[Kielhauler1961]

@ danlisa,

Stingray's experiences mirror my own. It's got to the point where, when I need to sneak away from an escort (with or without convoy) I enable silent running, dive to 200 meters (or whatever I can get away with), point my ass at 180 degrees to his projected course and go down the pub for two hours. I can't risk using TC in proximity to the enemy anymore.

Some weeks back, driving a type II, I was heading westbound through the Orkney - Shetland gap and my sonarman picked up a contact "Warship moving fast, bearing 080, constant distance". I tracked the contact for a time and established he was heading east at a distance of about 10-12 km, at an estimated speed of 15 knots+.

Wishing to complete my transit as quickly as possible, and figuring I was safe from detection (submerged, 25m) and given his speed, distance and course, I increased TC to x64 and the next thing I know is "We're taking damage, Sir!" He somehow detected me at extreme range, but only because I put on TC. It was a V&W class destroyer, all by itself, and it took me four hours to lose him, and then I had to head back to base for repairs.

In my experience, high TC DOES make the boat more detectable. I then re-loaded the previous save: followed the same course, had the same encounter with the same V&W, at the same time, in the same place. Left it on x1 and went down the pub. When I came back he was hull-down on the horizon, bearing 190, hadn't alttered course one bit and making 12 kts. TC does make a difference, from personal experience.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about it. It is after all an artificial mechanism to get through the "boring bits", but gamers need to be aware of the "X-factor".