gamy ships

[efil]

There are ships appearing on my navmap that my crew hasn't detected in any way and it's not from a radio contact. They appear on my navmap without any message (and tc doesn't stop either.. i would have liked it to stop). Can ships really pop up like that on the navmap? Or must i have missed something?

They offen seem to appear on an excellent position and course so I can easily intercept them. Does the game maybe intentially place ships on the map that are easy to attack?

[-Pv-]

Map contacts come from radar or sonar detection, visual sightings or HQ intercepts. The contacts you are getting you claim to be from none of these I have never seen in thousands of hours of play. It HAS to be one or more of these and you're just missing the messages or your crew is partially disabled by fatigue or some other mis-configuration. Maybe you need to get rid of the Superman mod. And, yes the game will send you targets to shoot at but they will be detected by you one way or another to be seen on the map.
-Pv-

[nomdeplume]

I often get ships appearing on the map, and when I click on it is says the contact type is "Ship" (rather than Task Force or Convoy). There's no contact report message either, like there is for convoys and TFs.

Unlike efil, they very rarely appear in a convenient place for intereception. Basically, they seem exactly like TF and Convoy reports, except I don't get a message saying it was reported. Doesn't worry me at all though.

[Powerthighs]

when you say "appear on my navmap" it sounds like you mean the actual ship (i.e. you have map updates on)?

I'm not sure, I don't normally play with map updates, but I do know that if a ship appears that is friendly the time compression won't slow down. It's kind of strange because it indirectly gives you the info regarding whether or not the ship is an enemy.

[efil]

I took a screenshot to show a case where a ships seems to me to just pop up.

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/493/sh4img19820072444937jl8.jpg
You can see a ship on the map with the time 19:20. My crew couldn't have detected it from that far. There is no message at 19:20 either. And the ship is again in a very good position and on a very good course.

It was actually already 19:55 when i took the screenshot... cause it doesn't stop the time compression either when it pops up.

[Seadogs]

Ah, I believe those are just contact reports. There is just no message to go along with them. At least thats what I have been taking them for. Plotted and intercepted them on slow patrols too. As far as good intercepts I can get them in impossible positions too. Just like anything else.

[FAdmiral]

I get those single ship contacts too. In fact, sometimes they pop up quite
often. The only warning I know of is that my TC drops to 8 when I get them.
Thats why I usually try to keep it at 16 or more. If it suddenly drops to 8, I
pause the game and zoom the map out and there it is. Usually fairly close too.

JIM

[efil]

It's very unrealistic isn't it. I don't understand why the devs haven't placed an option in the gameplay settings to turn them off.

I think they introduced them so the gamer can come across targets more often, to boost the gameplay (that's why i called them gamy ships in the title). But then they should make the tc stop when they appear (and make a sound or something) so atleast I can enjoy that gameplay. Cause now I need to constantly scan the map for those ships and hold my finger ready on the backspace to stop the tc in time.

[Seadogs]

It's very unrealistic isn't it. I don't understand why the devs haven't placed an option in the gameplay settings to turn them off.

I think they introduced them so the gamer can come across targets more often, to boost the gameplay (that's why i called them gamy ships in the title). But then they should make the tc stop when they appear (and make a sound or something) so atleast I can enjoy that gameplay. Cause now I need to constantly scan the map for those ships and hold my finger ready on the backspace to stop the tc in time.

Couldn't you just change the main cfg to drop you to 1 instead of 8? Or does it not take to changes so easily?

[Frederf]

One might be able to spot a ship or a group of ships at up to 50mi (more?) by their smoke.... contact reports do an OK job of that.

[Von Manteuffel]

I can only guess, but it seems to me that the devs have atried to simulate - to a certain extent - the situation as it was. Contacts came from:

a) the sub itself, via, hydrophones, sonar, radar, or lookouts.

b) outside reports ( i.e. ComSubPac).

They received reports from air reconnaissance units ( + other air units ) surface ships, other submarines, coast-watchers and Radio DF triangulation. All these reports and more were processed and transmitted to patrolling US submarines.

That's what's appearing on your Nav map - a combination of all the available reports. I think they "filter" single-ship reports to those they believe you may be in a position to attack.

Don't forget, ComSubPac only knows where you're headed ( mission objective ) and probably where you should roughly be on an optimum course to get there, but,essentially, your actual whereabouts are unknown to them.

After Pearl Harbour, the U.S. was understandably paranoid about being caught out again and put massive effort into reconnaissance and target finding.

[tater]

Contact reports are reports for other assets or intelligence sources.

While grossly overdone in stock (literally like a 70% chance of a report on very group every day or two), it is not "gamey" if reduced to a realistic level.

I do think the reports on lone merchants should be nearly nil, however.

tater