Questions about Battlestations/Silent Running

[Armistead]

RR got me thinking when he said the enemy can hear you better when at BS. I'm almost always at BS during attack and evasion even with silent running on. Do you actually suffer a value hearing loss when the crew is in BS mode? Historically a crew would be at BS during attack and evasion, doesn't mean they have to make more noise.

IF SR is engaged, torps won't load, but seems other repair functions take place. I assume by looking at values that are still complex to me, that SR values only lower the enemies hearing values. The issue I see is even if you have SR engaged, your crew repairs. You can have SR engaged and cursor flooded areas and see the "pumping out water" message...Last thing a sub would do in real life is to crank up the pumps. That made me wonder, if I'm flooded and don't engage BS will I suffer losing repair mode, but make it harder for the enemy to hear me. I've always gone into repair mode when damaged, but it might make sense not if you're under attack and can survive.....the game can't be this detailed....lol.

Also, what happens if you have SR engaged, but you crank up speed, do you still get values in your favor? It appears the speed values are seperate, so even with SR engaged I would think more speed would give the enemy better values, but you would still retain the others such as torps not being loaded.

Any values gain or loss by just engaging damage crew and not go on BS?

[eers75]

Hello there, Ive noticed the repair crew out and working too when at bs and if you are submerged you can click on the icon that tells them to quit. So you can be at bs but not have your repair crew out and about and you can even see them disappear when you tell them to quit but still remain at bs for the rest of the crew.

Ive also wondered about the noise and ill be interested to see if any can shed light on the actual values or the way it works. Wether a figment of my imagination or not often I dont use bs when being pinged and it seems to me that I get discovered less but I cant offer concrete evidence of this.

My set up is 1.5/TMO 2.1.

[WernherVonTrapp]

I'm not absolutely certain either way but, just in case, the first thing I always do after going to battlestations (before engaging silent running), is to deactivate the damage control crew. Since I've been doing this, I've experienced no unexplained detections by DDs. I did experience them before this practice.

[Armistead]

I'm not absolutely certain either way but, just in case, the first thing I always do after going to battlestations (before engaging silent running), is to deactivate the damage control crew. Since I've been doing this, I've experienced no unexplained detections by DDs. I did experience them before this practice.

INteresting, I never disengage them in battle or evasion. It makes sense, but inquiring minds want to know for sure.

Again, if I have damage, doesn't matter if BS or SR is engaged, pumps will come on to drain water if flooding has been repaired and active crew will repair.

With damage and BS off, the only crew in the compartments that will show repairing is those on active station, you engage BS and the entire compartment goe's on repair status. I noticed very little difference in actual repair times with BS on or off with damage crew on, the repair times showed the same time. Now if you put a damaged item top priority, then the time limits would go down.

Still seems that crew in a damaged compartment have some effect on repair times because we have that guy with repair ability. Also seems a compartment with all men in it on repair status would repair.

I honestly don't think the game is that complex. My guess is silent running gives you a better value for not being heard, just stops the torps. Other than that, it probably doesn't come into play for pumps and other equipment, it should..

The same with blowing tanks..I wonder if a value exist for this seperate noise, I haven't found one, but wouldn't even know where to look.

Still, be interesting to know if BS gives you a value hit.

Maybe Duc will eventually show up.....

[Sailor Steve]

Yes it would be interesting to know. In SH3 there was no Battle Stations function, but when Silent Running was engaged everything stopped, which was as it should be. In the old Pacific Aces mod for SH2 they even used a scene from a movie, in which the actor said "Rig for Silent Running. No unauthorized movement, no unnecessary noise."

The point of Silent Running is to be Silent!

[fred8615]

I've never had any repairs done while silent running. If I take damage, I have to turn it off so the crew can repair stuff before I sink.

[Armistead]

I've never had any repairs done while silent running. If I take damage, I have to turn it off so the crew can repair stuff before I sink.

What setup do you use, with TMO SR engaged it will show the crew repairing, pumping water, etc...which started the original post.

