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In regards to the tactical rating:

To answer your question in the terms you provided: it is a “duty.” As most know, the game rests heavily on a statistical underpinning: and as most know- the role, a player takes is that of the Commander of Submarines Pacific (or SW Pacific) – not the individual submarine skipper. Admittedly, there is significant element of illusion to that end in the game when it comes to the feeling that you are “commanding” the submarine each time you resolve a week’s patrol. But in fact, you are not.

The tactical rating is based on several lower level modeling elements and represents capability expressed over time- the more capable the submarine- the more the submarine is able to expose itself to tactical opportunities and situations over a week of patrol. The tactical rating forces the submarine to take on more because, statistically, the better submarines ended up doing just that. It is a mechanism to ensure that the submarine is exposed to a great set of occurrences based on its ability to do so---- over time (in this case, technically- 6 days...)

Remember- although you deploy one convoy for a resolution each week, it’s a mechanism that is *simulating* perhaps multiple encounters. Hence, the better the boat, the more such encounters. It is a critical core actuarial mechanic of the game.


TDC’s,

Likewise to the answer above; this is a statistical mechanic- designed to imply the feeling of tactical combat (desired)--- but in fact represents numerous encounters and multiple estimations of target angles and speeds. The TDC mechanism distributes the probability of having good vs bad angles-on-the-bow over an effective number of targets and hence, its not just one “periscope” look- in fact, its multiple sources (visual, acoustic, estimated), subsumed into a simple mechanic and given a “facade” in keeping with the topic. As before, one needs to separate the illusion of “tactical” combat (desired from a game point of view) from the statistical mechanism which the TDC’s actually represent.

Counterattack is also based on actuarial and statistical data- and results more often from aggressively pressing the submarine in for additional shots, particularly early on in the war. To react with counterattack for every combat in which you place one or more TDC’s would break the system and send your submarine losses through the ceiling.


Design Theory – The Grand Illusion

I tend to favor a particular design approach in which actual data is used to build a complex underlying model which, when fed with the correct inputs, results in reasonable outputs. (For a complete discussion on this method see Averill Law & W. David Kelton’s excellent book, Simulation Modeling & Analysis, 2nd Edition, 1991, McGraw Hill).

Often, this approach will use methodologies, such as the tactical-rating system discussed above, to ensure some number of iterative occurrences in fact, do occur; that is, to ensure for any given statistical sub-model a reasonable result of X, given some probability of Y, one needs to invoke Z number of trials. The trick is to make the system do it all in one take; to keep it simple to play and easy for the player to conceptualize that what they are doing is, in feel, “submarine”ish--- that is, flavored historically correctly in so far as the model and its presentation can do so.

Thus, once the model is done and working, it has to be fitted “contextually” into a game using many Gestault Principles of Perception (for an excellent overview of some of these principles of design see Lidwell, Holden, & Butler’s Universal Principles of Design, 2003, Rockport Publishers) – we need systems and effects that maps the model to the mechanics: in short--- what a player does in-game has to feel like “submarine warfare” while at the same time making a high-level model mechanism invoke the data to generate reasonable results-

-and hence: for the complex integration of submarine capability, expressed over effectively “six” days of operation wherein one can encounter none-to-many instances of convoys composed of few-to-many targets of some-to-many types: we subsume all the aspects of those actuarial and statistical model elements into a simpler expression and give it a name- in this case, “tactical rating,” which, admittedly- when given first view, makes sense (newer sub- better capability) but then later, when played out- makes one wonder why a “better” submarine seems to be at higher risk...

...it is, because by being better, it historically...was.

This is why your wording- “privilege” versus “duty” is exactly correct and is an impressive insight into the underlying structure of the game. It is a “duty” because the model demands the better subs to more actively expose themselves to “more tactical opportunities” than the lesser capable boats, and the more you are exposed to such conditions, the higher your risk climbs.

...and the underlying point is that- its not what YOU are doing with submarine- it’s what the sub’s skipper is doing out there.

The real trick with any design- and one I think we managed to do pretty well with Silent War, is to overlay a very tactile feel of the nature of <fill-in-the-type-of> warfare- onto a very tightly bound model, that itself is a multitude of layers and inter-dependencies- detailed enough to bore any but modeling geeks like me to tears. Thus, the key is to give such a model the right look, the right feel, the right “sense” (and hence why I cited the Gestault principles above) in order to give the game its sense of experience.

The game does give you the illusion of “being there” --- but, as I have said, is actually based on a “skipper” being there and operating historically, while you are back in the giant war room ashore, looking over the big deployment chart- and making campaign decisions based on what’s happening out there at sea.

That Silent War achieves this to any extent is demonstrated by the many excellent AARs posted here and in consimworld; which all of us involved in the game are truly amazed by. We take each and every one of those AARs as a complement to what we made- they- more than anything else, are the reward for making the game.

I hope this answers the question-

Best Wishes
Brien