Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamesphillip
Hello there mates, skippers, captains 
First I'd like to introduce myself, I am new around here, just bought the game about 1 week ago, and been playing everyday since.
So I have some questions about the game. I've already been looking for these answers around in the forums but would like some of you guys to answer as well and give your opinion.
1 - How does the hydrophone / radio work? Do you need to be using them to detect more ships more easily and often, or you can leave it alone and the radio/sound guy will find them easily as well? Since I've been doing the British Supplies mission and rarely seen a Merchant ship, leave alone a convoy, what's the best way to patrol an area? Always at surface or submerge a while? Circle around a large area or a smaller one?
2 - What is the best way to approach a warship and then evade them? I caught 3 destroyers patrolling and got behind their backs, but couldn't get the angle right without being at their backs. Anyways I managed to sink two of them and then submerged into the deep and got away. Is that the best way to leave the area? Just submerge and hope for the best?
3 - What does the orange circles, red semi-circles and black circles around enemy ships mean in TAI? I've been looking for a legend in the forums and googling it, but found nothing about it. Does black circles mean visual range? And what about the other two?
4 - I've been playing without any mods, and do not like the game to be 100% realistic, been playing at 87% realism, with external view (just for eye candy) and map contact updates, but I would like to play without map contacts, altough that can be hard and most of the mods add a whole lot of things that I don't want to add to my game, and many mods don't have a full description of the mod itself in the forums page (believe me I've been looking around the forums.) So what are the best mods for a begginer like me without adding too much realism to the game?
5 - Is there anyway to have 2 or more data in the TDC? Or it's only possible to have one target in TDC? I caught a large convoy in their backs, manage to sneak around to the middle-rear and had to shoot one by one, introducing data ship by ship after firing a torpedo, it would be much better if I could target 2 or 3 ships at once. I don't have much practice so I use Pause a lot, but I see that as cheating and I'm looking to stamp this out.
6 - What's the best/realistic range to engage a ship? 500m? 1000m? 2500m? Sometimes it happens that I can't hit a warship because they evade my torpedoes at the very last second, what can I do to avoid that?
Is it suicidal to engage 7 or 8 ships and then submerge into the deep?
7 - I've noticed that everyone in the sub doesn't react to the environment, doesn't matter if I'm being attacked, crash diving or attacking someone, everyone just seems to be standing there without doing nothing and reacting to nothing. Is there any mod that changes this?
8 - When does the radar become avaiable? It's December 1939 and still no good.
9 - Is there any way to control the rudder by clicking or setting the rudder to X degrees, instead of having to click 100 times and having to listen to "rudder 5 degrees to starboard" a zillion times as well?
Thanks for the help |
Phil's done an admirable job already so I'll just try to fill in the blanks:
1. To manually activate/use the hydrophone, click on the hydrophone station and use Home/End keys to rotate it (as Phil said, this is where you'll need the .exe patcher as the stock keys will make it move too far in either direction, making it hard to retain the contact). Bear in mind that the first hydrophone you get is mounted on the sides of the sub, with a small angle of 'deaf' area in front/behind, but will work while surfaced. Later versions offer 360 degree coverage, but will only work underwater - so adapt your patrol styles to suit. Also bear in mind that the hydro has more range the deeper you go, to max range at about 30 metres, and is affected by your own engine noise to an extent.
But yeah. you can leave it alone and the sonar guy will find targets, which will appear as black/blue lines on the nav map. Phil's description of hunting is spot on - I'll only add that to calculate the target's speed manually, as he describes, simply place one mark on the TAI at the bow of the target, start the stopwatch, then place another mark exactly 3 minutes 15 seconds later, also at the bow. Divide the range between the two by 100 = speed.
2. Destroyers are dangerous, even in stock. Shallow waters are also dangerous. If you've not got 150m of depth to use, it's shallow!
Enemy Destroyer AI works as described in the link below:
http://www.ducimus.net/sh415/ai.htm
Basically get deep and get quiet. Activate silent running, keep engine rpms below 50 (use the rpm gauge in the conning tower or engine room, and the 'advanced' speed control (hold shift I think) to select 0.25 knots or so) and get under their sonar. Since you don't know how deep they go, the deeper the better - and it'll only get harder the later in the war you get. If a Destryoer goes right over you on a DC run, slam it to ahead full for a few seconds to get out of the way of the depth charges, then drop to 50 rpms again.
