Surface, surface, surface! - *WHAT* ??

[Martin]

Hmm.

So there I am in my SCX/SCU Upholder, tucked in tight into the littoral zone off the coast of the Murmanskaya Oblast, snorkeling at periscope depth, running at 4kts with 20ft of keel depth clearance, attempting to evade a squadron of Grisha V corvettes, pinging away with their active sonar.

After recharging the air, and a quick sniff with the ESM to confirm that the radar paint from the Beriev maritime patrol aircraft is still weak, I lower all masts and antennas, and head out into slightly deeper littoral waters, so that I can get some data from my shortened towed array.

So now I'm running at 80ft at 6kts with 50ft under the keel, and I plot a set of waypoints for a course which follows the bathymetric contour line to maintain keel depth.

Things are going well, course changes are made according to the waypoints, except that there appears to be some rudder wandering prior to each turn. Odd, but not a bad thing, might help the TMA solution accuracy .

Then all of a sudden, there is an announcement on the 1MC, "Surface Surface Surface", followed by "Commence a low pressure blow of all main ballast tanks".

Excuse me??

No!

There's an ASW group hunting me and you want to surface??

So I countermand *that* order right away.

"Make my depth 80ft, aye, Sir."

Better

30 seconds later, can you guess? "Surface Surface Surface!"

I storm up to the bridge and give the watch officer a serious talking to. Dude!

"Erm ... Make my depth 80ft, aye, SIR!"

This time it took 10 seconds.

"Surface Surface Surface!"

Well things got a little argumentative at this point, I think I must have ordered an 80ft depth 30 times in 10 minutes, before I eventually gave up.

So there I am running on the surface off the Murmanskaya Oblast coast, in full view of any hostile unit that cares to look my way. Surprisingly, I only get weak radar returns and my scope is clear, so maybe I got away with it.

"MAKE YOUR DEPTH 80ft and STAY THERE, damnit!!"

"Sir yes SIR! Dive, Dive, Dive!".

"Reporting conditions normal on the dive."

Finally, ship shape and bristol fashion.

1 minute elapses.

Maybe more.

"Surface Surface Surface!"

No!!!

not cool.

Was the waypoint feature always this bad ??

- Martin.

[Blacklight]

It's time to get officer Bernard Dumkoff off your bridge !

I've never had that problem. It almost sounds like one of your keyboard keys got stuck or the keyboard malfunctioned or something like that.

[Frame57]

Are you using voice activated commands? If so, then that is the problem. I have had this problem with an open mike so any background noise sometimes gets interpreted and the game issues bogus commands.

[Martin]

Frame57 you nailed it!

I had the voice activated commands set to 'Always On' and I was using the mute button on the headset when I wasn't issuing orders. I started another game and right away I got the 'Surface, surface, surface' so I switched off the voice recognition 'Always On' and use the space bar as my push to talk rather than my mute button and that fixed the problem right away.

Now I just need to figure out how to survive a coordinated attack encounter with a pair of Beriev Be-12N Mail amphibious ASW and maritime patrol aircraft. Only kidding, I don't think that encounter is survivable. Once the MAD sensor has highlighted your presence to the aircraft and your position has been triangulated with active pinging from the Nartsiss search/attack system, and those AT-2 torpedoes are in the water and homing in active mode, life gets kinda difficult!



- Martin.

[Kapitan]

So you want to creep into my back yard i shant be having that il be leaving port in my akula to come and hunt you down this afternoon once they cleaned the bird crap off the sail and re stored, im gunna shuv four of the best 65cm's up the prop shaft then leave you for the grishas and maybe an udaloy to feast

But yes voice activated system isnt brilliant and is even worse when playing multiplayer.

Do you have SCXIIc?

[Frame57]

Originally Posted by Martin

Frame57 you nailed it!

I had the voice activated commands set to 'Always On' and I was using the mute button on the headset when I wasn't issuing orders. I started another game and right away I got the 'Surface, surface, surface' so I switched off the voice recognition 'Always On' and use the space bar as my push to talk rather than my mute button and that fixed the problem right away.

Now I just need to figure out how to survive a coordinated attack encounter with a pair of Beriev Be-12N Mail amphibious ASW and maritime patrol aircraft. Only kidding, I don't think that encounter is survivable. Once the MAD sensor has highlighted your presence to the aircraft and your position has been triangulated with active pinging from the Nartsiss search/attack system, and those AT-2 torpedoes are in the water and homing in active mode, life gets kinda difficult!



- Martin.

especially when these boats are incapable of going 'emergency deep'...

[Martin]

Hehe...

> Do you have SCXIIc?

Surely. I'm playing Bill Nichols 'Upholder Holdup' right now...

> these boats are incapable of going 'emergency deep'

Doesn't help when the torpedoes are rated to 400/600m and ownship is hugging the seafloor at 350ft

Challenging mission

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Kapitan

So you want to creep into my back yard i shant be having that il be leaving port in my akula to come and hunt you down this afternoon once they cleaned the bird crap off the sail and re stored, im gunna shuv four of the best 65cm's up the prop shaft then leave you for the grishas and maybe an udaloy to feast

But yes voice activated system isnt brilliant and is even worse when playing multiplayer.

Do you have SCXIIc?

It's ok folks, just make sure you bring the USS Nimitz with you, and you won't get any Akula troubles

Sevmash will need to do more than clean bird crap off the sail if Kapitan meets up with the Nimitz

[Frame57]

Originally Posted by Martin

Hehe...

> Do you have SCXIIc?

Surely. I'm playing Bill Nichols 'Upholder Holdup' right now...

> these boats are incapable of going 'emergency deep'

Doesn't help when the torpedoes are rated to 400/600m and ownship is hugging the seafloor at 350ft

Challenging mission

True, but the idea is to traverse thermals in a swift manner and change depth quickly with a sharp angle. it is a last minute effort to avoid the torpedo. Not sure if it works, but it is part of submarine combat tactics...

[Kapitan]

Originally Posted by Oberon

It's ok folks, just make sure you bring the USS Nimitz with you, and you won't get any Akula troubles

Sevmash will need to do more than clean bird crap off the sail if Kapitan meets up with the Nimitz

In a court of law id bet you id have had right of way its not my fault the other guy didnt see me ! he ran right over me talk about careless driving.

[Martin]

Yeah my heart jumped into my throat when I sarted intercepting strong high frequency active pinging on multiple bearings all at the same time consistent with Soviet Type 75 sonobuoys.

I had a sound speed profile up from the last expendable bathythermograph dataset but it showed no boundary, just a positive gradient from the surface to the sea floor, so the passive sonar environment wasn't going to help me this time .

I think the best tactic would have been to anticipate the search pattern of the Be-12 and make sure we never get within 10nm of each other :hmm: ... risky business hanging around at P.D. with the ESM mast raised though.

Boy I am enjoying getting back into SCU/SCX Sub Command ! Upholder is a nice sub to drive.

- Martin.

[Kapitan]

Dont use voice commands period simply because they dont work to well as ive found lately i used them in DW and it isnt that great, i will say this though i do have a manual somewhere about covert operations believe its on comanders acadamy website and it does go into detail about harbour creeps.