Losing targets on map
 

I just set up a line of attack on a merchant, got in position about 10 miles in advance of target, went to set up torpedoes while waiting and when I go back to map it as completely disappeared from the entire map. This was on normal game speed and it happened on 2 different occasions tonight. I thought they were the 2 best attack setups I had done.
I must be doing something wrong but don't know what.

Bill

Maybe it changed course while you were getting in position?

Thanks but surely in a matter of 10 minutes realtime it could not have got that far away. It was moving slow and would have taken about 2 hours to reach me.

Bill

10 miles is an hour or more away for most merchant ships in this game (7-10Kts is "medium speed" IIRC), that's plenty of time for them to disappear if they alter course, which they may do randomly or if they sight you while you're stalking them. A.I. ships may also disappear when they reach their last way-point.

Have you tried doing a hydrophone check?

Your hydrophones should be able to hear ships out to about 30 miles (that is you listening, not your sonar man - he can't hear squat), so once you're in position submerge and listen for your target, you'll know if they've changed course.

Silly question maybe, but did you have your scope down?

If the target can't be seen, it won't be on the map either. If you raise the scope (or surface), it will reappear.

Oh, it's silly question time, is it? OK, I'll play. You weren't by chance, near a harbor were you? The shipping scripting has start and end points for the enemy. When they reach the end point, they vanish. This is just sloppy work on the part of the programmers and it's corrected with Run Silent Run Deep.

Or you could just change your happy hunting grounds!:D

Was on patrol near Marshall islands trying to find and sink merchant ships but not had any luck yet.
Does RSRD work with SH 1.5 and does it make it more difficult like TMO? I am playing Vanilla at the moment
Thanks for all advice so far.

Bill

the Marshall Islands are historically the slowest area of operation, if you need to stay in your patrol zone try patroling to the northwest to catch traffic coming from Truk.

RSRD definitely is for 1.5 and is a totally different MOD than TMO. RSRD changes the campaign layers to make traffic more historically correct and will make finding targets harder. TMO is a top layer SuperMod that changes your environment, difficulty and many other things.

FYI they will both work together. TMO changes the game and RSRD changes the traffic patterns basically.