[fred8615]

What setup do you use, with TMO SR engaged it will show the crew repairing, pumping water, etc...which started the original post.
That's TMO doing it then, unless they changed it in 1.5 and I've never noticed. Whenever I take damage now, I automatically turn off silent running cause repairs never got done before with it on. I don't use TMO.

[Stealhead]

I dont know seems to me when I play TMO it does "seem" that I am easier to spot by escorts if I am having the damage control active(and truly fixing something) vs. having the sub set to silent running.

It would make more sense for damage control being on to cause more noise and kill silent running seeing as if you have suffered enough damage to need the crew then they are doing something that makes alot of noise and at that point saving the sub from sinking would be more vital than silent running.Silent running being a moot point if you are slowly silently sinking towards your hull imploding

I dont think the game is overly complex either but I think your "sound making" does go up while having active damage control even if the game fails to tell you so.

[WernherVonTrapp]

The one thing I have noticed about being at BS while SR is that, if you try to deactivate your damage control team, they won't deactivate. You have to deactivate them before going to SR, othwise you must deactivate SR and then deactivate your DC team.http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-confused005.gif

[eers75]

The one thing I have noticed about being at BS while SR is that, if you try to deactivate your damage control team, they won't deactivate. You have to deactivate them before going to SR, othwise you must deactivate SR and then deactivate your DC team.http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-confused005.gif

What setup are you running? I run 1.5/TMO 2.1 and Im able to deactivate my damage control team while at bs and sr if im submerged.

My steps are identical every time. When im in a position to start my attack approach for any vessel. While surfaced I call to BS, then order periscope depth. When I reach periscope depth I engage silent running and deactivate my damage control team. My view that I use most often is in the command room where Im able to see them and when I deactivate them they disappear and also on crew management they are gone.

Now, I have noticed that they will not deactivate unless im completely submerged in other words if im surfaced or not yet at full periscope depth no matter how many times I deactivate them while at BS they will not.

[Hylander_1314]

I always call the crew to battlestations before attacking, but while submerged, I always go to silent running, and have not had any issues with detection from the enemy.

Using TMO 2.1

[Armistead]

The one thing I have noticed about being at BS while SR is that, if you try to deactivate your damage control team, they won't deactivate. You have to deactivate them before going to SR, othwise you must deactivate SR and then deactivate your DC team.http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-confused005.gif

Seems mine doe's the same.

Right now it's all speculation, where's Duci when you need him.

[Stealhead]

I always call the crew to battlestations before attacking, but while submerged, I always go to silent running, and have not had any issues with detection from the enemy.

Using TMO 2.1


Do you mean to say that you remove your crew from BS when you go to SR or that you go to SR after submerging but at BS; I do the later when I feel that I am in sound range. So far as I can tell being at BS while also at SR seems to make no difference for me noise wise.A few times in fact just messing around I have been well evading enemy escorts and turned SR off and they spotted me very fast verses not spotting me before at all even though they where very near(this was with the Damage control crew off duty).

Also I put my damage control crew in hogans alley unless I need them.Have not jumped to 2.1 yet so I guess that will be different.

As others are saying I can not turn on/off the damage control team while in SR. Sooner or later someone who knows the answer to this here topic will post a reply....What was his name again?...............:hmmm:

[Hylander_1314]

Do you mean to say that you remove your crew from BS when you go to SR or that you go to SR after submerging but at BS; I do the later when I feel that I am in sound range. So far as I can tell being at BS while also at SR seems to make no difference for me noise wise.A few times in fact just messing around I have been well evading enemy escorts and turned SR off and they spotted me very fast verses not spotting me before at all even though they where very near(this was with the Damage control crew off duty).

Also I put my damage control crew in hogans alley unless I need them.Have not jumped to 2.1 yet so I guess that will be different.

As others are saying I can not turn on/off the damage control team while in SR. Sooner or later someone who knows the answer to this here topic will post a reply....What was his name again?...............:hmmm:

I put them at battlestations, go to silent running. It's easier if we take damage to go off silent running that way, and have the crew fixing stuff especially if there's more than 2 escorts working us over.

