Best practises for finding targets
 

So I am trying to come up with the best way to find targets and want to know what others have found to be best for that. I am particularly intrested in hydraphone methods. As it is I am diving down to PD keeping my engens runing at ahead standard and making two or three sweeps of the hydraphone wheel my self. Then I go back up top and keep on crusing. I do this once every two hours or so depending on how fast I am moving. If I am not moving to intercept I generaly try to get a reading every 20km or so.

I have also been using the convoy route map to navagate to areas where I am most likely to chance apon a convoy or single target. What do you guys find to be the most sucsefull? Is my method sound?

Instead of Ahead Standard, I'd suggest Ahead Slow. This results in less ambient noise from water rushing past the hydrophone sensors. You'll be able to notice fainter sounds.

Also be sure to circle round 2-3 times when you drop down for a hydrophone sweep.

In poor weather you may want stay under for extended periods as well, although attacks will be somewhat difficult ;)

I just wait for the clock to start stuttering when I'm at 2048TC. But when I do dive down I usually turn up the volume on my speakers and hydrophone and sweep clockwise.

That means your Kaleun's spidey senses are tingling. :D

Your are doing all the right things allready. I wrote a post some time ago in which I calculated the intervals to do a hydrophone check, long enough for the contact to stay within hydrophone detection range. But I misplaced the link to it. Those intervals were something like 90 minutes or 2 hours depending on how the target was approaching you.

Got it:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...7&postcount=27

Wow, great work Pisces.

whish i could understand the information in the link...it sounds so cool !!

I didnt even know there was a convoy route map lol

There are in fact several convoy routs as well as lanes traveled by single ships. I would think a quick google serch would get you a map with them all on it. Alternatively you could down load the mod, GWX 3 as it comes with an in game map that has a map with all the patrol grids with all the convoy and single ship routs, where Allied naval trafic is known to be heavy and the area that can be coverd by Allied air patrols. All in all this is a very usefull map, I referance it at least three times per patrol to plot the rout most likely to find a target.

Yeah, re-reading it I don't find myself to be very clear either. But I don't know how to explain it better. Well, I'll try anyway.

If you and the target are moving head-to-head you are closing with him at pretty quickly, right? Both speeds are added in a head on collision. If you are both going the same direction you are either closing or extending away much slower. The difference of the 2 speeds. Now, the time interval that I calculated is the longest time it takes the target to go from one side of your hydrophone detection area to the other side of it, while you are moving. And assuming he comes very close or just outside of visual range. This happens the quickest when both of you are moving towards one another. Unfortunately if that is really the case is something you have to guess, based on the traffic patern and shoreline. I made the picture a bit more complicated because I was only interested in those situations where the target could only be found with hydrophones. If you want to keep it simple just take 2 times the maximum hydrophone range (2*34km, or 2*18.3nm), and divide that by the combined speed of you both. Then you have the amount of hours the target stays inside your detection range. To notice him you have to do a hydrophone check at least once in that time interval. But only if you do the hydrophone checks manually. If you let the crew do the listening the range is only 20km or so, and would require even shorter periods of time. Also if the target happends to just skim the detection range then he only spends a very small period of time in that detection area. I gave the formula to calculate the length of the track if the target when the target maintains a certain minimal range. Then the time becomes significantly shorter.

Basicaly, patrol BE.

In game map of convoy routes ???
I guess you dont mean the PDF map thats in a seperate folder but that's not ingame, but I havent spotted any icons that would bring it up.
Where can I find it

And during the hydrophone listening I allways go for full stop, completely eliminates screw noise

just hit F5 (nav-map), in the left corner above there are several maps you can drag down into view by click-n-drag. one of them (brown IIRC) is the convoy-route-map. :03:

IIRC stock SHIII doesn't have those maps ingame, but GWX (at least) does.

Ok, thanks KL-alfman, I have GWX so I should find them now:yeah:

you are welcome!

thx to penguin for his information about the difference between stock game and GWX.
I couldn't know that cause I only played GWX so far (and I'm happy with it and will never change).

Hydrophone checks are excellent. Rinse and repeat; for best results, apply in BF 17. :arrgh!:

In bad weather that lasts for a ridiculously long time, I travel to one of the hot spots and then submerge for good. Then I chill at ahead one third and surface to recharge once I've gone through half the batteries (8 hours or so I think). Then the only effective way to attack is to plot a course with the hydrophones (the 8 min thing.. there's a post on that somewhere) and position yourself straight ahead of the target. Otherwise you'll most likely miss it without map contact updates... If you have them on then it's not hard at all, and bear in mind I'm talking about the muck that translates into a 400m visibility. Get a visual first to plot it's course precisely and grab a speed measurement. Then and get ahead for a 600-800m 90AOB shot. Aim with the hydrophone, as if you try to aim visually there's a solid chance you'll wander closer than 300m and then you'll just waste torpedoes.

With map contact updates it's pretty easy as you can plot a course and measure the speed (distance traveled on your map in 3min 15sec = speed in knots). There is some level of randomness between where it actually is on your map and where the hydrophone line puts it but if you observe long enough you'll see a pattern emerge. Plot the pattern's [estimated] average and you've got a course plot that's pretty close to perfection.

Distance traveled in 3 min 15 seconds = speed in knots X 100. For example, traveling at 10 knots for 3 min 15 seconds means you will travel 1000 yards (actually works out to 1003, but it's a DR, not an exact science!)

I like using the hydrophone best as i find it the most exciting way to find stuff . Or even better and for me more realistic is when im hiding from a warship and just listening to it i find pretty exciting . Like it is in films etc etc.