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Flaxpants
08-05-10, 11:44 PM
Do any of you fine people here use any rules of thumb to calculate at what ranges you are likely to be seen on the surface? I seem to be getting spotted a little too much for my liking lately when I'm assuming I am not easily visible.

I know there are many factors that can affect this, obviously the weather, the sea conditions, speed of the sub etc etc, but are there any general distances for certain conditions that can be used as a sort of guideline?

This is obviously something that I will pick up with more experience, but in the meantime I'll pick your brains....
ediko
08-06-10, 07:14 AM
I'm very new myself but did you disable the visibility meter? It's in the difficulty settings. It displays a small sub image, it's green when your visibility is small and red when you are easily spoted. I heard something about going deck's awash btw. It's when everything but your coning tower is underwater. You can then use diesel engines and have a smaller silhouette from afar.
Herr-Berbunch
08-06-10, 07:53 AM
The Submarine Commander's Handbook states:

"In clear weather, do not allow yourself to be seen on the dip of the horizon. Submerge, at the latest, when the top of the funnel of the sighted ship is visible in the dip of the horizon. Some warships, besides having lookout posts with binoculars on the mast, have range finders of great optical efficiency in the foretop. In clear weather, therefore, one should never be able to see more of the enemy than the tops of his masts. Anyone who can see more - i.e., who approaches nearer - automatically runs the danger of being sighted, himself, by the enemy. "

In other words, as soon as you see another ship, dive to PD :salute:
papa_smurf
08-06-10, 08:21 AM
n other words, as soon as you see another ship, dive to PD :salute:

Or just stay submerged during daylight hours, which is what I do.
Herr-Berbunch
08-06-10, 08:28 AM
Or just stay submerged during daylight hours, which is what I do.

Show off :D
Brag
08-06-10, 11:05 AM
I got seriously kaboomed by destroyer's artillery, thinking I was well out of sight (see current Balz posting). :nope:
Herr-Berbunch
08-06-10, 11:07 AM
I got seriously kaboomed by destroyer's artillery, thinking I was well out of sight (see current Balz posting). :nope:

Bad omens to have green bananas on a boat! :yep:
flag4
08-06-10, 01:25 PM
Do any of you fine people here use any rules of thumb to calculate at what ranges you are likely to be seen on the surface? I seem to be getting spotted a little too much for my liking lately when I'm assuming I am not easily visible.

I know there are many factors that can affect this, obviously the weather, the sea conditions, speed of the sub etc etc, but are there any general distances for certain conditions that can be used as a sort of guideline?

This is obviously something that I will pick up with more experience, but in the meantime I'll pick your brains....

Flaxpants, i have this written on the back of my flag chart:

Visual Range: Him spotting Me

Clear Day: 10-15 km
Rough Seas, Good Visability: 8-10 km
Rough Seas, Bad Visabilty : 2-3 km

AND, MAKE SURE IM BARELY ABLE TO SEE HIM WHILST FLANKING

night time - i have no idea - only the lights of the ship, if they are on!
papa_smurf
08-06-10, 02:13 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by papa_smurf http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/smartdark/viewpost.gif (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=1461357#post1461357)
Or just stay submerged during daylight hours, which is what I do.

Show off :D

:O:
Tessa
08-08-10, 05:14 PM
Was raiding Scapa Flow and the weather was absolutely perfect for it - Bad Gale with heavy winds, pretty much the worst weather you can get. Visibility through the UZO was about 300-400m at most; a ship 500m+ away (even one as large as the Hood) was completely obscured by the awful weather. With vizibility being non-existant was able to ride in without submerging, and even got into firing position and launched my spread against her using the UZO.

Being inside a harbor mades the hydrophone useless, on the open sea during a bad storm like that going to periscope depth occasionally to use the hydrophone to search for contacts is your best method of detection. My watch crew was only able to spot 1 merchant in the open sea at around 800m away during that patrol.

Exceptionally bad weather is great to use to slip by the more heavily patrolled areas (like the English chanel) but does increase you fuel usage massively and slow you down about 2 or 3 knots.
Madox58
08-08-10, 05:37 PM
Most of the 'being spotted' problems are limitations of the Game engine itself.

