How to determine uboat depth without callout

[KevDawg]

How do I determine the depth of the uboat myself instead of waiting for the audio callout?

[Sgt Habu]

The automatic TRR sets its depth based on that of the submarine, so you can just look at that. HOWEVER, it is biased toward deeper depths, so if the submarine descends 1 foot below 'shallow', then it will be classified as medium.
One of my wishes is to have the auto-crew check box on the TRR screen, so I can turn it on and off, and not have it suddenly change 5 s from the drop.

[swarsdude101]

Before I realized that the auto TRR sets the depth so I take a look at it, if the sub just launched a torpedo, I saw it's periscope, or it just submerged then I set a shallow pattern.
If I've been hitting a shallow boat with multiple DC attacks and sonar reports that it's increasing depth, I might go to medium.
Unfortunately, it seems that sonar reporting the contact increasing or decreasing depth doesn't necessarily mean that changing your pattern inline with what sonar said will be correct. I've done it before and if my memory is unbiased, especially with u-boats that were at PD, its better not to.

[KevDawg]

Originally posted by swarsdude101:

Before I realized that the auto TRR sets the depth so I take a look at it, if the sub just launched a torpedo, I saw it's periscope, or it just submerged then I set a shallow pattern.
If I've been hitting a shallow boat with multiple DC attacks and sonar reports that it's increasing depth, I might go to medium.
Unfortunately, it seems that sonar reporting the contact increasing or decreasing depth doesn't necessarily mean that changing your pattern inline with what sonar said will be correct. I've done it before and if my memory is unbiased, especially with u-boats that were at PD, its better not to.

Yeah the increasing and decreasing thing is not reliable. I sort of just have to rely on the picture of the uboat when I last did a depth charge and base it on that.

Sgt Habu I'd prefer to set it myself than leave it on auto.

I think a hotkey to trigger the audio callout might be the easiest solution, since the voice lines are already there.

[Lord Gronor]

If you don't know the depth, stalk it from a distance at slow speed, or by stopping if you're catching up. Your crew will generally announce their depth within half a dozen pings if I had to guess.

[KevDawg]

Originally posted by Lord Gronor:

If you don't know the depth, stalk it from a distance at slow speed, or by stopping if you're catching up. Your crew will generally announce their depth within half a dozen pings if I had to guess.

Not the ideal solution when you've got more uboats than destroyers. Time is of the essence.

[swarsdude101]

Originally posted by KevDawg:

Originally posted by Lord Gronor:

If you don't know the depth, stalk it from a distance at slow speed, or by stopping if you're catching up. Your crew will generally announce their depth within half a dozen pings if I had to guess.

Not the ideal solution when you've got more uboats than destroyers. Time is of the essence.

From what I've read, estimating a u-boat's depth was a lot of guess work. I think its a fairly accurate portrayal of WW2 ASW. Besides the fact that the sonarman is seemingly never wrong about the estimated depth.