Psycic Merchants - 1.4 or TM

[Weigh-Man]

I am running SH4 V1.4 with TM1.7 + 1.7.1 Patch, I did a complete re-install so I know everything is where it should be.

My current patrol is in a Gato Class in January 1944 (although I have experienced this earlier in the war as well).

Basically every time I approach a lone merchant while submerged at 100 ft or more, the merchant 'spots' me and starts zigzagging. Now I could understand it if they had seen me coming or the periscope was stuck out of the water, but at 150ft below the surface, how do they know I am there?

Do they have hyrdophones or sonar on late war merchants?

This happens everytime I approach a merchant, I have tried various different tactics, inluding just sitting and waiting at all stop and 250ft deep, but they still spot me every time.

Is this a 1.4 issue or could it be TM, I read that Ducimus was having some problems with TM and was thinking of starting again but that seemed to be more to do with the ROW elements than anything else.

Anyway I would be interested to hear from anyone with similar problems.

[fireship4]

you may well simply be observing normal couse zig-zags which were added in some mods. Most ships did this I think to make it harder for people like you.

Take your readings just after he has made a change and you will most likely to have a solution and hits before he turns again. If you want to go further, time between his turns so you know how much you have in hand.

Also I do think late war merchants might have sonar, but im unsure.

[Weigh-Man]

I did consider that, so I had a closer look.

I watched the ship approaching from about 8000 yards, It was running in a straight line and continued to do so until about 2000 yards, at which point it started what could only be described as evasive zig zagging.

It resembled the action that merchants take when they see the bubbles from a steam torpedo, but there where no torpedos anywhere near it.

I know taters campaign layers included in TM added more realistic course changes for ships, but this seems to be more than that.

[Ducimus]

One possibility is that you were detected by a plane (which can see you below periscope depth), and it alerted the merchant to your presence. BTW, version 1.7.1 is old news.

[tater]

Many japanese merchants had hydrophones in RL. Several do in SH4, as well, particularly later in the war.

[tater]

Also, the reactive stuff you are seeing is really "constant helming." The slowly put the helm over, and then slowly bring it back and go the other way, they describe a shallow sine curve.

[banjo]

No, I agree with Weigh. This happens to me all the time. No a/c, no way they could detect me, yet just before the get in range off they go in all directions. This after steaming a direct course for miles.
I always thought it was a TM problem until I read that post about merchants having sonar. If that it true, and if it is modeled in the game, that is a likely answer. I will pay attention in the future to see if this happens earlier in the war.

[manucapo]

maybe let me just say something

just an idea because i have no idea of how the game works
but for example in falcon 40 AF dinamy campaing
things are more detail when they are inside your bubble of influence so as not to waste sistem


isnt it possible that the ships are getting inside your "BUBBLE" of influence
and thust their routes and movement become more detailed
because it would be kinda useless to render route patterns of ships that are 3000 miles away
i dont know just something that came to my mind

[tater]

In this case they will start this behavior when they detect you.

You can elmintae their sensors, and they will steam along as if you were never there, even on the surface next to them.

tater