Many fine people spent many hours fine tuning things as best as they could for thier needs/mods/tastes.

It's just a too general of an area when adjusting that is the problem.
:nope:
K-61
08-08-10, 07:52 PM
I recall reading in one of my U-boat books an account where they were slipping past the escort screen while surfaced at night; they got so close to one escort they could see a deck hand cupping a cigarette in his hand. That's close, but they stil slipped past it and got into the convoy.
Flaxpants
08-08-10, 10:33 PM
Thanks for the replies folks. In general I can conclude that they can see me from much farther than I had first imagined. I do travel at PD during the day and generally surface at night. The issue has arisen usually when I need the extra speed of surface travel to position myself for an attack on ships that I have already seen/ detected, when it is obvious that underwater speed is not going to be fast enough to get me where I want to be.
In future on these occassions I will have to settle for a less optimum firing position. It's all falling into place- slowly!
dfscott
08-09-10, 01:48 PM
I find it to be a bit erratic at night, regardless of the vis -- sometimes I can slip within 3K under mod vis, other times they spot me as far off as 5K.
sergei
08-09-10, 02:04 PM
That's because it will change dependent upon your speed, the aspect you are showing them, amount of cloud cover, the state of the moon, how much chop is on the water, and even what level of experience the ships crew has.

IIRC there are 4 levels of experience - poor, competent, veteran and elite, with each increase bringing a better spotting range for them.
Madox58
08-09-10, 05:42 PM
When at PD, don't leave the scope up!
Pop it up, take a quick look and drop it.
If you don't see what you want, turn the scope while it's down and pop up and down again real quick.

That reduces the chance of the scope being spotted greatly.

I learned that from real life when earning my Expert Infantry Badge.
Running the Snipper Course!
:salute:
Tessa
08-09-10, 09:50 PM
Aside from increasing your detection rate significantly with the periscope up, if you get into the habit of leaving it up eventually an escort or DD's gonna ram it and destroy your attack periscope. First time if you're lucky it'll just get damaged and be repearable, the bad ones you're lucky if you still have a working Uzo. Nothing worse than being 2000+km from home and have your essential gear break turning you into nothing more than a 750 ton sailboat with lots of fancy stuff that you can n longer use.
Flaxpants
08-10-10, 04:12 AM
Remembering to put the periscope down each time is rather like remembering to tuck the ole fella away and zip up after visiting the lavatory. Of course, not likely to be run over by a destroyer but possible to be grabbed by an old battleship.
Gerald
08-10-10, 07:34 AM
This is the periscope up just a few seconds.

http://imgur.com/gcj3n.jpg
flag4
08-10-10, 09:34 AM
@ Vendor; i like the mod you are using for the attack scope - could you tell me which one it is please?

thanks:up:
dfscott
08-10-10, 09:40 AM
@ Vendor; i like the mod you are using for the attack scope - could you tell me which one it is please?

thanks:up:

Looks like Magui -- I use it as well and really like it:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166320
Gerald
08-10-10, 10:05 AM
@ Vendor; i like the mod you are using for the attack scope - could you tell me which one it is please?

thanks:up: dfscott is so right I like the design, and ease :yep:
flag4
08-11-10, 01:44 PM
hey, thanks guys - does look gorgeous and where does he get his water from as we look thru his attack scope?

cheers again:salute:
Gerald
08-11-10, 01:52 PM
hey, thanks guys - does look gorgeous and where does he get his water from as we look thru his attack scope?

cheers again:salute: under "title" Screen shot from Silent hunter 3 mission
flag4
08-11-10, 02:41 PM
under Screen shot from "Silent Hunter 3 mission" :yep:


sorry Vendor i dont understand?
K-61
08-11-10, 03:11 PM
Can you do auto-targeting with that GUI? It seems quite handy to have all your essential tools on the one screen like that.
Gerald
08-11-10, 07:46 PM
Can you do auto-targeting with that GUI? It seems quite handy to have all your essential tools on the one screen like that. :yep:
dfscott
08-11-10, 09:35 PM
Can you do auto-targeting with that GUI? It seems quite handy to have all your essential tools on the one screen like that.

Indeed -- I haven't hit F6 in ages...