Some more Newbie help please
 

Ahoy,

I'm on my first career and second mission right now (August 21st) so these questions are more about what I should expect since I don't really know. I'm at 100% realism (yes, I'm a masochist) and in my patrol area just off of Scottland. It's just after noon on the 21st and raining pretty hard, visibility is poor.

When I arrived at my patrol area I plotted out a search pattern with my Navigator and then fell into a rythm of cruising on the surface for 2 hours, then diving to 40 meters, shutting off the engines and letting the sonar man listen for 15 minutes or so. Does this sound like a reasonable routine? Is 15 minutes long enough to ensure that if something is out there in range he will detect it? Does it matter if the engines are running while he's trying to listen?

I guess my next question has to do with the ranges and speeds my sonar man calls out when he does find a target. How can I translate them into knots and meters? I assume they fall within consistent ranges of values?

Will the sonar man ever have more solid information? Exact speed for example, or exact range?

If not then am I correct that the only available method to figure range is to have a visual on the target?

Ah, and I almost forgot, I'm running GWX3.0 and SH3 Commander.

Thanks in advance,

Akela

You'll probably learn more if you play at a lower level for awhile, plus having external view on lets you take fun screen shots. I'm not recommending that as such, just explaining some of the options.

Real WW2 u-boats couldn't hover underwater anyway. They had to maintain some forward motion or they would begin to sink through leakage (they all leak some) or begin to rise because they set in a little positive bouyancy just in case.

And no, it doesn't make any difference in the game.

The reality is that it was impossible to get perfect information using hydrophones. A good soundman could give a very close estimate of speed based on the number of revolutions per minute of the target's props, but without knowing the exact ship it could never be perfect. Range? With the coming of active sonar range information became much more precise, but for the Germans that is much later in the war, and using it sends a signal that the sonar operaters on the destroyers could hear.

Pretty much. For gathering proper information for shooting you need to see the target.

Good choices. :sunny: