No sonar contacts with RFB 2.0

[D-Jones]

The title says it. I get no sonar tracking even when the Jap ship's right on top of me. This is the first time I've tried RFB. Takes getting used to after TMO and FotRS. My install is-RFB 2.0, RFB Patch 1, Patch 2, RSRD for RFB and RSRD patch. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[D-Jones]

Belay that (not bad, huh?). I see that when I lower the scope it tracks. I like RFB! A lot of duds. Tough to bring a freighter down with the deck gun, etc. It does take getting used to though. Kind of minimalist in a way. I like that.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by D-Jones

Belay that (not bad, huh?). I see that when I lower the scope it tracks. I like RFB! A lot of duds. Tough to bring a freighter down with the deck gun, etc. It does take getting used to though. Kind of minimalist in a way. I like that.

i was going to ask which boat you are driving and which target provides no hydrophone return.

the hydrophone on some boats will not be usable unless you are submerged AND i think there are targets that are not detectable for some reason. search the RFB 2.0 thread for a post on this topic.

[D-Jones]

Thanks. What submods do people use with RFB (aside from RSRDC and OTC)? Just curious.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by D-Jones

Thanks. What submods do people use with RFB (aside from RSRDC and OTC)? Just curious.

Generic Mod Enabler - v2.6.0.157
[C:\Ubisoft\SH4_RFB\MODS]

1_RFB_2.0
2_RFB_2.0_Patch_23April2010
3_RFB_2.0_Patch_06June2019
4_RSRDC_RFB_V575
4_5_New Narwhal K v 1.8.5 (only for this career)
5_0_OTC RFB 2.0
5_1_Increased binoculars for RFB OTC
6_1_OTC_Gato Sonar Bearing Fix
6_3_SMMO for RFB 2.0
6_4_Clean and Quiet Map
6_5_Stop The Shouting
6_6_RFB_LocNames
8_0_Webster's 300' Underwater Visability for v1.5
8_1_3000 Yard Bearing Tool (1920x)

[D-Jones]

Thanks, KM.

[D-Jones]

Been playing on and off all day. I haven't encountered a single merchant yet. I've run into a couple of warships that are too far away for me to do anything about, but no merchants--except one--a Dutchman. I wanted to sink him out of spite. Is this usual?

Also, playing with time compression at between 510 and 1024, I see an occasional contact fly by me without the usual "Ship sighted!" message. What are they? They're rubbing salt in my wounds.

I like this mod. One of the reasons I wanted to try it was that it has less frequent contacts to sink the entire Japanese merchant marine in one patrol, but none? I went through two patrols without encountering one merchant and very few if any warships in the Makassar straights, which is riddled with them in other mods. I'm just using RFB 2.0 + Patch, RSRDC + Patch and SMMO.

Any answers would be appreciated.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by D-Jones

Been playing on and off all day. I haven't encountered a single merchant yet. I've run into a couple of warships that are too far away for me to do anything about, but no merchants--except one--a Dutchman. I wanted to sink him out of spite. Is this usual?

Also, playing with time compression at between 510 and 1024, I see an occasional contact fly by me without the usual "Ship sighted!" message. What are they? They're rubbing salt in my wounds.

I like this mod. One of the reasons I wanted to try it was that it has less frequent contacts to sink the entire Japanese merchant marine in one patrol, but none? I went through two patrols without encountering one merchant and very few if any warships in the Makassar straights, which is riddled with them in other mods. I'm just using RFB 2.0 + Patch, RSRDC + Patch and SMMO.

Any answers would be appreciated.

early in the war you should see the entire japanese merchant marine sailing through the makassar straits.

not sure what the issue is.

[D-Jones]

That's the issue. With RFB there's nothing in the Makassar straits or anywhere else. I usually start on Jan. 19th, 42 (to give the other "aces" a head start). I'm almost always sent to the Makassar straits or close to them in the Celebes Sea. I wait for days, and nothing. Then there's the issue of seeing contacts fly by me on the Nav Map without any "Ship Sighted!" event, i.e., a ship's sighted and it automatically slows to ix. With RFB it just flies by. I don't know whether it's a friendly or an enemy.

My issue is, is it supposed to be this way, or is it just my download? Enemy merchants being somewhat scarcer is a good thing to me. Non-existent is another story.

I'll try starting at Cavite and see what happens.

Thanks.

[propbeanie]

Early war, you could easily miss traffic in the Luzon Straits, since you don't have radar, but Makassar Strait is much narrower, and should be relatively easy to find traffic in, especially after 10-11 January and the battles for Tarakan and Balikpapan... You should find invasion forces during and after that time, and then eventually merchant traffic as the year progresses. Use JSGME and do an "Export active mods list" D-Jones, and then post that here. Also, did you delete the Save folder or use MultiSH4 to make a new one after activating the mod list you have?