Since I mainly use TMO, the boats can go deeper than their redline marks for test depth, so I usually try to take the boat as deep as possible. Had a Balao down over 700ft more than once. So I rarely worry about battle damage.

Thing is, try to knock out the immediate escorts, either convoy, or task force, and then let the other ships have it.

[Stealhead]

Oh wasnt sure on your first post makes sense.We have totally different strategies though I never bother with the escorts I just stalk past em and kill the big fish.Honestly I usually dont have much trouble with escorts in TMO (not to say that they are easy to evade) I guess I just slink in and slink out. I dont go as deep either I go to about 200 stay there if they start pining I go deeper if needed.Also I am a "live to fight another day" type so I slink in go for one or two ships and as soon as I fire all my fish I begin my slink away that I am already escaping by the time the shots hit.If I miss/want to kill more I just come back and make a big 20-30 mile half circle and do it again.

I must be pretty good because for me roughly 1 in every 5 attacks the escorts will be completely in the dark as to my location sometimes even searching on the other side of the convoy
from my location I prefer night attacks.Another useful thing I like to do a quick dive each morning to find out the depth of the thermal layer("passing thermal layer sir") in the area of ocean I am in useful info.

not to go too off topic though.

[Ducimus]

RR got me thinking when he said the enemy can hear you better when at BS.

To the best of my knowledge, all BS does is increase compartment efficiency.


Do you actually suffer a value hearing loss when the crew is in BS mode?

Long time ago i heard BS increases your sonarmans effectiveness, but ive never seen anything to back that up. Again, all BS seems to effect is compartment efficiency.

IF SR is engaged, torps won't load, but seems other repair functions take place.

I noticed that ages ago and i never liked it. I don't think that should be, but id be lying if i said i wasn't taking advantage of it when i was playing. This is a code level issue. Can't fix this by modding.

I assume by looking at values that are still complex to me, that SR values only lower the enemies hearing values.

It's a boolean value that dampens your noise output at a fixed rate. It doesn't really lower enemy hearing values. Enemy hearing values just have to be set at a rate where they cannot hear the player with SR engaged and with the throttle set at an acceptable RPM level with a wind speed of zero.. (IE 1 to 2 knots)

The issue I see is even if you have SR engaged, your crew repairs.
Ahh, the crux of the matter. You know, I haven't really noticed or paid attention to this. Thinking back... I don't think this has effected me. Offhand, I don't think this is a factor that effects play other then getting some repairs in when you shouldn't be.

Also, what happens if you have SR engaged, but you crank up speed, do you still get values in your favor?

Depends on what speed you select and wind conditions. If say, Ahead standard, in 15 knot winds.. yeah, away you go most likely. In a 5 knot wind? Not so much.

Any values gain or loss by just engaging damage crew and not go on BS?

Just compartment effeciency rating. Gun and torp reloads slower. I don't remember offhand, but ill wager slower repairs too.


Still seems that crew in a damaged compartment have some effect on repair times because we have that guy with repair ability. Also seems a compartment with all men in it on repair status would repair.

If a compartment is crewed, the men in it maintain that compartment. Every now and then you can actually see that if you move the mouse over it to display their status.

For an example, look a damaged deck or AA gun. It won't be fixed until there is a man in it. Although i dont remember if the "auto fix" was reliant on BS or not. Someone should test this. My hunch is he'll fix the gun over time, BS or not, but i could be wrong.

The same with blowing tanks..I wonder if a value exist for this seperate noise, I haven't found one, but wouldn't even know where to look.

Game is not that complex. Blow tanks all you want, use your depth sounder all you want, use your active sonar all you want, Use your radar all you want. I'm pretty sure you will not be detected by the usage of these items.

In SH3 there was no Battle Stations function, but when Silent Running was engaged everything stopped, which was as it should be.

Since BS is a new function, my hunch is they forgot to code it correctly when in conjunction with silent running. Then again, it could just be broken. Look at rough weather gear. Rain conditions for the crew to put it on work, wind conditions don't and they should. Or even, "depth charges in the water!" from the sonar man, remember that?

[Armistead]

Thanks Duci, pretty much what I figured and how the game seems to react.