Grrrr...........
 

I'm cruising along in a nasty storm, when suddenly a destroyer appears *immediately* on my stern, "inches" away. Boom, I'm dead.

What the hell was my sonarman doing ? (using 1.4).

Doing some research, I've found that the patches from 1.2 on screwed up the sonarman.

- is this true ?

- is it better to use 1.1, instead of the other patches ?

p.s. another gripe, though more minor than this one; kind of lame, how if you die, etc., you immediately just go back to a stats screen.
You'd think something a little more imaginative could have been made.

Anyway, the sonar issue is big to me.

Were you surfaced? The hydrophone doesn´t work then. And that´s a feature, not a bug! ;)

If you are using time compression on the surface and in a storm your - Watch Officer is to blame not your hydrophone operator - he (hydrophone) cannot hear or detect over the sound of your diesels...hydrophone is passive and listen for sound - sonar is active signal (the ping) sent by a vessel the time it takes to return is the estimate of distance - many better experts here on the subject but in general its not your sonar/hydrophone fault if you are surfaced and running any time compression...

Yes once dead unless you make saves in game it is time to return to the Academy Herr Kaleun.

:lurk:

Re: Grrrr...........
 

Couple of questions:

1. Were you on the surface when this happened? If so, your hydrophones don't work on the surface so your soundman wouldn't have been able to help you there.

2. If you were submerged and cruising, the sound of your own motors would likely have drowned out the sounds of the warship approaching from your stern - plus at least some of the hydrophone sets have "dead zones" of a few degrees either side of the centerline both forward and aft, so your soundman could easily have missed it even if you were submerged.

I agree with you (as does everyone else I've seen post on it around here) that the death screen is rather a letdown, especially given the quality of the rest of the game.

Ok, thanks for the info.

- I was surfaced, no time comp, so I guess that explains that. I knew the phones only work submerged, etc. Oops :)

Another question; in doing some reading on forums, it appears that the sonarman would call out info without the player's input (on his own, i.e.).

Was this so, or do I have that wrong too ?

If you were submerged and a destroyer surprised you, that's weird if you had even a rookie hydrophone operator. If you were surfaced and the weather (visibility) was bad (due to heavy or medium fog) the one you should blame is the one who's looking from the mirror. :) Normally, U-Boat should travel submerged if the visual detection range is shorter than the one with hydrophones. Especially in heavy fog.

No he does, usually i have to click on him once, and ask for nearest contact details, then he'll give me an update every 30seconds or so

Yeah, I know. Since I'm fairly new to the game, was doing more testing than anything :)

Although, I saw the escort first, and watched it for several seconds until it was about ready to mount my sub :),...........and the watch never mentioned it.

Rookie crew or not, if I could see it for awhile, one of the watch should have been able to too you would think.

I have seen few times that my sonarman keeps calling contacts even after my boat is surfaced again, if I have asked him to follow nearest merchant/warship and forgot to ask him to return to normal sweep before surfacing...

Right, I've done that too. I was just under the impression that prior to 1.3 you didn't even have to do this, as it should be; "Sorry Capt, I would have told you about that contact, but you never asked" :)

I.e., it was like back in aod, where you'd get a contact report, etc.

Yes, that is pretty annoying. Currently in my career, I'm doing a second overhaul for this outbound convoy in medium fog and heavy seas. I need to personally act as a look out because those idiots would let those escorts come too close to my boat. But it was the captains job to do the overhauling so...

Sorry, yeah he does tell you automatically as well, just not always though, like if a ship is contacted for the first time he will yell out. But sometimes he's known to fall asleep. :D

Ok, thanks for the info.