Noob - lost mid atlantic

[Johnnywas]

Hi

I'm new to the game and new to the forum

I've passed my Naval exams and set off on my first mission. there was a couple of great videos posted by someone who recommended this forum.

but I'm a bit worried that I'll be trawling the depths of the mid atlantic for ever and never find any enemy ships.

so I thought stay on the surface and head for the grid reference with time compression on whatever the maximum is

however that doesn't seem quite right. has anybody got any useful tips on how to track enemy ships

jw

[Red Heat]

Welcome to the Subsim...
I think for start its beter to read this topic and if you have some questions some one will point you to right direction...

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=96026

Carry on... :salute:

[u crank]

Hi jw. Welcome to SUBSIM.

has anybody got any useful tips on how to track enemy ships

Well, it's a big ocean.:D

Look on your map. It has convoy and single ship routes and the dark areas are places where there is a lot of ship traffic. That's a start.

Good hunting!:salute:

[Herr-Berbunch]

Are you using any mods for a start?

If using a mod like GWX then for the first couple of times out of port I'd venture no further than the Nord See. You don't want to be in a coastal boat in the mid-Atlantic.

Welcome aboard :salute:

[Johnnywas]

Thanks

I'm on the way to Scapa flow ( I think)

I'll have a good look at the map see if I can find some shipping lanes.

[Pisces]

High time compression is actually one of the best ways to never meet anyone. They zip right by you, as if through hyper-space.

Limit your TC to 256x, 512x and pay attention to the icons on the map some hundred kilometers away. Also go to what you would expect to be traffic chokepoints. The Channel though, might not be such a good idea.

[Gargamel]

Don't go into scapa flow without first learning how it was done in real life..... the harbor is modeled to be just like Priens entry.

[Vipre]

Don't trust your Hydrophone operator. Guy couldn't hear a brick dropped on the hull. Take a minute now and then to listen yourself, sometimes there are nice targets nearby that you don't get told about by the map/HQ.

As Pisces wrote, pay attention to the icons on the map that pop up. Just because one might be too far away to be worth it on Thursday doesn't mean it won't sail right in front of you on Friday if you've kept an eye on where it might be.

[Gustav Schiebert]

I always find the north coast of Scotland a great hunting ground - as long as you give Scarpa Flow a wide berth for now. Just do your patrol grid and on the way back, sail west and east across the top of Scotland on the lookout for something. To make sure you maximise your chances of spotting something:

Double check your watch officer is on the bridge and not slacking in the cabin (use the F7 key and drop an officer with the 'watchman' qualification onto the bridge station. If you haven't got any mods that fix it, when you dive the watch officer goes to his bunk and stays there. If he's on the bridge your men will have a better chance of spotting something (the green bar above the bridge station tells you how effectively the bridge is operating)

Use your hydrophones! As has been said, you can normally hear better than the crew. Your hydrophones work at a very long range - longer than you can usually see, especially in bad weather. Your hydrophone operator will tell you if there's a contact and then you can head to cut it off. See some of the beginners' guides to interception to work this out - but very very basically, for a first attempt if he says 'sound contact bearing 270', you can turn in that direction and head towards it.

Further to the above, make sure you give the hydrophone man something to work on. They only work underwater, so I normally run for four hours on the surface, then two hours underwater. This mixes time on the surface to recharge the batteries, and time underwater to listen for targets. This also saves you a bit of fuel.

Overall just get out there and wait for them. If you pick a known shipping lane (ie a historical one, or a choke point as has been said), it'd be odd if you were sat there for more than 48hrs without hearing anything at all. All the guys have got some smashing tips here, try them all. If you still cant find anything let us know! Ideally with a quick summary/screeny of where you're going. Good hunting! :salute: