aetius

Moments of interest: 13:50 - 1st fox sighting 15:28 - 2nd fox sighting (probably the same one) 35:28 - 3rd fox 1:01:15 - switch ST6 to white-hot 1:31:40 - 4th fox 1:34:40 - visual / thermal inverted reflections on water 1:38:10 - sleeping birds 1:39:38 - 5th fox with his kill Conditions were about 35F and clear, with an almost full moon. It was a clear, warm day so thermal viewing conditions are optimal. I changed the ST6 to point right and down by a few degrees, which provided a noticeable improvement when my brain tries to sync the two images. Just after the halfway point I switched the Opsin to black-and-white mode and the ST6 to white-hot mode to give a different perspective. I increased the ST6 to contrast 3 (from 1) to help the images stand out more. ST6 take is still at 70% alpha to better simulate what I'm actually seeing. ST6 take also scaled to 91% of original for the same reason.

Night vision/thermal fusion with Sionyx Opsin on the left eye, Rix ST6 on the right eye. Conditions about 50F, light rain transitioning to heavy rain, I start hiking at about 0400. During the hike I spot a chipmunk, a herd of deer, and a raccoon. Apologies for the extraneous movement on the ST6 - the mount worked its way loose and I didn't have my tools to tighten it up. ST6 take is at 70% alpha and scaled a bit to better represent what I actually see through the optics. Note that the video ends suddenly because the Opsin crashed trying to transition to a new video file - I thought it might have been water damaged, so I stopped recording at that point. (It was not, fired right up when I got home.)

While out testing at about 0500, I run into a fox who is having some success hunting. Note that even though it is pitch dark and I'm 25+ meters away, he is fully aware of me and quickly beats a retreat into the woods with his prize. Sorry there's no Opsin take or audio of this, I accidentally deleted the files while cleaning up the Opsin's storage.

This video was my best attempt to display what happens when I try to fuse the take from a Sionyx Opsin and a Rix ST6 thermal. This is not perfect because I'm not a video editor, and syncing the two is ... difficult. The ST6 take is at 70% Alpha because it's far brighter than the Opsin take in most scenarios. Conditions were mostly clear, no moon, some light from the city and across the river - very dark. This was my fourth attempt at this, and the first that was mostly successful. The primary problem I've run into is that the ST6 and the Opsin apparently have differently sized screens (different size pixels?). My ST6 take appears down and to the right of the Opsin take, and is ... wider? It's difficult to describe. I tried numerous different positions for the ST6 in relation to the Opsin (the Opsin is harder to move, I'll do a different video showing the setup). The only thing I can think of is that I need to move the ST6 forward, which is what I did to get this - but it's still not ideal. I think the optimum setup would be taking the feed from both sensors and merging them electronically into the same display, with the ability to scale and adjust as needed. That, however, would require a system to do the merging, and potentially increase latency. This also would require interoperability that doesn't exist at the moment, and might be difficult to establish.

Conditions were about 29F, cloudy, no moon, some backscatter from the city lights and lights from across the river. I run into a snow squall while hiking. The Opsin can actually see pretty well through it to about 50 or 60 meters. I also slip and fall on the icy trail. :)

This is my analysis of the prototype CV mechanic changes that Wargaming put out yesterday. There are some major concerns surrounding the transition between travel mode and attack mode, as well as this prototype not actually resolving most of the plane spotting issues.

This is the second part of a roughly three mile hike I took to show the Sionyx Opsin running under varying light conditions. Conditions were partly cloudy with no moon, some glow from the city lights on the clouds.

This is the first part of a roughly three mile hike I took to show the Sionyx Opsin running under varying light conditions. Conditions were partly cloudy with no moon, some glow from the city lights on the clouds.

This is the third part of a roughly three mile hike I took to show the Sionyx Opsin running under varying light conditions. Conditions were partly cloudy with no moon, some glow from the city lights on the clouds.

Attempting to use low-latency audio to detect any video latency in the Sionyx Opsin's display. Both the display and the recorded video are 30fps 720p. First test is with 2D noise suppression off, second test is with 2D noise suppression turned on.

