Help with Identification.

[DanCanovas]

hi guys. im slowly trying to work my way towards 100% realism but struggling with ship identification at the moment. Im not quite sure how you go about this. in theory it can take me an hour to identify a ship lol, i dont even know which country to start the long haul through all the pages. if I choose the wrong country, then i have to spend 15 mins look through the next country and so on. I cant help thinking im doing something wrong as in the few videos ive seen, ship recognition seems very quick and simple. any help would be greatly appreciated.

[DanCanovas]

sorry one thing I missed out was what to do in poor visibility or night time when you can barely see the ship, do you attack and hope for the best or what? :ping:

[kylania]

If you can see the flag, that'll limit your choices. Most merchant ships won't be under a specific country thuogh, but under the Merchant listings, Handelschift or something I think it's listed as, the "last country" in the book.

If you can't see the flag to tell.. well.. shoot first and ignore questions later, this is war! If it's not a u-boat, it doesn't belong in your sea!:rock:

[HunterICX]

Identification is something I rarely have problems with.

When I,m around the english coast I dont need that long to identificate. because most ship floating around that are British, and I,m that far that I can identify the ship by just looking at the shape.

at night with lonely ships I dont even bother going PD, in early war I just stay surface and I fire an Starshell above them. this will mostly warn them and they will go Zig Zaggin , and if they are armed ( 1941 ) they will start shooting at you. but that isnt going to save them.

when i,m in the middle of the sea I intercept the ship so I can identify the country at close range and directly shoot at it.

also remember wich countries are in war with you.

Good Luck

[Grey Area]

If you're identifying a Merchant, just click on the ship identification manual and go back a couple of pages looking for the Handelshwaffe (or whatever) title. All the merchants are grouped together there.
Then all you have to do is spot the flag. That simple.

[HunterICX]

actually my Identification is rather that simple

I shoot everything that floats except floating thingies with an red cross on their side....

[svenks]

Then all you have to do is spot the flag. That simple.

That simple - NOT!
At least not thru the periscope at night with less than full visibility:doh:
And on top of that, smoke may easily obscure the flag...

BRGDS
Sven

[DanCanovas]

lol so the general idea is to shoot everything lol. well ive got some bad news guys, i sank a German merchant in the North Sea last night. I think I might just go to argentina and escape the punishment.

[Grey Area]

I said it was simple - not easy ;)

The OP was going through all the nationalities of the recog manual, that was the mistake.

IMHO if you want to play 100% real, then no identification would mean that you cannot fire.

[HunterICX]

LoL@Dancovas : Watch out m8, Adolf is after your balls :yep:

I never would know but what if you accidently (:lol: riiiiight) sink the Bismarck what Reply would you get from the BDU?

[Javelin]

Several times during while on patrol, and during a night attack, I will damage a ship that I cannot identify as hostile or neutral, but it seems that a ship if neutral will turn on its searchlights, . Our uboats should have searchlights, for that purpose too.

[DanCanovas]

its quite hard to identify actually. is there any secrets to successful ID? i got to 800 metres of a merchant and saw flag....lovely German...i surfaced and moved away and noticed it was zig zagging. so i CHEATED and went 3d to see what id done wrong, it was the damn norwegian flag LOL, it looked like the red german one with the cross and swastika in the middle

[kylania]

so i CHEATED and went 3d to see what id done wrong

If you're still new to the game I don't think using the external cam (or even the ships cam the , button) is "cheating" if it helps you learn. Die hard realists will string you up, but remember it's still a game and if it's not fun do things that make it fun. Not shooting friendlies is generally fun. :)

Some of my middle patrols I'd spend time trying to get into attack position with every contact, then wait till the last moment to identify if. If i really couldn't I'd finally look at it and see for sure. But if it's a really long game I might be tempted to take a peek to see if it's a valid target, then switch back to my boat and begin the attack or just move on if not.

[DanCanovas]

well im not really new to the game. i got it on the release date but never learnt to play it on full realism. im generally a big submarine geek anyway out of games and I did my undergraduate dissertation on the battle of the atlantic. im working my way up to 100% realism though hehe. i could really use someone training me in real life haha as I find it quite hard with the existing material on the net. I mean they show a perfect set up on a merchant but how do you get near a carrier with escorts? how do you track over 6 and a half mins a ship doing 20 knots? you cant keep up with it!

[bigboywooly]

well im not really new to the game. i got it on the release date but never learnt to play it on full realism. im generally a big submarine geek anyway out of games and I did my undergraduate dissertation on the battle of the atlantic. im working my way up to 100% realism though hehe. i could really use someone training me in real life haha as I find it quite hard with the existing material on the net. I mean they show a perfect set up on a merchant but how do you get near a carrier with escorts? how do you track over 6 and a half mins a ship doing 20 knots? you cant keep up with it!

what you have to remember there is merchants were the only targets the uboats were after
There were very few warships sunk by uboats and the really big targets were opportunist
IIRC when the Barham was sunk von Tiesenhausen stumbled into the TF and let loose a spread then U 331 dived like mad - he was the exception to every rule anyway - sunk 2 warships and damaged another
No other sinkings

[DanCanovas]

when i go to the back of the ID book where all the merchants are, I can see the ship but it doesnt really say which country it belongs to, is this because several countries might use the same ship? because sometimes i have identified the ship but i cant quite make out the flag.

[CWorth]

when i go to the back of the ID book where all the merchants are, I can see the ship but it doesnt really say which country it belongs to, is this because several countries might use the same ship? because sometimes i have identified the ship but i cant quite make out the flag.

Yes..many countries do use the same ship types.

I have a few mods that I use that make ID'ing a ships nation of origin easier.Id'ing the ship type is a snap but the flags are much more difficult.

1. I increased the zoom on the Observation Scope and Binoculars to 10x which helps in the seeing of the flags much easier from longer range.This is the one drawback in the game...the flags are much to hard to see compared to real life due to the games blurring of textures at angles other than 90 degrees.
2. I also use a mod that simulates moonlight at night when the moon is out.So the ships are somewhat lit up making flag ID'ing much easier.Also much more realistic.Its a little buggy but it does do what it needs to.

Here is a link to thr thread with the moonlight mod.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=96258