Roger that, Panthercules. I apologize if I seemed condescending or over informative with my explanations; but, on a forum as this, one never knows if what one writes could perhaps become the inspiration or spark of inventiveness in the casual reader. Maybe it could spawn interest.

I've witnessed the deck watch asleep at the switch too. Usually, during foul wx when I'm trying to outflank a convoy or target...especially when seas are Beaufort 7 or 8 (15 m/ps) at higher TC. It requires constant vigilence at the helm to make rendezvous with target(s) using this method.

No offense taken or apology necessary - I found your explanations clear and helpful, and this whole thread has indeed inspired me to play around with some (for me) hitherto unexplored areas of gameplay, which is very cool. I was just trying to point out that this particular point about the compass heading was (at least for me, if not for Dantenoc - he'll have to speak for himself on this one) not about the navigational theory, but just the way the game's compass indicator works in these situations. I suspect it can't be changed, but people are figuring out so much already maybe they could figure out how to make the compass stay "as ordered" but let the boat drift anyway - just a thought :)

Well this thread has already cought my attention and I believe I wont be the last one.

I've been experimenting this method also for a couple of hours and I'm actually really enjoying this navigating.
Before you guys brought this up I used to plot my course by myself once ina while, but also did use the waypoint system when I the captain were too busy to plot manually.

For me this game is a simulation and I like to keep things as realistic as possible, but I do like to use my Officers every now and then to do the job for me.

Okay back to the point. I've had pretty good results with manual plotting my course and position. Usually I end up five kilometers over the point where I think I should be. :damn:
I really think that my calculations are correct, but it might be the speed changes. I patrol at 7 knots speed decks awash just west of Britain near the coast.
Also I find that compass course change a bit annoying too.


Thanks guys for showing me the path :rock:

Well Done, Johnny Blaze!

You can get sweaty palms when heading back to port in fog or a storm...trying to make landfall...those harbor lighthouses are a Godsend.

Thank God it's been sunny and calm for the whole patrol (7 days).
Well actually I've been waiting for the storm to come to really test my navigating skills.

Well, it's official. If your sailing in rough seas, the waves can actualy push the nose of your sub and make turn into a different compass heading. After fooling around with the sub for a while using time compression, I have been able to observe a change in course of up to 50 degrees in about 10 hours.

Guess that means you can't trust your helmsman to maintin compass heading, so we'll have to keep a close eye on that when time compressing. :shifty:

I realize that you can take celestial readings at almost any time with the right equipment, but what would be realistic to do? One reading at the crack of dawn and another at sunset?

In real life, three times per day:
dawn
noon
evening

that is, wx and enemy activitiy permitting.

The problem is that in real life the helmsman steers by the compass; that is he is constantly correcting to keep the ship on the same compass heading.

The boat will almost certainly drift from its assigned course, which is why sightings have to be taken, but it will NOT change headings. For the game to do this is very wrong.

Yeah - seems that way to me too - I like the fact that you actually drift off course, but I wish the compass heading indicator would stay put on the heading ordered - I'm sure that the helmsman wouldn't sit there and let the compass indicator drift very far off 270 before he corrected to get it back on 270 (and if he didn't, I could always shoot him and replace him with someone who would keep us on the ordered heading) - he certainly wouldn't let it slide 15-50 degrees off the ordered course like we seem to be seeing here.

Too bad the game didn't get that part quite right. As long as we know what's happening though, I suppose we can learn to just ignore the compass indicator setting during these stretches of our voyage (maybe click it over to the rudder indicator so we can't see the compass moving off target) and just focus on elapsed time so we won't be tipped off as to how far off course (or in which direction) we've drifted.

I'll give that a try if I ever shake these escorts and get back to the surface again :)

Well, no... you can't ignore the helmsman's incompetence, you have to watch him very closely and not let him steer of course.

Drift is simulated independently of the direction at which your sub's nose is pointing... at least I've seen my boat travel in a side step fashion by as much as 3 or 4 degreee when I could still see the sub on the navmap on very high zoom (before making it invisible)... so always pointing in the right direction will still give us drift (which is good)

So, that now brings us to a different subject: what would be the best mod to have to allow us a BIG compass on the screen (the stock one is so small that it's hard to read).

P.S.: I noticed in Grey Wolves that the wall mounted compasses (command room and hydrophone station) don't work correctly... the outer dial showing your heading in 10's works ok, but the inner dial that shows the las digit in your degree heading seems frozen (at least in my game) to the "1" position.

...the UNITS dial has never worked since day one. IIRC it was modded before GW or NYGM, it was made to emulate pictures of real compasses in uboats. I remember folks on the forum asking what it was for. At any rate it was part of the gyro-compass/repeater system...not the magnetic.

'Six-Dials Simfeeling mod' is the best as far as I'm concerned. Nothing on the screen at all most of the time, which makes it easier to make screenshots, and everything is a slideout. It takes a little work to install it, but the results are...well, see for yourself:
http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=48292

Well how's the navigating going on guys?

I hope you guys havent given up allready? :hmm:

I'm still practicing for that storm to come, cuz it's been all :sunny:.

well... it's hard to say. I've pretty much gotten used to the idea of not seeing my boat when zoomed in, and I've learned how to plot my own position as well as the enemy's position simultaniously. So that part is cool. As a matter of fact, now that I've gotten the hang of it, I think it's better and now makes the original feel kinda gamey (having a magical map that updates your position in real time with no margin of error).

Also, ploting intercept courses when the enemy's position and general heading is reported to you, but when you don't exactly where you are is kinda fun also, and realy not very dificult to do.

However, the helmsman's incompetence is quite frustrating, since you have to keep a close eye on him and continuously drop from TC in order to correct him. This problem is greatly exagerated in bad weather, and it really demands a lot of time from you if you want to play this way (you can't really TC to high or for too long) I wish there was a "repeat last order button" so that I could continously yell at him "Keep course 218!!! Keep course 218!!! Keep course 218!!!" without having to constatly drop from TC in order to adjust the boat's heading.