Misc gameplay questions
 

I've been playing for a bit, and have some Qs

1. How to get ahead of the beam (get the ship perpendicular to me)? I frequently have a ship's arse staring at my which makes targeting difficult.

2. Is it normal to travel 9 knots at flank speed underwater or am I doing something wrong?

3. I got diesel engine damage (the bar is all the way up) but it won't appear in the damage priority area. Can that get fixed on the ship? I assign the repair crew, but nothing happens. Do I need to return to a refit base to get it fixed?

4. Is there a way to return the repair crew back to their stations automatically?

5. I once pressed a button that has me follow the nearest ship. What is that and how can I use it for other ships (often I want to follow the merchant and NOT the nearby escort!)?

TIA!!

Lee

Here are a few answers:

1. I try not to overtake ships that are heading away from me. Keep an eye on the reported contacts (coming over the radio) and try to intercept inbound targets (heading towards you) only. This will give you time to get into position. Surface search radar (once it becomes available), really helps in this regard.

2. Traveling at 9 knots underwater is bad for two reasons. First, it drains your battery in no time (when you play with the limited battery option). Second, it makes a ton of noise, which will make it much easier for enemy warships to track you down. In an emergency, flank speed is OK. But I try to avoid it as much as possible. I spend most of my time underwater at ahead 1/3 (or slower) to conserve as much battery as possible.

3. If the damage to your diesel engines is '1' (hover over the red bar in that compartment to check), you have to return to base to get it fixed. In other words, it's completely destroyed and you can't make repairs at sea. You'll definitely want to prevent this kind of damage if at all possible.

4. I'm assuming here that you have moved people from one department to the repair crew. If you did that, you have to manually move them back to their previous locations (there's no way to do it automatically). One way to get around this is to get some new sailors when you're in port to be a dedicated repair crew (three or four guys is sufficient, in my experience).

5. I think you must be talking about the "follow nearest contact" button on the sonar tab. I don't use this, so I can't offer much advice, but I think it might be only used to keep track of the bearing and range of the nearest contact (for manual targeting reasons).

Hope this helps!

Do an "end run" following the base course they are traveling on, submerge and come in ahead of them. watch your profile if they have an escort. Broadside is not a good way to wait for them to come passing by. Might need to "shadow" the ship/convoy for a while to get the base course. Never steer AT where they are now- go for where they WILL BE by the time you get there.

Depends on the boat, the mod you're using- 9 knots may be the set speed. If you are turning you lose speed. Full rudder submereged will kill speed. Operational doctrine was to use full rudder for any change greater than 20 degrees because of how slow a submerged sub turns. When you click on the compass to change course the game uses full rudder.

Depends on the severity of the damage and type. Some things can be repaired some things can't. It would be nice if the game added a tag on the damage telling you somthing like "in port repair".

Not that I know of, but I may be wrong.

Are you talking about having the sound man follow the ship? This is just a position report. You use this on an approach to let you know where you are in relation to the target so you don't have to run with the scope up continuously. You can also use it to let you know when you've slipped past the escorts and into the convoy. A good thing to do is to learn the difference between merchants, escorts and warships then follow the one you want. When used correctly, this is a valuable approach tool, especially for a daylight submerged attack.

good answers... but I'd like to add:

by my measurements, 2/3 ahead is more battery efficient than 1/3 ahead. in real life this "drag" varies boat to boat, but it seems pretty consistent in SHIV: 2/3 is the way to conserve battery.

as for your attack, it's time to break out that pencil and ruler and plot it on the map.

1. determine your target's speed
2. draw a large circle (compass tool) with your current position on the outer edge and your target heading towards the center
3. slice the pie!

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/photo...ice_of_pie.gif

dude... thats one weird looking pie!!! :rotfl:

Actually it appears to be Pecan pie ... a real southern treat here in the states. Just need some whipped cream!

...and bourbon!