RSRD will frustrate you sometimes because the waters are just void of vessels. Next thing you know you have the convoys of all convoys headed your way. Once I was in the slot north of Java. I was busy with a fat tanker, next thing I know, there is another fat tanker coming across my stern out of the fog. Someone was smiling on me. Unfortnate I lost the second tanker in the soup. Do as the others have posted and you will find your vessels.

Could it also because you go over 256x TC? IIRC, contacts are missed beyond this setting.

Or am I wrong? :dead:

Ermmm maybe.. but typically I get knocked back to 8x tc regarless of setting or contact friend or foe.

But if a enemy ship is barely entering or going through the visibility range, could being over 256x skip this contact?

I know that in SHIII, high TC factors reduced contacts.

At a guess, the game probably only updated the positions of the contacts every so often. At a high enough TC, that interval would be high enough that a contact heading straight for you might be calculated 30nm to your North, and then 40nm to your South in the next tick---so even though it was on a collision course for you, as far as the game was concerned, it was never actually within visual range.

So SteamWake would still get knocked down to 8x every time he saw a ship, but he might not see half the ships he would have on 256x.

By the same token, I'm fairly sure my impatience resulted in a lot of contacts appearing right on top of me---like a destroyer 1200 meters away in crystal clear weather and calm seas at high noon.

It's possible I'm incorrectly interpreting the reason for the phenomenon---but I know contacts got really dodgy at high TC in SHIII.

As for whether the same thing applies in IV, I don't know.

1. You must have an indication of the general direction of "shiping traffic" in your selected patrol area. This would be a "ships move along a NW-SE axis" thing. How do you find that?
a] Using maps that show the typical shiping lanes of the era (there is one posted in this thread and there is one included with the game CD).
b] You follow the radio contacts on enemy ships/convoys/TFs sightings and focus on the reports near your selected patrol area and specificaly their direction.

2. When arriving in your patrol area you can start a search pattern. I use a "square tooth" pattern (as the "predefined" search pattern) but I align is so as the "longer legs" of the pattern are perpendicular to the "general shipping traffic axis" of the previous paragraph.

3. Reasoning: Imagine that shiping lanes are a rectangular arena with many parallel racing tracks. Some tracks are vacant, others are occupied by one or more runners. Runners maybe fast or slow. Your goal is to maximize the probability of coming close to the runners. You increase your chances by changing ("sampling") more tracks rather then remaining in one and wait for a runner to pass by. Revisiting ("resampling") a track increases your chances of contacting a slow or a second runner etc. Moving repeatedly and perpendicularly to the "general shipping traffic axis" is equivalent to the "sampling" and "resampling" of the racing tracks.
Also you have an increased propabilityof spotting a ship from its broadside. Which means:
a] You get a visual earlier rather then later.
b] It's harder for the ship to get a visual on you
c] Increased possibility of acquiring data on the target easily and from a greater distance(type speed etc)
d] Increased possibility of having a good starting position for your attack maneuver.

4. Problem: With this kind of simple pattern you spend more time patrolling the "edges of the teeth" rather the midsection of the pattern.

Hope this helps as a starting point.
Excuse me for not using the correct navy lingo :cry: but English is not my native language...