22 Days of Rain & Fog

[Brag]

On first patrol of new career, November 1940. U-108 (IXB). BE quadrant.

4 days out in good weather reached assigned sector, sank one small tanker. Then weather changed. Fog & rain, visibility about 300 meters.

I'm sure you have met this frustrating condition. When you see them, targets are too close. Day after day of fog in target rich area, forced me to develop (for me)a new technique

Intercepted several small freighters guided by hydrophone. Unable to see, position my boat at 300 meter + from target's plotted course. Torpedo tube ready. Periscope aiming 350 or 010, the moment blurry target appears on scope, los!

This way, accumulated 20,000 tons hardly ever seeing the target. :smug:

Last night, a task force with a number of destroyers and several capital ships approached my position at over 20 kts. Unable to see, picked a heavy capital ship sound. Aimed a magnetic salvo of four, with a two degree spread, depth 12 meters. Got one hit.

Destroyers went bananas shooting flares and swinging searchlights while large ships continued steaming. Beats me what I hit.

I'm still in the fog, will it ever end? :stare:

[emtmedic005]

Call up the international weather service and ask them when its going to clear out.:lol::lol::lol:

[Morts]

22 days ? pff
i did a 60 day patrol and i had bad weather in 57 days:damn:
soo....you just be happy with its only 22 days (so far):p

[STEED]

Bad weather is great get stuck in to those destroyers it's pay back time. I got two of them today and both of them won a free ticket to the bottom of the sea. :D

[Myxale]

22 days ? pff
i did a 60 day patrol and i had bad weather in 57 days:damn:
soo....you just be happy with its only 22 days (so far):p

AMEN to that Morts.

I made a W@W trip to the south atlantic with my IXB and it was weather from hell!
I spent the most of the trip submerged. It was the longest W@W patrol ever!
:shifty:

But I'm sure there Kaleuns who had it worser!:rotfl:

[Hartmann]

it´s because stock weather values are set to low variation.

i change these values and i rarely have more than 3 /4 days of good or bad weather:yep:

also, remember that reload a savegame put the counter to 0

[U-Dog]

One reason I like the type IX is that it has the range to head south after I finish my assigned grid. i like to follow the convoy routes down off the coast of Spain and towards Gibralter. Weather gets better and lone ships even give me a chance to use the deck gun. Go South young man! Go South!

:ping:

[Lanzfeld]

it´s because stock weather values are set to low variation.

i change these values and i rarely have more than 3 /4 days of good or bad weather:yep:

also, remember that reload a savegame put the counter to 0

Please post your changes! I need to break this cycle!

[Hartmann]

There is a program SHweather , which allow weather randomization and other things..

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=103202

but i did the changes manually.


these are the stock values of the campaign RND SCR LND layers

[Mission]
Fog=0
FogRand=0
Clouds=0
CloudsRand=0
Precip=0
PrecipRand=0
WindHeading=0
WindSpeed=5.000000
WindRand=0
WeatherRndInterval=5
SeaType=0
(You start in calm weather always)


This is the convoy academy attack weather,and i use it, curiosly almost every single mission has different weather setup and values, so you can try other if you want .


[Mission]
Fog=0
FogRand=0
Clouds=1
CloudsRand=1
Precip=0
PrecipRand=0
WindHeading=95
WindSpeed=2.000000
WindRand=1
WeatherRndInterval=2
SeaType=0



Some more information about what is every thing

*Fog=0 (0,1,2,3)
FogRand=0
*Clouds=1 (0,1,2)
CloudsRand=1
*Precip=0 (0,1,2)
PrecipRand=0
*WindHeading=95 (o to 360º)
*WindSpeed=2.000000 (0 to 15.000000 knts)
WindRand=1
WeatherRndInterval=2 (in hours, minimum 2 to 96 h)
SeaType=0

values in ( ) are different options for every thing , for example , clouds 0,1,2
none, partial, heavy

cloudsrand= no changes 0
small changes 1
heavy changes 2

precipRand = no changes 0
small changes 1
heavy changes 2

fogrand = no changes 0
small changes 1
heavy changes 2

winrand= no changes 0
small changes 1
heavy changes 2

[Lanzfeld]

This doesnt make sense though. If you put "FogRand=0" then you will never get a fog change???

So what you are saying is that you copy the Academy convoy weather settings to those three files before you start a patrol? Could you please give a more detailed account of how you do this and the effect?

[Hartmann]

more detailed info about this :cool:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=88026&highlight=FogRand

other settings from CB, perhaps better

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=96710&highlight=weather+randomization

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=83175&highlight=FogRand

[Lanzfeld]

Hartmann,

Thank you for the info.

