Radio Contact Reports from BDU appearing only in Captain's Log
 

Hi guys,

I have a question about radio contact reports from BDU. I've been playing with the latest version of TWOS. When BDU sends me a radio contact report, it does not appear in the Ship's Journal, the message box, nor the Radio Messages box. They only appear in the Captain's Log, and as such, it makes it very difficult to notice them in a timely manner when they do appear. I feel like I have exhausted all of the in-game configurable options searching for a way to change this with no success. I've read the TWOS FAQ/tips PDF in the mod file as well. Is there something I missed, or do I need to delve into the game files and change something? Thanks all,

Chris.

No that is normal. The give away that a message has arrived is time compression dropping to x1.

My time compression doesn't drop to x1 when I get a radio contact message from BDU. The messages don't appear in the ship's journal or the message box, only the captain's log. When I get other messages from BDU such as enigma codes my time compression does drop per normal function. Right now I'm working the British Coastal Waters campaign. I've also noticed that all the radio contact reports are for latitudes and longitudes quite far from my location (as in 1000s of km). Is this perhaps why the radio contact reports are logged in the captain's log and nowhere else? The only reason I even knew I was getting radio contact reports was from dumb luck of looking at the captain's log, which I find far less useful than the radio message and ship's journal boxes. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Chris.

So there is an option to scale the distance for your TC to drop to 1 when a radio contact report is within X distance. Anything outside of that distance will only go to the Captains log (depending on your Realism settings it will or will not appear on the Nav Map I think).

In Game, go to the upper right hand corner UI and it's on of those options...I don't remember what the default is ...but its around 500-600 km i think? The reason this option is there is to filter out those distant Contact reports so that you don't drop your TC all the time for something you might not want to try and intercept. Its a nice feature IMHO.

That is quite "normal".

Technically, if you click on those "contact reports" individually, they are mostly task forces, with a occasional convoy.

In the upper right corner, bottom line, there is the option to increase or decrease the distance in which "contact reports" will show up in the Radio message box. I usually keep mine set at 400 kilometers.

I've even talked to some who set it a 700 just to keep informed of convoy movements in the Atlantic.

Any contact, any convoy, any task force within that area around my boat will trigger a report in the radio message box.

And really, it does no good to have a "contact report" outside that distance as by the time you plot an intercept course, they typically zig-zag making intercept difficult.

Good luck and good hunting!

Thanks for the responses, everybody. I can't believe I didn't notice the "decrease/increase max radio contact range" tool at the top right of the interface. Thanks again, guys.

Chris.

To sum up I realized that messages that only appear in your journal but don't make the message icon flash are those pretty irrelevant. Those contacts are either way too far from you, or task forces you can't handle anyway, so just skip them and focus on flashing messages ;)

That's what I do

And the radio intercepts on map?
 

Hello, fellow kaleuns! I've been researching for a little problem that I'm facing at TWoS that is related to the question of this thread: I've just turned off the map contact update, and by doing so I can't have the info on the heading of contact intercepts that appear on the nav map from time to time (specifically those that don't produce a radio report in captain's log or in the radio messages section), since only the speed and the distance to the contact are described, but no course/direction.

For instance, in SH3 there was a list of information when you clicked in the contact icon: Type, course and speed. In SH5/TWoS the only way to know that (as far as I can tell) was by plotting a course, since it would show the projected path of the contact in the map. But with the map contact update off, I can only get the speed and distance to the contact in that "item description" box and without contact's course, they're useless.

I'm not using RealNav, and my mod list is just 3 from those that came with TWoS: interior food stocks, map contact colors and remove sub flags.

Do you know any way to solve this? Perhaps bringing back the tail of the contact's icon or some text description of contact's course (i.e. "Course: x") or anything? I'll appreciate any ideas on this!

PS: Sorry for bad english, it's not my native language :D.

welcome aboard!
 

Thanks, sir! :Kaleun_Salute:

From what I know: The most important messages for your gameplay that reveal course and timeline for enemy convoys or formations or wether you've been detected appear in the Captain's Log at *any time* and AFAIK with 'Easy Contacts' set in the Options: it stops time compression so you are warned. You will see a new grey Contact Mark on the map if you play without Real Navigation, however this information may be only approximate, thus not precise at all.
With Real Navigation I expect (but I don't know) these new contacts to have NO warning, it's your business to check the Captain's Log, so you better look there often or you miss opportunities :yep:

Thanksfully the Captain's Log is saved when you quit your session and saving the game. And that's very good because the 'message' section is NOT saved unless you save it together with the supermarks which is only possible with mods like TWoS.

Thanks, XenonSurf! As you said, TC drops to 1 whenever a "solid" contact report with full information is received. An approximate position is sufficient to search for the contact, no problem on that. I'll pay more attention to the Captain's Log and radio messages from now on. :up:

Cheers! :Kaleun_Cheers: