Need some precise figures about equipment

[Incubus]

A few things I was curious about-

Radar- What is the range of the various radars? I have noticed it has allowed me to find merchants at night in bad weather, which is nice. But I want to be able to use it through 1945 while still not getting detected too often, and to do that I need to know how far out it reaches, and also how easily allied aircraft/ships can detect my radar.

Radar detectors- If it detects enemy radar, does that mean they've already spotted me? Or do I have a chance of diving and avoiding detection?

Sonar- I'm guessing this basically works as well as the sub's hydrophones. Though I am curious- what exactly is the difference between 'estimate range to target' and 'exact range'? I've always used exact range, and because of its utility I don't really see the point of the estimate one. Also, what is the approximate detection range of enemy ships when I'm pinging sonar? What about enemy sonar, can I use that to get a fix on their position?

Anti Sonar/Radar coating- I've asked this before, but I kind of want some sort of numerical figure regarding detection. I'm guessing these require enemies to be closer in order to detect you, but to what degree? Does anti-radar coating offset the radar signature of the snorkel?

[Dantenoc]

A few things I was curious about-
Sonar- what exactly is the difference between 'estimate range to target' and 'exact range'?
Never use the "estimate range to target" option, it's bugged and doesn't work properly :nope: (has anyone been able to fix this with a mod?). Estimate range to target was basicaly meant to model passive detection methods, where the sonar operator draws on his experience to venture an educated guess of the target's range through the use of passive sonar only (i.e.: the hydrophones). Naturaly, the result would be inexact, but if the sonar operator were any good, he could get very good estimates indeed. Obviously, the great advantage to this method is that you wouldn't need to ping your enemy, and therefore would not give your position away.

Of course, none of this does any good in the game, because the idiotic sonar operator pings the enemy anyway, giving your position away, and then only guesses the range, not using the information from the ping at all!!! :down:

To make matters worse, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to his range guesses, since he'll vary them widely from one to the next if you ask him several times. :damn:

[MothBalls]

The sonar buttons are bugged, You have to use it manually.

You have to be close enough to a target to see the ship type on the little notepad upper right of the wheel thingy in the hydrophone station.

When you have a contact, sit in the station. Ask the operator to report nearest contact or find it yourself. Dial it in and when you see the ship type in the upper right corner notepad, push the little button on the lower left corner. It will send a ping and give you the exact distance to target.

It's real handy if you have multiple targets. You can figure out location, heading and speed of targets if you ping them a few times. It's works great in poor visibility.

About using enemy sonar to determine where they are, well, not that I'm aware of. If there is a way I'd like to know. All I do know that if the enemy is pinging you, it's already too late. You just know you need to hide, quickly.


Radar detector is just that. It detects enemy radar signals and gives you a bearing on it. The distance depends on the model, as the war progresses, the models get better. (I'd get one of these before getting active radar.)

For the active radar, my experience has been that if you have the 16k visibility mod, on the surface in daytime clear weather, the watch crew will usually spot a ship right around the same time the radar operator does. If you are using default or 8K, radar will detect things a little sooner, but now very much. It's strength is at night and in very bad weather, that's the only time I ever use it.

The hydrophone and sonar are far more usefull to me than the radar equipment.

About the sonar/radar coatings, I don't know exact numbers but, when you get to the timeframe in the war when these are available, you already need every bit of help you can get, so get it. Even if it's only a 50m difference, it might make all the difference.

If you're asking for hard coded exact numbers, you won't find them for most things. That's one of the strengths of this simulation. Many of the variables are actually variable, making them very random. It may not work the exact same way twice.