Radar, Sonar explained

[Duli]

I would be happy if everything would work and be as "simple" as it was in SH3.

[Ragtag]

Hi Neal, thanks for explaining. How do you estimate targets speed?
Manual says chronometer should work as in SH3 but i don't get any estimates.

[Ping Jockey]

Is the Radar a SD/SJ setup like it was in sh1???

[Dragonhammer]

For the hydrophone i discovered it magicly turns on when diving deeper then 17m.
I thought it was broken first because you couldent even hear your own baffles at periscope depth.
And like neal said it works perfectly with home and end keys.
It would have saved alot of confusion and anger if they stated a minimum operating depth in the manual.
It would even be better that you heard only youre baffles and a big wash noise on other bearings like you have in subcommand when listening at periscope depth instead of on and off.
For the radar i discovered that it works on the salmon class and not on the purpoiss even though it has the stations, maybe you can install radar in a career mode.
Here again too falls the manual short and causes a lot of unneccesary anger and confusion.

[jeff lackey]

Still have not been sent the manual, so I'm still feeling my way around some things.

Sonar question - let's say you're running medium depth, tracking a sonar contact. Thanks to Neal, I can turn my hydrophone towards it. The sonar man tells me it's a merchant, medium range, closing slowly. I ask for a pinged range, and the answer is "no target selected." It appears the only way to get them to do an active ping for the range is to go up to periscope depth, find the ship visually, lock, then ask for the pinged range.

Is there a way to get them to give me the range without first going up and finding the ship visually?

[jeff lackey]

Originally Posted by jeff lackey

Still have not been sent the manual, so I'm still feeling my way around some things.

Sonar question - let's say you're running medium depth, tracking a sonar contact. Thanks to Neal, I can turn my hydrophone towards it. The sonar man tells me it's a merchant, medium range, closing slowly. I ask for a pinged range, and the answer is "no target selected." It appears the only way to get them to do an active ping for the range is to go up to periscope depth, find the ship visually, lock, then ask for the pinged range.

Is there a way to get them to give me the range without first going up and finding the ship visually?

Well, to answer my own question, after some playing more this morning, it seems (only one try, got to reproduce) that if my guy announces a sound contact, and he seems to immediately classify (merchant, warship,) and i ask for a range, I get "no target selected." If I click on the send info to TDC, then click on ask for range, same thing. But if I go to the sonar, point the hydrophone in the right direction, and if its close enough to show the contact on the form in the upper right, I can then click "send to TDC" and THEN click on give me a range, and it works.

Whew! Again, a big shout-out thanks to Neal (I'll try to get you and subsim.com a shout-out in the magazine article) - would have never been able to get this without the home/end key pointer.

[Dragonhammer]

Although you can see the hydrophone's sticking out your hull,there is no function to lower them not in the manual and not on the quick reference card,but then again the home and end keys are also not on the reference card and the manual, so big kuddo's to Neal for finding that out.
As of now hydrophone only works when diving deeper than 17m.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by jeff lackey

Whew! Again, a big shout-out thanks to Neal (I'll try to get you and subsim.com a shout-out in the magazine article) - would have never been able to get this without the home/end key pointer.

Shout outs, woot! Glad to help, Jeff.

I really appreciate and admire the extra lengths these Romanian devs go to in order to reproduce historical accuracy. Of course, they only have so many people and a limited amount of time to work on things like this, but contrast the sonar and targeting method in SH4 with that of Battlestations: Midway, for example; no sonar modeled, no TDC, no sub interiors, no range determination, just point and shoot. SH4 gives the player a lot of interesting things to do. That certainly helps the gameplay. And SH4 allows the casual player the option of turning off manual targeting so he can play a relaxed game of click and sink.

Dragonhammer:
It would have saved alot of confusion and anger if they stated a minimum operating depth in the manual.

Yes, you’re right. The manual comes up short in this department. But, on the other hand, that adds value to Subsim as a resource. Thanks for confirming the sonar depth.

Neal
Subsim

[Krupp]

@ Dragonhammer:

Reading your post, I understood, that it's not possible to use sound watch when your sub is surfaced. Even with those types that actually had underwater soundheads that could be lowered? (Port and starboard sides. ) One wartime manual says that "soundheads should not be left lowered above 10 knots."

You really have to submerge to get any sound information?

[Payoff]

Originally Posted by Krupp

@ Dragonhammer:

Reading your post, I understood, that it's not possible to use sound watch when your sub is surfaced. Even with those types that actually had underwater soundheads that could be lowered? (Port and starboard sides. ) One wartime manual says that "soundheads should not be left lowered above 10 knots."

You really have to submerge to get any sound information?

I'm glad you wrote that, as I remember reading as well, U.S. subs could track sonar targets on surface at limited speeds. Cant remember where though.