wow

[green_abobo]

well thanks for the reply. not to dispute but i find it ironic that you say speed will betray you in bb and not nb when the demon display uses nb to determine speed.

ive also overcome some of the towed sonar headaches by adjusting the length it can be streamed out by. the deeper you go, the further in you reel it and it no longer hits the bottom, as long as you arent moving too slow.

this is an awesome game and i'm totally hooked. ive had it exactly one week and im finally starting to get over some of the learning curve.

im learning subtle little things to help me, like using the active sonar intercept frequency to help ID contacts, referring to the sensors section of the USNI for the ranges.

also other stuff like if the NB sonar classification isnt quite being truthful (w/ the filter on) i can use the above method to scroll through the classifications in NB until i find one to match what is pinging me.

if i need even further classification i found that thats another good use for the periscope, especially against surface contacts.

now i can use the demon display to analyze speed, although this is also easier to do in a 688 than an akula or kilo.

sometimes i cant seem to get a tracker on some of these contacts to get the demon to display them properly. so i'll have to drop the contact and try again.

guessing its because im just not close enough.

i am kinda getting the hang of the TMA. it helps to figure out one of the 4 unknowns and lock it into the trial solution while finagling the rest of it.

when in doubt and in a hurry, snapshots can also be effective.

furthermore, i played a quick intercept mission last night in whch the thermal layer was actually displayed on the SSP sonar. most missions its just a line on the chart that curves to the right and just stops, but this one clearly had a number = the layer depth.

it was a mission were there was ice everywhere, and some of the surface contacts were completely surrounded by ice on all sides.

i could use the periscope to get the exact range, bearing, and course to fire SAMs at a joan de ark (or whatever) class french frigate that was stationary, blocked in the ice. the SAMs were doing damage, but not enough to kill it proper, even though they were hitting it. (explosions on bearing x)

torpedoes were completely ineffective as they would just hit the ice and detonate.

also saw another weird situation where the mission was to loiter in the berant sea and intercept a russian carrier group excorted by an akula I.

2 of the 3 surface contacts killed each other by ramming into one another. (trying to evade my torpedoes) the kirov that was escorting got beached on shore. (realized this after briefy turning the truth layer on because i couldnt find the akula anywhere and didnt even know the kirov was even w/ them!!)

good thing i was using a 688i w/ vertical launch tubes. I had to use multiple salvos of tlams (because it was picking off the incoming sams w/ its own) set w/ waypoints to kill it on the beach. it couldnt counter them all. lol.

i guess one other question i have is what is the advantage/disadvatage to setting your torps/countermeasures to passive vs. active? i can probably guess that one disadv. of active is that it gives your position away, but what about the advantage?

thanks again.

[magicstix]

DEMON isn't a narrowband display, but that's neither here nor there.

Active/passive countermeasures are used for when a torpedo is either active or passive on you. Most torpedoes start out passive then go active when they get close enough for terminal homing. So at first when there's a torpedo heading in your direction you'd generally pop off some passive countermeasures to try and lure the torpedo away from you. If the torpedo gets too close and starts pinging you, that's when you start using active CMs.

As far as passive vs active for your torpedoes, it's similar in reverse. The torpedo will home in passively then go active for the final kill. Of course, you can set where the torpedo enables and goes active to look for the target (this is what the enable button does). A torpedo or a counter measure going active doesn't necessarily reveal your position, but given that both torpedoes and countermeasures are really loud, they do reveal your bearing at their time of launch, which can leave you vulnerable to a snapshot.

In the case of countermeasures, it doesn't matter because your position is already given away if someone's shooting at you. In the case of a torpedo, however, they will pick up your bearing. This is why it's a good idea to make a course change after you take a shot.