[Raven_2012]

Originally Posted by misha1967

Yep, DogFish.

The hydrophone station is at least not worthless as it was before without the patch.

As to the sub's propeller noise interfering? I agree that the interference should be less when you point the hydrophone away from your own propellers, that makes perfect sense, but apparently it wasn't possible to do so, at least not at this time. Still, it's a huge improvement over before when I never bothered to use it myself as the hydrophone guy was the only one aboard who could make it work.

On a general note for anybody reading this thread: What to do to deal with the limitations even after the patch? First off, if you're "sweeping for contacts", turn your engines off. That's not "modifying SOP to overcome limitations in the simulation", that IS Standard Operating Procedure. No Kaleun trying to pick up targets beyond visual range would even dream of not turning off engines before doing a sweep.

Second, if you find yourself having to keep moving and still want to use your hydrophone yourself, as when you're in an engagement, do yourself a favor prior to that situation and run a while underwater with no contacts around to familiarize yourself with the sound of your own propellers.

The human ear and brain are remarkably good at "filtering out" sounds that are irrelevant so that "new sounds" stand out even when the irrelevant ones are still present, but you have to identify those sounds first.

So find a quiet area in the middle of nowhere, do a normal sweep first with everything off to make sure that you're truly alone, then start up your props and sit around listening to those for a while, just to teach your ears and brain the "baseline." Now you'll be able to quickly notice something that isn't "right."

Or you could do what I usually do, which is to leave the hydrophone monitoring during engagements to the guy that I hired to do the job in the first place. I didn't let him aboard just so I could feed him special meals and promote him on occasion, after all. Let him do his job while you do yours as a Kaleun. He has the ability to "filter" your own props' sound coded into the software which, by the way, isn't unrealistic since it's his sole function.

You don't have to do everything yourself, or the Kriegsmarine would have manned their Uboats with a crew of one. Delegate and hope that your men know their jobs. That's actually more realistic than trying to man every single station on the boat yourself.

Yeah you are right the procedures was to turn off the engines when doing a hydro sweep.