Determining dive angle

[Travis Reed]

I remember that in SH3 you could fairly easily determine your diving angle (the pitch of the sub). This is differrent than, say, the dive plane setting.

In the Gato/Balao fleet boats (perhaps on some of the others as well...) there doesn't appear to be a functioning indicator that tells you what your diving angle is. You really can only make a crude guess based upon what your dive plane indicators tell you. Anyone found an indicator I'm not seeing? Or gotten one to work?

[Travis Reed]

From the look of things, no one has any ideas...

[Rockin Robbins]

Well, if you knew what it is you couldn't do anything about it anyway so what's the point? There are no dive plane controls for either SH3 or SH4. An oven temperature gauge would be as useful.:rotfl:

[Sledgehammer427]

I second that.

also, i have to say, from RFB, TMO, stock, RL (if i was a sub commander, which i am not), and otherwise, i would think that as long i am on the way down and my crew is in control, who cares what angle, you have either "really effing fast", "make it snappy", and "trimdive"

thats the way i see it.

[Travis Reed]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

An oven temperature gauge would be as useful.:rotfl:

We'd need an oven to put it on first...

[Rockin Robbins]

Damn, now we need a galley to put the oven in!

Control of the trim tabs would be a big part of my wishes for the next generation of submarine simulators, along with better modeling of ballast tanks. US procedure for diving and surfacing called for very wimpy angles of 10º or so, but after the war some radical angles were used successfully, showing that perhaps they were too conservative during the war.

I'd say that the developers looked at the actual practices of U-Boats and fleet boats and decided that their diving and surfacing procedures were so exacting that little variation in dive and surfacing trim angles actually took place in practice, except for isolated emergency situation when those angles resulted from malfunction, accident or combat damage. A tremendous amount of work would have been necessary to reproduce an aspect of the submarine that many would never be called on to see. Then, there would be people who would trim up 45º to surface and dive, completely contrary to real operating procedures of submarines during the war. How realistic would THAT be?

[Sledgehammer427]

standing on the forward bulkhead during a crash dive:hmm: