Next Realism step

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Miltiades

So I've finally made my first successful escape, and weirdly enough escaping from from destroyers and hearing depth charges going off around me seems much more fun that actually sinking merchants (Yeah I know)

No argument from me. I'm the guy who gets his jollies sailing in and out of the beautiful harbors.

But the thing is , I had the stealth meter on.
So what I wanted to know is what to look out for without the stealth meter.

The stealth meter only tells you how quiet you are, not whether they can actually hear you. Living without it is easy. The slower you go, the less noise you make. If you're worried about it, call for silent running. And manually set your speed for one knot. You can't get any quieter than that.

First of all, using the hydrophone is a big no, no matter how fun it is,

Why? Your soundman will tell you where they are and the crew will put it on the map. If you want to do the listening yourself, well, you're the captain, aren't you?

second, not sure but it seems that you can tell if the destroyers see you by the pinging sound.

When you hear them pinging it only means they are looking. When they find you the pinging will increase and then you'll hear their propellors as they close in for the drop. At that point they're too close to hear you anymore and it's time to go to flank speed, turn hard and change your depth by twenty meters or so. The go straight and silent again. Of course if there are more than one the ones not dropping at the moment can still hear you, but that's the risk of being there in the first place.

Other than that once I get the manual aiming under control I am on full realism...

Six years in and I still don't do that.

Except my Captain's Name

What is it? I let Commander choose for me every time.