Radar, Sonar explained

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by IRONxMortlock

I don't have the game yet but how about reports of ships not being deteced by sound? Does this mean hydrophone contacts will only work if you manually control them using HOME and END keys?

It seems to me to work about the same as SH3. The AI crew will detect sound and radar contacts on their own. They will report them. You can go check it out yourself, or you can order the AI crewman to give you constant reports on the nearest contact, etc.

I think the sonar works best when you get to about 20 meters or deeper. I actually think the devs modeled the characteristics correctly, you can't hear as well on the surface or just below the surface...

...that radar and sonar station, would be better if they would fill the screen like SH2/3, but it works pretty well as is.