how do you even see airplanes?

[I'm goin' down]

Its early 1942, and in TMO/RSRDC, with Victory at Sea playing on the gramphone (their is nothing like commanding my boat on the open ocean!), I am encountering airplanes every 1 or 2 minutes. I can't even see them, even though I am scanning the skies and have the deck gun manned for auto firing? How the hell do you spot them? I finally gave up trying and downloaded Webster's fewer airplanes mod. Next, I will be the No Air Strike mod, as no reduction in air attacks is killing me (literally).

Any good suggestions?

[CaptainMattJ.]

well if oyu had a boat that allowed for a second AA gun, you could watch the other AI AA gunner shoot at the plane. then you look at the libe of fire and since alot of AA gunners never really hit it YOU can. that how i do it in the u boat.

the problem is in how planes are rendered in the game. they are spawned as tiny black specks of sand you can barely see, even if you know exactly where they are.

only when they are almost right above you, ready to dive, does the game use a larger size image of the plane for them which is the first time you really see them.

i tried to fix the values used for the rendered image so it looks bigger from farther away but i never figured it out. (i think its hard coded but maybe i missed something)

[sunvalleyslim]

I'm Goin Down,
One way to keep from having to dive each time your crew sights a plane is to use your compass. Simply extract your compass and put it on you sub marker on you nav map. Make a 5 nautical mile circle around your Boat. If the plane does not enter the 5 nm circle you're OK. If its going to enter the circle, crash dive, and return to surface when safe.......Happy Hunting...........SVS

[I'm goin' down]

Thanks captains. Good advice.

[DigitalAura]

5 nm rule is only a guide... I've been seen from up to 8 or 9! Totally depends on weather and water conditions.
I've even been seen submerged at periscope depth and DCed by planes. At first I was thinking, "yeah, wtf... that's BS" but after going to external cam and panning back and up (to get a bird's eye view) it was obvious that there was a sub in the water below the surface... the angle of the plane and the sunlight made all the difference, and I couldn't believe the game actually took that into account!!!

To answer your question, you really can't see them until it's too late. Sometimes in low light conditions you'll spot them first, but unfortunately I think the planes always have the advantage of first sight.
The problem isn't just direction either... you can be looking right down the right line and still not see them...that's because the radar doesn't indicate how HIGH the planes are. So I've been waiting and waiting at a specified angle for the planes to appear only to have bombs dropped on me from overhead as the zeros dive bomb from way up high over me.
So, there's no way to 'learn' to spot them...it's all luck and circumstances.

[Armistead]

You want reduced traffic from whatever mod. You will run into planes, more with RSRD, but on a realistic level. Cutting all planes out is just making an arcade game of it....but each to it's own.

Regardless, you should't be getting killed by them, even without radar a crew warning gives me enough time to dive early war.

Planes can be a clue to when a TF is near. When I see a lot of planes, I'll take over sonar. To me it's a bug, but I can hear contacts almost twice as far as the sonarman will pick them up.

I had 8 planes show up on radar, but just plane contacts. I dived and took sonar and faintly heard many ships. I head near to that bearing and in time I found a large carrier TF. If I wouldn't have listened I would've kept going in the wrong direction and missed out.

[Rockin Robbins]

I like the planes. They are my friends and keep me alert.

[I'm goin' down]

"Project Nanook" is in right and left quotation marks. The right double quotation mark is vertical. If you ever want to correct it, try this:

Unicode Character 'LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK' (U+201C). In Windows use Alt+201C.

I could not make it work here, but I tried.

Note: Unicode Character 'RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK' (U+201D). In Windows use Alt+201D.

The above fixes are on the Web.

[I'm goin' down]

You should be a college professor! Great lesson btw.

"Da planes, Da planes!!"

[Rockin Robbins]

That was refreshingly random! (but absolutely correct)

[DigitalAura]

It's a font in photoshop that didn't include the opposite quotation mark, it usually flips it automatically... I was too lazy to re-orient it with the rotate tool too.

Besides, the bigger mistake that no one actually caught was that it isn't Project Nanook... it's Operation Nanook. Again... too lazy to fix that.

[I'm goin' down]

I thought you would enoy this. cdrsubron7 made a new mission and invited me to try it out. First run, I sank two carriers and was feeling my oats. Here is my report on the second attempt.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cdrsubron7
Thanks for the feedback, I'm goin down. Appreciate it.

I must have been too full of myself after sinking two carriers on my first run. My second try was a disaster. Heavy, heavy damage and two dead from air attacks during daylight. I licked my wounds and buried the dead. After dark I tried to sneak in for recon. I attacked a task force, missing 10 shots. I continued on, suffering major damage and flooding from task force destroyers who finished me off after 10 minutes of "Come out, come out, wherever you are?" [aka for those who are movie buffs, "Oh Warriors,... Warriors, Come out and Playeee."]

The mission's ending reminded me of a story about Pecos Bill and his horse, Widowmaker. No man could ride Widowmaker, except Pecos Bill. The story goes that a boy once said the rumour about Widowmaker being a killer was nothin' but a Tall Tale. Pecos Bill retorted that once a cowboy climbed aboard Widowmaker and tried to ride him. Widowmaker went crazy and bucked so hard that the the poor fella' went flyin' into space where he bounced up and down off the surface of the moon for a week before Pecos shot him down on a Sunday just so's he could be receive a proper burial. The boy still did not believe Pecos Bill and put his hand on the horse's reins, preparing to mount the steed. As the boy took the reins, Pecos added, "Son, let me tell it to you in plain English. You try to ride Widowmaker ... he'll kill you." In other words, my ass was handed to me on a silver platter.

(My crew love it when I tell them stories before lights out!)

(Now if I could only lasso my three toy poddles (my son refers to them as the killer guard dogs.))

[DigitalAura]

goin' down... I've come to some certain conclusions regarding you.

1/ You are a huuuuge movie buff
2/ You are certifiably nutz!

<-----BTW... ya gotta dig that medic head ornament! SHEEEZ!

[I'm goin' down]

The Pecos Bill story is from Disney's Tall Tale. If you want to see another classic, rent the Wanderers, co-starring a young Karen Allen. On the serious side, Once Were Warriors will knock your sox off with one of the MOST POWERFUL finales I have ever seen--up there with Casablanca and Treasure of Sierra Madre.

I like both of the emblems at the bottom of your posts. The "Jaws Submarine" is a classic. The other one says something too. (Gazing out the window to my office, I see an Admiral enter HQ.) ... But hell, Captain, what do you think this is? A friggin' love fest? Get your ass back on the line or Rockin Robbins will message Bull that are are hankerin for work... as in a Tokyo Bay patrol in an S-18. (Bull?) Bull, as in Admiral Bull Halsey!