About TDC and other intercept calculations
 

Considering the fact that the TDC and other intercept plans runs on a "straigh-forward" basis, i was just wondering how this would have worked in real life. Did other factors like sea currents play a role in the target computing?

In the area of operations, there are not imho many places with strong currents, except may be if you go hunting around places with heavy tide currents like Wight into Southampton (not really recommended) or near Cherbourg or the Channel Islands (all my racing sailing grounds for many years...). Therefore the average current speeds must be around 1 / 2 knts, which doesn't have a lot of influence on a torp going 30 knts. In some places stated above, you can find by big tides currents up to 6 / 7 Knts...
All in all, they are more important for navigation than for shooting. If you are doing 2 knts at slow speed underwater and have a 2 or 3 knts cross current, then you better take it into consideration...;) Unfortunately not modeled in the game, but impossible task on such a huge area... I only have to count on them when I am sailing online Virtual Skipper IV...

A sea current is going to be wide enough that the sub, torpedo and target ship are all within the same current, so there is no effect. It's kind of like riding in a hot-air balloon; you never feel any wind because you are moving at the same speed as the wind, so it's dead calm all the time.

Thanx mates, i hope SHIV has something like currents. Or at least tidal changes.

Agreed talking about the Gulf Stream, not the same with tide currents in the Channel... From my sailing experience in these waters, you can have currents going opposite directions a few hundred meters from each other. That's what makes the fun when racing in places like the Isle of Wight or the Scilly Islands for instance.
The tide is also playing with the depth (in my hometown, you can have on big tides more than 10m difference between high and low tide)
Well, just for talking, anyway...:D

But that ignores the prime u-boat rule: STAY AWAY FROM THE ENGLISH CHANNEL!(apologies to jimbuna):rotfl:

I agree, contrary currents would make it more entertaining, but on the other hand I don't recall reading any sub skipper complaining about that sort of thing, so it couldn't be too common.

I know currents played a role in other matters. Remember in Das Boot, the plan was to submerge at the entrance to Gibraltar and let the currents take them in, in order to save battery life?

Interesting question!

As said above, the only game where I have seen credible tidal currents (and a great sea modeling) is Virtual Skipper IV, but the sailing areas are limited to something like 20 x 20 km... And anyway they have more their place in a sailing sim than a sub sim...

Yes, virtual sailor is an excellent game. Maybe they should make a hybrid between SHIV an VS?:yep:

The main role wind and current played in the Battle of the Atlantic was in navigation. Strong winds and swells/currents could throw nav calculations off by significant amounts especially if there was no possibility of a sun/star shot to caclulate positions.

IIRC Das Boot mentions this.

Given the fact that our uboats appear to be blessed with GPS forty years before it was developed, we don't have the problem unless you want to play in uber reality mode and use a paper chart to calculate where you are and never hit F5.:D

SHHHH! Do you realize that you're just giving the uber-realism players crazy ideas!? Think of the lives and families and homes you'll wreck because of that! :lol:

How about modding SHIII, so that the GPS function dont work under water or in bad weather? And when surfacing, the position wont reveal itself before is has gone at least 5-10 minutes (or random), like simulating a navigator taking the sun height or similar.. And when the position is ready, it appears as a contact on the map (not moving, just tells you that you are here at this given time..)

Hi mookiemookie, I'm sure they've already got a head start on wrecking their marriages careers etc, just by buying SHIII!:rotfl:I'm also pretty sure that the uber-realists are probably already doing the paper charting. They probably also have red lights, blue lights, an alarm bell to ring for crash dives, wear wet wool and leather clothes when playing and don't shave or wash for weeks on end.

I for one couldn't be arsed going to that level.

IIRC someone has done a mod like this but to works all the time liek that, not just in bad weather. As I said you can always leave the F5 button alone. IIRC there are those out there that don't use the course plotting either.

Good on em I say, but don't expect me to do it too.:D

Thanx TarJak, i agree with you on that :up:! But; If anyone has a link to this mod, please post it. I would like to try this out..!