Automatic generator, why?

[Dematti]

Correct me if 'im wrong here but shouldnt we be be able to turn off the generator?
In this game the battery gets recharged automatically from the moment your engine is on.
This is so wrong in my opinion and realism players will be losing interest because of it.

First of all the boat should slow down when the generator is on. (also it should not use more fuel since the rpm stays the same, only some of the engine power is diverted to the generator so it should only slow you down a bit)
This means to me that the whole system now is not correct since you dont slow down you are actually gaining "free wrongly simulated" speed as your recharge without any side effects.

Second, when using the generator, it generates a considerable sound for the enemy to hear.
In history and in real life, picking the right time to recharge your battery or picking the wrong time and place could mean the difference from beeing spotted (heard) or not. It was a big part of the tactical decisions to be made and basically defined how you moved and planned your day.

Just to make things clear: i'm talking about the + in battery recharge you automatically get when moving, that is the generator and we should be able to turn this off and on manually instead of always recharging automatically, with its historical effects included.

[Dewgle]

Technically, yes, you could turn off the generators but there's absolutely no reason why you would want to.

Originally posted by Dematti:

Second, when using the generator, it generates a considerable sound for the enemy to hear.

This is just not true. You might get a small electric 'whine' out of the generators (plural) but the sound would be imperceptible when compared to the sound of the diesels themselves. It's just not going to be louder than a diesel, let alone make enough noise to contribute to the u-boat's detection by the enemy any more than the sound of the diesels would by themselves.

If the enemy can hear the electric whine of the generators while the diesels are running? Then their hydrophone operator could probably also hear the sound of two people holding a casual conversation in the middle of a rock concert.

Originally posted by Dematti:

First of all the boat should slow down when the generator is on. (also it should not use more fuel since the rpm stays the same, only some of the engine power is diverted to the generator so it should only slow you down a bit) This means to me that the whole system now is not correct since you dont slow down you are actually gaining "free wrongly simulated" speed as your recharge without any side effects.

You contradicted yourself there. If the RPM is the same then why would the boat slow down? But this is not correct. Charging the batteries does not slow the boat down. The generators do apply counter-torque while charging which does affect fuel consumption but it does not slow the boat down.

If you've ever ridden a bicycle that had a manually powered headlight attachment, then you'd remember (or should realize) that engaging the motor to power the bicycle light makes you pedal harder to maintain the same speed. That is counter-torque.

The only thing incorrect or unrealistic about the way your boat generates electricity in this game is that charging your batteries does not consume extra fuel when it most definitely should because of the aforementioned counter-torque. Everything else is fine.

[Descore]

There is a valid point for turning the generators off, but it's got nothing to do with the noise. Instead it's the same reason I prefer to drive with A/C and headlights off when it's allowed and comfortable - mileage. I can drive from Copenhagen to Hamburg and back on a full tank with that, but I have to refuel halfway back if I have lights and A/C on. Same applies if you want to stretch your fuel for a longer trip away from port. There's a mod that adds some realism to this, I tried it but turned it off because it was silly with the refrigerator, but YMMV ;) It doesn't allow you to turn generation off while on Diesel though, but I guess it's an idea for improvement (along with removing the silly fridge). Here's the link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2586566270&searchtext=

[Dematti]

Originally posted by McDewgle:

Technically, yes, you could turn off the generators but there's absolutely no reason why you would want to.

Originally posted by Descore:

There is a valid point for turning the generators off, but it's got nothing to do with the noise.

Thanks for informing me about this, seems I mistakenly assumed this as realistic since older uboat games with realism mods I've played had these effect implemented :). Now it seems they were wrong and this is (more or less) correct.

[wolf310ii]

Originally posted by Dematti:

Thanks for informing me about this, seems I mistakenly assumed this as realistic since older uboat games with realism mods I've played had these effect implemented :).

Are you sure about this? I think you just dont understand how charging the batteries work.
I play U-Boat games since Silent Service 1 and none of it had these effect.
U-Boats dont have additional Diesel-generators (some Typ IX had, but i dont know any game were you can play them), they just switch the E-Motors from idle to charging while running on diesel, so if you running on diesel, maybe while useing the snorkel, the enemy will spot/hear you, no matter if you charge the batteries or not.

[Dematti]

Originally posted by wolf310ii:

Are you sure about this?

Silent Hunter 5 Wolves of Steel mod has this implemented, not sure about the sound signature though but if I remember correctly it also has a modifier there, but the charging slows you down in that game/mod for sure.