Pole Position (Spoilers)

[Primarchx]

So I've started Pole Position and like the fact that it's really about espionage/sabotage over combat. You only have a small number of SSN/SSGNs at your disposal with some detachable units aboard - RHIBs, SDVs, etc.

Starts out with three Virginia and Seawolf SSNs given patrol boxes under the ice. Other subs have more involved missions. The Jimmy Carter is to head off to an underwater power generator and hover, the Ohio is to be in position to start taking Russian SOSUS points out and the Dallas is ferrying spec ops around to conduct on-site cyber attacks against the Russian SOSUS control nodes.

There are a few ancillary units out of your control that don't add that much to the game. A pair of CP-140 Auroras is in the Bering Sea area and there's a land-based air search radar in that region as well. A couple of USN SSBNs are on patrol near the operations area. Otherwise not much.

Set the various boats on their way. Patroling SSNs troll their zones and the others head toward their objective areas. Dallas gets on station by the closest control station and sends in their SEAL Delivery Vehicle. SEALs march to the objective (and spot a pair of Tu-142s flying around), hang out for a couple of hours and are then retrieved by an RHIB from the Dallas.

While I'm told the cyber attack is successful I don't really know what that means. It may be spelled out in the orders or message but I didn't pick up on it. I thought maybe it unlinks the SOSUS points with Russian navy units so I can approach them and not worry if my unit gets detected? Not sure.

Also I see a problem with the range of the SDV. It only has a few hours of battery and has a speed of 6 kts. You need to drop it pretty close to be able to retrieve it. I was able to drive the Dallas closer to the shore without broaching to pick it up before it ran dry.

Dallas then goes VDeep and scoots at 25kts to the second control node. In the meantime Ohio has gotten on station but I'm unsure if I want to start taking out SOSUS points(and how do I do that? Just drive the UUV up to it?) because I don't know if the Cyber attack has covered the approach. Jimmy Carter arrives on station and has to spend several days examining the power plant. The three other SSNs have seen nothing other than Biologics and continue their patrols.

When Dallas reaches the second control node it looks like the sub can't approach to any more than 40nm. The SDV does not have the range to get to the drop off and back to the Dallas. In fact it might not be able to make the beach, period. My thinking was that maybe I need to disable more than one control node with SEALs to allow the Ohio to proceed with its' mission. But now I'm stuck.

Any hints on how to proceed? Thanks!

[Gunner98]

Primarchx

The dilemma of the cyber attack is that you just don't know how effective it is, and things could come back on line over time.

The cyber attack should render the communications between the SOSUS nodes and the rest of the world inoperative - for a time. Thus you have a window of opportunity where your detection from the SOSUS nodes will not be transmitted to the rest of the Russian force, allowing you to go in and disable them.

You're comments do tell me that I'll have to adjust the briefing to make that more clear, and that the Dallas' mission should also be clarified. You only need to do the SEAL trick once, and yes you need to chose your spot wisely.

Hope that helps.

B

[Primarchx]

Thanks, Gunner! I wasn't sure what the outcome of the cyber attack was going to be. I assume I then send in the UUV to hit the sensors?

[Gunner98]

I assume I then send in the UUV to hit the sensors

Yes, I cannot remember the time required but you should get a message

B

[Maromak]

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

I assume I then send in the UUV to hit the sensors

Yes, I cannot remember the time required but you should get a message

B

I believe it is two hours.

[Tailhook]

So then does only one cluster need to be taken out by Ohio? That was another thing not clear with the briefing.

[Gunner98]

Multiple if possible.

B

[Primarchx]

Here's my tally for that first game. Could of gotten a couple more Cluster Lance but spent a while hovering while trying to determine what to do. No sign of Russian sub activity at all. Tu-142s were picked up flying in a 2-ship group along the northern Russian coast and a Be-12 was picked up for a while as well. Scored a Major Victory.

6/29/2017 12:32 PM: Score changed from 0 to 100. Reason: Event Action: 'US +100' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cyber Attack')

6/29/2017 1:23 PM: Score changed from 100 to 150. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cyber Team Extract 3')

7/1/2017 3:33 AM: Score changed from 150 to 200. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - CH3 Removed')

7/1/2017 1:37 PM: Score changed from 200 to 250. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - CH2 Removed')

7/2/2017 12:34 AM: Score changed from 250 to 300. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - CH1 Removed')

7/2/2017 2:18 AM: Score changed from 300 to 400. Reason: Event Action: 'US +100' has been fired (part of Event: 'PZ Alaska')

7/2/2017 2:35 AM: Score changed from 400 to 500. Reason: Event Action: 'US +100' has been fired (part of Event: 'PZ Greenland')

