16km Atmosphere advice needed...

[Kpt, Otto]

Originally Posted by Tessa

Just got into port so am in the position to enable a few mods. The 16k still begs the question is this a double edged mod? Though my crew can spot targets are very long ranges can the escorts or lone merchant ships do the same?

Frequently when submerged will have the SO find a merchant at heading xxx, when I pop up the scope there's nothing there; have to stat mashing the L button at +/- 5 degrees of his estimate until it locks on. Then finally hit the target and its 20km+ away or more. I know that you can hear better underwater, but something so far away isn't very useful most of the time when you factor in the amount of fuel you have to burn to get there (assuming its not on your course).

Most of the ships I sink I find using the hydrophones. I will often have the boat submerged and then I will man the hydrophones station myself and listen. I do this when I have reached a common trade route or are near the coast. If I leave it to the SO then often he we only pick up contacts within about 15km when infact in game you can hear upto 25-30km.

When I find a contact at bearing xxx I then listen to hear how close they sound and track them to get a best guess at their course. Then I go to the Nav map and use the compass to place a marker on that bearing.

I then draw a compass circle around my boat out to a range of 30km and do the same for them. This enables me to see the best search pattern to use and plot an intercept point. Then I draw a compass circle of 5km near the intercept area which gives me a point to aim for for when I should make contact.

When I reach that point if I do not make contact I submerge the boat again and listen again for their latest position, and then plot as needed.

So far 8 times out of 10 I get it right. So using the 16km mod should improve things alot as at the moment when a sighting is made using the standard 8km atmosphere they are at 4500m even on a clear day. In such conditions you should see their smoke on the horizon first and act accordingly to get your boat in the best firing position. That is difficult to do using the standard 8km atmosphere.

In convoy actions this is even more important.


16km mod here I come!! I will enable it when I reach port. As for the merchants im sure they will also be able to see further. But I am confident that being able to set up an attack using shaddowing or over hauling the convoy will be much more posible with the 16km mod enabled.