detection distances

[ruskoz]

I was wonder if some kind old hat of a skipper could share a bit of wisdom on detection distances?


At what distance do look outs spot the subs silhouette day and what about night?

Also at what distance does passive sonar pick up the subs screws at the different levels of speed?

What is the max linear distance that active sonar able to get a hit?

Thanks

[Doolittle81]

I'd like to get some information on these matters also...Seems to me the SH4 IJN lookouts have unnatrually great eyesight (contrary to the propaganda during WWII that the Japanese were nearsighted and had generally poor vision). I seem to get spotted all the time, even at night, from insanely long distances...

Related to this, is there a way to MOD the AI detection distances...to make things more realistic/fair? (Call it Easier if you like)

[DrBeast]

There are two files related to AI sensors: AI_Sensors.dat in Data\Library and Sim.cfg in Data\Cfg. For the first you'll need S3D Editor, for the latter Ye Olde Windoze Notepad. I also recommend reading this excellent thread, as well as this one, both by Ducimus, on how the AI sensors work. They're quite old, but the gist is still there.

[-Pv-]

The tennis net is too high, the basball too small, the football the wrong shape. Soccer field too muddy. Golf ball too smooth. Money the wrong color, weather not the right temperature. Water doesn't taste right. I don't feel good today.
-Pv-

[Rockin Robbins]

I always figure visually I can be spotted at 5 miles daytime, 3½ miles night, 5 miles by aircraft.

I consider I should be at silent running with an escort within a mile. I don't care what range active can pick me up because I plan on losing them even when I'm well inside that distance, whatever it is. When they hit the active I get busy and hit the jets to get out of there. That's usually when I'm able to break contact and slink away.

I have found sometimes that periscope depth is a good depth when they're actively pinging. Don't know why, but they seem to have more trouble locating me sometimes, but beware, there is less room for error there. I find myself getting more aggressive with escorts lately since I hate them so. Oh, I forgive them, but I hate them.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Doolittle81

I'd like to get some information on these matters also...Seems to me the SH4 IJN lookouts have unnatrually great eyesight (contrary to the propaganda during WWII that the Japanese were nearsighted and had generally poor vision). I seem to get spotted all the time, even at night, from insanely long distances...

Related to this, is there a way to MOD the AI detection distances...to make things more realistic/fair? (Call it Easier if you like)

And the GWX veterans all laugh, bitterly, but they laugh!

[tedhealy]

With tm 1.7.6, I feel pretty good about getting as close as 2000-2500 yards on single merchants at night with cloud cover and rough seas. Anything under that and I feel like I'm taking a huge risk. Sometimes I can close to 1000 yards, sometimes I get spotted much earlier.

Clear moonlit nights with calm seas, maybe as close as 4000 yards. During the day with decent visibility, I try to pull the plug at least around 6000 yards.

[Doolittle81]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

And the GWX veterans all laugh, bitterly, but they laugh!

Not sure what you mean...did I say something funny?

[Rockin Robbins]

GWXers have been worked over by the escorts from hell. Brits are the best. They draw that circle of maximum battery range and work it until little pieces of mangled submariner float to the surface. They do not quit. They do not miss. You must beat them. The bottom of the Atlantik is littered with the corpses of good U-Boat Kapitans who never lived long enough to see a single target, much less damage or sink one, whose sunken hulks still hold all the torpedoes they left port with.

The laughter of the GWXer is a haunted, bitter laughter born of meeting death on its own terms and having survived....last time. It is the acid laughter of those who consider themselves already dead, scoffing at the pessimism of those in the Pacific who can rightly expect to survive. A GWXer dreams of confronting those as "difficult" as the Japanese, but knows that his fate is of a nature vastly more grim.

The GWXer knows that 90% of his buddies will never feel the land beneath their feet again. His present desparate situation is his badge of manhood. All others are somehow lesser beings. He expects that somehow he will find a way to be in that 10% who return to Lorient just one more time. That is as far ahead as he dares to contemplate. For him, this war will never end. He laughs a knowing, haunted, wise and doomed laugh from hell itself.

[Snuffy]

TC is also a dead give away.

If you're TCing too fast and approaching a sighting, you're going to get tagged.

Always best to TC at a controllable speed and reduce to 1:1 upon sighting.

Do not TC at any time during the contact.

[Doolittle81]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

GWXers have been worked over by the escorts from hell. Brits are the best.....etc

Thanks...I understand your point now. Unfortunately, I had to skip the entire SHIII experience...My computer Rig was getting old at the time, but even so I was not willing to risk damage to my hardware/drives due to the Copy Protection system used. (Starforce or something like that??). I stayed with FlightSimming throughout the SHIII years. The Atlantic theater and U-Boats would have been my preferred choice.....and hopefully will Rise again as an Option if the new Add-On should result in an backwards expansion into a full blown SH4-UBoat-Atlantik Simulation

[Doolittle81]

Originally Posted by Snuffy

TC is also a dead give away.....

Do not TC at any time during the contact.

That seems to be the answer....I had been TC'ing when I felt that I was maneuvering very stealthily/slowly, not for any advantage over the IJN/Game, but rather just to speed up the Gameplay. It never dawned on me that I was shooting myself in the foot, so to speak.

[thegroo]

Someone posted that as long as you're not over 32x TC you should be fine.

I did some tests and it works for me.

Regards
Dieter