Currently, with the closeness of the convoy at spawn you really do not need to go through the whole 3/4 bearing procedure to get to it. Just move towards the sound direction and trail it, with another hydrophone check if you feel unsure or excessive fog conditions apply. The current spawn condition is very forgiving in that.
But when you reach it, you are likely in an disadvantageous position and know nothing about where it is going. You shift the workload of gathering target movement to the visual contact phase. Doing the complicated method at a standoff can be considered as a time-investment into knowing roughly where he is going before you reach it. There is no rule that says which method you should follow. Some people like to keep things simple and do no-brainer actions to get a job done. Others simply like to use their wits and limited mount of information available to still get the end result. It's a choice.
But maybe in a future version of the game the developers introduce a more challenging situation where a convoy, or more likely an armed taskforce, moves much more rapidly (your surface speed now is 3 times faster than the average convoy speed) and from a further distance. (I hope!) Then it might prove more effective to use a systematic method of tracking the the contacts whereabouts, rather than to just dive-listen-sprint-repeat.
p.s. Has anybody even traced back the target course from a visual (verified) sighting to the moment of spawn?
|