Quote:
Originally Posted by Fidd
The sextant can only calculate latitude' but needs to be used in conjunction with a very accurate chronometer to determine longitude. A sextant without one is as much use a bath-plug on a submarine.
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Actually, it measures an angle between objects, and most often used for an angle of a celestial object to the horizion. You don't need to be looking south to the sun to get latitude at noon. With sightings of sun/moon/planets/stars in various directions and accurate time you do a bunch of number-crunching based on assumed positions an then calculate offset corrections (azimuth and distance) from those to construct two or more "T"-shapes on the map, where you would be somewhere on the top-line. The number-crunching being with tables of positions and logarithmic tables for spherical trigonometry. (don't ask further, I am not proficient in it. Check this for an example procedures made with SH4 in mind:
https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/dow...o=file&id=2991)
This would go way over the heads of 99% of the players. Which already have trouble with the TDC or submerged dead reckoning. So would be left unused by the majority. Asking the devs to implement celestial nav in the game is asking them to waste time where they could be doing other stuff. Asking the devs to disable the update of the uboat icon position is the easiest for them to do. Maybe only leave the starting position as a reference. Then it is the total responsibility of the crew to keep track of their movement in a log as they go away of the reference point. Because, if you enter the game in total overcast then you will be completely lost without any way to fix your position in that session. If you do not have the convoy or other objectives in hydrophone-, or later radio direction finder-range, then you might as well give up.
If the devs find time to implement this fully down the line then I'm all for it.