hydrophone and thermal layers
 

First - Salute! to all of you. I am KptLt Hans Dampf, running SH3 1.4 with GWX 3.0, and I'm currently celebrating christmas eve of 1941 during my 22th patrol (appearantly I'm not using SH3 Commander yet, I learned about that program strolling through this great forum and I'm downloading it right now :) ).

While sitting north of Tanger west of the Strait of Gibraltar in my VII-C, at a depth of 80 metres, listening for the allied christmas gifts to come, a couple of questions come to my mind ...

1) Is there an "ideal" depth for listening with the hydrophone ? I imagine at stormy weather while at periscope depth you should not have the clearest audible range, but does that matter in SH3 with GWX ? If yes, what's your experiences with that circumstance ?

2) I'm used to SH4 where the crew announce the passing of a thermal layer, but obviously the german U-Boote in SH3 doesn't have the equipment to measure the water temperature while submerged. Is that similar to the real life UBoats during the war ? Will there any equipment available to check thermal layers during the SH3/GWX-campaign ?

3) Oh, and about SH3 Commander - will there be any problems if I use it during a running campaign ?


"Gute Jagd", comrades. :salute:

Welcome aboard:salute:

Not sure i there's an "ideal" depth, but I personally sit at around 25-30 meters.

As far as I know, thermal layers are not implemented in GWX

Nope, SH3 commander is built for running during campaigns, and many here can't live without it (although they wont admit to that).

Heres to a good hunt, and heres a small piece of advice:

BE MORE AGRESSIVE!:D

Thermal layers are not to be found in GWX but when used in conjunction with SH3Commander the boats sensor qualities/effects are randomly altered by Commander to give that impression.

1) Periscope depth is good enough. Make sure you up the volume button on the machine (lower right).

3) While still on Patrol I think so. But after you are back in port (homebase), so in between patrols, I think you're ok.

...i go down to 20-25 meters. this is only because i *sense* its right for me. i will guess that the closer you are to the surface the more disruption to sound there will be because of the movement of water. saying that i was picking up sound at 70 meters yesterday - and again the same contact at P.depth.

It seems to me there is no advantage to depth when using the hydrophone. Even in stormy conditions, the sound guy finds all he is going to find at just periscope depth, and finds nothing more if we go deeper.

In fact, if I have a crack sound guy, he will find stuff while I am on the surface in stormy weather, just from the occasional immersion.

I also note there is no audible surface noise when I am wearing the headphones.... 15 m is as good as 50m.

This certainly seems to be true in the game, anyway.

I still usually order a depth of at least 30m for a hydrophone check. Seems more realistic, if we ended up staying submerged any length of time I wouldn't hang around at p-depth if I wasn't actually using the scope.

I usually cruise at 50M. It makes it that much quicker to get deep if enemy destroyers show up and enemy planes can't see me that deep (probably not modded into the game anyway but, did happen on occasion in R/L).

U-boats did not have the indicator technology during WW2 to detect their transition through the thermal layer. As Jimbuna said, SH3 Cmdr models this to some extent, but you will never know for sure. In the game, any depth will do for listening on the hydrophones, but in real life they dove deeper than periscope depth in order to eliminate the surface clutter noise. I feel that running at about 25 metres is a good concession to real world factors. I would advise that you wait until you are back in port before adding new mods, including SH3 Cmdr. It may work alright, but why take a chance? Once you do have it installed, use it to launch your game and exit the game at the end of each career patrol so that it can make the necessary changes in your career files.

Now that the war is progressing (I just made it to January 1941! Yay me! :DL) I'm trying to get in the habit of submerging every day for a couple hours around both sunrise and sunset, even in areas where I'm not expecting to be surprised by too much of anything. When I do that, or submerge for an extended period of time due to weather/visibility, I'll go deeper. Usually 40-50 meters down, for cruising submerged. If it's just a quick dip to check the 'phones, I figure 30m is plenty realistic... altho I'm pretty sure that in the game the sonar kicks in any time you register a depth of 10m or more. I've gotten contact reports from my sonar dude while running on the surface in very heavy seas... any time we dip downward enough and have a sufficiently big wave wash over, just for an instant we'll be pushed deep enough to count as submerged and suddenly Funkmeister Helmut is telling me he hears something.

I try not to listen but, golly, that "feature" sure does come in handy sometimes. :D

Plus if you don't do this you won't be able to compile and submit all your post-patrol paperwork. Bad Kaleun! BdU spank! :D

:har::har::har:

Thanks for your responses.
Considering your answers I will continue creeping around a depth of 30m to 50m, just for immersion and upholding a reasonably realistic style of "playing" SH3.

SH3 Commander and the GWX Config Files working great so far.
I decided to retire KptLt Hans Dampf after the next patrol, I think over 500 days on highs seas is more than enough in two years :doh: , he pushed his luck more than once, sometimes I don't know how I managed to emerge (almost) unscathed from some "situations".
Thanks to SH3Commander I will continue the campaign as Oberleutnant Adolf Kessler, he's my WO and I think he's ready to lead his "own" Uboat :03: :salute:

SINK EM ALL!! http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...ies/pirate.gif

Is there a way to promote a crewman to command a U-boat and then continue with him as your Kaleun in a new career?