Stealth merchant?
 

Is there a known bug where a ship doesn't register on the hydrophone? I had a merchant about 2000 yards off my starboard - and all the time I couldn't get a hydrophone reading off of it. By pressing the right buttons I could get my operator to call out the contact bearings, but yet I still couldn't get a sound out of it.

I was at about periscope depth in rough seas - if that at all matters.

Running 1.5 with the latest TMO.

:-?

Did you have the periscope raised? In my experience if you can get a visual confirmation, the hydrophones are not used.

Periscope up or down, it did not matter.

Correct, I could collect data through the periscope, but I was practicing with the hydrophone last night - and the problem still remained.

I've Seen This As Well...
 

Happens to me sometimes, no discernable pattern that I can see (such as a bearing sector, sea state, target speed, or something like that). I've wondered if it is possibly linked to ships added beyond stock, although most ships added via mods seem to be detectable via hydrophones. I guess I wonder if there is a few merchants that were added (non-stock) that for whatever reason don't have sound signatures.

Short of it is I've seen this as well, but have no explanation.

Has happened to me. No pattern.

It might be linked to that actual ship - as I even tried restarting the game and the problem was still there, and just for that ship.

Alrighty. I'll just sink it and move on. Hopefully it won't be a common problem.

There are real life accounts where the hydrophones could not be used due to enviromental conditions. Too much crap in the water (seaweed, shrimp, etc.), too rough weather, etc. So you can role play it as one of those days :smug:

That being said this seems to be a known game bug so yea... just sink it and move on. :rock:

Did you alt+tab out of the game?

If I´m correct, the voloume of the sonar can be turned up and / or down. This is a bug witch came with some patch or mod, cant remember wich though, since I´ve red alot lately.


In other words, check the soundsetting/voloume of sonar.

No Im afraid the volume of the sonar cannot be adjusted. In fact Ive specifically asked for a mod to add this 'feature' but evidently it is difficult or impossible to do.

I think its just a game glitch where the sound loop for the target in question is either not loaded or is null.

Not Related to "Alt-Tab"
 

I've gotten this situation many times when I have not used "Alt-Tab" (actually rarely do the alt-tab). And I also know it is not volume, there simply is no detectable sound. And I've had it in a situation where there are multiple ships around and I can detect all but 1 by sound, so I don't believe it tied to environmentals (I know Steamwake you did not say it was, you simply noted that did occur in real life...).

My targeting rarely relies on sonar, so the only time it is annoying is when I've got scope down and am watching the sonar bearing to decide when to raise scope for final bearings and shoot. So, you just come up a bit sooner...

I have noticed that when I get one of those "silent merchants", they always turn out to be sampans. Sail driven, I think, so no engine noise.

Or 'fishing boats' in either case I dont really consider them to be 'merchants'.

I had the same problem in both "variations":
1. visual with periscope - no sound on sonar - no report by sonarman and
2. visual with periscope - no sound on sonar - positive report by sonarman

the last time I had it, it was immediately upon loading from a previus save (ver,1.4, career mode). I think that I was submerged when I saved but I'm not sure... The thing is that it didn't persist and it is not so common an "event" to spoil the game (well, not for me at least).

... and no it wasn't sampans.

Certainly sail vessels would not be on sonar...no, we're talking honest smoke-belching screw-propulsed merchants.

It is strange and I've wondered at the cause, but never lost sleep on it and never let it interfere with game play...it isn't all that frequent (maybe once a patrol on average?).