You suggest I change the RND, SCR, and LND files but CB's link says just change the RND file.

Do I change the one or all three?

Thanks

[bigboywooly]

All 3 need to be the same

However remember the weather " timer "

If you have had 5 days of bad weather and you save the game
When you reload that save the weather resets to 0 - so you will have anther 5 days of bad weather
Save again and - well you get the picture

Works for the opposite too
Save in good weather and that will continue on reload

FYI the GWX files have

Year=1939
Month=1
Day=1
Hour=12
Minute=0
Fog=1
FogRand=1
Clouds=1
CloudsRand=1
Precip=1
PrecipRand=1
WindHeading=0
WindSpeed=4.000000
WindRand=1
WeatherRndInterval=6
SeaType=0

[Lanzfeld]

Thanks BigBoyWooly,

Does that posted GWX file mean that there MAY be a weather change every 6 hours (a minor one)? Am I reading this correctly?

I was thinking of making a major (2) change every 12 hours.

[GT182]

At least 22 Days of Rain & Fog are better than 22 Days of Snow & Ice with -0 temps. ;)

[bigboywooly]

No unfortunately the game seems to change when it wants
In theory it should change - in a minor way
But it seems the game does as it wants

[AndyW]

Bad weather becomes extremely interesting if you play with manual navigation. At my last patrol I was caught in a storm for 10 days and couldn't take a position finding. So I had to sail to my assigned grid by using dead reckoning only.

At the end of the storm, when sun was seen for the first time after 10 days, I took my position. I was only 44 km forward to the position acc. to my dead reckoning, that's pretty good I think.

I like manual navigation during bad weather, it adds a lot of thrill to the game (find your grid and find home). But dead reckoning becomes pretty complex if you are operating against a contact etc. you definately need a logbook and a pocket calculator.

Cheers,
AndyW

[Corsair]

Bad weather becomes extremely interesting if you play with manual navigation. At my last patrol I was caught in a storm for 10 days and couldn't take a position finding. So I had to sail to my assigned grid by using dead reckoning only.

At the end of the storm, when sun was seen for the first time after 10 days, I took my position. I was only 44 km forward to the position acc. to my dead reckoning, that's pretty good I think.

I like manual navigation during bad weather, it adds a lot of thrill to the game (find your grid and find home). But dead reckoning becomes pretty complex if you are operating against a contact etc. you definately need a logbook and a pocket calculator.

Cheers,
AndyW

Agreed...:up: One of my best game times was to find a friendly port at night in thick fog and heavy winds after 3 or 4 days of "estimated plotting". I finished with sound contacts from the "Flottenbegleiter" to guide me until I could see the harbour lights through the fog. A great moment...

[Morts]

how do you do manual navigation?

[AndyW]

how do you do manual navigation?

It's been discussed here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=103527&highlight=manual+navigation

As I'm no seaman or too good in math :88) , I found it very helpful to watch Dantenocs tutorial on youtube to get a clue. Can't link to it from here, but just search for "Dantenoc" at youtube and you'll sure find it.

Cheers,
AndyW

[ReallyDedPoet]

At least 22 Days of Rain & Fog are better than 22 Days of Snow & Ice with -0 temps. ;)

Have not been up north yet, but have seen some nice screens.

This pic was posted mr. chris awhile back.

http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/7563/icedup1qn0.jpg

[irish1958]

I was wondering why my damn deck gun wouldn't work

[Kumando]

Yeah manual navigation is a different ball game but i adapted Dantenocs method a bit, like using ctrl click when land is on sight because they used coastal navigation to fix their position and i also ctrl any time the weather permits, only dead reckoning when there is no sun or stars on the sky.

[Morts]

sure its not just bernard that has messed around with the deck gun ?:rotfl:

[Heibges]

You know what they say.....

"If it ain't rainin', we ain't trainin'!"

[Morts]

You know what they say.....


nope actually i dont:hmm:
lol:rotfl:

[WilhelmSchulz.]

that sucks

[Koinonos]

With Allied ASW at it's peak, the only time in GWX where I can safely approach a convoy with Destroyer escort in shallow waters is if there is a good storm going on.

I'm all for clear skies and night time attacks, but radar makes it really brutal to snorkel or operate near convoys later in the war, and calm water gives the enemies Sonar a definite boost in hearing you.

But with rough seas and rain you can approach to within 500 meters of a destroyer (engine stopped, running silent @ periscope depth and they won't even know you are there (just a hole in the water)

You will learn to appreciate a good storm the next you need to operate in BF12, BF13, BF14, or lurking a few hundred kilometers west of Gibraltar trying to sink some tonnage on your way down to southern Brazil or Africa..