Newbie questions....

[quickening58]

I think these are educational questions....

In patroling Rabaul area, early Nov43, Allied Air is obviously doing some airstrikes. I notice sunk ship icons on the beaches, and even inshore (up in the trees) in areas. Are these icons for other than ships sunk? Aircraft losses?

Occasionally "survivor" icons show up in airstrike areas. Have assumed they are downed aircrews and usually race to the area,when possible (often an hour or more run) but never find anyone. One time had 3 survivors within 3 mile circle. Was frustrating plotting out searches and never finding any of them, along with the icon disappearing :( Am I missing something?

I need some confirmation on range circles and arcs, mostly of the escorts.
Full circle are theoretical visual range of watchkeepers? In this image, there are two full circles....? Early primitive radar for one of them? Am assuming the longer range arcs are sonar (active?passive?) but can't put a finger on the short range arc.

Any help with this stuff would be great :)

[KaleunMarco]

I think these are educational questions....

In patroling Rabaul area, early Nov43, Allied Air is obviously doing some airstrikes. I notice sunk ship icons on the beaches, and even inshore (up in the trees) in areas. Are these icons for other than ships sunk? Aircraft losses?

Occasionally "survivor" icons show up in airstrike areas. Have assumed they are downed aircrews and usually race to the area,when possible (often an hour or more run) but never find anyone. One time had 3 survivors within 3 mile circle. Was frustrating plotting out searches and never finding any of them, along with the icon disappearing :( Am I missing something?

I need some confirmation on range circles and arcs, mostly of the escorts.
Full circle are theoretical visual range of watchkeepers? In this image, there are two full circles....? Early primitive radar for one of them? Am assuming the longer range arcs are sonar (active?passive?) but can't put a finger on the short range arc.

Any help with this stuff would be great :)

welcome, Sourdough. getting awfully dark in your part of the world these days, eh? 9 hours of daylight (our allotment) is precious enough, i cannot imagine what it is like to get half of that. so, let's get you educated so you have something to occupy the 20 hour-nights.:salute:

you did not say which version you are playing so i am assuming that you are playing the Stock 1.5 with Uboat missions game. ok, as you have suggested, the rings displayed on the Nav Map are sensor capabilities. they represent radar, hydrophone and sonar ranges...to some degree. they are dependent on how many different electronic sensors the ship might have. and, those capabilities can be enhanced or limited based on parameters set in the Cfg folder for enemy capabilities. Visual sensors are NOT indicated so you have to learn by experience how close you can close an enemy before there is a good chance you will be spotted. this capability is also enhanced in the Cfg folder.

yes, the sunken ship icons on the land map are actually downed aircraft. UBI designers created only one icon for anything sunk/destroyed. :03:

for downed aviators aka survivors, you must approach them moving less than or equal to 2 kts and within 200-400 yds. you do this by using a combination of Nav Map and Binoculars(zoomed in). be sure that your tool bar is on the Binocular set of icons. as you approach the survivor, you will see the aviator bobbing up and down within the colored "dye" marker. center your binoc's crosshairs on the survivor and click the lifepreserver icon on the tool bar. it will only be activated when all of the conditions for a rescue are satisfied: speed, proximity, focused binocs. there is a second or two delay and, bingo, the dye marker disappears and you get a log entry that the survivor is aboard.
this.takes.practice.
if you are assigned a life guard mission, you will need to rescue either 5 or 10 survivors before the mission objective will be satisfied. you will receive a message stating that.

not sure of your member status and how much you can download. if you are a member, i suggest browsing over to this excellent tutorial thread by Berbster. read and download from his first post. https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=219029

and also, download the FOTRSU file (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=243064), if you have the rights and space available. lots of good help in there. do not attempt to play FOTRSU until you have your sea legs. it is a very tough mod-set. but....at this stage, you want to read the Support folder within the download file.

good luck, Herr Kaleun!!!
:Kaleun_Salute:

[propbeanie]

As KaleunMarco says above, plus the hand-drawn oval is your current selection, as you've probably surmised. The inner half-cirlce is active sonar, the Pacman 3/4 circle is the passive hydrophone, the inner larger circle is probably visual, and the outer circle is probably radar. The IJN used huge binoculars that pulled in quite a bit more light than the USN thought practically possible, plus the IJN trained in night maneuvers, the USN did not, hence the discrepancies in battle prep and results off Guadalcanal (and Rabaul).

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1c/38/ab/1c38ab39525034e7cb0c94821981eafb.jpg


The USN generally used binox like the Japanese officer has in his hands there... Imagine them being able to "see" your sub rather easily from 10nm at night... lol

One of the things about airplanes in the Stock game, is that they have varying skill levels set, from Poor to Veteran, and the lower in skill they are, the worse they fly, but even if a person sets the airplanes to fly at the Elite setting, they are still dumber than a box of rocks when it comes to terrain. The game "defaults" to flying planes at a 500m altitude, and you might notice that the game has a LOT of land masses that exceed that height. The airplanes do not know to increase their altitude, nor avoid by steerage, and thus either "stall" when attempting to slow down, or just outright crash into land masses, especially if attacking ships nearby. Airplanes in the game also do NOT dogfight...

A little thing about "Survivors" also, in that you see a blue "box" for Allied aircrew, and a red box for Axis. You cannot pickup the Axis crews. You might also notice that if you zoom-in too close on the Allied or Axis boxes, that they will disappear at a certain zoom level, unless you are within visual range of them, which is generally roughly 900m or less, depending upon sea state and other visibility factors. As KM says, you have to get within roughly 400-500m to be able to pick them up IF you are going slow enough. It is usually easiest to be going Ahead 1/3, or set the knot meter to 2 knots, then call for All Stop as you get to them. If you come at them bow-on, you will have less wave induced motion to your boat, than a side aspect pickup. You also need a crew member to say "Ship spotted", which indicates they have visual on the survivor. You could then use the NavMap and "see" the survivor icon when you zoom in closer now. Lastly, the survivors will eventually drift off and / or "sink" and disappear, especially shotdown pilots. The game doesn't want to be bothered "tracking" them forever... "Survivors" set as an objective, on the other hand, generally have a longer "life"... :salute:

[quickening58]

Thanks guys!! :) Confirmed alot of what I surmised and will make tactics alot more positive in making happen. I sure love this Sim....a longgg ways from Silent Service days!!