I'm regrinding the IJN light cruiser line for Research Points to prep for Kitakami. I'm having a pretty good night. And then ... yep, that's John_the_Ruthless in his Colbert on the enemy team. One of the top players in the game, in a ship that he has a 79% win rate in. And I'm a bottom tier light cruiser. :) I end up doing pretty well with some mistakes. A center cap is huge for our point gain and eventual victory, but my early torps were wasted. Our west flank folds under pressure and I maneuvered to try and blunt the push, playing super defensive to stay away from John's Colbert. John pushes into the center cap and takes it while their Kremlin and NC take multiple torpedo hits and fires. John ends up making a mistake and going down to our GK. We're still not in great shape, but we hold on just long enough for the points to get to 1000 and squeak out the win!

A stupid game where I should have died early, but somehow survive in the middle of the map as everyone else dies, just like Harry. I end up engaging a Massachusetts and a New Orleans with secondaries, but to no avail - excellent play by the enemy Asashio seals the win for them.

A crazy game that ends up incredibly close - so close that it mattered when the points were being added to the team's score. I did extremely well, but died to a pair of subs that were in our base. Our Shimakaze had pulled the two enemy Edgars to the NE corner, so our Yamato went for the enemy base in case we failed against the subs. Our Z-52 gets the subs, and the Yamato hangs on *just* long enough for the points counter to be in our favor ... some of the time.

The Hornet's AP bombs can be frustrating, but ... sometimes they are just brutal.

My Undine was never spotted, yet somehow the opposing Undine pinged me perfectly broadside. Was he just lucky? That's some pretty insane luck, given the possible places I could have been - not to mention depth. Given how difficult it is to ping targets you can see, this seems ... statistically dubious, to say the least.

A wild game where my Pobeda survives multiple close encounters with a bit of luck and a bit of skill. An island juke lets me survive an inexperienced sub player and a DD that pushed unopposed down the west side. Our U-190 almost pulls off an early capture, but doesn't quite make it and things devolve into a slugging match in their cap. I move in to support but the battleships die and I end up facing both a Cockroach and a Gneisenau at very close range. With some angling and rapid attacks, I'm able to beat down the Gneisenau for the win.

Demo of the hook technique with FDR torpedo bombers. If you wait until aiming is complete, turning will not disrupt the aiming reticle.

