Pretty bad patrol...

[Luno]

...as you can tell from my sig right now:

(quoting for when I start a new career)

Career: Feb. 13, 1942 "CO. Johny Goodwood"
Porpoise class: USS Shark, SS-174
Patrols: 2
Victories: 1 Merchants (4519 GRT), 0 Warships (0 GRT), 0 Aircraft
Sunk with all hands lost.

I looked up the story of the real USS Shark, and she met her demise on what was likely Feb. 11, 1942. Pretty depressing to read about, and eerie that I ended my patrol at nearly the same time.

Now, in terms of the game, I had a lot of trouble with the damage control. I'm running RFB, and it seemed that every time I tried to toggle silent running off, the guy just responded with "engaging silent running". I pressed the button at least 8 times, I pressed the key, nadda. My damage control team seemed to be doing nothing, and I held on to the boat for a long time in limbo, trying to sort it out. In the end, another pair of depth charges sorted me out quickly.

So, what do? How do I know the damage crew is working? How do I stop flooding? How do I disengage the silent running?

Again, I'm running RFB 2.0

[Slayer_42]

Hey there.
It's likely that it damage control team isn't doing anything because u have silent running engaged. To disengage silent running, u shud use the orders panel (buttons to the left on the screen) click the command room button and there will be a "rig for silent running" and "secure from silent running" key used to engage and disengage silent running. If I remember correctly, the z key will only engage silent running and does not disengage it.
Hope this helps
Gud luck

[Redmane]

I may be wrong about this since I haven't played RFB yet, but the keyboard command for silent running has always been a toggle, so hitting Z while silent running should turn it off. This is the way it works in TMO, and unless I'm totally off-base, should be like this in any mod that doesn't alter this key-binding.

[Luno]

Yeah, I must be doing something wrong. There is only one button, and it was only rigging for silent running, and Z was only rigging for silent running.

As confirmation, there ought to have been an indicator that it was on, or an indicator that damage control was on (that moving wrench animation was just fine).

I'll keep playing around, maybe I messed something up.

[Slayer_42]

I wonder if the developers of this mod aim to make you manually reset everything i.e running speed, boat operations etc to maybe improve realism? hmmmm not sure but this seems really weird, does this mod include a manual?

[TorpX]

Luno,

I wouldn't necessarily think you did anything wrong. I've had good careers come to an abrupt, and premature end, in RFB. I believe it was the modders intention, that the boat's hull be somewhat fragile, and if you have, for example, bulkheads destroyed, they are not repairable. Beyond what has been said about silent running, and fully manning damage control, and the affected compartments, I'm not sure there is too much you can do.

[Luno]

I kept playing around with it today, and I think it was just a random bug.

In a single mission I was able to turn on and off silent running as expected. The repair crew did their work quickly. I evaded three destroyers, no problem.

I wonder if the developers of this mod aim to make you manually reset everything i.e running speed, boat operations etc to maybe improve realism? hmmmm not sure but this seems really weird, does this mod include a manual?

Yup, it has one, and I've read it twice. I don't think you have to manually reset everything, but you do have to manually move the crew to the deck gun even if you click the button saying "Man the deck gun" 'til you're blue.

I believe it was the modders intention, that the boat's hull be somewhat fragile, and if you have, for example, bulkheads destroyed, they are not repairable. Beyond what has been said about silent running, and fully manning damage control, and the affected compartments, I'm not sure there is too much you can do.

Thanks! I'm glad that they added an ice-cream maker though.

On a related note, I have questions about the thermal layer. Does it actually do anything? I thought it would protect against active sonar, but I was still getting pinged on that fateful day, over 100 feet below said layer.

[Red October1984]

Are you at Battlestations?


You can't be Silent Running and at Battlestations IIRC.

[Luno]

It seems that you can, at least when I doing more tests today. Battle stations prevents people from sleeping and increases compartment efficiency for a short time. Silent running overrides most battle stations activities.

[Armistead]

One bug that happens with TMO is if you alt tab often silent running won't engage, or if you had it engaged, you can't cut it off. Even with BS active, you should still be able to toggle silent running off or on. If you're tabbing out a lot and it happens, save and reload and see if that corrects it.

