here is the Titane submarine. It comes with the following features:
– Depth control and holding (good depth holding at stop, decent control at speed), automatic yaw and roll stabilisation;
– Nuclear propulsion allowing it to go 45 knots submerged, 55 with the emergency settings (MMR-4660 reactor – https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2575298033 );
– Command room including radar and sonar display, weapon control, navigation and piloting consoles, gunnery control, reactor control, radio console (not functional yet) – some displays from FN-20’s modular radar system ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2512555909 – not fully integrated yet);
– Cosy bedroom to rest while travelling;
– Bottom and top diver hatches with numerous equipment racks for rescue and combat operations;
– Clean sail with hidden periscope, radar and radio masts as well as a small observation deck;
– Heavy armament:
— 4 AR4 torpedoes in forward horizontal tubes ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2620335775 ) with a safety feature to restrict launch at safe speeds;
— 4 AGM-16D missiles in vertical tubes ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2529840788 );
— A retractable heavy autocannon turret with laser and radar guidance modes forward of the sail;
— A retractable twin artillery turret with laser and map coordinate guidance modes rear of the submarine;
– Radar guidance based on the MVC A2 system ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1856165555 ) and ballistic computer based on Shairo-jp’s computer ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2628490430 ). Both have been modified to be compatible with each other, to take into account ownship speed/pitch/roll, target speed for the radar guidance and to allow map coordinate firing. Turret rotation uses velocity pivots with Olaroll’s velocity/robotic converter ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1993616830 );
– An infirmary and rescue hatch behind the artillery turret.
RTFM section (read to not sink right away):
* The red button near the ladder in the command room is the master switch for all displays, pretty much the first thing to activate.
* On the left side of the CIC, there is the reactor control. Press buttons from rear to front in order to activate it. The initialization sequence is best done on the surface.
* Forward-facing consoles:
** Left one, pilot console:
*** The HUD can switch between sail camera display, periscope camera display, radar display and sonar display. Sail and periscope have data about current and desired heading, depth, speed, distance to bottom.
*** The keypad below the HUD allows you to input the desired depth.
*** A/D will give yaw input AND desired heading input. As soon as you stop giving yaw input, the submarine will apply yaw in order to get to the desired heading on its own.
*** Left of the seat is the throttle and the emergency button. The emergency button activates a third electric engine for a burst of speed, which can cause power issues in the long term, and is unlocked in the front bulkhead with the key toggle button.
*** The four commands just below the HUD are:
**** Buoyancy: toggle it to have the ballasts set up for proper buoyancy, the submarine will hold depth even at stop.
**** Reverse: toggle it to reverse propulsion.
**** Underwater light: a forward spotlight.
**** Purge ballasts: will empty the ballasts in order to give you a high enough platform to deploy the artillery safely. PRESS THIS BEFORE DEPLOYING THE ARTILLERY!
Right one, outside data.
Centre displays, ballast filling, rear (poupe), main and forward (proue).
* Right-facing consoles, from forward-most to rear-most:
** Artillery and periscope console, the screen shows most of the time the periscope camera, WASD for camera control, spacebar to shoot with the selected turret;
*** Left throttle, zoom for the map targeting mode. Right throttle, zoom for the periscope camera;
*** Left toggles:
**** Mast will deploy the periscope mast, don’t do it if you go too fast, might be damaging;
**** Gun tracking will order the selected turret to get in firing position, obviously don’t do it if the turret is still inside the submarine. By default, the target will be designated by the gimballed camera laser, the artillery has the map coordinates alternate targeting mode, the autocannon has the radar one;
**** Guns ready indicator, shows whether the artillery guns are loaded with a shell at the moment;
**** Fire on coordinates, switches to a map display which will feed the target point to the firing computer for the heavy artillery and allow you to shoot there;
*** Middle toggles:
**** Gun bay will open the main artillery weapon bay. DO NOT DO IT UNLESS YOU PURGED BALLASTS. Be careful about doing it in heavy weather, flooding this bay is a mission-kill, period.
**** Gun elevator will raise the main artillery turret in firing position. DO NOT DO IT UNLESS THE WEAPON BAY IS FULLY OPENED.
**** Reload gun will initialize the artillery reload process. Toggle it, and untoggle it a couple seconds later to cycle the guns, see if the Guns ready indicator on the left lights up to ensure you got the shells in the barrels.
**** Switch to 127 mm gun, if toggled, will have the targeting data and fire control switched from the main artillery to the heavy autocannon turret.
*** Right toggles:
**** Periscope gimballed camera functions, they are self-explanatory, being labelled and such. Infrared mode, laser activation, tracking mode and stabilisation activation.
*** Top toggles, related to the heavy autocannon turret:
**** Porte 127 mm will open the weapon bay for the gun;
**** Ascenseur 127 mm will raise or lower the gun;
**** Radar Guidance will activate the alternate targeting mode for the gun, which normally takes target speed into account (I’ve yet to properly integrate the system to allow you to easily choose the target of choice);
**** Radar Activation will activate the targeting radar for the gun.
** Radar console, one toggle, raises and lowers the radar mast.
** Radio console, only the Mast toggle does something at the moment, raising and lowering the communication mast. Everything is wired, but I haven’t yet coded the communication system.
** Sonar console, shows sonar data.
** Missile console, shows the status of the four VLS. Toggles for opening/closing the tubes, toggles for firing them (underwater launch possible and very cool-looking).
** Missile console, shows the status of the four torpedo tubes. Toggles for opening/closing the tubes, toggles for firing them. An warning will display if you try launching above 10 knots to prevent misfires, so slow down and do it again.
* Computer corridor: nine throttles to calibrate the ballasts and the depth control PIDs without going back to the construction mode, with a nice seat to allow you to switch to outside view while doing the calibration.
* Artillery room: two toggles below the turret. The right one lowers the clip into the shell reserves and loads it with up to three shells. The left one pulls the clip into the turret to feeds the shells into it. The sequence must be done three times to fully reload an empty turret.
The last pictures are from "variants" I might release if there is sufficient interest in them. 😉
