[2026.1] Torpedo Wake Detection

Throughout the Silent Hunter series, steam torpedo wakes were a core gameplay mechanic: ships that spotted an incoming trail would begin evasive maneuvers, and escorts would trace the wake back toward the attacking submarine. It created a genuine tactical penalty for using steam torpedoes in daylight.

UBOAT ignores this important mechanic. A G7a fired in broad daylight, leaving a white trail across the water, produces zero reaction from any ship it passes. The immersion cost is real – it’s hard to feel threatened when your targets don’t notice a torpedo running straight at them.

This mod restores the mechanic.

Every steam torpedo (G7a and all its variants) is tracked in real time. When an enemy ship comes within detection range of the wake, it raises the alarm – the entire convoy panics, and military escorts receive a position clue pointing back toward your submarine.

Ships directly in the torpedo’s path don’t just zigzag randomly – they actively steer to present a smaller cross-section. A head-on approach gets combed by turning bow-toward-torpedo. A parallel run gets stepped aside. This is the real "comb the track" maneuver Allied merchant captains were trained to execute.

Electric torpedoes (G7e, G7es Zaunkönig) produce no wake and remain undetected until impact.

Documented WWII observations of steam torpedo wake visibility:

• Daytime, calm sea: 450–1,350 m
• Night, no bioluminescence: under 100 m
• Night with bioluminescence: 450–820 m

The mod uses 800 m as base detection range (mid-point of daytime conditions). This is then scaled automatically by two independent factors:

• Light conditions – weather, time of day, fog, rain (via game’s existing visibility system)
• Sea state – rough seas mask the wake in wave chop. Beaufort 0 (flat calm) = full 800 m; Beaufort 8+ (gale) = ~160 m

In dense fog or a gale, detection can fall to near zero. Steam torpedoes at night in heavy weather are effectively as silent as electric.

The G7a FAT and LUT are pattern-running variants of the steam torpedo. Historically, the Kriegsmarine restricted FAT to nighttime attacks specifically because the steam wake could be spotted during the initial straight run – before the torpedo even entered its zigzag pattern through the convoy lanes. The G7e FAT was later developed precisely to eliminate this vulnerability.

This mod recreates that tradeoff exactly: G7a FAT fired in daylight will alert the convoy during the straight run. G7e FAT is silent.

• The detecting ship raises group-wide alarm – the entire convoy begins evasive zigzag
• Merchant ships have a chance to break formation and run
• Military escorts receive a position clue toward your submarine and move to investigate
• Ships in the torpedo’s approach path perform a directed evasion maneuver – hard rudder, flank speed, combing the track
• Each ship triggers once per torpedo – no repeated alarms from the same wake

Single merchant, daytime, 3 km shot:
Wake detected at ~800 m. Merchant begins zigzagging ~35 seconds before impact. If heading toward the merchant, it steers to comb the track. A clean hit on a ship that tried to evade and still got struck is historically the correct outcome.

Full convoy, daytime:
Detection cascades across all ships within seconds. Merchants scatter. Escorts receive your position and are already moving toward you before the torpedo arrives. The combing merchant may survive; your position is compromised.

Night attack, calm sea:
Detection range drops to ~240 m. The torpedo covers most of its run in silence. At that range there are only ~10 seconds to react – historically too late for most ships. Steam torpedoes at night are the safe call.

Night attack, Beaufort 8 gale:
Detection range ~48 m. Wake is invisible against the wave chop. Steam torpedo behaves exactly like electric – no reaction until impact.

Electric torpedo (any variant):
No reaction until impact. Exactly as vanilla.

Torpedoes fired by friendly NPC submarines (wolfpack allies) trigger the same behavior.

Thanks Ждун for reviewing the code and helping identify the bottlenecks.
I hope we can continue to develop the mod in the direction we discussed.

• 2026.1+
• New or ongoing campaign.
• There are several mods in workshop that use similar mechanics but employ different and less realistic evasion methods (or don’t have them), so there might be compatibility issues.

Nose Down – Your submarine tilts nose-down when diving. Historical angles, per-class scaling, first-person view follows the pitch, configurable.
No AutoAlarm – Disable the automatic alarm. Configure exactly when your crew sounds general quarters: on damage, on aircraft contact, on warship contact, or never.