I created a reddit post with some ideas, and a few people suggested that I posted it on the official forum. I will edit and also post some more ideas based on replies I got.
Here are some ideas to allow better submarine counterplay, while still allowing skilful captains to perform well:
1. At the 30m and 6m depths, the spotting radius scales with hydro range. It is still 2km at the 60m mark depth. This will allow ships with long range hydro to keeps subs spotted and reward a good submarine captain knowing what ships to avoid.
2. At the 60m depth, torps cannot be launched at surface ships, only other subs.
2. Some ships are equipped with an ASW mortar. This functions like a 3km airstrike, but with a wider area of effect.
3. Depth charge damage scales inversely with submarine depth, meaning it is beneficial to surface to avoid damage, but this may risk you getting spotted.
4. Floods and fires will repair slower when submerged, this could be as little as 20% slower, but that would make a difference if DCP is on cooldown.
5. There will be a minimum distance away from the target that you can hit a ship with a ping after you have launched the torps. This would make you have to give a little more time to react after getting hit with a ping.
6. A new lock on scrambler consumable that would break the ping instead of DCP, however its use would let subs spot you. Only the submarine would be able to see you. This wouldn't be too much of a nerf to surface ships as most of the time you're not only spotted by the sub anyway.
7. At 2km, specifically other submarines can proximity spot, but only the submarines can see the other submarine and it won’t appear on the map for anyone else.
8. Submarine underwater detectability could scale with speed, however this would be difficult to implement and learn.
1 more idea that someone had was that dropping depth charges and using hydro would spot you for the submarine. I think this could work as it isn't too much of a nerf for the same reason as number 6.
The aim of these is for submarine players to have to think more about engagement distance and the risk reward of being spotted and taking damage. Not all the changes would have to be applied, but I believe they could all individually make a difference. Let me know your thoughts on my ideas! I plan to do another one of these soon for CVs, however these are more difficult to balance.
