How to intercept hydrophone contacts in full realistic mode?

[Ducku]

My current way of doing it is by using a small exploit which is that when you click on the contact notification, the map will centre near perfectly on its location. However, the margin of error will be some 20km. With the exact location you can easily derive speed and course, but I'm wonder how this is to be done when you pretend you only know the location within the given margins. How was this done in the real world for example?

[tequilatibbs]

When you get a bearing, manually listen and gauge roughly if its near mid or far by adjusting the toggle. If its far then mark it at the limit of your hydrophone range. Not really essential to know its distance but you can start to work out if its worth pursuing

Head directly toward bearing without trying to account for targets course.

go for 30 mins at flank then dive. repeat procedure.

of course you can start to roughly gauge targets course after two bearing but best to just keep adjusting straight at it until your crew finally sees the smoke

[Ducku]

Originally posted by tequilatibbs:

When you get a bearing, manually listen and gauge roughly if its near mid or far by adjusting the toggle. If its far then mark it at the limit of your hydrophone range. Not really essential to know its distance but you can start to work out if its worth pursuing

Head directly toward bearing without trying to account for targets course.

go for 30 mins at flank then dive. repeat procedure.

of course you can start to roughly gauge targets course after two bearing but best to just keep adjusting straight at it until your crew finally sees the smoke

A problem Im seeing with this approach is that going straight towards the contact might work fine in the Type VII which can go near 20 knots, almost twice the speed of the average transport, But with the Type II I find i can only go about 10 knots which means that catching up with ~7 knot transports can take quite a while. I will give it a try tho.

Also, does using the hydrophone manually give you more accuracy than what the radio officer gives you as the margin? Because all time ive tried to use it I couldnt get much useful information out of it.

[tequilatibbs]

Yep, I'm mostly in the 7b cause its my favorite :)

When in the 2a I had some luck with this approach but found success through patrolling a busy area or in most cases reports from other uboats.

Definitely muuuch easier in the 7b, but thats part of the charm of the 2a for me: new challenges

[Rear]

The four bearing method should work but you might have to use the hydrophone manually. There are tutorials on YouTube (methods from other uboat games like Silent Hunter/Wolfpack etc. should translate reasonably well to this game).

[tequilatibbs]

Hydrophone guy is more accurate because you get an exact bearing number when you hover over the tool.

I just meant toggle the knob to get a rough idea of targets distance, which the hydro guy wont give you, so that if it isnt medium to close and youre in a 2a, maybe dont hold your breath

[Battleshipfree99]

Originally posted by Rear:

The four bearing method ...

AFAIK, 4 bearing method or TMA wasn't available at the time due to undeveloped math model and poor accuracy of hydrophone. Visual contact is the sole only way besides active sonar late war.

[Delayed_Revelations]

When i get a contact, i click on the sonar guy whilst map is open, and he has a list of the contacts info, including assumed distance. if im being lazy, i just point directly at this bearing, motor for abit, take another reading and now i know roughly which way they are going and i kinda guess in relation with ports and shipping routes ect.

If im being specific, i will use the ruler tool to mark the minimum and maximum suspected distances at each time i take a reading, this gives a more accurate visual of the course being taken.

And i try my best to avoid clicking the notifcation icon and doing the exploit cz sometimes its soooo tempting cz im lazy

[tequilatibbs]

Originally posted by Delayed_Revelations:

When i get a contact, i click on the sonar guy whilst map is open, and he has a list of the contacts info, including assumed distance. if im being lazy, i just point directly at this bearing, motor for abit, take another reading and now i know roughly which way they are going and i kinda guess in relation with ports and shipping routes ect.

If im being specific, i will use the ruler tool to mark the minimum and maximum suspected distances at each time i take a reading, this gives a more accurate visual of the course being taken.

