Sierra means Sonar contact
Victor means visually identified
Echo means detected with ESM gear
Master is a contact identified by at least two of the above methods (visually & by sonar)

From the manual:

(S) Sierra - detected by sonar
(R) Romeo - detected by RADAR
(E) Echo - detected by ESM
(V) Victor - detected by visual observation (periscope or bridge)
(M) Master - upgraded to this if detected by more than one sensor type

cool, thanks!

(V) Victor - detected by visual observation (periscope or bridge)

(V) Victor - detected by visual observation (periscope or bridge) . what does that mean (periscope(Ok I know that thing) or bridge(what is meant here: bridge?)

Can't say any better than these guys. That is all correct and the system works well.

Originally posted by dustpatrol:

(V) Victor - detected by visual observation (periscope or bridge)

(V) Victor - detected by visual observation (periscope or bridge) . what does that mean (periscope(Ok I know that thing) or bridge(what is meant here: bridge?)

The bridge of the sub (conning tower if you prefer). Someone exited the sub through the hatch and used a pair of binoculars (not recommended against something other than a troop transport or a tanker).

so my crew actually looks in the periscope?

Originally posted by dustpatrol:

so my crew actually looks in the periscope?

No, its always the captain (you).

FWIW "Master" is short for "merged", as in "merged contact". Generally, it's sonar + radar, as those are longer distance.

You can TASM or Harpoon easily with the Seawolf, if you choose to load all tubes with ASMs...

I personally don't bother with ASMs since most warships have interceptor SAMs and CIWS. They can't dodge torpedoes except with decoys, and those you can bypass with manual controls (provided you kept your wires).

My Seawolf war tends to look boring because I tend to launch from 20 km away and ships just blow up with escorts scattering in all directions, wondering where I fired from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agIsaZQemJk&list=PL1lR3TgSCmrXRLCc36NOc4bYpz3sxTUWd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpcIjqVU2-Y&list=PL1lR3TgSCmrVcp_lBJVM2OkIzOzF6UHjf

Seawolf is the quietest, hardiest, and fastest USN boat available for Y2K, but without VLS, you will have to prep ahead of manning battle stations, because if you decided that you want to swap out torps with TLAMs or TASMs or whatever, you will have to break from ultra quiet to reload, which will also take some time, increasing your chances of being detected in passive sonar.

Also, if you decide to pack TLAMs ahead of time in your torpedo room because you don’t want to go back all the way to Guam and all the way back to where you’re supposed to hit, there will be times where you get handed an additional mission when you barely have enough weapons to do the job
(personal experience; got sent on a mission in the shallows to kill a ♥♥♥♥♥♥-class AOR with Jiangwei and Luda escort with only an ADCAP, a MOSS, and a Harpoon remaining because I decided to stock up on TLAMs. Didn’t end well that time)

Flight II and III Los Angeles is less hardy than the Seawolf, but gets VLS in return, and provided you configure your VLS properly before weighing anchor (I like 10 TLAMs and 2 TASM loadout), you can stock the torpedo room with whatever else you need and not worry about having to head back to Guam if a land-stike mission got handed to you mid-patrol.

Whatever you store in VLS doesn’t count towards your torpedo room weapons count, so you can be recalled back to Guam to resupply with a full VLS load, reducing the chances you will be sent to missions while under armed like I mentioned above with the Seawolf.

The only downside is you have to be within 80 ft depth and 5 kts speed, significantly increasing your chances to be detected by helicopters or ASW planes.

thats the bad side of the narwhal you reload and may get detected.

dont know which boat I should go for campaign, Narwhal or Los Angeles Class.

Originally posted by dustpatrol:

thats the bad side of the narwhal you reload and may get detected.

dont know which boat I should go for campaign, Narwhal or Los Angeles Class.

1984 campaign? That’s a tough choice.

Narwhal is definitely quieter and deeper diving, but the speed can sometimes be a detriment either when trying to run down fleeing targets or when trying to get out of dodge.

I feel like duke nukem in the LA class....

but lol somehow I did change some lines in the .txt of the la class turn rate and rudder turn rate. did want to make it a little more easier to steer it. but now it turns like a speedboat after I changed the parameters back nothing changed.
altough I did change the name of the la class to uss duke and ssn-420.
may have to reinstall it.

edit: had a 2,5 instead of a 2 in turn rate now it turns normal again.