Questions regarding wind/storms in gwx and hydrophones

[thelawon]

First, thanks to everyone who welcomed me here. Much appreciated.

Now onto my multiple-part question. I'm running GWX, no other add-ons. I find myself constantly in heavy seas with 15 mph winds. Granted, its only been 3 patrols at this point, but even that has been nearly 2 months straight with, for the most part, the same high waves and 15mph wind, especially every time I pass Scotland and head towards the north/northwestern coast of Ireland (my favorite hunting ground thus far in 1939). Is this normal? It makes targeting difficult, and obviously guns useless...though I haven't even needed to use my AA guns, which brings me to question #2:

Does the wind affect aircraft? I've been running the last couple of nights (real life) between 8-64x speed when not following a specific target, which from what I've seen on the forum shouldn't overly affect the frequency of air attacks. But, while the winds have been high, it's often been fairly clear, and almost always without rain. And yet the air attacks have been infrequent to say the least. So, are enemy planes effected by wind alone? Or am I just that good at evading them? :) Or is it just that my my 3 patrols in 1939 are simply too small of a sample size to make predictions?

Question #3 dealing with winds and high seas: So far, I've been running on the surface with hydrophone checks every 2-3 hours. However, due to the high winds frequently bouncing me down to 10+ meters, I've actually caught sound contacts more often while running on the "surface." Is this at all realistic? Would a real u-boat even man the hydrophone station when running on the surface, in the off-chance that the hydrophone would go underwater? And even if so, would it be possible to hear anything with the diesels running? While I like the contacts, I don't want to be hearing them unrealistically. Thoughts?

[Otto Heinzmeir]

I'll take question 3. Not sure about real life. I doubt the hydrophone was used while surfaced in rough seas though, just for the fact that the sub impacting the waves in heavy seas would probably make the operator deaf after awhile.

What I do is remove the hydro guy from his station while surface and that will eliminate contacts while surfaced.

[Torplexed]

Silent Hunter 3 is infamous for it's seemingly endless storms. Wish there was an easy answer for this one. Even down south in tropical waters you'll run into days of dreary incessant storms. Just try to endure them.

Seeing the aeronautically insane dives they make I doubt if wind effects aircraft in this game although weather appears to. I know I see less aircraft in bad weather. Your patrolling in 1939 does mean your not going to see as many planes as in 1943 when the Allied aerial avalanche really begins.

The hydrophone effect doesn't surprise me too much. Probably not realistic but it beats SH2 when you always could pick up sound contacts on the surface. Apparently no one informed the SH2 designers that the rotating array was mounted up on deck.

[Oneshot/Onekill]

In reference to question #1.

There is a mod called GWX all weather guns. It is JSGME ready, and once installed, you can use your deck gun and/or your flak guns in any type of weather.:yep:

There is also a mod that will temporarily stop the weather. The name of it eludes me at the moment, but you can do a search and find it failry easy I believe.

As far as hearing contacts on the surface. Its not too realistic. U-boats often submerged to 30-40 meters to conduct a sound check so that the operator wouldn't pick up any backround noise from the surface.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Hello and welcome aboard! I'll do my best to answer your questions, but better answers will come along.

1)Heavy weather can be frequent and prolonged in gwx.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8rV1GTQuyM&feature=related
the relevant part starts at about 2:13, but the whole thing is pretty funny. Anyways, I've found it to be a matter of luck as to what kind of weather you get once you reach the patrol ground. I usually just ride it out underwater for a few days and then the sea becomes calm as glass(for a little while)
You also might want to try hunting in the area around AN58, pretty much anywhere in the heavy traffic zone that is shown on your shipping map.
It takes less time to reach, so spending a few days in a storm aren't such a big deal. Shallow waters, though.


2)You aren't going to see a lot of planes in 1939 one way or the other. Of course, they will not show up at all if it is raining, ever. Heavy seas and high winds usually accompany reduced visibility, so you will see them much less frequently, until they get radar. Then you will ask yourself what the hell you were concerned about lack of aircraft for;)

3) My thoughts are that it would be unrealistic. Very unrealistic, but games have their limitations. If you want that to not happen, simply remove the hydro operator when you are on the surface. I prefer to stay under in heavy seas for the sake of the crew. If you're in a hunting area, you'll find a lot more that way anyway, even if the weather is calm.

Here's a couple of threads that seem to deal with the question. I didn't read through them, but you might want to check them out. I just used the search function for titles including "bad weather" if you want to see the complete list.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=149358&highlight=bad+weather
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=148342&highlight=bad+weather


Hope that helps a bit:salute:

edit-oh i see some of this has been said already. damn my long-winded posts!