Periscope depth - Dangerous?

[Von Hinten]

I've been playing SHIV for a few days now and one of the things I absolutely love are those environmental effects, and specially the transparent layer of water right under the surface of the ocean. Brilliant, that alone is almost enough having SHIV for. :up:

However. When my boat (ship?) is now at periscope depth I can see her lying under water which of course is a fantastic sight. :yep:

What I was wondering yesterday was this: if I can see my sub lying just under the surface, can passing planes see it there too? And if so, what if I turn this effect off? Can they still 'see' me there?

So far in my first patrol I haven't seen any planes (or a lot of ships for that matter ...) so I have no idea what will happen.

[Sailor Steve]

SH1 had nothing like SH4's graphics, but in that game planes could see you at periscope depth. I don't know about SH4, but they certainly should see you there.

[Von Hinten]

Well in SHIII (with GWX), when planes were spotted, it usually was sufficient to dive to periscope depth and making a sharp turn towards them. 9 out of 10 times they wouldn't hit me. I thought that was because they didn't know where I was anymore. Either that or they were very poor bombers of course. ;-)

I'll be careful just in case though.

[Driftwood]

I've noticed that I don't get attacked unless they spot me on the surface first. I've been cruising at PD with my attack scope up while planes would come out circle my position and then leave, apparently oblivious to me.

P.S. It's a boat, not a ship. :up:

[heartc]

SH1 had nothing like SH4's graphics, but in that game planes could see you at periscope depth. I don't know about SH4, but they certainly should see you there.

Uhm, copy on SHI, but I don't think you can say that as broadly. I would think it depends on sea state, lightning and maybe even different areas (water characteristics) whether you could see a sub at PD or not. And you would need to be pretty much directly above it, looking straight down. I've read that they were *occasionally* seen at PD. Also I would think it makes a difference whether the pilots already have some fairly accurate knowledge of your position (from seeing you crash diving e.g.) or not. The ocean is a vast place and submarines are not so big that they would kinda jump into your face even when surfaced.

[Sailor Steve]

My dad spent 36 years as an airline pilot, and he told me that on more than one occassion they saw submarines from the air that he was sure were fairly deep under water.

I agree with your comment on varying conditions, but I've posted before that when I was on a destroyer coming out of Subic Bay on a clear day we could sometimes see the rocks and plants on the bottom, and that was more than 100 feet deep.

[DeePsix501]

It probably also didn't help that early in the War, US Subs were painted dull black rather than a grey.