Well last night I was tracking a ship and it just disappeared off the sonar. I don't know what happened, but it could have been my sound settings.

So you can track the bearing of the ship without having the periscope raised silly. They can see it you know...

THANK YOU Ducimus for believing me about this hydrophone problem. So many have told me that I was crazy or just having sound card troubles. I know a man of your talent will have this fixed in no time.

I'll bet the devs broke it when they "fixed" the hydrophones so that it lights the green lamp and no longer detects sampans.

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I have no proof, but my gut feeling its something associated with whatever code change ubi did to make it so certain ships don't show up as a hydrophone contact (lifeboats, sailing ships and the like). Seems to resolve itself when you surface and then dive again later on, but thats not always feasible. I think its going to be a rare occurance, and until someone figures out how to repeat it, we'll be scratching our heads at this one for awhile .

So we get to consider this as an undocumented feature? Simulated sonar malfunction that can only be fixed on the surface? Brilliant! Just because it wasn't intentional doesn't mean it can't be realistic...

Yep and if one reads what has changed in v1.3, it'll tell you just that.

I for one can live with the occasional dropped contact in lieu of having rubber boats and sailboats being logged as sonar contacts :doh:

Ditto. Besides, AI sonar man hears them just fine, and with radar, you really don't need to rely on being able to hear long distance contacts yourself anyway.

I'm using TM mod and I have gotten this problem a few times. I just assumed the game was being, well, sh4. Didn't think much of it as it is random and uncommon.

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I just experienced this bug. I setup a test mission with a cargo ship that passes in front of my sub at 5 kts. (I was following WernerSobe's excellent advanced firing solution video tutorial.) I set up the mission with stormy weather and tried it out.

When the ship came within hydrophone range, my SO reported the contact and I switched to the hydrophone station. I pointed the phones in the direction of the ship but no green light and I couldn't hear anything. (Although, my SO could still track the target and I could ping it.)

I figured it was a weather problem, so I set it to a nice calm day and tried again. Same thing. :damn: I tried many different depths but still no dice. (I also tried surfacing and diving as Ducimus suggested.) Then I thought that maybe the ship was going too slow, so I set the ship's speed to 10 kts... Heard it loud and clear. :o So, it seems to be related to speed... Anyone know any more about this?

I'm now having this problem as well--with 1.4. Did anyone ever solve this?

Every once in a while I get the vessel with the Russian caterpillar propulsion system. Never has it been a constant problem really. Does this happen all the time?

Well, I just started a campaign--and on the way to Midway to refuel from Pearl, I encountered a merchant, and the sonar worked.

However, upon reaching Midway--where my sonar man founds tons of new contacts (friendlies)--the sonar is not working--I get no sound when I turn to his reported contacts. I do get sound from my own screws though. :damn:

Try this if you do not have it already. Go to the Reflections on the Water mod posted over in the mod forums. Download the sound mod (stand alone package) and install JSGME. See if that cures your ills. Better sounds anyway!

thanks for all the help, Warhawk--I'll give it a try.

well in regards to not being able to hear the friendly contacts on sonar at midway, as far as i remember they aren't moving - no props no noise. I guess the SO being able to pick them up is a quirk of the game - could be attributed to hearing maintainance etc going on inside.

Hmm are there sounds ingame so you can hear maintainance on ships? Can we add this? Did ships ever do the equivalent of "rig for silent running".