And i try my best to avoid clicking the notifcation icon and doing the exploit cz sometimes its soooo tempting cz im lazy

Oh wow yeah. It gives bearing, number of ships, rough range and rough speed; cool!
Also option to plot a "capture course"

[Delayed_Revelations]

Originally posted by tequilatibbs:

Originally posted by Delayed_Revelations:

When i get a contact, i click on the sonar guy whilst map is open, and he has a list of the contacts info, including assumed distance. if im being lazy, i just point directly at this bearing, motor for abit, take another reading and now i know roughly which way they are going and i kinda guess in relation with ports and shipping routes ect.

If im being specific, i will use the ruler tool to mark the minimum and maximum suspected distances at each time i take a reading, this gives a more accurate visual of the course being taken.

And i try my best to avoid clicking the notifcation icon and doing the exploit cz sometimes its soooo tempting cz im lazy

Oh wow yeah. It gives bearing, number of ships, rough range and rough speed; cool!
Also option to plot a "capture course"

Yup, i try to avoid pressing the capture course button too, cz it literally works perfectly, putting you in the best position for attack, 100 percent of the time.. makes the game too easy.. but sometimes im lazy

[tequilatibbs]

Originally posted by Delayed_Revelations:

Yup, i try to avoid pressing the capture course button too, cz it literally works perfectly, putting you in the best position for attack, 100 percent of the time.. makes the game too easy.. but sometimes im lazy

Hmm yeah, that sounds wrong, but i guess its hard to make an automated intercepted course with error without confusing people.

Agreed, to be used only in times of laziness xD

[Ducku]

Originally posted by Delayed_Revelations:

Originally posted by tequilatibbs:

Oh wow yeah. It gives bearing, number of ships, rough range and rough speed; cool!
Also option to plot a "capture course"

Yup, i try to avoid pressing the capture course button too, cz it literally works perfectly, putting you in the best position for attack, 100 percent of the time.. makes the game too easy.. but sometimes im lazy

How can it plot an accurate intercept if it doesnt know the speed at which youll be travelling? I just tried it and it just sets a course directly at the contact bearing.

[Delayed_Revelations]

Originally posted by Ducku:

Originally posted by Delayed_Revelations:

Yup, i try to avoid pressing the capture course button too, cz it literally works perfectly, putting you in the best position for attack, 100 percent of the time.. makes the game too easy.. but sometimes im lazy

How can it plot an accurate intercept if it doesnt know the speed at which youll be travelling? I just tried it and it just sets a course directly at the contact bearing.

You have to first have your uboats speed assigned before you plot the course, in other words, select surface ship, select the chosen speed which should be flank, then go back to the sound guy and click the course intercept button. It will put you in the perfect position to lign yourself up for the perfect attack

Bear in mind this all needs to be done quickly before your ship actualy surfaces and you lose the ability to click on the contact information

[Ducku]

Originally posted by Delayed_Revelations:

Originally posted by Ducku:

How can it plot an accurate intercept if it doesnt know the speed at which youll be travelling? I just tried it and it just sets a course directly at the contact bearing.

You have to first have your uboats speed assigned before you plot the course, in other words, select surface ship, select the chosen speed which should be flank, then go back to the sound guy and click the course intercept button. It will put you in the perfect position to lign yourself up for the perfect attack

You mean select speed in the telegraph or is there some input box? If the former, wont it use the submerged speed instead of the surface speed?

[Delayed_Revelations]

Originally posted by Ducku:

Originally posted by Delayed_Revelations:

You have to first have your uboats speed assigned before you plot the course, in other words, select surface ship, select the chosen speed which should be flank, then go back to the sound guy and click the course intercept button. It will put you in the perfect position to lign yourself up for the perfect attack

You mean select speed in the telegraph or is there some input box? If the former, wont it use the submerged speed instead of the surface speed?

Select speed with the telegraph... in my experience its accounting for speed on the surface, but when i do it i have surface ship selected, so perhaps because i have both surface ship and the speed selected in the telegraph it is calculating that, not the uboats actual current speed and depth

[Ducku]

Originally posted by Delayed_Revelations:

Originally posted by Ducku:

You mean select speed in the telegraph or is there some input box? If the former, wont it use the submerged speed instead of the surface speed?

Select speed with the telegraph... have you got it working now?

Ill try, thanks!