launch transients, torpedo sounds, and realism

[Keelbuster]

Originally Posted by Alain-James

Hum there was nothing such as an active sonar/ranging ping available on a U-Boot, maybe except for a very few number of them who may have been fitted with some active equipment... right?
I guess the presence of such gear in SH3 is somewhat fictionnal (the same with the ingame early availability of the type XXI boats).

But in the eventuality such equipement was available, yes technically speaking a ping would be heard by anyone in range with hydrophones, or even without them.

Yep, but Dangerous Waters/Contemporary sonar assets are omnidirectionnal, while a lot of WW2 hydrophones were often directionnal (aka you have to turn the wheel/the switch to listen in a given direction) (btw please tell me if Im wrong...). I suppose anyway that monitoring primitive omni-directional equipement, such as the first sonoboys, must have been quite a pain in the **s without an electric screen...

I guess I'm just wondering - if you can't detect a launched/running torpedo with passive sonar, what are your chances of detecting a sub set for silent running on passive sonar? In game, if an escort comes close enough to you, it will detect you on passive sonar. However, if you fire an electric torpedo, even right beside an escort, unless the torpedo hits something, it's as if it was never there. I've taken long shots with T2s, and had them drift on through the convoy and out the other side. It's as if nothing happened - the escorts are oblivious to it. In real life I imagine that one of the 8 or 9 escorts would happen to pass his hydrophone over a bearing with a torpedo in it, and would recognize it. If you can't hear a torpedo, how are you going to hear a sub....