As a general rule, unless it's a high-value target like a Carrier or Battleship, stick to the merchants - and even they'll fire back if they catch you on the surface. When attacking, try to get in front of the target (known as an 'end around') and let them cross your path, so you've got plenty of time to set up the shot & avoid escort screens.
3.
Black circles = visual range.
Orange circles = passive (listening) sonar range (surfaced/submerged). If you're in this zone and making noise, they can probably hear you.
Red semi-circles - active (pinging) sonar range. See AI link for info.
4. Don't worry about mods adding too much realism. With TDWs UI mod you can swap between manual and arcade (numbers on TAI torpedo track) targeting at will, mid game. Mia has an excellent list, I've also got one in my sig, with links to the exe patcher, D3D antilag for better fps etc. Magnum Opus, Open Horizons campaign mod and Dynamic Environment are all good choices - as for the rest, see what you like and what you don't! Use JSGME and you can swap them in/out as required.
6. 1000m or less is 'optimum' range for a torpedo shot, at 90 degree angle to the target. Destroyers are very fast and will often evade torpedoes even at ranges under 1000m - and firing on them will nearly always alert them to your presence - so attempt it at your own risk
7 or 8 targets in a convoy very early war is quite possible (go in with the torps, then with the deck gun), but this will only work for the first few months of 1939 - after that Merchants start arming themselves and deck-gun actions against convoys become very risky. Even single merchants can put a big hole in the pressure hull if they get a lucky shot. But 'submerging into the deep' is your best way of getting away, nearly every time. Depending on the weather/time, you can sometimes get away on the surface if you're quick - but underwater is safer.
7.
There's a mod called 'more crew' by Paris_England in the mods section. It'll add more crew, and I think some more animations. You'll also see more overall animations in Magnum Opus, because it has another mod (Mighty Fine Crew Mod) incorporated. But as a rule, this is something that's still being modded, so progress is limited at this stage.
8. I forget when the first Radar becomes available, but not until at least 1940.
*goes to check*
http://www.uboat.net/technical/radar.htm
Aha. Above link is handy. First radar is the Fumo in 1941. It only has a small angle, you won't get a 360 degree one until even later. If you see a plane, crash dive - don't risk it!
9. As Phil says, TDWs New UIs with TDC 6.7.0 allows you to swap between a heading dial and a rudder angle dial. Of all the mods, it's the most essential.
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I'm thinking about using TW_UI, Open Horizons 2, Dynamic Environments, Realistic Ammo for AA & Cannon plus Critical Torpedo Hits. Thing is I'm afraid that mods will conflict. I'm using the JSGME tool.
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That's fine. Some things to remember when installing mods.
File structure is important - the first folder in a mod folder
should be a folder called 'data'. If this isn't the case, then the mod itself is often found deeper in the folders. Dynamic Environment is a good example of this; it has many different variations within the main mod pack - it's those you need to move to your main mod folder and activate (for example, Dynamic Environment Basemod (normal) V2.1 - first folder in this is called 'data').
Install order is also important. Remember that whatever you install later will overwrite any earlier version that uses the same files (e.g if you had two different wave mods, you'd only see the effect of the last one). For the mods you list above, install in this order:
TDWs New UIs with TDC 6.7.0
Open Horizons II (Full, or Base + Environment depending on your preference)
Dynamic Environment basemod (normal, or your preference)
Dynamic Environment optional mods (your preference)
Realistic Ammo
Critical Hits
Also recommended, if you want a little extra oomph, to fit with your theoretical order above:
Magnum Opus (general megamod with better damage screens, no splash intro, no silly yellow bubbles etc)
Magnum Opus Patch 2 (check file structure on this one and make sure first folder is 'data' as above, or merge files with the main Magnum Opus)
IRAI (better, harder AI with editable difficulty )
FX_Update 0.19 (better in game FX, explosions, bailing out pilots, distress flares etc)
TDWs New UIs with TDC
Open Horizons II (Full, or Base + Environment depending on your preference)
Dynamic Environment basemod (your preference)
Dynamic Environment optional mods (your preference, recommended list in my sig)
Realistic Ammo
Critical Hits
KZS Hull Wetness
Vorkapitan's Enhanced Caustics
Shout if you get stuck & welcome to the site!
