Doubts about Sonar, Radio, Radar and TAI

[0rpheus]

Originally Posted by Jamesphillip

yep i got it working, now the only problem seems that my crew and XO stay in their stations while I dive... I didn't have this issue before!

You mean staying on deck when you dive? Think that's related to alt-tabbing out of the game... I did hear that going to the control room, then alt-tabbing in & out again solved it, but I've not tried it myself. Save/load should do it if not.

Glad you got it all working!

[Jamesphillip]

Finally got it working! You're right, it only happens when I alt-tab out of the game! Thanks for all your help!

With these mods the aircraft seems much more agressive, had to crash dive at the very last second multiple times to save my boat from airborne attacks. There are a lot more fishing boats, never seen one before, first time I got one I didn't know it was one when I spotted it, so I spent around 20 minutes repositioning only to find it was a mere fishing boat I managed to finish british coastal waters and breaking the fortress by Oct 7, now I haven't got more missions, just patrolling.

[dunum]

No doubt I am being stupid but having trawled through the SH5 download catagories I can't find the DarkWraith mods named

IRAI_0_0_30_ByTheDarkWraith
IRAI_0_0_30_No_hydrophone_on_surface_No_Aircraft_s potting

Have these been renamed to something else or am I looking in the wrong place?

[0rpheus]

Originally Posted by dunum

No doubt I am being stupid but having trawled through the SH5 download catagories I can't find the DarkWraith mods named

IRAI_0_0_30_ByTheDarkWraith
IRAI_0_0_30_No_hydrophone_on_surface_No_Aircraft_s potting

Have these been renamed to something else or am I looking in the wrong place?

The link to the main mod thread is here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=171973

But you're right, the Filefront link seems to be down. I've also noticed another post about this, so I guess it's not just us. This could mean that TDW is about to release another version, or maybe the link just died. Either way keep an eye on that thread and I'm sure it'll be back very soon.

Originally Posted by Jamesphillip

Finally got it working! You're right, it only happens when I alt-tab out of the game! Thanks for all your help!

With these mods the aircraft seems much more agressive, had to crash dive at the very last second multiple times to save my boat from airborne attacks. There are a lot more fishing boats, never seen one before, first time I got one I didn't know it was one when I spotted it, so I spent around 20 minutes repositioning only to find it was a mere fishing boat I managed to finish british coastal waters and breaking the fortress by Oct 7, now I haven't got more missions, just patrolling.

Glad to hear it mate. Aircraft will be much more nasty - you can usually tell what it'll do by the attack pattern it takes. If it goes low over the waves it's going for an air-launched torpedo run, if it goes high it'll be going for a bomb-drop.

The fishing boats are a sod, but the further you get from the coast the less likely you'll see them. You'll probably also encounter schools of dolphins, and icebergs in the far North in OHII Full (or at least you should; I didn't but I think it was a bug with an older version of Full, and now I'm using Base + Env. If you get the odd CTD in Full, swap to Base + Env too for a more stable campaign).

Missions in OHII are timed and will appear via radio message on the appropriate date. If you run out, just free-patrol until the next one turns up.

[dunum]

Orpheus - The link was much appreciated - I'll try agian later

[Jamesphillip]

Thanks again for your help
I've been playing for a while patrolling on my own and by November got the northwestern approaches mission. In vanilla game it was hard to sink an escort, now it's even worse, they always dodge my torpedoes at the very last second. Even merchant boats in a convoy usually avoid my torpedoes at the last second, I manage to sink the first with ease but as soon as I try to sink the other ones they are already alerted and avoid the torpedoes. And as I said before, aircraft are a lot more agressive and they are usually flying next to convoys so it's a bit harder to sink a full convoy without being harassed by those flying brats. I managed to do the 'Breaking the Fortress' mission with relative ease, got there by night through the western passage and avoided escorts and sunk HMS Hood and HMS Queen Elizabeth plus one escort and one merchant (I only managed to sink all these ships because they were anchored). Since there was little sea depth to maneuvre, I just set the engine to Extreme Speed and got out of there before I was caught by convoys, which were patrolling at the south exit of Scapa Flow. but I found that mission quite easy really. Good show

[0rpheus]

By November, you might as well give up on the idea of taking out a whole convoy Convoys get quite large and usually well escorted out there.

If you find you're missing the second target because the convoy is pulling hard left/right to evade torpedoes, try timing your attack better. What I mean by that is time the shots so your four front tubes all hit around the same time.

Take the longest shot first - whichever is furthest away. When you've got two fish heading for the more distant target (say 2000yds), wait until the torps are halfway there or so, then fire the remaining two at a closer target (at say 1000 yds).

