Newbie questions

[Sub Sailor]

I have SH3 Commander and like it a lot.
I have encountered some things I need advice with. I set-up or thought I did to begin patrols at sea. But during the course of a career it goes a way and I am making the long transits to open water. But the menu shows I am set-up for starting at sea, any advice.
Now I have realistic contacts on and I get contacts but when I go after them nothing is there and I have just wasted fuel. I have not been able to figure out why. The contacts I make and sink are usually detected right on me.
My current command is a Type VIIB, and I patrol at 1/3, which is about 8 knots, if I go to standard I use up fuel, is this common for this Sim, SH4 is standard at 10 knots for best economy.

Thank you,

Ron Banks MMCM(SS), USN(Ret)

[Hanomag]

.
Now I have realistic contacts on and I get contacts but when I go after them nothing is there and I have just wasted fuel. I have not been able to figure out why. The contacts I make and sink are usually detected right on me.
Thank you,

Ron Banks MMCM(SS), USN(Ret)

This is the only question you asked that I can maybe help with.

Almost always when persuing a contact report or covoy report, they are never where they should be due to zig zagging and other spur of the moment course changes. You can only plot an intercept course and hope for the best. And yes you will use up your fuel pursuing these "ghosts" around the map.

When you say "right on me" how close is that? 500 meters..1000..5000? Depending on weather and if you are submerged or surfaced can make tremendous differences in your detection abilities.

Hopefully when you use the word contact you mean a "contact report"
and not an actual sound contact or visible contact. In which case you have a much bigger issue and you can disregard all my above ramblings. :DL

[Pisces]

The extent to which targets 'zigzag' and make course changes is dependend on where they are on the globe. (that is to say, how and where the campaign writer designed the routes) And what you define as 'zig-zag'-ing.

I.e. In the middle of the ocean (atlantic) convoys have waypoints that are pretty far apart. It would take them days before they reach the following waypoint. Sometimes it chooses an point inside a big circle to steer to, providing some randomness in courses for each unit spawned. At some waypoints it can also choose to divert to another waypoint, making the actual route followed quite unpredicable. As said, in the middle of the oceans the waypoints are far apart, taking days. As they near land the legs seem to shorten to a few hundred kilometers. That only takes hours for them. All of this does make contact reports on the map to have a certain validity-period. But I'm pretty sure it doesn't just make a random course change for the heck of it 'wherever into the blue yonder'. It must be related to a predefined point along it's route. The fear of zigzag-ing is very much overrated by some, imho.

To get to them you need to intercept them (move to their future location) instead of just moving right to the location of the contact report. Remember those contact are on the move.

How to do that accurately is described here (Or look in my filefront page folders for a video tutorial of 'The Hunt', which is also the 1st post of the thread below):

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=280892&postcount=41

You can also notice contacts zigzagging when allready invisual range. But that means they have spotted you and they try to make your targetting as difficult as possible. It's average course will still be along it's former course (until it reaches the next waypoint) and so this shouldn't be a problem if you keep your patience, distance and plotting it. Focussing on his average motion.

[sharkbit]

As far as your "Start at Sea" option:
I've found that when I finish a patrol, refit, and am ready to start the next patrol, I have to exit the game and re-start it using SH3Commander for the start at sea option to work.
If I finish a patrol, refit, and am ready to start the next patrol, and don't exit the game first, I start in port and have to work my way out again.

A pain, but I prefer the start at sea option as well due to limited time to play.

Hope this helps.
:)