DC sounds - any tips?

[Fidd]

I can hear them - just barely - even for damaging hits. May I ask where your sliders are? The reason I ask is that I usually play an engineer or machinist. My effects slider is full right, (max) and general volume is about 15% or so, as without that level, the noise from the diesels is just shattering. I'd be interested to know how loud the diesels are for you when in the diesel-room?

[Toybasher]

I can also confirm, at least for me, the depth charge explosions and torpedo explosions are awfully quiet on the hydrophone. Probably for the better because with the gain up, engines and ASDIC pings can be loud enough to hurt your ears, depth charge explosions, if they had realistic volume, would definitely blow an eardrum.

However, I still think the current DC explosion noises are way too quiet, they're barely even audible. I don't want them to be earshatteringly loud, but loud enough to be easily discernable on the hydrophone, currently, they seem extremely quiet.

They sound fine "locally" from inside the sub, but when you're listening to them on the hydrophone they're too quiet, I mean. That's where the problem is.

[Fidd]

It was usual for hydrophone operators to remove their headsets on hearing splashes, and this should I think also hold true in game. To my mind proximate DC's should be VERY loud indeed, and attended by significant vertical or lateral camera-shake when close by(as employed in Das Boot). On that subject I'd like for DC attacks on other u-boats to be audible over a considerable distance, and for the plumes of water to be visible by other boats with line of sight. Prefereably with a suitable interval allowing for sound propagations speeds in water v air.

I also would like to see much more prolonged DC attacks - with less lethality - and a progressive "laundry list" of broken stuff on the u-boat to contend with?

[Tabris]

I would respectfully disagree that the sounds are adequate as heard from inside the boat. Of course, I suppose me and my crew will eventually get used to it, but every time we're bombed we have to guess "are those are for us?" and we only find out after the boat has taken damage. To my Silent Hunter - tuned ear, direct hits are about as loud as I would expect misses 500-1000m away to be. I sincerely hope this fairly small change can get made sooner rather than later.

[Fidd]

I think there's a whole load of sound problems:

1. No alarm-bell repeaters (just bells, no "switch") exist in the forward torpedo room, messes, diesel room or e-motor room (the only rooms without them were the two lavatories)

2. Therefore alarm bells cannot be heard in either motor room.

3. Diesel room telephone ringer cannot be hear aft of cylinder #5 if diesel is running, nor is there line of sight to the lamp on the phone.

4. Diesel room badly needs a UI for setting sound independent of the sound in the rest of the boat, as it is a uniquely challenging sound environment. It should be so, but not as much as it is!

5. DC charges, even those that damage the boat, are completely inaudible and convey not the slightest trace of a realistically rendered detonation close to the boat. I'd like to see directional camera-shake - akin to Das Boot, and a really loud bang. So loud, that hydrophone operators will want to step away on hearing "splashes".

6. A statement from the devs shewing which sounds are considered "effects" and which are not. Not knowing means setting sound levels, especially in the engine room, a complete crap-shoot.

[Lev]

I suppose all the radio operators of the boats are faced with absolute silence on the air, which is impossible in real life. The noise of the air is always there and it is also filled with signals of radio interference, atmospheric interference, feedings. How to solve this problem? What kind of utility is needed so that the radio operators of the boat can hear a realistic broadcast, and not the silence of a wired connection at sea, which is completely absurd!

[Fidd]

Originally Posted by Lev

I suppose all the radio operators of the boats are faced with absolute silence on the air, which is impossible in real life. The noise of the air is always there and it is also filled with signals of radio interference, atmospheric interference, feedings. How to solve this problem? What kind of utility is needed so that the radio operators of the boat can hear a realistic broadcast, and not the silence of a wired connection at sea, which is completely absurd!

Interesting thoughts. It was general practice on u-boats to take down and decrypt messages to and from other boats, as this sometimes enabled them to give news, if they returned, of the fate of other uboats whose signals had not been received by BDU. So yes, there was a LOT of signals traffic going into a radio room, and a fair amount going out.

That said, most morse-signallers would not have continuously worn head-phones, as there are short preambles of the Q-codes, which basically establish that the 2 stations can hear each other, or otherwise, before the main transmission is started. All morse operators would be extremely familiar with these pre-ambles, and would memorise the 1st few characters they heard as they got their headset on, and very likely would not have put their headset on until they heard one start. This suggests that radio-operators were likely not listening to static 24/7, but rather, put the head-set on as soon as they heard the start of a pre-message pre-amble. This isn't an area I have much knowledge of, so if there are morse/u-boat historians out there who know different, please sing out. But I believe I'm correct. The hydrophone operator, by contrast would likely have stayed with headphones on all the time he was on watch and the boat was underwater.