A question for US Sub Commanders...

tomoose · 11-20-10, 07:57 PM

I use the range circles also when starting a patrol. You'll have to adjust which bases have enemy aircraft etc as the war progresses. Early war I place a 600nm radius circle centered on Tokyo and the other major cities as well as Iwo Jima.

Another thing to note: you can travel on the surface safely (generally speaking) until you reach the 150E Longitude. That's another "tripwire" I use for myself as to when to be more alert.

I'm not sure I agree with corsair's second bullet point unless he's referring to a sub that has both air and surface radar. If you only have air search radar it won't pick up surface contacts (I've never had that happen). If you get a surface contact you will see it on your surface-search radar therefore it isn't an aircraft and you have more flexibility in how to react.

Air activity depends on whether you are using mods or stock. Stock is notorious for over-the-top air activity and is a royal pain. TMO with RSRD is much better but still some people think the air activity is still too intense. I would argue that it's "intense" because using TC makes the aircraft show up quicker, LOL.

corsair15 · 11-20-10, 08:19 PM

Good follow up Tomoose. You should check and see if you have both Air Search and Surface Search Radar or not. Air contacts don't show up, so if you just check the radar screen you'll know whether it is a surface contact or not.

If you read all of my post, you'll notice I said sometimes the radar does not pick up the Aerial contact and a watchman will spot it instead. Sometimes your radar does pick it up. Sometimes it picks it up too late though.

It might pick it up right before the watch officers spot it, or it may pick it up at long range, or not at all. Why risk not crash diving to find out? You risk the safety of the entire boat by wasting those precious seconds. I'd crash dive anyway. Why risk it?

And yes, in vanilla version you can still see the submarine down to about 100 feet. Go into your graphic settings and turn on environmental effects. You'll see for yourself.

EDIT: I forgot to mention. You'll recharge batteries fastest at a dead-stop, but it isn't economical to do that during a normal sea patrol. Infact, you should avoid dead-stops if at all possible unless you're waiting for a convoy. That's why I said travel at Ahead 1/3 while recharging on normal patrols. Ahead 2/3 gives good fuel economy when not recharging batteries, plus it's less time constraining when traveling long distances. Any faster and your range starts to decrease. Any slower, and you'll waste more time getting there. I did a test once to see how far I could go at all speed settings. Here's what I came up with:
(These are all approximate)
Ahead 1/3: 15,000nm or 150nm for 1% of Fuel
Ahead 2/3: 11,000nm or 110nm for 1% of Fuel
Ahead Standard: 5,000nm or 50nm
Ahead Full: 4,100nm or 41nm
Ahead Flank: 3,900nm or 39nm (You get the idea, so that's something to keep in mind)
This is for Classes: Gar, Tambor, Gato, Balao, Salmon, Sargo
I plan everything lol, but I don't die either

Jack Cutter · 11-20-10, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corsair15

EDIT: I forgot to mention. You'll recharge batteries fastest at a dead-stop, but it isn't economical to do that during a normal sea patrol. Infact, you should avoid dead-stops if at all possible unless you're waiting for a convoy. That's why I said travel at Ahead 1/3 while recharging on normal patrols. Ahead 2/3 gives good fuel economy when not recharging batteries, plus it's less time constraining when traveling long distances. Any faster and your range starts to decrease. Any slower, and you'll waste more time getting there. I did a test once to see how far I could go at all speed settings. Here's what I came up with:
(These are all approximate)
Ahead 1/3: 15,000nm or 150nm for 1% of Fuel
Ahead 2/3: 11,000nm or 110nm for 1% of Fuel
Ahead Standard: 5,000nm or 50nm
Ahead Full: 4,100nm or 41nm
Ahead Flank: 3,900nm or 39nm (You get the idea, so that's something to keep in mind)
This is for Classes: Gar, Tambor, Gato, Balao, Salmon, Sargo
I plan everything lol, but I don't die either

More awesome information!! Thank you so much! I was curious about fuel levels in game. This goes beyond answering my question, and is something else to add to my text files for quick referencing. Thank you!!!!

tomoose · 11-21-10, 12:28 AM

Zoomer: how can you tell if an aircraft is at 8-10miles? The SD radar doesn't give a range only a bearing.

