Seriously, about the submarines

[ryanwfrederick]

This game is essentially broken until the submarines that appear from nowhere and torpedo you with absolutely no chance to evade are fixed. It's not like nobody was listening for these things or that, ya know, escorts didn't exist precisely for that purpose. There is NOTHING more infuriating in a game that is otherwise *so* close to being one of the all-time great games for history nerds like me than having your aircraft carrier, battleship, or convoy blown apart with no notice when you have a horde of escorts (and sometimes aircraft) for exactly that purpose. What is the point of guarding my heavies with destroyers if the destroyers have zero chance of stopping literally ANY submarines?

[Koztaz]

Is it so hard when you get into encounter whithout any reason to pause and whatch for torpedoes in the water first thing? Also keep your heavy units back. I havent been hit by torpedoes in a long time.
Also "...submarines that appear from nowhere and torpedo you with absolutely no chance to evade..." is exactly how submarines work :)
Destroyers job is to scare submarines away at that time.
Not to prevent them from launching but to hunt them after the launch.

[MizuYuuki]

Edit the config.txt file and turn off "auto-ambush". Save the edited file in the override folder.

[ryanwfrederick]

Originally posted by Koztaz:

Is it so hard when you get into encounter whithout any reason to pause and whatch for torpedoes in the water first thing? Also keep your heavy units back. I havent been hit by torpedoes in a long time.
Also "...submarines that appear from nowhere and torpedo you with absolutely no chance to evade..." is exactly how submarines work :)
Destroyers job is to scare submarines away at that time.
Not to prevent them from launching but to hunt them after the launch.

It just frustrates me that when I get attacked by a submarine it's practically on top of my formation and instantly fires all of its fish, but when I attack with submarines they're miles away from the formation they're trying to attack and the enemy actually gets a chance to detect/stop/evade them.

I see your point about keeping the heavies back, but at the range these submarines seem to appear at, it seems like battleships and carriers have very little chance to get away owing to their size, and merchants/oilers are too slow.

[Koztaz]

You can change the formation and rearange your ships before getting into tactical...

[Redmarkus4]

Originally posted by ryanwfrederick:

This game is essentially broken until the submarines that appear from nowhere and torpedo you with absolutely no chance to evade are fixed.

I initially found this frustrating, but as others have commented above you can opt out.

Personally, I tend to leave subs in. By setting your formation appropriately, using a zig-zag course in tactical mode, and breaking your escorts off at low speed (4 knots) to sail towards the likely source of the torpedoes, it's absolutely possible to avoid almost all sub attacks AND sink large numbers of subs.

When you spot torps in the water, pause the game and consider breaking every vessel off, the setting the best course and speed to avoid being hit, while also fine tuning your attack by escorts.

I have even used an escort to block the attack on my carrier, slowing the escort down and making it take the hit while the carrier changes course and speeds up.

Regarding your own sub attacks, there will be times when you enter the map and find that you are perfectly positioned to attack. In other cases, all you can do is examine the enemy task force or convoy. But that's actually one of the main tasks of your sub fleet - recon and screening. Now you know where the enemy are and what types of vessels they have. Send aircraft or ships to intercept them, if appropriate.

It's all challenging, but that's what we want from a war game, right?

[MicroShinobi]

AI subs are stupid. Before start the battle break up the formation. Set all big ships in reverse flank speed. Turn off the evading for all your ships.
AI submarines will attack then only escort. And iy will be just a waste of torpedoes.
Only once I get one dud torpedo hit when ambushed by four Gato (may them rest in peace, lol).

[Koztaz]

We'll see about that :)

[Redmarkus4]

Originally posted by Koztaz:

We'll see about that :)

:)

[Kraznova]

hideStrategicMapSubs":true,"subAutoAmbushPosition":[true,true],"playerSubAmbushOffset":[3000,5000,1500,3000],"enemySubAmbushOffset":[1500,2500,750,1500]

From the game config file. You can adjust settings to your liking, or turn off ambushes completely.

[Dirty Rotten Flieger]

Once you know what you are doing this isn't really too much of a problem.

First thing to do before the battle starts if launch your cruisers spotting planes with depth charges. Then they will be flying directly over the fleet and can easily see the torpedoes and sometimes even the sub. Then they can guide the escorts to deal with it, if thei own weapons don't kil lit first.

but even if the sea is too rough and the plane cant' see much . you know there is a sub so take evasive action with your ships and change their speeds. Just doing those things it is pretty hard for the poor AI to hit my ships.

[SJWs R TRAITORS]

I think the problem with subs is that they are ideally setup from battle start, this was rarely the case in real life, uboat commanders needed to sail at top speed on the surface, to get into a firing position. Maybe if they game forced players to do this, subs wouldn't be so deadly.

[Koztaz]

Originally posted by SJWs R TRAITORS:

I think the problem with subs is that they are ideally setup from battle start, this was rarely the case in real life, uboat commanders needed to sail at top speed on the surface, to get into a firing position. Maybe if they game forced players to do this, subs wouldn't be so deadly.

Subs are deadly and they have allways been. The problem in base game is AI subs are setup closer to the convoy and they are easy to find after they fire their torpedoes. They shoot right after the encounter starts and torpedoes are too noticable and easy to avoid. That makes them too predictable.

In my mod I have adressed that issue by increasing the distance they fire, so they have time to move away from the position. Randomizing the target at they fire. Making torpedoes harder to spot unless it is perfect confitions. Increasing the time they take aim (randomized). Reducing torpedoe spread. Making them dive at max depth and run in silent mode when they fire and adding their depth to impact the sonar, so a Uboat at 200m depth is harder to spot than one that is running at 60m for example.

So instead of making the player do tedious tasks for hours (to properly intercept a convoy) I am trying to make AI equally dangerous, or at least as close as possible.

[Markus1987]

To fend off submarines and detect torpedoes in time, always launch reconnaissance aircraft

[twinny28]

I also use both passive and active sonar. Active sonar is short ranged and mainly picks up cavitations in the water like propellers etc etc. Passive sonar is longer range and detects the hull of the ship.

[cswiger]

Originally posted by twinny28:

I also use both passive and active sonar. Active sonar is short ranged and mainly picks up cavitations in the water like propellers etc etc. Passive sonar is longer range and detects the hull of the ship.

You've gotten those terms backwards.

Active sonar sends a ping and listens for the reflection off of the hull. It works best against the broadside of a sub (angle-on-bow of 90 / 270 degrees) and worst against a sub's bow or stern (AOB of 0 or 180 degrees).

Passive sonar is listening for ship/sub noises which rise above the background noise of the sea. Passive sonar is very likely to notice prop noise if the prop is moving fast enough to cavitate.