[AdamMil]

Originally Posted by green_abobo

the different types of sonar on the russian subs (the akulas, specifically) they suck IMO. especially the ship classification in narrowband

I've found that using the frequency scale helps a lot. Often you'll get most of the dots bunched up around the center (low frequencies). Changing the scale lets you "zoom in" on them, so you can distinguish them a bit better.

Find the point in the cursor where it "locks on" to a series of dots. Often a slight movement of the cursor clockwise or counterclockwise will enable it to lock on and apply the profile filter.

When you disable the filter and scroll through the classifications, it actually follows a predictable pattern based on the frequencies of the contacts, and you can watch the lines move in that pattern, so that can help you find the right classification by eye. This is mostly helpful if you've got nearly overlapping contacts.

i guess what i'm getting at here is that its real difficult to sneak up on the enemy, so since they can hear you approaching; they begin zig zagging evasively

I also have trouble with the AI detecting me no matter how slow I go. They seem to be psychic. It doesn't seem like they have to positively classify you as an enemy before you get the "You have been counterdetected." message. You can usually still complete the mission with no problem, except the disappointment of not having a perfect run. ;-P I don't think targets zig zag evasively, although I read that subs may occasionally change course at random. Not sure if it's true, but there's still enough time to get a solution usually.

how can i practice using the TMA?

One important thing is to get a sense of how the dot stack responds when you move the ruler. One type of movement bends the dots (moving parallel to bearing lines), another shears them (rotation?), another translates them (moving perpendicular to bearing lines), etc. By knowing how the dot stack responds you can look at a dot stack and think "Okay it's curved so I need to move the ruler this way to straighten it. And now it's a straight diagonal line so I just need to shear it until it's vertical. Okay now it's vertical, so I just need to translate it until it's centered."

Their user interface sucks, so it's a pain to do TMA, but there's software that can simulate TMA that you can use to practice with. Let me know if you're interested and I can recommend one, anyway.

Use DEMON to get the speed and lock that in. That reduces the number of possibilities greatly. I usually use auto TMA, though. :-P When there are a bunch of contacts and the TMA displays start to look like spaghetti and I think about using their crappy UI, it's just too much work.

whats the best way to set up range, course, and speed?

The easiest way is to use DEMON for speed and the intersections of bearing lines from widely separated sensors (sub + towed array or UUV) for range & course. If you only have one sensor, then you have to use the more complicated technique of turning your ship and doing TMA. (Though for me, turning the ship just turns the TMA display into an unmanageable mess of lines...)

the periscope seems useless in this game

It's actually decent for surface ships at short to medium ranges. You can get a good bearing and a decent range estimate (maybe 10-40% error) from the stadimeter, which is enough for a snapshot. It's not super useful, but it helps sometimes. Stadimeter UI kinda sucks, though.

sometimes i cant seem to get a tracker on some of these contacts... so i'll have to drop the contact and try again. guessing its because im just not close enough

Maybe, but the game does more than the average share of bugs and bad programming. :-(