Corsair; ackd. I haven't had SD fail me yet except when I overuse TC or I decide to wait until a visual is called (usually not a good idea) LOL.

Zoomer96 · 11-21-10, 07:12 AM

Well, I use the compass tool on the navigation map to draw a circle, a radius, around my boat, centered on the conning tower, and I expand it out until it reads 8 or 10 miles out. Also you can draw a line out to 8 or 10 and then make a circle to that mark. it's sort of cheating. I think the real deal was to use signal strength and eyeballs as a guideline to dive. I move the circle as needed to keep up with the progress of the boat. Remember, once you manage to get ahead of your target dive and move in to within 1000 yards of the target's course for the kill and hope your torpedoes run correctly.

Freiwillige · 11-20-10, 08:21 PM

Early in the war before radar they ran submerge in daylight hours and ahead slow cause the periscope could leave quite a trail at standard speed and aircraft could still spot the trail from a mile or more.

At Dusk they would surface again.

Once SJ radar was available they would stay up all day because at seven miles it gave enough time to safely get under.

Japan ha no radar equipped fighters so fining you at night was damn near impossible and almost never happened. Edit your air file accordingly

.

Jack Cutter · 11-20-10, 08:36 PM

I'll go ahead and edit that. I'm not sure of the values to edit, but I'll take a look anyways. I'm sure I can figure it out.

Thanks again to everyone who posted. I'm always surprised at how quickly I recieve replies to my topics, and how they are always so informative!

Happy hunting, skippers!

Zoomer96 · 11-20-10, 10:07 PM

What ever happened to Anvart's SD Antenna Up Down mod? Is it still available? I dive if an airplane comes within a 8-10 mile radius drawn around my boat and track him at periscope depth with the SD Antenna up to see if he was going to see me (and force me to go deep) or miss me. After he left the 8-10 mile radius circle around my boat I would surface and get back to chasing my target and try to be off his course on his return trip.
I think in WWII if the aircraft was able to sneak up on them, they would dive deep emergency flank speed and make a hard left rudder to dodge the attack.

11-20-10, 07:57 PM	#1
tomoose Grey Wolf Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 930 Downloads: 23 Uploads: 0	Range circles I use the range circles also when starting a patrol. You'll have to adjust which bases have enemy aircraft etc as the war progresses. Early war I place a 600nm radius circle centered on Tokyo and the other major cities as well as Iwo Jima. Another thing to note: you can travel on the surface safely (generally speaking) until you reach the 150E Longitude. That's another "tripwire" I use for myself as to when to be more alert. I'm not sure I agree with corsair's second bullet point unless he's referring to a sub that has both air and surface radar. If you only have air search radar it won't pick up surface contacts (I've never had that happen). If you get a surface contact you will see it on your surface-search radar therefore it isn't an aircraft and you have more flexibility in how to react. Air activity depends on whether you are using mods or stock. Stock is notorious for over-the-top air activity and is a royal pain. TMO with RSRD is much better but still some people think the air activity is still too intense. I would argue that it's "intense" because using TC makes the aircraft show up quicker, LOL.

