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bsalyers · 03-07-06, 09:53 AM

I'm afraid I speak from sad experience. I also always thought that asking for an estimate of range to contact was the equivalent of asking for the hydrophone man's best guess, and I use to wonder why escorts would suddenly start pinging for no apparent reason as a convoy approached. Other players set me straight on this. If you have any doubt, test it. When I was asking for range estimates in 1941, I briefly lost interest in the game because I literally could not ambush a convoy without being detected. After I learned about this little peculiarity, I was able to lie within feet of a destroyer and they had no idea I was there - and that was in late 1943.
I actually think it's an example of poor modelling on the designers' part. If asking for info is the same as pinging, you should hear a ping, just as you do when you ask for depth under keel. It also makes no sense to have two different buttons under your active sonar, one for precise range to target and one for approximate range, that both do exactly the same thing but with slightly different results.
I don't even have active sonar on my IXD-2. It's now mid-1944 and I'm enjoying the best sneak attacks I've been able to do in my whole career.

03-07-06, 09:53 AM	#14
bsalyers Sparky Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: North Hollywood, CA Posts: 152 Downloads: 46 Uploads: 0	I'm afraid I speak from sad experience. I also always thought that asking for an estimate of range to contact was the equivalent of asking for the hydrophone man's best guess, and I use to wonder why escorts would suddenly start pinging for no apparent reason as a convoy approached. Other players set me straight on this. If you have any doubt, test it. When I was asking for range estimates in 1941, I briefly lost interest in the game because I literally could not ambush a convoy without being detected. After I learned about this little peculiarity, I was able to lie within feet of a destroyer and they had no idea I was there - and that was in late 1943. I actually think it's an example of poor modelling on the designers' part. If asking for info is the same as pinging, you should hear a ping, just as you do when you ask for depth under keel. It also makes no sense to have two different buttons under your active sonar, one for precise range to target and one for approximate range, that both do exactly the same thing but with slightly different results. I don't even have active sonar on my IXD-2. It's now mid-1944 and I'm enjoying the best sneak attacks I've been able to do in my whole career.