Map Contacts

[kopout]

Hello Kapitans!

I am playing with the latest GWX mod, and I am confused by occasional map updates that suddenly ‘appear’. A single ship token will suddenly appear, which was not spotted by my watch crew, and neither was I given a radio contact report for the contact.

How are they deemed to have appeared on the map? What was the source of the information, to put the update on the map as a random contact?

Cheers.

[Aktungbby]

kopout!after a long silent run!

[Niume]

I think it simulates radio direction finding. That means that your u-boat radio operator intercepted radio message and found out a bearing from which the signal was coming

[kopout]

That makes sense now that you mention it. I’ll assume the programmers built it into the game. In my experience it usually turns out to be a ghost, and have learned to ignore it. Anybody else with a different experience?

And thanks for the welcome Aktung Bby. A long silent run indeed! Those silent runs are even better than the real thing ‘ey? My uboat moves in mysterious ways, no? If only we could submerge until the end of the world. Hehee

[Mad Mardigan]

Originally Posted by kopout

That makes sense now that you mention it. I’ll assume the programmers built it into the game. In my experience it usually turns out to be a ghost, and have learned to ignore it. Anybody else with a different experience?

And thanks for the welcome Aktung Bby. A long silent run indeed! Those silent runs are even better than the real thing ‘ey? My uboat moves in mysterious ways, no? If only we could submerge until the end of the world. Hehee

Ahoy, kopout...

That depends...

How far off from you they are... taking that into account, sometimes even close ones.. may or may not be there when you get close to where you 'should' intercept them... that goes even for the further off ones.

I have taken time to figure out where they should be at a given point of My boat traveling to an intercept point... got there & find something... sometimes not....

It's basically a crap shoot... sometimes ya get lucky...

sometimes the shark eats you...

Hope this helps...

Gute jagd, ihr himmelhunde

M. M.

[Fifi]

Originally Posted by Niume

I think it simulates radio direction finding. That means that your u-boat radio operator intercepted radio message and found out a bearing from which the signal was coming

Exactly
When the radio operator technician was good enough, he could intercept enemy radio message and find its location using the DF antenna (big round antenna you can raise on deck)

[Pisces]

If it is just a line then it would simulate the radio direction finder. As the circle antenna would not really be able to give you distance, only direction. Signal intensity would be quite hard to transform in to a distance, since the many unpredictable factors in radio wave propagation. That's why the big thing is triangulation, directions from different stations intersecting near the source. From a single Uboat or ship, the best you can do is simply move towards the line. That loop antenna can actually not distinguish if the radio source is in front of it, or if it is behind it. So you really would have to consider both directions.

If you get an icon on the map with course and speed and time indication then it is just a radio Intel report. Imagine there being German scoutplanes or simply BdU telling you what it found out from whatever sources it got. Convoys get radio messages as text accompanied with them. You know, the ones that show up in some menu. Single opportunity ships just show up on the map, bit still have those details when you hover or click on it. Speed being show as a rough estimate range.

If you see an icon on the map fairly close to you then it is likely within visual range and a sighting of the crew, or radar if you have it. It doesn't show speed or time, or course as text. At best you could tell course by the way the icon is pointing.

[FeatsOfStrength]

I've noticed that sometimes they can be vague locations and the direction they are travelling from these map markers can be slightly off. Othertimes I've noticed that they are highly accurate, I always presumed they were either spotted by other U-Boats, FW-200 Condors or otherwise found through intelligence given to BdU as they work in a similar way to convoy reports.