Hydrophone was previously around 45 seconds. It's enough time to land a ping and launch half your torps . If it's a double-ping by the time the torps arrive, a DCP is forced and you can re-ping and launch the remaing torps before the consumable runs out.
Extending the time and range still allows for this combination of events.
The Hydrophone Sub vs Sub interaction has been the way it is for over a year. To my knowledge I've never read a complaint that Hydrophone was ineffective at allowing Subs to fight each other.
Have you only been able to have Sub vs Sub interactions within 2km over the entirety of the last year?
Consumable skills are extremely important. The +1 Charge is arguably less important since Hydrophone (now split into two different consumables) was made unlimited, but this is a Sub hunting setup in terms of Commander Build:
This allows for faster ping and torp reload when spotted (assume the enemy sub detects you while you detect them) which helps for landing double-pings which are needed to assure torp-threat on the enemy sub. It also allows faster consumable cycling and a longer duration to assist for after-DCP clear re-ping.
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If you want to double-down on the anti-Sub playstyle, you can choose Ship Consumable Modification 1 in Slot 5.
The common choice is Submarine Steering Gears for both comfort and evasion, but it's not required. Also, you do gain additional time on your other consumables which is useful.
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Combining the +10% Duration Commander Skill and +10% Consumable Duration Upgrade gives you 72.6 seconds to fight an enemy sub.
Compared to the previous starting amount of 45ish seconds (before extensions), that is a very comfortable amount of time to force a 6 second DCP with a 54+ second cooldown.
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In my experience trying to knife-fight a sub within 2km is very awkward. Torp homing can be rough depending on angle of ship and distance to target. That being said, it was not my preferred method of sub hunting so it could be that it's not something I'm overly practiced with.
I killed -many- subs using Hydrophone at ranges exceeding 2km, so I'm not entirely sure how it's not supposed to be possible with even more duration on the consumable. Further, as El2aZeR mentioned, the consumable is more powerful in that it reveals Periscope Depth now instead only only Maximum Depth.
I streamed well over 40 or 50 hours of Submarine gameplay back when Subs were in Ranked. There have been changes to torp damage, sub HP, and other things... but the core concept has remained pretty much the same through the length of submarines being on live server. In general, I didn't have a problem with their play and found them interesting (though it was my second play of them for Naval Battles that got me interested as the first try didn't grab me).
I have killed subs in subs, destroyers, cruisers, and battleships. Probably in a CV once or twice, but subs really do have the advantage in that matchup. They are strong in capable hands, but every ship is strong in the hands of the best players in our game. In general, I'm not afraid of submarines and welcome them when I see them in Randoms.
I agree! Ships need to feel similar, but different so that they aren't too difficult to pick up but offer a style of gameplay that feels unique.
Not an easy thing to do!
Calm yourself, Iago - it's a closed test-of-concept
Surface ships can fire-and-forget as their main weapon. CV's are literally locked into guiding their main ordinance. We're going to test both options and choose the one that works best.
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