Experiment with torpedo speeds to help time detonations close together - this gives them no time to evade and makes sure your first salvo does as much damage as possible. If you can, swing the boat around and get off a shot with the bow tube(s), then get deep and quiet. If you slip away, you can go high speed to get in front of the convoy again (depending on weather/time of day etc) for another attack.

Good hunting!

[Jamesphillip]

That is probably a beginner's mistake, I already thought of that, but I was shooting the closer one first. And warships (only found moving destroyers yet) are very hard to hit, even if I'm undetected and fire the first torpedo.

EDIT: Am I very unlucky, or the weather is clear most of the time? Even with Dynamic Environment all I see is clear/cloudy skies. Only got rain once, and it was vanilla.

[0rpheus]

Originally Posted by Jamesphillip

That is probably a beginner's mistake, I already thought of that, but I was shooting the closer one first. And warships (only found moving destroyers yet) are very hard to hit, even if I'm undetected and fire the first torpedo.

EDIT: Am I very unlucky, or the weather is clear most of the time? Even with Dynamic Environment all I see is clear/cloudy skies. Only got rain once, and it was vanilla.

Remember destroyers have both active & passive sonar, and can hear your torpedoes approaching them (so can other subs, if you're using IRAI). That's why they're so hard to hit - I've caught one or two with outrageous bow-shots when they've been chasing me hard at 300 metres off my screws, but generally I don't play with destroyers Try and keep torps out of their sonar circles when attacking convoys too as they'll still hear it even if it's not aimed at them.

Re the weather, my guess would be unlucky. What DE mods are you using? My loadout is:

Dynamic Environment SH5 Basemod (realistic version) V2.1
Dynamic Environment SH5 Atlantic Floor V2.1
Dynamic Environment SH5 Undersea (temperate and polar) V2.1
Dynamic Environment SH5 Waves (realistic version) V2.1
Dynamic Environment SH5 Sleet For Winter Campaigns V2.1


I've just moved from the North Sea to the Med, and for the last two, three weeks of my North Sea operations I had nothing but thick fog the whole time! And then when I got the Med, expecting clear skies... the damn fog followed me there too! Last patrol I had a massive rain storm and it started to brighten up after that. Basically these things go in cycles - and it can often take the weather engine a little while to catch up (same with the seafloor after high TC, it can often render wrongly on first look) - so unless it stays that way for an entire campaign, I wouldn't worry.

[Jamesphillip]

I only have Dynamic Environment basemod plus realistic waves. Let's see how it rolls out, but haven't seen nothing but bright skies...

Other question, what mods add the kriegsmarine flag to the sub? have seen some screenies with the flag in the tower, and would like to have one as well And would subs in real world war II carry the flag? Or is it ahistorical?

[0rpheus]

Originally Posted by Jamesphillip

I only have Dynamic Environment basemod plus realistic waves. Let's see how it rolls out, but haven't seen nothing but bright skies...

Other question, what mods add the kriegsmarine flag to the sub? have seen some screenies with the flag in the tower, and would like to have one as well And would subs in real world war II carry the flag? Or is it ahistorical?

Er.. pretty sure it's FX_Update that adds the Kriegsmarine flags, though I could be wrong as I manually edited them out a while ago and can't quite remember (if someone else could confirm this it'd be a help!). FX_Update should be installed after IRAI but before New UIs with TDC.

As to the historicity of the flags, I'm not sure - but at a guess, I'd expect Uboats to fly the flag when entering/leaving port, rather than all the time at sea (which is why I edited mine out).

[Jamesphillip]

Yup, I have FX update before NewTDC and after IRAI, but no good. No problem though.

[0rpheus]

Ah maybe it's not then, I'm sure it was one of TDW's mods though... my memory is awful

Edit... might be the Magnum Opus megamod, I remember editing the subs .eqp files to remove the flags.

[Jamesphillip]

November 15th and still no rain, besides that I haven't seen mines anywhere, maybe some mods have overlapping files. I will try to reinstall all the mods.

I'm giving magnum opus a try as well eheh

Edit: Magnum Opus download link broken... This mod will have to wait a while

[0rpheus]

Originally Posted by Jamesphillip

November 15th and still no rain, besides that I haven't seen mines anywhere, maybe some mods have overlapping files. I will try to reinstall all the mods.

I'm giving magnum opus a try as well eheh

Edit: Magnum Opus download link broken... This mod will have to wait a while

Yeah one or two of TDW's mods have gone down, not sure why, but I'm sure he'll sort it soon. Not sure which version of OHII you're using but (i think) after about 1.2/1.3 mines become invisible to sonar without an extra patch. I assume your watch crew will still spot them (just at much closer range I guess) - or at least I'm hoping that, as I'm not using the spottable mines patch for 'realism' reasons and I could be in trouble if not!!

If weather still doesn't change, ask in the DE thread and see if the makers can help.