{Req} Could someone make a mod so hydrophones do not work on surface in TMO?

[Bubblehead1980]

Would like hydrophones to not work on surface.

[Armistead]

The problem is they work as good on the surface and they do submerged. Obvious it could be done as the S boat works that way, but I agree it's rather unrealistic either way. To me the problem is still the lag we get when ships come in contact with the one contact zone. I would rather see more contact zones that actually match the equipment being used so we can't use our super human skills.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Armistead

The problem is they work as good on the surface and they do submerged.

Acutally.. they don't. The WCA sonar only has about a 9000 meter range as i recall. JT, etc, much further. By way of comparision, your watch crew has a 12 to 15,000 meter range , depending on enviormental conditions.

How it all works is this:

- While surfaced, the game will use the only sonar that will work. If one sonar is set to work on the surface, and the other is not. The game will default to the one that works. In this case, WCA.

- While submerged, the game will use the sonar that has the greatest range. Since both WCA and JT sonar are active while submerged, the game defaults to the one with the longest range. In this case, JT.

- While surfaced with multiple sensors available. Hydrophone, radar, visual. The game follows a hirearchy. It will default to radar first. Then hydrophone, then visual. Visual trumps all. If an object is within visual range, ALL other sensors are NOT used. Which is why, when you raise the periscope, doing a submerged attack, and the sonar contacts stop. And only resume when you lower the periscope.

THe wildcard is this....

MANUALLY USING THE HYDROPHONES YOURSELF. This trumps EVERYTHING in terms of sensor parameters. It doesnt matter if a hydrophone is set to 8000 meters, or 20,000 meters. You will hear, EVERYTHING within a 30KM radius (im guessing, its probably larger then that), regardless of hydrophone max range. The game differentiates between crewman usage/reporting, and player manual use.

This is a fundamental problem with the game. Not the mod. It has been thus in SH3, was carried over in SH4, and i'll bet still exists in SH5.

At one time i did remove WCA's ability to detect surface contacts, but added it back because , as far as ive read, its historically correct. The max range is limited to 9000 meters or so, which is LESS then your watch crews max visual range, meaning that the watch crew will trump the WCA. The only time in "normal play" the WCA proves to be an advantage, is extremly foggy conditions where the visual sensor is absolute crap - OR you manually use the hydrophones yourself. In which case it doesnt matter what the max range is set at.

[Armistead]

That's the problem I was referring, the person can hear everything, doesn't matter what your man picks up, they often will miss stuff very close. Often when I hear it and the man cannot, I will just ping it and pick up targets up to 35NM's away. Wish there way a way to fix that.

[Laffertytig]

sorry to dig up this thread again but im toying with the idea of switching of sonar while on the surface.

ive read ducimus's comments and they make sense but it doesnt play out like that when im on patrol. i cant remember a single time where the watch crew have spotted a ship 1st, its always sonar that picks up contacts.

another limitation is that we can pick up surface contacts yet dd's cant hear us, it should work both ways but it doesnt.


the visual range in SH4 is 16k's right? either ducumus is wrong bout how the AI works with regards to this issue or the AI simply cant see further than 8k's.

which is it?

[magic452]

I for one would love to be able to turn off the sonar at any time.
Once you have radar you really don't use the sonar except to evade escorts.

Magic