7/2/2017 12:12 PM: Score changed from 500 to 550. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - ES1 Removed')

7/2/2017 9:51 PM: Score changed from 550 to 600. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - ES2 Removed')

7/3/2017 12:27 PM: Score changed from 600 to 650. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - ES3 Removed')

7/4/2017 7:49 AM: Score changed from 650 to 750. Reason: Event Action: 'US +100' has been fired (part of Event: 'PZ Ridge')

7/4/2017 9:22 AM: Score changed from 750 to 850. Reason: Event Action: 'US +100' has been fired (part of Event: 'ATGU')

7/4/2017 1:22 PM: Score changed from 850 to 900. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - LP2 Removed')

[Tailhook]

Had a lot of fun finishing this one up, but I think it needs a tiny bit of work.

My experience was similar to Primarch. Didn't detect any of the special mission submarines. Mississippi did detect a Yasen class SSN (that didn't detect it) while patrolling off Alaska. I gave it a wide berth and continued my patrol. Illinois finished it's patrol without detecting anything besides Whales. However, on the transit to help the Seawolf search the central ridge, it detected a Borey class SSBN. I decided that tailing this would be more interesting, so that's what she spent the rest of the mission doing (again, undetected). Dallas rode shotgun for the Jimmy Carter while it finished the last 2 days of inspections on the ATGU, having completed the SEAL insertion. The Ohio sprinted from array to array, dropping off the Echo Voyager (what an impressive machine!) real close to the array, hedging my bets that the communications would stay down. Doing this I was able to disable every single operational cluster lance, although there was a funny bug with one (explained below). As the scenario ended, Illinois continued it's tail, Seawolf and Mississippi continued their fruitless patrols, Ohio was heading for the inactive arrays, and Jimmy Carter for a [removed] disabled array for a role playing snatch operation. All in all, very fun and I recommended it to a friend of mine going through submarine training. Well done.

Two problems I noticed:
1 - With the Cluster Lance in the vicinity of 80N 154E, deploying the echo voyager acted very weird because it considers it under the ice pack even though the map shows it's not. They kept teleporting the submersible well north of the Ohio and not letting me give it orders due to no Diesel submarine operations under ice. Tried this a couple times until I reloaded and brought it well south of the array to deploy it. I recommend moving this array a few miles south so it doesn't interfere with Echo Voyager operations.
2 - I don't think the special mission subs moved. I loaded a couple different saves and they were always in the same spot, at 98 feet and 0 knots (corresponding to their start positions). Maybe I broke the LUA somehow but I never messed around with the editor on my initial play through. It looked like they are supposed to move around to different construction points, but I didn't see anything and thus wasn't able to detect them (One save showed one of my SSNs well within detection range if it had been moving).

Triumph
Your final score is: 1100

6/30/2017 05:25: Score changed from 0 to 100. Reason: Event Action: 'US +100' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cyber Attack')
6/30/2017 05:58: Score changed from 100 to 150. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cyber Team Extract 3')
6/30/2017 09:47: Score changed from 150 to 200. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - CH3 Removed')
6/30/2017 16:13: Score changed from 200 to 250. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - CH2 Removed')
7/1/2017 00:38: Score changed from 250 to 300. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - CH1 Removed')
7/1/2017 08:53: Score changed from 300 to 350. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - ES1 Removed')
7/1/2017 15:53: Score changed from 350 to 400. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - ES2 Removed')
7/2/2017 02:59: Score changed from 400 to 450. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - ES3 Removed')
7/2/2017 06:01: Score changed from 450 to 550. Reason: Event Action: 'US +100' has been fired (part of Event: 'PZ Greenland')
7/2/2017 07:04: Score changed from 550 to 650. Reason: Event Action: 'US +100' has been fired (part of Event: 'PZ Ridge')
7/2/2017 08:12: Score changed from 650 to 750. Reason: Event Action: 'US +100' has been fired (part of Event: 'PZ Alaska')
7/2/2017 13:22: Score changed from 750 to 800. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - LP1 Removed')
7/2/2017 23:30: Score changed from 800 to 850. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - LP2 Removed')
7/3/2017 12:50: Score changed from 850 to 900. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - LP3 Removed')
7/4/2017 03:45: Score changed from 900 to 950. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - SV1 Removed')
7/4/2017 18:04: Score changed from 950 to 1000. Reason: Event Action: 'US +50' has been fired (part of Event: 'Cluster Lance - SV2 Removed')
7/4/2017 18:37: Score changed from 1000 to 1100. Reason: Event Action: 'US +100' has been fired (part of Event: 'ATGU')

[Gunner98]

Thanks Tailhook

I noticed your first point on Kushan's stream the other night and will fix.

