SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - How do I shadow and time compress to night-time?

Dantenoc · 01-27-06, 08:25 PM

yes that's all fine and good.... we all know how to maneuver the boat into a good firing position, but the question is how do you wait for the right attack time without spending hours of real time just shadowing the convoy... and I'm afraid the answer is: there is no good method

your limited options are:

1) match their course and speed and use the 32x time compression while keeping them at the fringe of your visual range and spend 16 minutes of real time waiting for 8 hours of game time to pass (or however many ours it takes till night fall) and hope you dont get surprised on such a high time compression setting by an escort (imposible to do during the later years of the war) or attacking plane (impossible to do when near enemy air bases)

or

2) once you establish course and speed of the convoy match it but stay well away from visual or radar range, so that nobody can detect you. Crank time compresion as high as you want while looking at the nav map until night falls. Under the cover of darkness reaquire the convoy... if luck is on your side and the convoy hasn't changed it's heading or speed (which they do) then it should still be at the same position relative to your sub (which it won't, because they DO change their heading to follow the international shipping lanes).

Perhaps this second option can be suplement with droping the time compresion every two hours of game time or so to close to within sonar range of the convoy just to make sure that they're still at the same bearing and haven't changed their course, and then once reasured or made the necesary course correction (whatever the case) dropping back off from detection range and cranking up the time compression again for the next two hours of game time and yada yada yada.... rinse and repeat until hair is shiny and clean.

To do this it really helps to know that a ship will travel 1852 meters every hour for each 1 knot speed.

So lets say that your shadowing a convoy that is going at 6 knots, and night time will not fall untill 8 hours later. Well, figure out the convoy's heading and draw it's "track" on the nav map (just make very long straight line from the convoy out towards the direction it's heading) and expect it to reach a point that is 1852 x 6 x 8 = 88,896 meters (about 89 kilometers) down the track at nightfall (1852 meters to a knot, 6 knots convoy speed and 8 hours till sun down)... so shadow acordingly, because now you know where they're going... unless they change their course or speed... which they will

Also, it is absolutely imperative that the track be figured out correctly, because a mistake of 1 or 2 degrees in the convoy's heading will prove quite significant when talking about such long travel times.

Again, your best deal is to just break it down to smaller 2 hour time compression bits and adjusting as necessary but even then, you can easily loose a convoy in two hours if an unlucky course change takes place. Better do it every hour?

Hope this helps somewhat but the straight answer is: "There really should be a button that instructs the navigator to do all this for you and shadow the convoy while you go take a nap"

01-27-06, 08:25 PM	#11
Dantenoc Captain Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Ensenada, B.C., Mexico Posts: 504 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	yes that's all fine and good.... we all know how to maneuver the boat into a good firing position, but the question is how do you wait for the right attack time without spending hours of real time just shadowing the convoy... and I'm afraid the answer is: there is no good method your limited options are: 1) match their course and speed and use the 32x time compression while keeping them at the fringe of your visual range and spend 16 minutes of real time waiting for 8 hours of game time to pass (or however many ours it takes till night fall) and hope you dont get surprised on such a high time compression setting by an escort (imposible to do during the later years of the war) or attacking plane (impossible to do when near enemy air bases) or 2) once you establish course and speed of the convoy match it but stay well away from visual or radar range, so that nobody can detect you. Crank time compresion as high as you want while looking at the nav map until night falls. Under the cover of darkness reaquire the convoy... if luck is on your side and the convoy hasn't changed it's heading or speed (which they do) then it should still be at the same position relative to your sub (which it won't, because they DO change their heading to follow the international shipping lanes). Perhaps this second option can be suplement with droping the time compresion every two hours of game time or so to close to within sonar range of the convoy just to make sure that they're still at the same bearing and haven't changed their course, and then once reasured or made the necesary course correction (whatever the case) dropping back off from detection range and cranking up the time compression again for the next two hours of game time and yada yada yada.... rinse and repeat until hair is shiny and clean. To do this it really helps to know that a ship will travel 1852 meters every hour for each 1 knot speed. So lets say that your shadowing a convoy that is going at 6 knots, and night time will not fall untill 8 hours later. Well, figure out the convoy's heading and draw it's "track" on the nav map (just make very long straight line from the convoy out towards the direction it's heading) and expect it to reach a point that is 1852 x 6 x 8 = 88,896 meters (about 89 kilometers) down the track at nightfall (1852 meters to a knot, 6 knots convoy speed and 8 hours till sun down)... so shadow acordingly, because now you know where they're going... unless they change their course or speed... which they will Also, it is absolutely imperative that the track be figured out correctly, because a mistake of 1 or 2 degrees in the convoy's heading will prove quite significant when talking about such long travel times. Again, your best deal is to just break it down to smaller 2 hour time compression bits and adjusting as necessary but even then, you can easily loose a convoy in two hours if an unlucky course change takes place. Better do it every hour? Hope this helps somewhat but the straight answer is: "There really should be a button that instructs the navigator to do all this for you and shadow the convoy while you go take a nap"