How do I effectively patrol an area?

alexradu89 · 03-25-10, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Believe it or not you can hear them alot further than you can see them.

I did not know that!

karamazovnew · 03-25-10, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexradu89

I did not know that!

Wait.. you can DIVE under the sea?

But how will you sink the targets? The deck gun doesn't seem to work underwater. Please help!

But enough fun.

Without Map Contacts you can't see the Hydro Lines. Which is just stupid... I wish there were a separate option for those. Anyway...
1. Use Map Contacts, that way the blind-deaf crew will no longer be an issue.
2. If you did make the mistake of upgrading the hydrophone you won't be able to use it on the surface. So yeah... it's better to dive from time to time, but mind the battery drain at high TC.
3. Plot a circle with the compass tool, centered on the patrol area point. Make it 200km in radius. Then try to stay inside that area. Any ship you sink outside it will not count for completing the patrol. Since finding a ship is a crapshoot, you can choose to stay in one place submerged for most of the day, or wander around like crazy burning fuel. Your choice.. I usually place myself along strategic lines, near shore or near harbors. The narrow Straits can be a gold mine too.

kylania · 03-25-10, 07:54 PM

40km seems to be the limit in which ships "exist" around you. I passed a destroyer then shortly thereafter a German steamer heading back the way I came. I switched to external camera, set it to 32x TC and followed the steamer to see if the destroyer would attack it. After a while the ship simply disappeared! No where to be found, the camera was 40km away from the sub at that point. So... either it's a game limit or a camera limit? Not sure.

SabreHawk · 03-25-10, 08:17 PM

Ya know I always wondered about the fact that the upgraded hydrophone thing they went with, and why they didnt just have both types onboard instead of one or the other. I know the sumberged only one was more robust with full 360 deg detection and a longer range, but still it seemed to me that having both would have been better.

Now as to using the upgraded one in SH5, I've found that in heavy seas where the bow spends a great deal of time under water I got contacts while on the surface. Thats how I found that convoy off the eastern coast, was just tooling along diving through the waves and as I checked the map I saw a sound contact line extending out ahead to port. Wow I thought, a sound contact while surfaced? That hadn't happened before, cause I had made other attacks and always lost the sound once we surfaced. But the sea was quite rough, and I could see that the forward half of the sub and sometimes the tower too was under water. So it must have been this that allowed the sound contact to show up.

mcarlsonus · 03-25-10, 08:39 PM

In the stormy north (!) North Atlantic especially, the hydrophones ALWAYS work better - and at longer range - than visual. From experience, set your submerged speed at Run 1 (Dead Slow) and go down to at LEAST 20m/60ft. Do this on a regular basis, alternating between surface observation - primarily to recharge the batteries - and dived. In any case, targets ARE hard to find! There's nothing YOU'RE doing wrong!

SabreHawk · 03-25-10, 10:21 PM

Yes it is hard, and for sure was hard for the real ones. Many of them sailed around out there for weeks and never found or spotted a thing, its a big place.............the ocean is.

As has been the case in the past, I'll listen for myself with motors off and have heard ships from wayyyyy off, barely audible. This is the one thing that the SH series has done well. Simulate the hydrophone operation.

Now if while listening you do find something, listen for a few minutes and see where you have to move the pointer to follow it. Then leave the station and call up the map and a sound contact line should appear. Now place a marker right at the tip of that line, and then watch it for a bit and note where the tip goes. then once the tip has moved some distance, place another marker at the tip and then you can with the ruler draw a line between them and have a very good idea of the course the contact is on and if headed away or closing or some other direction.
Hopefully it's closing towards you. But if not, you may still be able to get to it if it's not traveling fast. Surface and set course to close the distance. Then after some time, submerge again to check on it. then repeat and eventually get close enough to get it spotted and then an attack can be planned.

03-25-10, 07:54 PM	#3
kylania Silent Hunter Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 3,528 Downloads: 118 Uploads: 0	40km seems to be the limit in which ships "exist" around you. I passed a destroyer then shortly thereafter a German steamer heading back the way I came. I switched to external camera, set it to 32x TC and followed the steamer to see if the destroyer would attack it. After a while the ship simply disappeared! No where to be found, the camera was 40km away from the sub at that point. So... either it's a game limit or a camera limit? Not sure. __________________

03-25-10, 08:17 PM	#4
SabreHawk Captain Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Seattle, Wa. USA Posts: 530 Downloads: 8 Uploads: 0	Ya know I always wondered about the fact that the upgraded hydrophone thing they went with, and why they didnt just have both types onboard instead of one or the other. I know the sumberged only one was more robust with full 360 deg detection and a longer range, but still it seemed to me that having both would have been better. Now as to using the upgraded one in SH5, I've found that in heavy seas where the bow spends a great deal of time under water I got contacts while on the surface. Thats how I found that convoy off the eastern coast, was just tooling along diving through the waves and as I checked the map I saw a sound contact line extending out ahead to port. Wow I thought, a sound contact while surfaced? That hadn't happened before, cause I had made other attacks and always lost the sound once we surfaced. But the sea was quite rough, and I could see that the forward half of the sub and sometimes the tower too was under water. So it must have been this that allowed the sound contact to show up. __________________ "Chance favors the prepared mind"

03-25-10, 10:21 PM	#6
SabreHawk Captain Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Seattle, Wa. USA Posts: 530 Downloads: 8 Uploads: 0	Yes it is hard, and for sure was hard for the real ones. Many of them sailed around out there for weeks and never found or spotted a thing, its a big place.............the ocean is. As has been the case in the past, I'll listen for myself with motors off and have heard ships from wayyyyy off, barely audible. This is the one thing that the SH series has done well. Simulate the hydrophone operation. Now if while listening you do find something, listen for a few minutes and see where you have to move the pointer to follow it. Then leave the station and call up the map and a sound contact line should appear. Now place a marker right at the tip of that line, and then watch it for a bit and note where the tip goes. then once the tip has moved some distance, place another marker at the tip and then you can with the ruler draw a line between them and have a very good idea of the course the contact is on and if headed away or closing or some other direction. Hopefully it's closing towards you. But if not, you may still be able to get to it if it's not traveling fast. Surface and set course to close the distance. Then after some time, submerge again to check on it. then repeat and eventually get close enough to get it spotted and then an attack can be planned. __________________ "Chance favors the prepared mind"

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03-25-10, 08:39 PM	#5
mcarlsonus Weps Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 362 Downloads: 13 Uploads: 0	In the stormy north (!) North Atlantic especially, the hydrophones ALWAYS work better - and at longer range - than visual. From experience, set your submerged speed at Run 1 (Dead Slow) and go down to at LEAST 20m/60ft. Do this on a regular basis, alternating between surface observation - primarily to recharge the batteries - and dived. In any case, targets ARE hard to find! There's nothing YOU'RE doing wrong!