[D-Jones]

Tried it again starting in Cavite on Dec. 8th. I was sent to the Luzon straits. Nothing. I'm still trying to figure out what those fly-by contacts are too.

I have two installs of SH4, one Ubisoft and one Steam. I'm using the Steam install for this. I'll try the Ubisoft install also. I'll do a clean install and see what happens.

I always use JSGME, Prop. As to the multi-install thing, I just move or delete the save folders from File Explorer. That never causes problems with any other mod.

Thanks for the reply.

[propbeanie]

You won't see anything in the Luzon Straits, starting on the 8th, for a while anyway. All of the invasion forces for Malaysia and points south were already by there. What you can do though is head north relatively close to Luzon, then cut across to Formosa and the Pescadores Islands. That's where the invasion forces that land in Lingayan Gulf on December 20 come from. Or, you could head for Camranh Bay Indo-China. I am reasonably certain lurker did both of those areas rather well. As for merchants, you won't see very much traffic, other than for military use, until mid-1942 when their traffic started flowing 'home'.

Those "flashes" you see are ships fleeing the Japanese advance - in theory. There is some neutral traffic in the stock game that is inappropriate, and most, but not all of it was not removed with RSRDC. High TC (anything over 512x in SH4) will result in missing contacts. Remember, 512 seconds is almost 9 minutes in real time... a lot can happen in that time frame. Also, you do have to submerge every once in a while and use the hydrophones to find "contacts" further out, then go chase them down, or stumble upon them visually.

[D-Jones]

Thanks for the thorough answer, Prop. I wanted to make sure that it wasn't just me. I'm going to try an April 16th start. If I'm not mistaken, it should be easier to detect contacts at a distance while submerged with sonar than on the surface without it with RFB. I'm going to try that too.

[WinterMute]

I started getting the same problems as D-Jones in this old thread. My mod list:

RFB_2.0=1
RFB_2.0_Patch_23April2010=2
4_RFB_2.0_Patch_06June2019=3
RSRDC_RFB_V575=4
RSRDC_V5xx_Patch1=5
Improved Ship Physics_2.8=6
Improved Stock Environment_v3_TMO&RFB=7

S-boat, Feb '41, Very Hard difficulty. Could difficulty level be the cause? Because I think I didn't have these problems until recently and this is the only thing I changed. Until two careers ago I usually played Normal or Hard.

1st - the sonar.

I started to play U-Boat recently and sonar efficiency seems kinda crazy in this game, so at first I thought that maybe I got spoiled but no. Sonar is definitely bugged in my setup. First time I noticed this during my previous patrol, current carrer. I found myself in the middle of a small convoy and noticed how screw sounds occasionally disappear and then reappear, as if the game just stopped playing them for some reason. But during my second encounter everything was fine, so I forgot about it. Maybe I was not deep enough and to fast.

But now I was playing my second patrol, the game sent me to patrol the Strait of Malacca and I didn't encounter a thing. In my previous careers there was at least some neutral traffic from Celebes Sea but in recent games it's nada. OK, bad luck I thought and set sail to Darwin. Finally in the strait near Port Ambon I encounter a lonely Jap merchant. 0 m/s wind, the sea smooth as a pool table. I dive to periscope depth, put my best boys on the sensors station, max out the efficiency bar, engines stop. I should be able to hear Hirohito scratching his balls in Tokyo in these conditions...

I aim the sonar at the target's bearing and... NOTHING. Like the ship just wasn't there. I tried different depths and bearings by turning the sub. I click Raport Targets button but the AI also can't hear it. Finally, when the target got to about 2000 yds the AI started to raport the contact. But I still can't hear it. The screws sound just doesn't play. Finally I launch torpedoes. THEN I start to hear loud screws but when the last torp hits they disappear again. Just silence. The AI keeps reporting the contact properly but I noticed that the green light on the sensor station, which should light up on contact, lights up only at bearing 0, while the sinking merchant already moved to bearing 40. So there is definitely a problem with sonar.

2nd - lack of traffic.

As I already mentioned I get the same problems with finding any targets as D-Jones. I thought that maybe it's the difficulty setting and I would be actually OK with that but this lack of neutral traffic in choke points makes me think something is off.

I think I'll try another career on another difficulty setting to see if things get better but maybe in the meantime you guys will come up with something. Could it be for example that RFB's sonar config gets wonky at Very Hard?

[Aktungbby]

WinterMute!