Best way to search for enemy ships

[gAiNiAc]

Originally Posted by seafarer

You can listen at surface in a Sargo or Salmon boat - the hydrophones are "chin" mounted (under the forefoot).

You've done that in game? I haven't driven a Sargo or Salmon.

[seafarer]

Yup, the WCA acoustic set is modeled in game, with chin sensors.

P.S. my favorite start to a career is a Sargo boat out of Manila at the very start of the war. Try it - some great early war patrols out of Manila, and I just like the Sargo's - they're kind of the bruisers of their day.

P.S. I can't find it, but WernerSobe had a thread back a year ago or thereabouts dealing with optimizing the passive sonar for surface listening (it was pre-1.4/1.5 anyways).

[seafarer]

Originally Posted by Castout

Are they the two mini balls pointing downwards ?

Actually it is a smart thinking to place the hydrophones under the keel so that the submarine would still be able to listen even when they are surfaced much like a destroyer hydrophones.

Yes, those are retractable hydrophones for supersonic sounds, but you can pick up subsonic sounds sometimes (see http://hnsa.org/doc/fleetsub/sonar/chap1.htm )

also - http://hnsa.org/doc/sonar/chap14.htm

[tbarak]

Yeah parking in the shipping lanes is the best as is the surface radar - when you have it. I normally surface and run a couple of complete circles since the radar has a fairly narrow cone. I usually pick something up near the lanes that way then race towards it at high speed. Caught two liners together like that the other day.

[Hnrq]

Thanks to everyone for your help.

Another question, what are radiuses for surface radar and hydrofones?

[gAiNiAc]

Originally Posted by Hnrq

Thanks to everyone for your help.

Another question, what are radiuses for surface radar and hydrofones?

For hydrophones I keep it at 10nm, radar I use 20nm, although I've had contacts out to 22 - 24 nm using radar.

[gAiNiAc]

Originally Posted by Castout

Are they the two mini balls pointing downwards ?

Actually it is a smart thinking to place the hydrophones under the keel so that the submarine would still be able to listen even when they are surfaced much like a destroyer hydrophones.

The two "balls" projecting off the keel are the supersonic hydrophones (JK/QC gear).

The hydrophones (JP gear) the operator actually listens with is the rotating T shaped device projecting from the subs deck.

If the submarine is on the surface moving at a good clip their typically is too much water flow noise around the hull for the hydrophones to work.

I've never gotten a sonar contact just by listening on the surface or at any point above periscope depth, other than under the specific conditions I detailed earlier.

[gAiNiAc]

I'll be damned..........I was putzing around in my USS Tuna and I figured I'd just stop and listen on the surface for a while........

The supersonic array can detect ships while surfaced, the range is much shorter though (6nm) than diving and using the hydrophones (10nm).

I think speed may (and should) be a factor as well.

Prior to getting radar your longest detection ranges are still going to be achieved by diving and doing a manual hydrophone sweep.

[Hylander_1314]

Yep, Gainiac uses the same tactics that I use. It works wonders for finding shipping in the pre-radar era. One thing it helps to offset, is the early war faulty torpedoes. During that era, I tend to stay away from smaller, shallower draft ships that are less than 15ft from the waterline to the keel. You will still have problems with fish running too deep, but most will hit home if the ship is a deep runner. And don't waste your early torpedoes on any warships smaller than a heavy cruiser, and it needs to be fairly calm for the sea-state. Nothing over 6mps. I wish the wind was in knots. Watching Deadliest Catch, the CG still gives the weather reports with wind speeds in knots, and mph.

[Frame57]

Stay in the historical japanese shipping lanes. An actual map came with my copy of the game and it has proven to be valuable when hunting. I am not sure if that map is available at the UBI site or not.

[Captain Vlad]

Using the shipping lanes as a guideline is a plus, obviously. After a few patrols in the same area, you'll figure out which of those tend to bear the most fruit and plan your patrols accordingly.

I'm not as energetic as some of the other posters when it comes to 'area coverage'. If I figure I'm in a likely spot, I'll spend a day or three, motionless, submerged in the day, surfaced at night, waiting for a sound or radar contact.

[Guysmiley]

Originally Posted by Frame57

Stay in the historical japanese shipping lanes. An actual map came with my copy of the game and it has proven to be valuable when hunting. I am not sure if that map is available at the UBI site or not.

I just picked up SH4 via Steam, and there is no map! There's a PDF version of the manual (which is a joke BTW, 60 whopping pages of nothing, if I hadn't played SH3 I'd have no idea what to do), but no map.

When people reference the shipping lanes I'm totally in the dark. Does anyone know of a place where I can see a PDF or scan of this map?

Not too pleased with Steam so far with this game, they don't even have version 1.4, I'm stuck with 1.3. Tried running the Ubisoft 1.4 installer and it errors out saying I don't have SH4 installed.

[krylon666]

Originally Posted by Guysmiley

I just picked up SH4 via Steam, and there is no map! There's a PDF version of the manual (which is a joke BTW, 60 whopping pages of nothing, if I hadn't played SH3 I'd have no idea what to do), but no map.

When people reference the shipping lanes I'm totally in the dark. Does anyone know of a place where I can see a PDF or scan of this map?

Not too pleased with Steam so far with this game, they don't even have version 1.4, I'm stuck with 1.3. Tried running the Ubisoft 1.4 installer and it errors out saying I don't have SH4 installed.

here is a pdf of the map: http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.4902

they also have a pdf of the quick reference chart for the keyboard, which i found handy. i do think its weird that the steam version is 1.3 - but they have the expansion on there, so that should kick it up to 1.5 technically. i read that there were some problems getting the expansion to work initially though

[schurem]

so where _are_ the shipping lanes? is there a mod that ads them to the map?

[krylon666]

they're the "black" lines on the map previously posted