Great fun...and then the dreaded planes...

[hermanJnr.]

First of all, hi everyone! :)

I'm a bit of a Silent Hunter newbie, so you'll have to forgive my ineptitude...I got the game when it first came out (the first in the series for me, though I'd wanted to get SH3 for a while), had some fun with it, got irritated by the bugs, and I only very recently got back to it with the newest patch installed.

Anyway, I started a new career, 1941, in a Porpoise class sub...low realism settings, I admit :lol:
Found and killed a couple of merchants, was having lots of fun, and I was glad to see most of the more crippling original bugs seem to have been effectively fixed.

Well, "bug" or not, I used to hate the insane amount of planes (in my opinion) in the original build, but these too seemed to be toned down a lot - I was actually able to hunt ships! :D

Seemed to be toned down indeed...since after the 2nd ship sunk, planes began appearing. Fair enough, makes sense...at first it was just search planes, and I gunned them down before they could escape. But then the bombers came in. And then more search planes...and I started getting a horrible feeling of deja vu.

Am I just doing something glaringly, noobishly wrong in attracting these winged pains?
It's getting to the point now where I'm actually running out of ammo, but the steady stream just keeps coming - I've tried submerging and all, but they seem to just know I'm there when I resurface...how do you guys deal with the pests?

Thanks,
herm ;)

[Dignan]

I'm no expert myself and have only had SH4 for about a month but I've learned to deal with the planes by changing my MO. I had the same problem you did at first and found that just a few changes in how I plot my courses and how I react to the planes makes a huge difference.

You really shouldn't be trying to shoot them down. If you are in range to shoot them down then they've already spotted you and already radioed in your position, which results in them calling in their buddies, a lot of them. When my watch reports a plane contact I observe it on the map. If it looks like it's going to intercept my course (you'll get better at judging this eventually) I submerge. If I think I've been spotted I submerge and change course. That way if my position has been reported they can't plot where I'll be based on my course. Some areas just have more air traffic than others. I mark the high traffic areas on my map so I know where they are on my return trip. Also, I think there is a mod to fix this. Look in the mod section. I hope this helped

[Zantham]

Dignan has hit the nail right on the head. Note that even enemy ships will call in air support it seems. Sink a ship or two in an area and you're bound to start seeing planes. With US subs you can generally dodge planes fairly easily due to their superior radar. Dive if the plane's path will take it within 8nm of you. Sometimes I even have to drive underwater for the entire day till nighttime to avoid planes. Generally at night you are ok to surface to recharge ...generally ...

Actually the uboats in WWII in real life tried to shoot planes down rather than diving. This is why you started to see conning towers that allowed more and heavier flak configurations, right up to the u-flak. They travelled across the Bay of Biscay in packs, and upon sighting a plane they would circle and start shooting. This worked for a bit. Till the planes called in more planes and then there were too many planes to shoot at, and the uboats ran out of ammo. Or the planes called in nearby destroyers or HK groups, and circled just out of range so the uboat couldnt shoot the plane, but couldn't submerge either.

[The General]

It's clear that the whole airplane part of the game isn't very well programmed. Planes fly to your exact location all too often, even at NIGHT! And when the enemy calls in an airstrike, sometimes planes will flood the area untill you get atleast 1500 miles away! History shows that US subs rarely engaged Japanese aircraft and so the game should reflect this and give you roughly one aircraft encounter every three months, just to keep it interesting.

[Rockin Robbins]

You don't think if our subs were spotted planes wouldn't be called in until the sub was sunk? Surely you jest! They would call in buddies until they all came back empty or you were dead. The whole advantage of a submarine is its ability to remain undetected. When you start acting like Rambo out there bad stuff is going to happen because Rambo has a big gun and unlimited ammo. You have 24 rubber bands.

The SH3 box says it best: Hunt, Hide, Kill. We do not engage airplanes except in life or death blunders.

[Fatbobit]

Hi Herman,
well im a newcomer too, but in my first mission i was really close to the Japanese coasts , and there was a huge amount of planes patrolling . I think that subs are not designed to fight with planes , they have to sneak and hide, this is their first and most effective "weapon" . So i simply act as follows:
- i use my surface radar to constantly check incoming planes
- if their course is going to intercept mine , i simply dive to "per-depth" .., stay there for some minutes ( give the plane the time to go for his route ) , and then up again. This is my technique.
Sure we have an AA Weapon on board , but i think it has to be used only for emergency or any other situation in which you cant do anything else.
:up:

[Robert Murphy]

Actually, it seems the Japanese planes as modeled in the game are pretty tame--they seem to always miss. I dive when one comes on the radar so as not to push my luck, but in SH4 aircraft are certainly nothing like the threat they were historically; most USN sub captains would dive during the day and patrol at night to avoid them. Plus, the radar on USN submarines was good but not infallible.

Robert

P.S. I believe that in the case of the U-boats, forming them into 'packs' to combine firepower was an experiment that did not work--in practice it simply provided Allied ASW aircraft with more targets, and thus the tactic was scrapped. A U-boat would crash dive if it spotted aircraft in time; if not only then would it fight it out. Submarines on both sides were highly vulnerable to aircraft. Fifty-one percent of all U-boats were destroyed from the air.

[Zantham]

P.S. I believe that in the case of the U-boats, forming them into 'packs' to combine firepower was an experiment that did not work--in practice it simply provided Allied ASW aircraft with more targets, and thus the tactic was scrapped. A U-boat would crash dive if it spotted aircraft in time; if not only then would it fight it out. Submarines on both sides were highly vulnerable to aircraft. Fifty-one percent of all U-boats were destroyed from the air.

You read the same article I did! :know:

[hermanJnr.]

Cheers to everyone for the helpful replies - submerging before they spot you is definitely far more effective than just sitting there and shooting...completed my first patrol today, managed to notch up 54k tons, though my sub was written off when it finally crawled into the harbour :D

Now to do that on above 30% realism, methinks :lol: