I Haz Kwestions

[frau kaleun]

Hey all,

Seems like the more I play this game, the more questions I have about stuff.

F'rinstance:

What is the depth (on the depth meter, bottom far right) at which a uboat is considered fully submerged, i.e., no longer visible on the surface? Assuming the scopes are down, of course. I'm trying to test crew/boat response times on crash dives, using the handy-dandy pull down chrono and switching to the external "boat cam" or whatever it's called - but sometimes it's not easy to tell due to higher waves crashing in over the boat and then subsiding (I think we're completely under for a sec, but then realize we weren't quite there yet). I'm in a VIIB right now.

I notice that when I'm cruising on the surface in really bad weather and visibility is particularly bad, that I will get reports from my sonar guy about sound contacts that are too far away for the watch to make out visually. Is this because I've still got the hydrophone with the "ears" mounted down by the hydroplanes, so we're still able to pick up sound contacts when we're not all the way submerged? Or is it some "feature" of the game that's just there for no good reason?

Also during very bad weather at the SW end of the English Channel, tons of merchant ships around according to Mr. Sonar - I submerged for several hours and when I came up the worst of the storm had subsided. When I checked the Nav map, there was a "sunk ship" icon in the "heavy traffic" area where all the merchants were being reported the night before. Does that mean some poor bugger bought it during the storm? I'm assuming yes because it was still August 1939 so nobody should be doin' no shootin' out there.

Wind direction - I know I read an explanation of this somewhere, but I can't remember where and now I'm not sure if I remember it right. When I get a weather report from the navigator, does the wind direction he gives me mean that the wind is blowing towards us from that relative bearing? So if we were headed due north, and the wind direction is 180, that would mean the wind is coming at our backs out of the south. Or is it the other way 'round? Or does the wind direction refer to the points on the compass without regard to our heading?

Thanks in advance for the enlightenment I know you will soon shed upon me!

FK

[krashkart]

I'm only on my third patrol, but I'll try to answer the first part of your question. In the sub I'm sailing, a VIIB, the fully submerged depth seems to be around 10-12 meters with peri retracted. :hmmm:

That's in good weather, though. Have never really worried too much about it in rough weather, even though the troughs between waves often break over the con. Future patrols might make me feel a bit more apprehensive about it, though. :D

[Falkirion]

1) I figure that the depth at which your fully submerged is around the 12-14m mark.
2) Its a game feature that shouldn't be there, its just its hard coded so I dont know of any mods to remove it. Seems anything deeper than 10m and you can pick up enemy contacts, so long as they're within 20km of you, you can hear them. 20km is the hard coded sensor effectiveness range. I actually abused this last night to track a convoy towards Rockall so I now have their course I'm going to reload a previous save and intercept. Weather on patrol is god awful.
3) I've noticed this too, and yes if the weather gets bad enough it can and will sink merchant ships or even DD's. I came across a convoy one day wending its way south towards me in god awful weather, 3 of the 4 escorts were sunk or sinking by the time they reached me due to weather damage.
4) The wind will always be coming from the direction he states, eg if he says 180 its coming from 180 etc etc. Can always watch the waves if you want to get a sense of wind direction too.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of that guys. I'm not sure about it myself.

[TarJak]

If you are within contact range there is also a neat hydrophone "cheat" that lets you use the hydrophone fully surfaced.

If you dive to peri, pick up your contact, then get the soundman to track nearest, then resurface he will maintain sound contact whilst surfaced unless it is either moves out of range or into your baffles.:03:

[OuNiS]

Hi


1) To be absolutely sure that u-boat is fully submerged (no matter what sea state is!) take it down below 15 meters .

2) It is a bug. On really rough sea if you are surfaced it's impossible to hear anything by hydro except some noise.

3) About this sinking ships: another bug. If it was happend occasionaly then ok, but this amount of sinking ships causes by wheater is not normal.

4) I think this info. refer to the compass.

[Dissaray]

I don't know about the rest of you but I have seen some stormes that forced me down fairly deep while hunting convoys, deeper than 15m, just to stay submerged. Fortunaltly you can shoot people from depths of 20m and up so all was not lost, the tricky part is finding your point of aim. That was one hell of a storm though. It realy all depends on conditions how deep you will have to go but I have never seen anything so bad that 20m wouldn't have done the job, though I don't dout the game could cook some thing up for us.

The wind readings do refer to the direction the wind is coming from relitive to the compas. So if the wind is reoprted at 180 it is coming out of the south and will stay at 180 regardless of which way you turn, provided that it dosen't change directions itself.

[frau kaleun]

Thanks for all the information.

I kind of thought the sound contacts while surfaced was a "glitch" since I couldn't *order* any kind of hydrophone activity even though it was clearly happening on its own. It only seemed to happen in very rough weather, at which time I was also getting intermittent reports from the LI that the boat was at 10 m depth - which it was, intermittently, because we were getting knocked up and down so by the waves.

I'm guessing there are certain things that are set to happen in-game when triggered by the boat's depth, like the LI reporting it at 10 m intervals and the hydrophone guy going into action, even if the "depth" is temporary and due to surface weather beating the boat down.

[Sailor Steve]

You're guessing correctly. Underwater-related occurences are related to depth, period. It's silly, but it was probably the easiest to script.

As for when you are truly submerged in a crash dive, I consider periscope depth to be that point, so 13-15 meters. Of course you can always just use the external view and look...:dead:

[frau kaleun]

You're guessing correctly. Underwater-related occurences are related to depth, period. It's silly, but it was probably the easiest to script.

As for when you are truly submerged in a crash dive, I consider periscope depth to be that point, so 13-15 meters. Of course you can always just use the external view and look...:dead:

That's what I've been doing so far and we were disappearing from "my" view in 25-28 seconds, which sounds about right for a VII? But I will have to test it looking at the depth meter to be sure. That sounds like it's a bit too quick for such an inexperienced crew, or maybe I just got lucky with these boys. :O:

I've probably got a book somewhere that says "and the Type VII could disappear from the surface to 'X' meters in 'x' seconds, blah blah blah" which is why I'm thinking there was a "standard" expectation for crew/boat performance in a crash dive. I just can't remember the darn numbers, lol.

[Sailor Steve]

Well, this site says 40 seconds for a VIIa, 35 for a VIIb and 30 for a VIIc, but they don't say where they got their information, so who knows? I do know there are more authoritative sources, but none at my direct disposal.
http://www.allwoodships.com/Submarines/German/Type-07.htm

[frau kaleun]

For some reason the words "could vanish from sight in as little as 28 seconds" are sticking in my head... could've been from the "Top Ten Subs" show I saw on the Military Channel recently. That would've been for a VIIC.

I'm sure we're not getting to 13-15 m in the times I recorded... I should probably just stay on board and watch the depth meter instead of flying around outside the ship, lol. Or else pick a nice day with calmer seas so it's easier to tell by sight alone.


(http://www.allwoodships.com/Submarines/German/Type-07.htm)http://www.allwoodships.com/Submarin...an/Type-07.htm (http://www.allwoodships.com/Submarines/German/Type-07.htm)
(http://www.allwoodships.com/Submarines/German/Type-07.htm)

And now I want that boat! :wah:

[Jimbuna]

If you are within contact range there is also a neat hydrophone "cheat" that lets you use the hydrophone fully surfaced.

If you dive to peri, pick up your contact, then get the soundman to track nearest, then resurface he will maintain sound contact whilst surfaced unless it is either moves out of range or into your baffles.:03:

Cheat :DL

[Pisces]

Sensor range is a bit off-topic but I felt the need to correct something.

...
2) Its a game feature that shouldn't be there, its just its hard coded so I dont know of any mods to remove it. Seems anything deeper than 10m and you can pick up enemy contacts, so long as they're within 20km of you, you can hear them. 20km is the hard coded sensor effectiveness range. I actually abused this last night to track a convoy towards Rockall so I now have their course I'm going to reload a previous save and intercept. Weather on patrol is god awful.
...I've had my hydrophone pick up sounds from around 34km. You have to listen yourself and move the needle. The crew/AI doesn't notice or report them beyond 20km. But you can.

[Snestorm]

If you are within contact range there is also a neat hydrophone "cheat" that lets you use the hydrophone fully surfaced.

My last SH3 install had that cheat. My newest install doesn't.
I realy like my newer version. It was/is surprising how much stuff is fixed.
It would seem that Encore did a-bit of modding to my newest versions, and I sure am glad for it. Totaly different sim. Thanks Encore.