RUb 1.43 AI sensors

[Nopileo]

Before I installed RUb 1.43 I used Jungman's great SensorPak, and as far I could make out from the RUb readme, this is now included in RUb, or most of it.

But I've had a few patrols with RUb now, and I think that the DD's have gone back to having the 'death lock' on me much more than in the standalone SensorPak.

Is this part also included in RUb 1.43 now? The part where enemy DD's would loose the fix on you with active sonar when they are closer than 200m or so? Even when I'm at about 200m depth they keep pinging me until they're almost on top of me, and I should think that the deeper I am, the further away they would have to be to keep a fix on me?

Thanks.

[Nopileo]

I'm about to start a new patrol now, and just wanted to *bump* this so any RUb 1.43 devs would find it more easily. :ping:

[CCIP]

Seems odd. No, I can tell you that RUb's (late-war) sensors should be in every way more restricted than any previous version of SHIII I know of, including Jungman's mods. Unless he's recently added some sort of major change, I'd say late-war sonar in 1.43 should theoretically be as much as twice less efficient than his original sonar mods.

Just to tell you what I did to the sonar as compared to Jungman's original fixes - I made it about 30% less sensitive (which in practice means a much greater lock-on penalty nearer to maximum range), and I've nearly halved what should be the 'single-sweep' coverage for both the important late-war sonars. This means that, on the whole, I'd say their ability to get and then re-establish contact should be reduced by nearly twice. The 200m minimum cap is still there meanwhile.

Remember that the AI can cooperate and combine their sonar abilities in the search. It's likely that you've met two or more very competent escorts who used good cooperation and contact-keeping tactics. :hmm:

[Nopileo]

Thanks CCIP,

Yes I forgot to mention that I'm very late in the war now, but you seemed to 'detect' that somehow... :ping: This last patrol was in December 1944.

And you are correct, I think. My latest encounter was a convoy with 7(!) escorts. I have never seen this many escorts before, but they were there.

I'm still using external camera for a few reasons: 1) I love watching what the AI ships are doing up there. 2) I love the graphics and scenery and like to take screenshots and 3) I'm still in a 'beta-test mode' while I'm getting used to the new limited map in RUb.

So I can see exactly where the escorts are at all times, if I wish. During this last encounter, one was breathing heavily down my neck, and two others were some distance away (about 1 km), depth charging my Bold 4 decoys.

So maybe one of those two were pinging me while the one on top of me was not, I don't know. Sadly the hydrophone does not give an indication of where the pings are coming from. Or does it? I can't hear any difference in 'ping volume' no matter where I turn the dial.

So maybe this is it. If I remember correctly, I only had one escort on my neck while I tested Jungman's SensorPak, and that one stopped pinging when it was about 2-300 meters away from me, which gave me time to start maneuvering away for a short time.

Here is a quote from the readme:

The biggest problem I could see was trying to escape the death lock the DD has on you
and can never escape. The DD can out turn you in a circle and maintain a lock with the
90 degree sonar pointing right at you in the center. Since you cannot go any faster than
2 to 3 knots without being heard by the late year hydrophones of the DD, you cannot
get enough distance to sneak away without being picked up again. Also the Minimum Range
of 200m helps to break the accuracy of the DC or HH by moving quickly before the over run.

And here is the link to the Pak, but I guess you already have this:

http://rapidshare.de/files/3448595/SensorPak.zip.html

[CCIP]

Yea, in that case, my version is definitely reduced compared to that.

Like I said... avoid multiple escorts like the plague. The AI uses a simple but neat system - it actually doesn't matter who is pinging you and locking you on, because all ships engaged with you will share their contact with others. So if one knows where you are, they all know where you are. And they'll keep knowing where you are until every single one of them loses contact.
In a sense, that's a very accurate reflection of the contact-sharing tactics that the British developed.

So yeah. Don't mess with multiples. Two escorts attacking you is several times more dangerous than one. Three or more - probably several dozen times! :)