[REQ] Automated Planning Mod for Real Navigation
 

I'm wondering who can try and make a mod for Real Navigation that would allow us to automate the sailing. It would need to allow us to select a bearing, speed and time on this bearing... then I could go to sleep and not end up ashore. :)

For example, we could plan to sail on heading 250 for 15 minutes at 10 kts, then switch to heading 210 for 2 hours, 40 minutes at 9 kts... That way we could plan for 'waypoints' inside Real Navigation mod.

Since I see Kiel harbor automation mods, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I think all of the commands are defined - unfortunately, I can't do it myself.

Just use the vanilla plotting system :88) or am i missing something . Do you use Trevally Automated Scripts v0.6 so the navigator plots a navigation mark on the map every 2 hours . I do .

I see what he's asking and it's a good idea. Since I disabled plotting with real navigation you don't really have a way of defining any kind of waypoints or anything for your crew to automatically follow. You could write a script before game start for them to follow but that defeats the purpose. You need the ability to define something for your crew to follow ingame. The defining would be like he mentioned: go to heading x and stay on that heading for y minutes. Turn to heading z and stay on that heading for a minutes, etc. This is something suited perfectly for automation. It just needs a UI for it :hmmm:

This would be a great and most helpful addition to the next NewUIs MOD, TDW, and thanks for the idea, Croman. I, for one, most look forward to using it!

Why not have a tool for precisely heading, precisely speed, precisely time and precisely shooting, so you can stay all the time in bed?

SH5 has no wind-drift and no water-flow/drift so a "tool" for precisely heading, speed and precisely time while heading a particular course results in a cheat; a cheat which eliminates the need for celestial or coastal navigation. Totaly unrealistic for the 1940s.

You think about your objectives, your current position and where you need to go. Perhaps you draw some lines on a map, check distances and calculate the time you need to be on a specific leg of the journey. After you decide on a route, it is not a cheat to be able to 'tell you crew' to sail on one compass heading for a specified amount of time and on a specified engine setting. And to tell them, that when e.g. 60 minutes is up, change to a new compass heading. After all, you do it manually all the time and it's easy if you're using Real Navigation - as you cannot plot way points. It's not a cheat if you automate it.

BTW, dead reckoning method remains a valid way to navigate, and was always used. And thanks to TDW journal, you'd have it written down.
Celestial and trigonometric coastal navigation is important, but is hardly the only method. Or have you never been far away from coast in a bad weather? :)

Re the no wind/current drift... well that's unfortunate, I'd love it to be included, it would be much more interesting - but I for sure wouldn't want to be the one who has to code it - to make it realistic, it would require a huge amount of work.

IMHO, using time compression is a much bigger cheat, and I'm reducing it as much as possible. So is being able to tell your precise speed at any moment to a .1 degree of accuracy.

p.s. (off topic) How was speed calculated while on a submarine in WWII? Specifically, could it be measured while submerged?

RPM x Pitch (60/72936)

60/72936 converts inches per minute to nautical miles per hour, iirc.

Has anyone actually used real navigation with trevally auto script . You get the inacurate bearings with dead reckoning . The more dead reckoning your navigator does in a row in bad weather without celestial the worse it gets . I have been lost many times in fog trying to reach home port . Also its interesting that if your navigator gets injured then its real fun , not .

I'm using it by now. Some time before I've played with real navigation and without autoscripts, calculating my route manually (the same as dead reconig actually, the example of souch method is described in "documents' folder of TDW NewUI). That time the main problem for me was not to miss the calculated time of changing the course:salute: Wished to use sextant but still don't know exactly how to (hope to see somebody's videotutorial on that issue):ping:

It would be great if someone could explain how to use the sextant! I'd love to use that thing, but I don't know how.:nope:

hi
 

I think somebody made a tutorial about sextant long time ago... i do not know for sure... better ask Trevally.
Have a nice day!

I tend to agree with TDW on this. It actually IS a good idea but only up to a point I'd suggest. Perhaps a halfway house would be the ability to plot to your patrol area. (Once there you have to suit yourself. I simply use autoscripted search patterns) The other place where I see it would be a possible help is in getting home from wherever you end up after completing a patrol and are low on fuel or torps. There are a lot of targets of opportunity to come upon enroute to patrol area or on the way back but I think a "single" command the navigator to plot a course to patrol area or home would be practical and certainly wouldn't stop anyone doing the usual hydrophone searches at regular intervals along the way.

If you went "off-route" to track down a contact a simple repeat of the instruction (to Patrol Area or Home) would be handy perhaps.

At the moment all I do is plot a course and measure off estimated distance for each Navigator's positional check.

Would it be a neat little capability? I think it might

I think I may have posted this somewhere else!!!!!!!

I tend to agree with TDW on this. I think having a single command for the navigator to plot a course to Patrol Are or to Plot A course Home would be a great wee tool to have. It doesn't stop you doing all the usual stuff (hydrophone checks or running search patterns) enroute or in the Patrol Area and, I'm sure, once fuel was low or torpedoes were exhausted, the conversation was something along the lines of, "OK, plot me a course for home"

Is it absolutely necessary? Possibly not, but I think it might be a neat wee thing to have in the toolbox

Your idea is not bad,

implementig it though would require our navigator to plot the best course to patrol area/home by himself. Too bad IIRC the game cannot foresee land masses (nor enemy coastal waters and aerial coverage, for that matter).

Harbour pilot scripts do their job because a sentient being (a certain Mr. Trevally) plotted the course for us in anticipation, knowing the starting and the ending point, wich is not the case with the feature you are proposing.

Imo the only way to implement it would be IF our navigator could follow the nodes used by AI shipping. Indeed, he should be able to "read" as well our current position and the coordinates of our requested destination that will vary during the campaign.

Another possible option for using our navigator would be, after taking a fix, being able to plot a course by setting waypoints as we did before real navigation, but keeping all the approximation intoduced by it.

If I could choose, I would put croman81's idea on the top of the list anyway :yep:

While we're on the topic of real navigation, how do you guys use real navigation in those situations when you're planning an attack? The other day I asked my navigator to give me my position using dead reckoning, but since his calculation was all wrong (and kept getting worse) I was unable to plot my attack correctly. I understand that using celestial navigation is more accurate, but let's say you're plotting an attack in bad weather and you want to plot with just the hydrophone and the map, but you can't get the navigator to tell you where you are: what do you do then?:hmmm: