5000m = 5km so actually his story stays quite the same:up:

For me the AI visual detection is generally fine, usually I can get within a few 1000 m from a warship before being detected (when surfaced). If you want the AI to be less good you can change it in Data\Cfg\Sim.cfg as dcb says.
there's also a 'Light factor' entry there (in the Visual section), increasing (or maybe decreasing?:-?) its value should make you harder to spot at night.
Anyway, play a bit around with it and you should come up with something fine for you.

I have performed dozens of successful night surface attacks in TMO, which is MUCH more sensitive than RFB. Usually I fire from between 2500 and 3000 yards (2300-2750 meters). I have approached with decks awash to 1500 yards on occasion. The key is dead slow if completely on the surface, smallest silhouette at all times, decks awash at 10 knots or below.

Mostly, I don't see a problem against Japanese shipping and escorts. I gallivant on the surface outside 3000 yards with no regard to my speed and don't recall ever being spotted.

If you check out my poor quality John P Cromwell instructional video you'll see a fully surfaced attack from under 1500 yards in rain during the day.

In real life our submarines encountered situations when they were spotted from unbelievable distances. The Japanese were great night fighters. One sub was tagged by a deck gun from 5,000 yards with the second shot. It was very lucky to get away. I've NEVER been tagged by a DD's deck gun from 5000 yards in the game.

Clearly to correctly model reality, situations must be wildly variable, and you should not be able to predict with certainty whether you will be spotted or not or just how good those gunners are going to be.

Once you start putting numbers into the game engine, saying .1 means you're sighted in this many yards, you've stopped playing SH4 and are now playing with yourself.:hmmm: The only one who has done a lot of that, Ducimus, did it to make the game HARDER, not easier. There's a clue there.

oh come on, don't take it so seriously. I was being sarcastic. And why not stationary, zero noise, nice and quiet? Squall conditions, visibility in mere yards and waiting for a merchant I knew was coming in at 350 degrees. The DD came in from a good 2000+ yards!!!

Came across an invasion force of the West coast of Manila last night, all stationary after dropping off their troops I guess, was in the depths of the night, pitch black outside somehow my lookouts managed to spot the ships. No complaints there!

Was at a range of 5030 yards was on the surface at the time so went to periscope depth and slowly closed to them at one knot.

Got to about 4200 yards and all the escorts woke up and started charging towards me had been listening on sonar and they weren't moving at all just sitting there quietly.

Know I wasn't making too much noise myself being at silent running so guess one of those escorts didn't partake in the sake party! Tried a couple of long range shots at a liner but she got up steam rather quick and moved before my fish got there and the escorts drove me off.

What I'm trying to say is that sometimes they can just pick you up I guess it's random but I know little of the game runs it's just my hunch.

Running TMOwtw 1.7 and RSRDC no other mods.

TMO visual is fine in my book and RFB is fine as well. Last nights excursion got me to 1200 yards of 2 DD...I was surfaced at full throttle!!!! :03: Sure, sometimes there is eagle eye GI Joe on the warships and you get spotted like a deer in the headlights. IF THAT IS THE CASE....you just found yourself the elite warship:o Run like hell...just do it slowly, quietly and as deeply as you can:D

Because it's very difficult to control depth when stationary, without waterflow over the dive-planes. Probably would be impossible in rough seas. ;)

For realisms sake, maintain speed at all times when submerged.

Real skippers never stopped to wait in place (afaik), they calculated a course to steer and set speed to arrive on a firing point at the same time the target arrived at desired postition. It's about syncing you're aproach with the targets movement.

Actually that's how modding began, RR, by putting numbers into the game engine and seing what happens, so that to bring the game to one's liking. Proof stands this old post, in the pre-SH4 era, which shows values pretty similar to what I found myself. Even before Ducimus got involved with SH4, there were a lot of people who tweaked the AI sensors & settings back in the SH3 era, in the quest for realism, for recreating the tactics of those days. Once again here is the living proof.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=93771

5km=5000meters. Where is the confusion?

As for using my god like powers, I did ask in my OP which parameter controlled the AI's night vision.

For the guy that asked about radar, they do not have radar yet. it is early 1941, and the ship in question was a lone merchant, not an escort. Read the original post please.

Do not get me wrong. I love this game, otherwise it would be off my computer with the bugs it has.

I want to play historically accurate. It is bad enough it does not take into account the closer the boat is to the bottom of the ocean the less accurate the sonar, or the fact you can't bottom out without taking loads of damage, but not being able to carry out the attacks that made the U-boats notorious is pretty bad. My complaints are based off what I have read in novels written by actual war time commanders. U-boats up until the implementation of the radar sets on all escorts did night surface attacks, and did them within 500meters, hull down (awash). This is noted in Donitz's book along with a book on British submarines I have read. When I try to do this sort of attack, every time I am detected. This makes me have to resort to a totally un realistic night PERISCOPE attack, which was not possible unless there was a full moon and even then the chances were low for success, hence the idea of the surface night attack.

Another thing. I am playing the U-boats right now. As I am sure you know the early type VII, which I am currently running had very minimal towers, and sat much lower in the water, than the American fleet boats. American fleet boats were also painted all black, which is surprisingly not good for night work. The fleet boats were also MUCH bigger and sat higher in the water (from the top of the deck to the waterline of the bow, was higher than the entire bow of a u-boat.) than the relatively smaller type VII. That is why American boats were not so good at night surface attacks.

To those that gave the parameters to adjust, thank you. You may think me a complainer, but you helped, which is more than some here.

I believe you have mistaken me for someone else :cool:

Only thing I had to say was its a game :doh:

Sorry steamwake, I corrected my goof.

To those that say I should stop playing if I don't like the bugs. So when you first played SH4 you liked it. You thought it was great, and accurate. Your sub took a tini tiny bit of damage, and when you went to submerge, you went for a uncontrolled dive to the bottom? That was really realistic, wasn't it?

Or how about odering level off at the current depth and having the game crash to desk top? That was great fun.

And let's not forget, Avro Lancasters painted in American colors flying around Hawiaii and plowing into the island's moutains.

Oh, and the real bugger, EVERY LAST airplane (which there were far too many to be accurate) knowing exactly where your boat was, and having near perfect acuracy when it came to bombing your boat AFTER it had dived.

All of these problems were addressed due to someone saying "hey, that ain't right", and voicing a complaint. The game is never going to be perfect. We have no wolf packs, we cannot really call in air attacks, and our own side's AI seem dumb as stumps.

That being said, the mods have made this game better and better. I don't mind the fluke Uber escort, or eagle eyed merchant look out, but I don't like having them being the rule rather than the exception.

The U-boat would have been an abject failure had actual watch crews had the capability the crews in the game have.

Never a truer statement. Although everyone modding strives for perfection the hard coded parts is a barrier. But, the love of the game 99.99% overlook the oddball escort, the unexplained damaged to sub amongst a convoy every now and then.

Yeah sorry they dont teach us that there metric system here the US of A.;) That was a brain fart I thinking that pythos had said 500m in the first post when I typed that.But I like RR and AVG have pulled of surface attacks in even half moon condtions and been able to get within 5,000yds much closer sometimes on a moonless night.

The bugs are the bugs kind of like the Yugo(that car they sold here in the US that was from Yugoslavia)it the quirks that make the game to me i like unplanned things i never planned to meet my wife it just happend bugs make life more fun at least I think that they do but maybe I am crazy but at least Im not insane.

Pythos, I apologize for my outburst. A bug is when something doesn't work from some failure, I see this as more of a design limitation. Anyway, hope you can tweek it to your liking.

Buddahaid

he was refering to the fact that when a sub is stationary in real life it cant hold steady at any depth so staying at periscope depth while stationary was impossible in reality.


on the subject of detection, as others have eluded to already, if you change the detection for a surfaced sub to be close to what you consider realistic (not everyone will agree on what really is a realistic detection range) then the flip side is you make it equally impssible for you to be detected when submerged so the game becomes so easy its unplayable for most peoples liking.


there are quite a few things in the game that we put up with for the sake of most things working as they should be so we put up with some things just not being able to do even though they were done in real life.


there is an unspoken rule of thumb that after you've posted a dozen complaint threads its time to learn modding and create mods to fix the things you are complaining about. im not being sarcastic here, im being honest.

people here will bend over backwards to help you learn and understand anything you need to know if you are willing to try to make the game better.

only by people fixing the things that bother them do we have all the mods you see today so join in making this game better and use your frustration as motivation to find solutions or understand the games limitations better and along the way im sure you will make a few mods of your own that we can all enjoy. :up:

Ok captain, sorry for the misunderstanding!:salute:
Maybe it's that odd thing with the environmental mods that's doing this...:hmmm:
Visibility issues are not uncommon...