One thing I don't like about the game is that your crew will do all repairs with silent running on, including pumping out water. In real life this noise would be a bullseye.

[Redmane]

Thermal layers do make it tougher for the ASW guys to pin down your location for an accurate DC attack. It sounds to me like you did things right, getting well enough below it that the entire boat was below it, which is something you always want to make sure of. However, just because you do find a thermal, that won't prevent the enemy AI from continuing to try and locate you. I have often passed through the layer and for a few moments heard them stop active searching, then resume soon after. And sometimes they do get lucky with very close or right on accurate barrages even after you get below one. I will often be diving at high speed, so there are some good knots on the boat, pass the layer, then drop all the way down to 1/3rd to go quiet, and use the momentum to put a turn on the boat and try to throw off any tracking idea they may have on me. This hasn't always worked, but sometimes it has.

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Luno

On a related note, I have questions about the thermal layer. Does it actually do anything? I thought it would protect against active sonar, but I was still getting pinged on that fateful day, over 100 feet below said layer.

I can't say much about the thermal layer in SH4 beyond the fact that it exists. SHCE seemed much better in this regard; with the bathythermagraph, you not only could see at what depth the layer was at, but also the magnitude of the temperature change.

[Sharkey]

The thermal layer undoubtedly does exist, whether or not it makes any difference though is debatable.
I've lost count of the number of times I've been sitting quietly below said layer, all stop, silent running engaged, and I still get pinged and ultimately depth charged into oblivion!......seems I just cant shake off those pesky destroyers, seems once they get a whiff of my boat I'm doomed!

[Armistead]

The thermal layer exist and does have effect. Mods use different values. I think this is the sim file from TMO. Looking at the sim.cfg.

For passive, here you basically get a 22% max reduction. You could increase it to 3 and get more reduction

[Hydrophone]
Detection time=5 ;1 ;[s]
Sensitivity=0.12 ;(0..1)
Height factor=0 ;[m]
Waves factor=0.6 ;[>=0]
Speed factor=15 ;[kt]
Noise factor=0.60 ;[>=0]
Thermal Layer Signal Attenuation=2 ;[>0], 1 means no signal reduction, 3 equals signal reduction to 33%

For active sonar, here set to the max of 20% reduction.

[Sonar]
Detection time=10 ;5 ;[s]
Sensitivity=0.05 ;(0..1)
Waves factor=1.0 ;[>=0]
Speed factor=20 ;[kt]
Enemy surface factor=200 ;[m2]
Lose time=30 ;[s]
Thermal Layer Signal Attenuation=5.0 ;[>0], 1 means no signal reduction, 5 equals signal reduction to 20%

SO the layer does give you some signal reduction, don't think so, set the values to one and see what happens. However, as you can see, it's is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to avoiding the enemy. The other factors that reduce signal reduction are weather/wave, speed {yours and his}, surface factor - the profile of your sub, simply if you stay narrow to the enemy, harder for him to pick you, expose your flank, much easier for him to get you on sonar. Many other factors not here come into play, such as, what type sonar, crew ratings, scene dat settings, etc.

To avoid detection, your goal should be to stack as many values in your favor. If waves are high, silent running is on and you're below the TL, the enemy is basically deaf to you. If waters are calm during your attack, it's going to be tough going, at scope depth about all you can do is engage silent running and keep your sub narrow to the nearest escort and hope you can get off your attack before you get picked up. You never know what the escorts crew ratings are, if set to veteran or elite, watch out. The biggest factor is weather/wind/waves, in high winds/waves, the enemy can hardly hear you, even if you're running flank above the layer.

Again, mods vary with the values to make it easier or harder for escorts to pick you up. To be a successful captain using harder mods like TMO, you have to understand how numerous values effect each other and plan your attack, knowing still you're probably gonna come under attack. Just as important in trying to avoid escorts is learning how to evade when they're dumping charges on you.

[Luno]

Thanks. I guess it really isn't some magic force-field after all

In RFB the value is 2.0, which would make reduction in 8% of I'm not mistaken. That doesn't seem like much, but neither does 20%. Were there real-world tests done to evaluate this?