Saying Hello And Asking Q's

[ragupasta]

Hi guys.

I've been bit of a lurker since March-ish. I'm still pretty new to this game series as a whole, but been enjoying my time sinking those pesky English merchant ships.
I really want to step up my gaming experience. So I have a few mods installed.
TDW: TDC 6.9.0
FX Update 0.0.19
Dynamic Environment v2.1

In game, I find the map contact thing a bit gamey, so I just tend to try and ignore it, so this leads to a question...

Sometimes I will get a contact via the hydrophone (manually done with the home+end keys, send to the TDC, ect). How come sometimes my sonar guy cannot give me a distance reading to contact (estimated)?
Is this due to a sonar range issue? If it's any help my sonar guy is well qualified, his passive stat's are pretty much maxxed out.
No problem getting a heading but without a estimated range, things kinda get sticky!

Another question if I may?

When you get sent to patrol a grid reference and are using no map contacts, what is your most used methods of patrol? Or do you look for a suspected shipping lane in that grid, and submerge and wait listening on the hydrophone?

Thanks for your time reading through this.

Regards

Apprentice U-Boot Kapitän

[Maki4444]

Hello and welcome ragupasta Cool name btw ;)

So to answer your questions. A hydrophone is not the same as a sonar. A hydrophone can only listen. A sonar can send a sound, or "ping". The time it takes for the "ping" to bounce off the target ship and come back to your sub is range. Well U-boats can only listen. So your sound guy can only estimate the range based on propeller loudness of the target. The louder the propeller, the closer the ship is to you.

Now this leads to the sound guy being able t only estimate long, medium, or short range. No exact distance.

Now for the patrol methods. I think most people use surface search, just cruising around till you spot something and the occasional dive and listen for a few hours, then surface again, new location, dive and listen. And so on and so on :)

Although I do suggest more mods. The game experience will chenge dramatically, for the better ofcourse.
At least get the OPEN HORIZONS II mod.

Happy hunting.

[Dogfish40]

Hallo and welcome aboard ragupasta,
As for your second Question, even though I play with contacts on, I think this still applies. When you get sent to a "zone" to patrol there should still be an icon on the map instructing you to "patrol this area". Once I get near I will draw a 200km circle around the icon and stay within that circle. In 24 to 48 hrs or as soon as you sink something, whichever comes first, your orders in the Kapitans log should say complete. I hope this is what you were asking. All you have to do really is sink something around that icon. It will also count as points for the campaign tonnage.
Gute Jagd Herr Kaleun.
D40