Proximity Fuze is a captain skill that provides -10% anti-torpedo protection. What exactly does it do? At the beginning of the video, I show where the torpedo protection is on the Yamato (55%), the Yodo (19%), and the Harugumo (0%, not present). What PF does is reduce that protection by a straight 10%. For example, the Yamato's protection goes from 55% to 45%, the Yodo from 19% to 9%, and the Harugumo stays at 0%. The first series of strikes are WITHOUT Proximity Fuze (captain has regular fighters). The second series of strikes are WITH Proximity Fuze (captain has interceptors). Conclusions: Proximity Fuze only helps with strikes on torpedo protection. The unprotected maximum damage for two Hakuryu torpedoes is 16936, which is what we saw on multiple strikes on unprotected areas across multiple ships. Saturation reduces torpedo damage by about 25%. Strikes on unprotected areas are VERY likely to cause floods, while strikes on torpedo protection are more likely to disable modules (primarily engine in the case of Yamato). Strike results: 00:55 - Two non-PF torps on unprotected Yamato bow for 16936 damage. Remember this number, as it will show up elsewhere - it's the normal damage on unprotected targets. Also note that this strike damage saturates the bow and causes a flood. 01:16 - Two non-PF torps to the protected Yamato amidships for 8121 damage. Note the engine knockout. 01:40 - I *think* this is one non-PF to saturated Yamato bow and one non-PF torp to torpedo protection for 8293 damage. Note this causes another flood (amidships?). 01:58 - Two non-PF torps to Yamato amidships for 8121 damage. 02:17 Two non-PF torps to Harugumo for 15820. I'm relatively certain this was due to bow saturation (see other Harugumo hits below) 02:41 One miss and one non-PF torp to Yamato amidships for 4042. 03:03 Two non-PF torps to Yamato amidships for 8168. 03:25 One miss and one non-PF torp to Yamato amidships for 4042. 03:44 Two non-PF torps to Yamato bow for 17101 - I believe this is a cheek strike that hit the citadel for a bit of extra damage. 04:04 Two non-PF torps to Harugumo amidships for 16936 - standard unprotected damage. 04:26 One non-PF torp on Yodo bow and one non-PF torp on Yodo amidships for 13506. It's actually hard to avoid the Yodo torpedo protection as it is extensive, but note that the damage is only about 3.4k less than maximum, which makes sense as 16936*0.81 = 13718, so we likely saturated the bow. 04:46 One miss and one non-PF torp Yodo amidships for 7072. 05:09 One miss and one non-PF torp Yodo amidships for 7072. ***** 05:27 One PF torp to Yamato amidships and one PF torp to Yamato bow for 13353. 05:48 Two PF torps to Yamato amidships for 9607. Based on previous results, this is approximately 743 additional damage per torpedo based on 8121 damage from non-PF torpedoes in the same spot. 06:11 Two PF torpedoes to Yamato saturated bow for 12719. 06:29 Two PF torpedoes to Yamato amidships for 9854 - approximately 866 additional damage per torpedo (vs. 8121). 06:51 Two PF torpedoes to Harugumo amidships for 16936 damage. No benefit from PF. 07:12 Two PF torpedoes to Yamato bow for 16936 damage. No benefit from PF. 07:34 Two PF torpedoes to Yamato amidships for 9807, approximately 843 additional damage per torpedo from PF. 08:01 One miss and one PF torpedo to Yamato amidships for 4885 - approximately 842 additional damage from PF (vs 4043). 08:22 Two PF torpedoes to Yamato amidships for 9854 damage. 08:40 Two PF torpedoes to Harugumo amidships for 16936 damage - No benefit from PF. 08:04 Two PF torpedoes to Yodo amidships for 15830. 16936*0.91 = 14920, so maybe one missed the torp protection? 09:28 One miss and one PF torpedo Yodo amidships for 7915 damage. 8468*0.91 = 7706, so more damage than expected by about 200. 08:52 One PF torpedo to Yodo bow and one PF torpedo to Yodo amidships for 14535. 10:13 Two PF torpedoes to Yodo saturated bow for 12153.

The CV kill pocket is roughly 6-8km from the CV. This is where the CV can launch a squadron, make an almost immediate attack, recall, and launch another squadron. It's a very dangerous place to be, as this game shows. I take an aggressive position in my Pobeda and the whole enemy flanks drives straight into the pocket. Many of my attacks are not great, but they are good enough with some support from the Izumo and Andalucia to wipe the entire push and help zero out the enemy team. Extra props to the Andalucia for perfect positioning to team-squash the Jager as it tries to torp rush us.

Russian CVs have big issues when it comes to defending against the snipe - particularly against AP weapons. It's a double CV match and the enemy team leaves mid open, so I take the opportunity to snipe the Serov in four strikes. Props to the Furutaka (patricktheacceptable) for some really excellent defensive play near the end.

This is an example of a real-world series of Ryujo AP bomber strikes on a hapless New York near the end of a battle. The New York actually has significant layered armor from above, so dropping from the top of the bomber animation is key to get straight shots through the armor and into the citadel.

An insane game where both my dds suicide and I'm defensive practically the entire game. I finally land a torp on the Lion that killed our Musashi (yes, really) and then end up pushing the Kaga and shredding his squadrons while getting sniped by the Montana at 18km ... who is a REALLY good shot and finally nails me with a spectacular shot over the mountains just before we win.

Good positioning and some luck lead to a killer San Diego game. No carriers, so it's all about angle manipulation and the San Diego's slow high-arcing shells, plus torpedoes on people who apparently don't know the San Diego has torps. Also note the number of mutually assured kills in this match.

First half of the match does not go well - we end up down two caps and I get pushed off the flank. However, the enemy Allende and Albermarle focus on the trapped Concord Bridge, giving me time to gun down the Gneisenau and then turn on the Allende while he's preoccupied. Colorado finishes off the Albermarle and the Indomitable and I take the Shokaku for the win. 40 attack aircraft kills.

I find myself alone in my Andrea Doria on the south flank. That's okay though, because she's maneuverable, has good guns, and has decent AA even unbuffed. The Ranger player is relatively new and inexperienced, and I take advantage of that as I take out the Cachalot and the Pensacola.