Your compressed air will deplete submerged at 0 knots?
 

I like SH5 more and more (with TWoS of course), the enemy escorts and incomming planes are the hell aggressive and do their job right, even with map contacts showing inclusive the arcs showing their sonar ranges, I'm not quite able to beat 3 escorts circling over me, quite realistic because I should have done my homework before :)
In one of Stoianm's tutorial videos, which I highly recommend watching, he shows how dangerous it can be to shoot at 90°: that's exactly where escorts will search you afterwards...

Then, with multiple damages I wished I had not installed these improved crew voices because the panic shoutings taken from 'Das Boot' didn't stop anymore. For more 'immersion' in the concrete sense, I whished the water levels would go higher than just 1/2 meter or so, with showing effects of the sub's vertical and lateral aspect angle, also effects by closing hatches and isolating compartments, but the game engine has to be limited at some point.

In such desperate situation I noticed that my compressed air was slowly going away while my sub was stabilized at Battle Station (F7) + silent running and 0 knots. Is it because my pumps or other devices were damaged or is it normal that CA is depleting when maintaining the depth of a WWII sub?

Also: Does anyone know what the F7 command (Battle Stations) really does compared to not activating it? In most tutorial videos Stoianm & co don't bother activating it.
Also what about 'Battle Stations level 2' ? Only thing I know is it's necessary to man and operate the deck/AA gun correctly, but else I hardly see any consequencial effects, does the crew act faster and more efficiently, e.g. during repairs and manoeuvres?

Thanks,

Hi XenonSurf :Kaleun_Salute:

Firing at 90 degree should not make you any more or less detectable if destroyers home in on you its far more likely your scope has been seen or they are picking up noise from your sub an ideal situation would be to fire just before they cross infront of you at a 90deg course and around scope bearing + 20-30 depending on target speed and at a distance of 700m-1k . Of course this is not always possible dependant on the scenario and there are other techniques


Your compressed air should only deplete when blowing ballast but if your sub is damaged you can loose CA Co2 Fuel etc from leaks/failed equipment you can check by looking at your sub systems in the relevant sections
ALT Tabbing in game can screw up things up and can stop oxygen from being replenished even on the surface with hatches open, it can also stop you crew from going topside/below deck + other adverse effects like not being able to charge batteries and so on , so needs to be avoided unless there is no other option

Switching to silent running and going deep makes you far less likely to be detected

Battlestations/BS#2 are necessary to get the most from your crew and will increase their efficiency, the videos you have watched are probably more focussed on a particular aspect of attack such as firing solutions and attack courses rather than a full demo of everything involved in engagement. I don't think its a case of not bothering

Playing WOS without the contacts/sonar detection cones showing on the map and using your equipment to locate the enemy is far more immersive and realistic I'd do without that when you feel ready for it

I'm not sure what you mean by the water levels going higher than 1-2 meter. Rough seas can have the effect of making the hatches open and close when surfaced as the critical depth point undulates they are bound together. In the vanilla game you get the problem of the WO spotting aircraft and ships even when submerged which is also related to the depth at which hatches close so there has to be a degree of compromise with the settings

Silent Hunter is at its best when there is a degree of uncertainty that a torpedo will strike or a Destroyer will find you. Try to push the limits of difficulty settings/parameters to the max its far more rewarding when things go to plan . WOS with Real Navigation is what to aim for and designed around I really recommend it , just step things up at a pace your comfortable with

Simon

Thank you Cyborg for your thoughts :up:
In fact I have located the problem of the compressed air vanishing: I have the bad habit to ALT-TAB out of game to read on Subsim here...

By the 'water levels not going higher than 0,5 m' I mean the special effects inside the sub when flooding occurs. The gamemakers have done a good job with special effects, no doubt, but it would be awesome if they had added some more, especially the need of closing hatches to isolate flooded compartments until the pumps have 'cleared' the area, plus maybe some high angle of the sub under water to complicate the player's movements :)

Thanks for your tips about battle stations, also it's important to go out of 'running silent' when recharging torpedos or making the crew repair things.

I think that happens to a degree now with different flooding levels in the sealed compartments and making the levels flood higher would probably be not too difficult the only problem being the crew animations would look a bit silly as they are still walking around as if sub was dry and WO Dieter Epp still grinning right up till he drowned :D:D that I suspect would more much harder to address