Is the AI cheating?

[thegroo]

From my experience it's no problem to use up to 16x.
I'm not sure yet about 32x

But over 32x the AI is cheating.

Regards
Dieter

[Dantenoc]

ok, that gives us hope... maybe I should turn down the difficulty down a bit for a while then.

Running TM by the way.

[walrusbomb]

there is a randomness to what enemy warships hear.

they also operate realistically based on a combination of tactical information and professional paranoia.

TM/RSRD:
I've been 2000 yards off a DD's bow while she was actively sweeping, opened the doors and fired a 4-shot spread (at a transport) and still wasnt detected. The fish swam about 400 yards before the DD sounded the alarm (external camera).

It was too late for her, I was already too deep.

Too late for the transport as well.

One tip I'd like to add:
Sometimes it's BAD to use decoys. The decoy is actually what's getting you killed. the DD's will use many different attack patterns once you're detected, all based on the limited information they have. So don't feed them information by dropping a decoy. Their ability to pinpoint the exact origin of your torpedos is far less reliable than our TDC solutions (well, some of us anyway <wink>).

Their ability to track a decoy, determine it's a decoy, and then guesstimate where you'd be had you dropped said decoy is pretty stellar.

[Nisgeis]

Originally Posted by Elder-Pirate

OK after Googling I come up with an SH4 thread on how it is done for vanilla, although I do not believe this practice was done in real life ( WW2 ) because if all forward doors were open and flooded the ballast of the sub would be off and you would turn bow down toward Davey Jones Locker. I can't find on Google if they actually did this in real life so I need a little help here.

Take a look at http://hnsa.org/doc/fleetsub/tubes/ that's all the operating instructions for the torpedo tubes. It says that torpedo tubes are flooded and drained into a tank on board the submarine rather than the sea itself so as not to upset the trim of the sub flooding tubes.

Reading on a bit further, it says that the tubes can be flooded from trim tanks, the WRT (water round tube?) tank or from the sea (but that would affect balance). When flooding, the tanks can either be vented to submarine or if noxious gasses are suspected, vented externally.

As far as procedure goes on when to flood the tubes, it says that flooding the tubes and keeping the outer doors closed is not a problem for the torpedoes as they are not exposed to the pressure of the sea. It advises that the torpedo tubes should be flooded early in the attack, at least not at a stage of the attack where you are relying on sonar information. Flooding tubes is by means of blowing the drain tank with 200 pound air, so I guess that would be quite noisy, possibly give your position away and certainly interfere with your own listening track of the enemy. It does say though that you should be cautious with opening the outer doors if there was a possibility of sudden depth charging, the pressure of which could overload the breech end and force the breech door open.

I'm not sure, but I'd imagine just opening the outer door wouldn't be overly noisy, it would be the flooding part that would cause the racket.

Upon firing, water from the sea would fill the torpedo tube, which would help to offset the weight loss of the torpdeo. This water would then also be drained into an onboard tank in approximately the same position as the topedo, also by means of blowing air. The tubes could then have the breech door opened for reloading.

No wonder reloading causes so much noise.

[Snuffy]

Whenever you are in contact NEVER run TC over 1:1

It's been stated by several that the enemy/AI sensors become overly sensitive.

I run all contacts at 1:1 on full real and can easily make a getaway as well as an undetected approach.

Usually all hell breaks loose after the first fish are fired. But even so, with depth on my side and the thermal in place, I can usually after a couple hours elude the escorts.

[MarkShot]

Has anyone done some testing on TC? I've been playing SH3/GWX and it seems that you can TC if you are careful.

[Dantenoc]

Originally Posted by Snuffy

Whenever you are in contact NEVER run TC over 1:1

Darn... I was affraid of that... my own observations would also lean towards the same conclusion but I was wishing otherwise

@MarkShot: Yes, I used to TC all the time in SH3, usually at 4x so as to still hear all the sounds, and never had any problems, but SH4 seems to be different. Even at 2x you seem to loose some of the sounds and the AI suddenly gets clarivoyant or something.

[MarkShot]

That could be a game killer! An attack and evasion 1:1 can easily take 12 hours.

[walrusbomb]

I don't think it's a bug. I think the problem is your reaction times while in TC. In 1:1, you make evasive manuevers in real-time.

when a DD has you, that last thing you want to do is go straight for extended periods of time. I've noticed that sometimes a DD has detected you long before it makes its move. You hit TC and he strikes.

TC simply exposes what a sitting duck you are.