Passive DD's

[r_wagner]

Just finished my first patrol with U-91 of the 11th flotilla. This was the first time I had a go using 100% realism coupled with the usual gw+nygm+euc and sh3gen.

I managed to sneak into reykjavik harbour and sink me a light cruiser, a liberty cargo and a large merchant. Later I intercepted a convoy and put 3 tankers (one large, two medium) on the bottom. After all this I finished with a handsome 48k tons to my name which any kaleun can be proud of!

My problem with this patrol is that apart from a couple of aircraft attacks I was never (!) DC'ed the entire patrol. The attack on reykjavik harbor sparked no countermeasures (and I was there for over 18 hours... damn liberty cargo took 5 torps to sink) and twice I sailed into the aforementioned convoy for the hits and yet none of the six escorts ever came after me! No pings or nothing! And this was in the end of 1942 when fortunes were surely beginning to turn for Germany, I was expecting to get pounded with DC's after sailing into that convoy.

To top it all of, I had to emerge to sink the last tanker with my deck gun since I was out of torps. It had lost power so I gave the convoy two hours to leave before coming up to fire. The seas were choppy so aiming was tricky but after about 20 minutes a couple of the escorts appear on the horizon. Bad news indeed I thought, so I waited until they were ca. 5km away and then I dove silently to 200m. I was down there waiting for pings and such but nothing happened. Remembering the escorts' less than stellar performance a couple of hours before I went to PD and saw that both had turned around before they even reached my location and were heading back to the convoy!!! They didn't even try to find me... So I just gave it another three hours and then emerged to finish off the last ship before heading home.

Needless to say I was expecting more aggressive behaviour from the escorts. If any of you fellow kaleuns have any mods or such making DD's more aggressive I'd love to hear about it. However, if this behaviour is normal for the game in 1942 then I'll accept it (my first time this far in). It just sounded a bit more hardcore in Iron Coffins! ;)

Thanks for the help :D

P.s. I had a strange occurence when stopping at a milk cow with that all extras for the uboat (sonar, radar, supercharge... ) disappeared, also seems to be happening randomly when in port... anyone else seen this happen?

[r_wagner]

bump, any thoughts, anyone?

[Sailor Steve]

I don't play at 100%, but pretty close. I've never played beyond mid-1940. That said, I've met a couple of DDs who were pretty agressive and a lot who weren't. I would think it would be pretty tough in 1942, but mayby you just got lucky. Have a look at the Mission Editor maps-maybe there aren't an DDs patrolling near Reykjavik.

Other than that, I don't know what to say.

[Umfuld]

Go to 43 I'd guess. What does it matter how aggressive they are if they can't detect you?
That's the way it was, no? First half of WWII U-Boats had the advantage. Second half escorts did.

What?

[r_wagner]

Go to 43 I'd guess. What does it matter how aggressive they are if they can't detect you?
That's the way it was, no? First half of WWII U-Boats had the advantage. Second half escorts did.

What?

Funny you should say that. On my second patrol (January 1943) I have had two encounters with task forces. In the first one I sank an Illustrious carrier, no pings and no DC's. In the second one I put 4 torps in a Nelson and again no pings and no DC's. Damn nelson didn't sink though, she just continued merrily on seemingly taking on minimal water, and the torps were perfectly spaced and everything!

Strange with the escorts though, you'd think that a task force in 1943 would have at least veteran crews on the escorts.

[Ducimus]

It's been touched upon time and time again in the mod forum, and i think most every effort has been made to change/fix it so the AI works you over. Only crew rating really that seems to be worth a crap is crewrating 4, elites. Just my opinion. Even if you made every crew rating for escorts 4, your still not garunteed for the "pay off". Although occasionally you'll get a escort thats balls on deadly. Simply put, the AI is hardcoded, and it sucks. In terms of Anti submarine efforts in the campaign, SH3, much of the time, is a very pretty screensaver. Thats the gritty truth. Its one of many reasons why we can all sink an ungodly amount of tonnage.

[Observer]

The AI's deadliness is largely based on their ability to detect your uboat. This has been addressed in NYGM Tonnage War 2.0. I think most people will find the AI much more capable than before.

[Ducimus]

The AI's deadliness is largely based on their ability to detect your uboat. .

Originally that was an idea i shared. Back in now (in)famous "dd pinpoint drop" thread i focused on the AI's ability to detect you on passive sonar in hopes to get more aggression out of them. I do not recall see much in the way of results on that. I think my conclusion was, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink".

Im not saying other solutions can't / won't / don't exist, but i am frustrated with it, and have since given up on it.

[Observer]

Originally that was an idea i shared. Back in now (in)famous "dd pinpoint drop" thread i focused on the AI's ability to detect you on passive sonar in hopes to get more aggression out of them. I do not recall see much in the way of results on that. I think my conclusion was, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink".

Im not saying other solutions can't / won't / don't exist, but i am frustrated with it, and have since given up on it.

As you can imagine, it's not just the hydrophone that is important. Sonar detection is equally important in order for the AI to conduct proper ASDIC sweeps. The sonar sensor does work, and the AI will conduct ASDIC sweeps once they approach your estimated position. Whether they detect you or not depends on how you drive your boat, weather conditions, AI skill and so on.

[Ducimus]

Weather conditions has ALOT to do with it. I did alot of testing in a sort of fixed enviorment where i adjusted the noise/wave factors and experimented to see when the stealth meter would go red, at X range and Y speed.

I repeated those tests like 3 to 5 times in the same setting at each given range and speed settings, in 0 winds, ranging up to 15 winds. Well, im sure you know what my findings were. Waves generated by 15 kt winds make them relativly deaf, and in acutal play most of the time theres a high wind blowing. The trick, i thought, was finding a setting that worked well for all conditions. The problem i found was compensating for one weather condition would make for uber or deaf passive sonar in other conditions. *shrug*

[Keelbuster]

Yea - it's a problem and all, but I've still never survived a career DiD!

KB

[Ducimus]

Yea - it's a problem and all, but I've still never survived a career DiD!

KB

I have, and i drive those fat assed IX boats, You wuss! :smug:
(nevermind that it was only one boat after a handful of attempts, :88) )