I'm STILL being surprised on the surface...

[Troutish]

I've used Sober's mega-mods, set TC as he suggests, (properly, I think) enabled TDW's patcher so that crew stay awake....

but while cruising on the surface at 128 or 64tc enemy pt boats and destroyers still come into range without my crew giving ANY notice. First things i hear are gunfire at my boat!

ive started a new campaign so my crew is inexperienced, but still, they seem friggn blind at times. This is also an intermittent problem, because sometimes (dunno why) i get the "smoke on the horizon" message and other times i dont.

[Dogfish40]

Hi Troutish
I hear you. I have seen smoke on the horizon 90% of the time before my watch crew spots it. We must remember that the watch crew are tied down to very specific parameters. I think most of these are hard to get at, or we would see a lot of "Watch Crew" mods out there. When the crew miss your warships, is it 'Clear' weather? Or, is there Med fog? (I get a lot of Medium fog). It seems the watch crew don't see so well in any fog like conditions.
When I sail around Heligoland, there are something like four or five DD's hanging around that island. There's a good place to test how your watch crew are going to perform. Sometimes my crew calls'em out, but I can always see them first. I've also felt that there might be a relationship between the watch crew not calling out contacts, and the hydrophone (even if it's set for no contacts while surfaced).
One thing that they are really good at in my game is aircraft. They do very well at aircraft spotting, so at least that's something, and since TDW did some very good work on fixing both the soundman and the watch crew, the latter does work.
Maybe we can get this tweaked in a bit better or at least find out why the crew is still slow at spotting, (the enemy).
D40

[Troutish]

You certainly cant sit below and expect your crew to spot surface stuff - yes - fog conditions seem to matter and you may be right about the hydrophone. I was following a sound contact last night and going after it on the surface. i got suspicious that my crew had not seen the contact, so i went on deck and CLEARLY visible 2000 meters BEHIND me, close to my wake! I might have rammed the damn thing. This was on 128 TC. maybe becuase a hydrophone identified contact is considerd by the game to be "IDed" already, so why tell the captain when you eventually get a visual on it?

I also noticed once that when i saved the game right after spotting a ship myself at a great distance, when I exited and then reloaded the game, the crew saw it.

its terrible bug especially for people who feel like there are not enought targets in the game (i dont mind long searches myself, but I DO need my watch crew to be alert!)

Originally Posted by Dogfish40

Hi Troutish
I hear you. I have seen smoke on the horizon 90% of the time before my watch crew spots it. We must remember that the watch crew are tied down to very specific parameters. I think most of these are hard to get at, or we would see a lot of "Watch Crew" mods out there. When the crew miss your warships, is it 'Clear' weather? Or, is there Med fog? (I get a lot of Medium fog). It seems the watch crew don't see so well in any fog like conditions.
When I sail around Heligoland, there are something like four or five DD's hanging around that island. There's a good place to test how your watch crew are going to perform. Sometimes my crew calls'em out, but I can always see them first. I've also felt that there might be a relationship between the watch crew not calling out contacts, and the hydrophone (even if it's set for no contacts while surfaced).
One thing that they are really good at in my game is aircraft. They do very well at aircraft spotting, so at least that's something, and since TDW did some very good work on fixing both the soundman and the watch crew, the latter does work.
Maybe we can get this tweaked in a bit better or at least find out why the crew is still slow at spotting, (the enemy).
D40

[raymond6751]

The high TC is useful in the open waters and dangerous close to land or enemy frequent tracks. You, as captain, have to choose when and how to use the tools you have.

The concept of TC is to avoid boredom while you get into the "hot" zones where the enemy will be. Once there it is only reasonable to expect YOU to work with caution.

Even real-life equipment and men have glitches and miss things.

Do the role-play thing and enjoy the results.

[Fifi]

Originally Posted by Dogfish40

Hi Troutish
I hear you. I have seen smoke on the horizon 90% of the time before my watch crew spots it.

My crew ALWAYS spot boats way before i can see a damn thing!...but i prefer it this way
Even very often running X250, i've never been surprised by ennemy...i love my watch crew!

[Targor Avelany]

Originally Posted by Fifi

My crew ALWAYS spot boats way before i can see a damn thing!...but i prefer it this way
Even very often running X250, i've never been surprised by ennemy...i love my watch crew!

generally, same story here.

[gap]

Crew detection ranges reflect how much their captain cared about them: low morale (i.e. long patrols), no special abilities enabled, low experience (at the beginning of a new career), etc. will make them dumb.
And as it has been stated by others before, cruising at high TC in patrol areas, won't help either

[Troutish]

this problem happens to me when at 128TC or even lower. Its not a TC issue. I have also NOT used the morale mod included in sobers mega mod list (which increases the effects of poor morale)

Originally Posted by gap

Crew detection ranges reflect how much their captain cared about them: low morale (i.e. long patrols), no special abilities enabled, low experience (at the beginning of a new career), etc. will make them dumb.
And as it has been stated by others before, cruising at high TC in patrol areas, won't help either

[Trevally.]

Nothing to see here - move along




When running at high TC in your patrol area - have your stopwatch running.
When it stutters - a unit is being loaded into the game at 30km away

[gap]

Originally Posted by Trevally.

When running at high TC in your patrol area - have your stopwatch running.
When it stutters - a unit is being loaded into the game at 30km away

call it the B-Dienst stopwatch

[Spectre-63]

Just a thought (for those 'deep thinkers' with more brain than I): is it possible that heavy seas could cause the sim to believe you're in a submerged state and not allow the crew to spot when TDW's .exe patch is applied?

[Trevally.]

Originally Posted by gap

call it the B-Dienst stopwatch