Detection at TC

[danlisa]

V.Strange.

However, if this vessel was moving away and was at some distance before doubling back after loosing sensor contact with you, something triggered/caused it to reacquire you, that or due to TC it skipped its next waypoint and it's new course actually brought it back towards you & thus established a new sensor lock.

Either way, I shall look for this on my next patrol.

[Stingray67]

Could be.

Will be interesting to hear if you come up with something.

Happy sailing.

[Kielhauler1961]

@ danlisa,

Stingray's experiences mirror my own. It's got to the point where, when I need to sneak away from an escort (with or without convoy) I enable silent running, dive to 200 meters (or whatever I can get away with), point my ass at 180 degrees to his projected course and go down the pub for two hours. I can't risk using TC in proximity to the enemy anymore.

Some weeks back, driving a type II, I was heading westbound through the Orkney - Shetland gap and my sonarman picked up a contact "Warship moving fast, bearing 080, constant distance". I tracked the contact for a time and established he was heading east at a distance of about 10-12 km, at an estimated speed of 15 knots+.

Wishing to complete my transit as quickly as possible, and figuring I was safe from detection (submerged, 25m) and given his speed, distance and course, I increased TC to x64 and the next thing I know is "We're taking damage, Sir!" He somehow detected me at extreme range, but only because I put on TC. It was a V&W class destroyer, all by itself, and it took me four hours to lose him, and then I had to head back to base for repairs.

In my experience, high TC DOES make the boat more detectable. I then re-loaded the previous save: followed the same course, had the same encounter with the same V&W, at the same time, in the same place. Left it on x1 and went down the pub. When I came back he was hull-down on the horizon, bearing 190, hadn't alttered course one bit and making 12 kts. TC does make a difference, from personal experience.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about it. It is after all an artificial mechanism to get through the "boring bits", but gamers need to be aware of the "X-factor".

[danlisa]

Originally Posted by Kielhauler1961

@ danlisa,
Some weeks back, driving a type II, I was heading westbound through the Orkney - Shetland gap and my sonarman picked up a contact "Warship moving fast, bearing 080, constant distance". I tracked the contact for a time and established he was heading east at a distance of about 10-12 km, at an estimated speed of 15 knots+.

Wishing to complete my transit as quickly as possible, and figuring I was safe from detection (submerged, 25m) and given his speed, distance and course, I increased TC to x64 and the next thing I know is "We're taking damage, Sir!" He somehow detected me at extreme range, but only because I put on TC. It was a V&W class destroyer, all by itself, and it took me four hours to lose him, and then I had to head back to base for repairs.

If this situation is indicative of your current findings in TC detection I have a conceivable explanation. I don't think he detected you at all. I think his waypoint path was directly placed on your course and due to you being submerged presumably traveling at slow speeds to conserve battery life, the V&W Class actually caught up with you while you were at TC.

In the Orkney / Shetland gap there is always a scripted patrolling ship (more sometimes), which if you open the SCR layer within the Mission Ed will show as diagonally zigg-zagging this narrow waterway.

In this instance, it is plausible that you, traveling at 3-4 kts (guess), incidentally making a lot of noise at this speed, were in fact traveling slowly enough at TC for the VW Class to come back around on his designated patrol course and for him to actually detect you.

Edit - Unless you have edited your TC settings, something doesn't add up. If you had been detected, your TC would have automatically dropped to either (max) 32x but more likely 8xTC when being hunted.

[Kielhauler1961]

Hi, Danlisa, thanks for the reply.

I was only doing 2kts, hugging the north shores of Orkney. Didn't have silent running on. I have altered my TC values in SH3 Commander: x2 for when being hunted, so he must have been on me in a flash

Like I said, when I re-loaded the save game and did exactly the same transit at x1, the V&W went steaming past, and out of sight (well, it was never in sight in the first place), without any change of course (E). It's not the first time this sort of event has happened. I've been playing the game since it first came out and these high TC "anomalies" date all the way back to 2005.

I may be wrong but have yet to be convinced that high TC doesn't make the boat "louder". The pub's not complaining. Whenever I turn up they figure I'm playing SH3!