First time being depth charged - Evaision Advice?

Originally Posted by Gargamel

LMFAO That just made my day

Originally Posted by desirableroasted

The game reports "2 knots" at any speed between 2.0 and 2.99 knots (which is why you can move at "0 knots" -- you are at .9 knots, perhaps).

At 2.9 you are going to be making too many rpms to be silent. So, to be safe, check your rpms, not the reported speed.

That said, even at higher speeds you still may get away:

• you could be under a thermal layer. You won't know when you are, but they are modeled in GWX.
• the DD crew might not be very good.
• if you are deep enough, his hydrophone may overshoot you.

In 1939, you can, often and surprisingly, simply walk away from the scene of the crime at 3-5 knots and only 50 meters depth. By 1943, I am wishing for a crush depth of 500 meters and a pair of Dorothy's magic shoes.

But your mileage may vary.

The hydrophone overshooting me?? Ive never heard of this, could you elaborate more??

[FlankSpeed]

hmmm, hydrophones... exactly how good do the AI ASW ships get with them anyway? Are they comparable to your own crew members? Since I've started playing with the hydrophone on my boat I've noticed that at even at medium ish ranges my guy sometimes reports 'No Sound Contact' when I can find the contact myself. He is still unqualified though....

Oh, and is upgrading to the KDB worth the 300 renown?

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by FlankSpeed

hmmm, hydrophones... exactly how good do the AI ASW ships get with them anyway? Are they comparable to your own crew members? Since I've started playing with the hydrophone on my boat I've noticed that at even at medium ish ranges my guy sometimes reports 'No Sound Contact' when I can find the contact myself. He is still unqualified though....

Oh, and is upgrading to the KDB worth the 300 renown?

I think the upgrade is worth it, as it increases the angle at which you can hear things. The KDB has a blind spot to aft, while the regular one (IIRC, I never use it, I always immediately upgrade it), is limited to a narrow band forward. I think though, that if you listen manually, then the blind spots are ignored, but your sonar guy is still affected by them.

Originally Posted by desirableroasted

Actually, you want to set your RPMs to 80rpms or under (some say 75).

Go up in the conning tower, where you will find two identical dials. If you are at 2 knots, they will be pointing at around 100.

Ease your speed down until they read no more than 80. Then you are at silent running.

Also, it is a good thing to rig for silent running even if you aren't doing repairs or loading. Principally, because the minute you do get damaged, the compartment crew will try to fix the damage, even if you have not assigned your special repair team to the compartment.

The actual Silent Speed for Type IXs was 90 RPM.
This will bring you as close to 2 knots as you you can get, without going over.
That's all I use, and it works well.

Originally Posted by FlankSpeed

hmmm, hydrophones... exactly how good do the AI ASW ships get with them anyway? Are they comparable to your own crew members? Since I've started playing with the hydrophone on my boat I've noticed that at even at medium ish ranges my guy sometimes reports 'No Sound Contact' when I can find the contact myself. He is still unqualified though....

Oh, and is upgrading to the KDB worth the 300 renown?

If a ship moves into your baffles or goes over the top of you, when following a contact, the sound guy wil say "contact lost at 200".
Manning the hydrophones oneself allows for a "cheat", as you can hear things that were historicly not possible. The sound guy (qualified or not) can't.

So it isn't that the sound guy is dumb. It's that SH3 allows you a-little ESP at the hydrophone station.

If you play as I do, and don't man the hydrophones, KDB is well worth the 300 renown, and much more.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Snestorm

The actual Silent Speed for Type IXs was 90 RPM.
This will bring you as close to 2 knots as you you can get, without going over.
That's all I use, and it works well.

You can get 0.5 knots to be safe

Originally Posted by Vendor

You can get 0.5 knots to be safe

Yes, you can. But, I'll stick to 90 RPM "to be safe".

[desirableroasted]

Originally Posted by USNSRCaseySmith

The hydrophone overshooting me?? Ive never heard of this, could you elaborate more??

I knew you would ask, and I can't find the diagram. I hope some helpful soul can round it up.

EDIT: I have removed several lines of inaccurate information here. My apologies!

See Sailor and Tom's notes below.

[Bakkels]

If you're running GWX3.0, a detailed explanation can be found in the manual, in the gameplay appendix

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by kroll688

Yes you can hear active sonar off of the hull when inside. My experience is with modern submarines.

What did it sound like? WW2 sources say everything from pebbles being thrown against the hull to being hit with a hammer, but no one seems to know for sure.

A first-hand account would be nice.

[kroll688]

Modern active sonars have a higher pitch whine sound, that varies in tone. It is not the pinging heard in game, but ASDIC is a very basic form of active sonar, sending out large pulses in front of the ship, so the pinging sound is most likely accurate for a bare steel hull.

[Gereke]

When I was a shipboard sailor (before I went Master at Arms), one night I was quite perplexed by this noise I heard while down in the berthing compartment (served on a Ticonderoga Class). My berthing was in the aft part of the ship, just a little below the water line.

The noise was this really odd whistling chirping business that sounded almost melodic. I finally couldn't take it anymore and asked one of the more seasoned sailors WTF that noise was.

"Oh, that's the active SONAR".

"You sure? Thought maybe we'd run over Humphrey the Hump back"

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by Gereke

When I was a shipboard sailor (before I went Master at Arms), one night I was quite perplexed by this noise I heard while down in the berthing compartment (served on a Ticonderoga Class). My berthing was in the aft part of the ship, just a little below the water line.

The noise was this really odd whistling chirping business that sounded almost melodic. I finally couldn't take it anymore and asked one of the more seasoned sailors WTF that noise was.

"Oh, that's the active SONAR".

"You sure? Thought maybe we'd run over Humphrey the Hump back"

I heard something very similar once while SCUBA diving off Jamaica. When we got back to the surface, the dive master told us it was Sonar from naval exercises they holding in the area.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by desirableroasted

I knew you would ask, and I can't find the diagram. I hope some helpful soul can round it up.

The escort's hydrophone's has a cone around the escort in which it can sense you. IIRC, it can (but won't always) sense any noise between the surface and a 45-60 degree angle down.

Thus, the deeper you are, the closer you can be to the escort without being detected, as his hydrophone cone may be overshooting you.

It is imperfect, and as far as I know, the diagram was illustrative, not definitive, but it seems to work. As you have probably noted yourself, 150 meters may be 3 times as deep as 50 meters, but it's 10 times safer.

Sorry I missed this first time around.



The stock game doesn't represent this, but they made it adjustable, so GWX does.

Basically by the time he's actually dropping depth charges, he can't actually hear you anymore.