For your second point, is it possible that you were opening from a saved .scn file? They are moved about randomly in a scenario start event, and the event is then deactivated when opened again.

I will double check the base file.

thanks

B

[Tailhook]

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

Thanks Tailhook

I noticed your first point on Kushan's stream the other night and will fix.

For your second point, is it possible that you were opening from a saved .scn file? They are moved about randomly in a scenario start event, and the event is then deactivated when opened again.

I will double check the base file.

thanks

B

I just ininstalled the DLC and re-installed via Steam. The subs were in the same starting spot, and none of the special mission subs (or their escorts) were assigned to a mission. I didn't run it for very long, so maybe they are assigned to a mission later, but still.

Can you PM me a fresh .scen file? I don't see how I could have modified mine and I hoped steam would be a fresh install, but you never know.

[Gunner98]

No they should have been assigned immediately. I'll check. Thanks

Not sure my files will work with your licence. Might be something messed up.

B

[Gunner98]

OK

There is a problem and I will get a fix to the Dev's ASAP

The .Scen file has the 'scenario start' event deactivated.

Easy fix: Go in the editor, open Editor/Editor Events/Events

Go to the 'Scenario Start' event.
Edit that event
Tick the box 'Event is Active'
Close everything
Save the game under a different name
Open it up again
You should see the notification that the 'Scenario Start' event has been fired.

Sorry about that, not sure what happened.

B

[Tailhook]

That fixed it, I'll give it another run.

[RafaleKiwi]

Just like to add that really enjoyed my first play though of Pole Position as US.

I liked the covert side of this and in my opinion is a far more realistic contemporary use of Naval Forces (Touch wood it remains this way).

A couple of observations:

A pop up appears saying "The Patrol of PZ XXXX is completed, you may re-task those assets" that meant nothing to me as the PZ's were called something different in the Brief and the markers. So I kept all patrols on Station

I got either greedy or reckless and tired to launch a second Cyber attack at a different SHELF - moved my SDV to the beach and I was advised of the drop off of the team (at beach 2), but they did not spawn onto the ground so I couldn't complete the second attempt. I tried a second time after re-docking at Dallas and was totally ignored so the trigger worked once as I would expect. The First attack was as Beach 3.

Lastly Jimmy Carter was spawned about 100 NM south of the start Bearing Straight which means it didn't give me a lot of time to get it on station and do it's task, in fact time expired before it's mission was was complete.

And sorry I don't have a save for the SEAL issue if you are allowed t do more than one attack. Edit Just read the preceding posts

You only need to do the SEAL trick once

But kudos to the designer I really enjoyed it, even if I did only get 550 Average. I made these observations not to be critical but to potentially improve and already good scenario.

[Grazyn]

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

OK

There is a problem and I will get a fix to the Dev's ASAP

The .Scen file has the 'scenario start' event deactivated.

Easy fix: Go in the editor, open Editor/Editor Events/Events

Go to the 'Scenario Start' event.
Edit that event
Tick the box 'Event is Active'
Close everything
Save the game under a different name
Open it up again
You should see the notification that the 'Scenario Start' event has been fired.

Sorry about that, not sure what happened.

B

Hello, first I must say I really like your scenario, thoroughly researched and detailed.
I didn't notice this thread so I reported the bug you mentioned in the tech support forum (can't link the thread for some reason but it's on the first page), as you can see in the second post in that thread there seems to be other issues that are not fixed by activating the event, namely the Seawolf and the Ohio not being automatically assigned to their missions when playing as Russia and US subs that fire on you due to patrol RoEs even before they get the "sink one sub" event.

[Gunner98]

Lastly Jimmy Carter was spawned about 100 NM south

Thanks, appreciate that. Will check the patrol messages to make sure they match the tasked patrols.

The Jimmy Carter has 6 random start positions. With the Scenario Start event enabled she should move around a bit, with the scenario start setup that came with the release and isn't changing, she is in the worst possible position for the player

I'll make sure that its clear in the orders about the SEAL team.


Cheers

[Gunner98]

namely the Seawolf and the Ohio not being automatically assigned

Grazyn

Well spotted on the deactivated event. That should be fixed now. In that event it checks to see if you are on the human side before assigning the missions. So if you changed to the Russian side and fired it, all the US subs should be assigned to missions but the Russian ones won't be.

I will check on the posture settings.

Thanks

[Grazyn]

I checked it by starting the scenario in normal mode (with event activated) on Russian side, I unpaused and let a few seconds pass, then I saved and loaded the save in editor mode. Changed sides to US and noticed that all subs got assigned correctly to their missions except for the Seawolf and Ohio.

[Gunner98]

OK I'll double check that - thanks

B