11-20-10, 08:19 PM	#2
corsair15 Watch Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 21 Downloads: 6 Uploads: 0	Good follow up Tomoose. You should check and see if you have both Air Search and Surface Search Radar or not. Air contacts don't show up, so if you just check the radar screen you'll know whether it is a surface contact or not. If you read all of my post, you'll notice I said sometimes the radar does not pick up the Aerial contact and a watchman will spot it instead. Sometimes your radar does pick it up. Sometimes it picks it up too late though. It might pick it up right before the watch officers spot it, or it may pick it up at long range, or not at all. Why risk not crash diving to find out? You risk the safety of the entire boat by wasting those precious seconds. I'd crash dive anyway. Why risk it? And yes, in vanilla version you can still see the submarine down to about 100 feet. Go into your graphic settings and turn on environmental effects. You'll see for yourself. EDIT: I forgot to mention. You'll recharge batteries fastest at a dead-stop, but it isn't economical to do that during a normal sea patrol. Infact, you should avoid dead-stops if at all possible unless you're waiting for a convoy. That's why I said travel at Ahead 1/3 while recharging on normal patrols. Ahead 2/3 gives good fuel economy when not recharging batteries, plus it's less time constraining when traveling long distances. Any faster and your range starts to decrease. Any slower, and you'll waste more time getting there. I did a test once to see how far I could go at all speed settings. Here's what I came up with: (These are all approximate) Ahead 1/3: 15,000nm or 150nm for 1% of Fuel Ahead 2/3: 11,000nm or 110nm for 1% of Fuel Ahead Standard: 5,000nm or 50nm Ahead Full: 4,100nm or 41nm Ahead Flank: 3,900nm or 39nm (You get the idea, so that's something to keep in mind) This is for Classes: Gar, Tambor, Gato, Balao, Salmon, Sargo I plan everything lol, but I don't die either Last edited by corsair15; 11-20-10 at 08:42 PM.

11-21-10, 12:28 AM	#4
tomoose Grey Wolf Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 930 Downloads: 23 Uploads: 0	8-10 miles? Zoomer: how can you tell if an aircraft is at 8-10miles? The SD radar doesn't give a range only a bearing. Corsair; ackd. I haven't had SD fail me yet except when I overuse TC or I decide to wait until a visual is called (usually not a good idea) LOL.

11-20-10, 08:21 PM	#6
Freiwillige The Old Man Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Phx. Az Posts: 1,458 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	Early in the war before radar they ran submerge in daylight hours and ahead slow cause the periscope could leave quite a trail at standard speed and aircraft could still spot the trail from a mile or more. At Dusk they would surface again. Once SJ radar was available they would stay up all day because at seven miles it gave enough time to safely get under. Japan ha no radar equipped fighters so fining you at night was damn near impossible and almost never happened. Edit your air file accordingly.

11-20-10, 10:07 PM	#8
Zoomer96 Helmsman Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Missouri Posts: 106 Downloads: 109 Uploads: 0	SD Antenna Up Down What ever happened to Anvart's SD Antenna Up Down mod? Is it still available? I dive if an airplane comes within a 8-10 mile radius drawn around my boat and track him at periscope depth with the SD Antenna up to see if he was going to see me (and force me to go deep) or miss me. After he left the 8-10 mile radius circle around my boat I would surface and get back to chasing my target and try to be off his course on his return trip. I think in WWII if the aircraft was able to sneak up on them, they would dive deep emergency flank speed and make a hard left rudder to dodge the attack.

11-21-10, 07:12 AM	#5
Zoomer96 Helmsman Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Missouri Posts: 106 Downloads: 109 Uploads: 0	Well, I use the compass tool on the navigation map to draw a circle, a radius, around my boat, centered on the conning tower, and I expand it out until it reads 8 or 10 miles out. Also you can draw a line out to 8 or 10 and then make a circle to that mark. it's sort of cheating. I think the real deal was to use signal strength and eyeballs as a guideline to dive. I move the circle as needed to keep up with the progress of the boat. Remember, once you manage to get ahead of your target dive and move in to within 1000 yards of the target's course for the kill and hope your torpedoes run correctly.

11-20-10, 08:36 PM	#7
Jack Cutter Bosun Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 67 Downloads: 30 Uploads: 0	I'll go ahead and edit that. I'm not sure of the values to edit, but I'll take a look anyways. I'm sure I can figure it out. Thanks again to everyone who posted. I'm always surprised at how quickly I recieve replies to my topics, and how they are always so informative! Happy hunting, skippers!