GWX2 mines and hydrophone

[TS13]

Hallo, this one is my first post. After playing stock SHIII for a while, I have just started my first career with GWX2. So here come the questions.

1) mines
I read that GWX includes minefields. I am a bit worried. How do we defend against them? Is there some kind of warning when we are getting close to them or do we just die when we run out of luck? Some kind of precaution etc?

2) Hydrophone, or "me < Bernard"
In stock SHIII, one of the things I enjoyed doing was taking over the hydrophone and spotting ships that Bernard couldn't spot. Unfortunately, GWX2 has reversed this situation. Bernard spots a ship, speaks out bearing etc, I then take over the hydrophone and I still can't hear it! Not until it gets really-really close.
What changed here? How come in GWX2 I lost my ability of spotting ships through the hydrophone? Anyone else experienced this?

OK, these are my questions, a big thank you to all who participated in the making of GWX2.

[Grayson02sept1980]

1) never had a problem with mines... you have a map where the minefields and anti-Uboat-nets are at the ports and the Strait of Dover is covered ith anti-Uboat-Mines till GWX tells you it is sve to pass through.

Well other than that I have no clue where mines could be... I also have never passed the strait of dover dived but if I thought I have to ... I did it at night and very carefully :smug:

There is a paragraph in the GWX-Manual about mines and what to do if you ran into one.

about 2)
Yes I have experienced this as well and honestly I do not make a big thing about it... I have a very good sonar officer and let him do the spotting...

And Welcome to the board!

[melnibonian]

Welcome to SubSim :up:

As far as the mines are concerned there is no defence against them. As in real life if you hit one there is a high probability that you will die. As a rule of thumb try to follow these simple suggestions:

1. Always check the maps you have when you're leaving/entering a friendly port
2. Try not to sail (submerged) very close to the British coast as there are loads of mines there.
3. Always remember that the minefields evolve with the war and they get bigger.
4. When you're entering an enemy harbour or you approach enemy land try to think for yourself where you would have positioned the mines yourself. That's a simple way to stay alive.
5. You can also use SH3Gen to get some inteligence information concerning minefields but don't expect too much. Just a generic knowledge of their existance.

and finally.......

6. Whatever you do stay out of the British Channel. It is heavily mined

[Brag]

Welcome aboard, TS! :D

Friendly minefields are marked on the pull down chart located on upper left side of screen.

Mines can only be placed in shallow water. So if you stay in deep water the problem is greatly minimized.

You may want to look in my website for more info.

I don't know about the hydrophone, it works fine on my game.

Good hunting, :up:

[Jimbuna]

Welcome aboard TS13 http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

I think your mine questions been well covered.....deep water and surface running are your best chance.

As for the hydrophone guy, it's swings and roundabouts, a fully qualified and seasoned operator will serve you well in-game, but often I take the station personally and here them first. http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif

[Pisces]

Also, there's a volume button on it. Big improvement of reception.

[von Zelda]

Make the amb_hydrophone file SILENT.

Kpt. Lehmann posted a silent hyrophone file in a mod for us hearing impaired a few months ago. You will be surprised what you can hear with a totally silent hydrophone and the engines stopped.

[johnm]

I have the same problem with hydrophone in GW2 (I also had similar problem in GWX).

I've even taken over the station AFTER a signal is reported but still I can't hear anything.

Some one reported that the volume control only works if you already hear something.

I'd like to try that silent ambient file, maybe it'll cure my deafness!

[Grayson02sept1980]

thing is... I hear it but cannot choose what it is... the dragdown or whatever thing to say "freighter" "Warship" (I play the German version... dunno the English names) is not responding..

I HEAR it yet cannot "mark" it...:damn:

[TS13]

Thank you all, captains, both my questions have been answered.:)

The trickiest one proved to be the one about the hydrophone sound.

Thank you, Cpt. Pisces, for mentioning the hydrophone volume button, I had not noticed it! Unfortunately, that was still not enough. Cpt. Von Zelda's advice completed the trick, thank you.

So I replaced the amb_hydrophone file with a silent wav file that I found on the web, and now I can hear ships when I turn off the engines, turn up the hydrophone volume button, and also turn up my PC's sound to maximum volume.

So my problem is solved now and I just had my first success of spotting a ship on my own. On the other hand, I still feel there is something definately wrong with the default setup.

[von Zelda]

thing is... I hear it but cannot choose what it is... the dragdown or whatever thing to say "freighter" "Warship"
I HEAR it yet cannot "mark" it...

The contact has to be real close for your hydrophone guy to identify it. Listen to the sound of the props and eventually you'll be able to make an educated guess of its identity yourself. High speed, high frequency is usually a warship; low speed, low frequency is usually a merchant. There are also some prop sounds from small coastal ships you'll want to ignore like tugs and fishing boats.

[Grayson02sept1980]

Zelda.. true...

[Avatar]

Thanks for the info on engines stopped and volume control. Ive never heard anything on hydrophone unless its pretty close.
Someone once posted that you could actually hear contacts as they are rendered, some 30km away. Kind of like how you could use the "L" key to target ships that are beyond visual range.
This piece of information is greatly appreciated!

[bookworm_020]

Welcome aboard!:up: Hope to see more of your posts in the future!

[Pisces]

Thank you, Cpt. Pisces, for mentioning the hydrophone volume button, I had not noticed it! Unfortunately, that was still not enough. Cpt. Von Zelda's advice completed the trick, thank you.I forgot to mention. It has I think 4 volume levels. So don't stop clicking at the top of the button just once.

[TS13]

I forgot to mention. It has I think 4 volume levels. So don't stop clicking at the top of the button just once.

Thanks, Cpt. Pisces. I actually follow a specific process to figure out whether the hydrophone volume is loud enough: when I enter the hydrophone room, I still have the engines running. Then I turn the hydrophone to show 180deg, and hit the volume button until the engine noise reaches maximum loudness. Only then do I turn the engines off and start the normal use of the hydrophone, knowing that I have maximized its potential.

[Avatar]

About the volume control knob, where do you click to have it's volume turned to the highest setting? I think that it's done by clicking the top of the little handle itself?

edit: so to have it's highest volume output, you have to click the top of the handle 4 times?

[KeptinCranky]

I generally click on the upper right side repeatedly until I don't notice any improvement to the volume, as to the ambient sounds interfering, I think it varies somewhat depending on sound-card and setup, because while I sometimes get confused by ambient noises (which seems right) I never have trouble finding ships in range if they're audible at all, though some are remarkably difficult to hear, MTBs at slow speed for example

[Laufen zum Ziel]

I don't know who made this mod but it was recent. It is JSGM ready and places enemy mine fields on your navigation map. You still have to use the pulldown for friendly mines. I use the mod and it looks great.

http://the-silent-hunter-.com

[harzfeld]

When I approached Dover Strait, I had been observing Allied merchants and warships where they going, their routes, then assumed its ok for me to follow their routes or paths to get thru. I never encountered a mine in Dover Strait in 2.0. Only mine I encounter was by Firth of Forth and killed me couple weeks ago because I was off the path where merchants and warships commute. It really risky to travel submerge by Firth of Forth since there destroyers patrolling and they would detect me because not enough room to avoid with two lands being 1-2km apart for long way and there shallow water. I tend to go on merchant routes between Scapa Flow and Lerwick during early war years, have not encountered any mines there yet but still have to assume there's mines somewhere and best to stick onto merchant routes.