Single Ship Contacts Etc- RUB 1.44

[Enfilade]

I'm enjoying RUB's new (or resurrected) single ship contact info now displayed on the nav map... am finding the estimated course/speed details very useful now that I've dispensed with full map icons/updates etc. But I do have a question.. what is the source for this contact information... some of which occurs out of visual range? Is it supposed to represent other subs' reported contacts...or messages from BDU, etc? Where are the reports coming from?

[joea]

"All the above" also early in the war when there was more single ship traffic I think u-boats could intercept the merchant's radio messages. Plus close to Europe like the North Sea or the Med you could get air recon info as well.

[jaxa]

I don't like this feature, I like "RUb 1.43 no map contact info" because it's more realistic. You must sail and dive for using hydrophone and looking (rather listening) for enemy ships.
When you have info on map you don't have do it, simply look at map and sail to displayed contacts. It isn't exciting.

[FAdmiral]

With all the German sub and surface raiders along with German
merchants in the open seas, they would have reported any enemy
contacts they saw. If that isn't realistic, I don't know what is.....


JIM


PS. Maybe not exciting but still very productive !!

[jaxa]

OK, FAdmiral, you have right. Uboots always inform about any enemy ship BdU or other uboots, it's fact.
But I've one question - does RUb 1.44 nav map inform me about every contacts at sea or only about some of them? Should I dive sometimes and look for other targets by hydrophone or not (because everything is on the nav map).
I think it would be good to inform about some (not all) contacts on the nav map (spotted by other uboots or planes for instance) and rest of them player could find by hydrophone.
It's exciting for me to find enemy ship by hydrophone myself, not only look at nav map and sail to every contact on it.
I hope you understood what I wanted to say about that.

[panthercules]

Originally Posted by jaxa

.
But I've one question - does RUb 1.44 nav map inform me about every contacts at sea or only about some of them?

Apparently only some - I'm on my first patrol with RUB 1.44 (started a new career for this) in September 1939 and I have sunk 4 single ships so far - 2 were displayed first as map contacts and 2 I found on my own via hydrophones without them showing up on my map.

[FAdmiral]

I am only using RUB 1.41 at the moment but I get the radio
message reports, plus I have gotten new sound contacts when
submerged. I have also come across convoys by sound.
I sometimes spot merchants & warships by visual when running
on the surface without any prior warning. So the answer to your questions is: All of the Above (multiple ways to find targets)


JIM

[Hartmann]

The Luftwaffe used a Fw-200 condors for air recon duties in the atlantic sea.

Another little question ...Is the number of single ships reduced in RUB or are the same like in the stock game ??

thanks.

[FAdmiral]

I am fairly sure they have been reduced with RUB. In the stock
game, there were so many it was like an arcade shootum-up....


JIM

[Beery]

Actual ship population has been reduced, and the radio contacts only show some of the ships that are out there. Thus, there's still a need to submerge and do the hydrophone thing, but it's not essential.

[Enfilade]

On my last patrol (Nov '39) I cruised around AN 81, 84 etc and detected numerous single merchants (no convoys in these grids apparently) using hydrophone and the new 'single ship contact' icon feature. As soon as I'd dispatch one C2, I would only have to wait/travel for a few hours and there would be a new contact. I think these are pretty active grids at this point in the war...lol. But I'm kind of ambivalent about the new contact info showing up on the nav map. Having the general course heading and speed estimates for the target takes a lot of the challenge away from doing these things visually... At the same time, I wasn't having much luck trying to estimate speed etc by drawing lines between bearings (as in Wazoo's Tutorial) without the benefit of map icons, so this is now a lot easier..... On balance... can't decide whether I like the new system or not...

[panthercules]

Originally Posted by Beery

Actual ship population has been reduced, and the radio contacts only show some of the ships that are out there. Thus, there's still a need to submerge and do the hydrophone thing, but it's not essential.

Two weeks into my first patrol with RUB1.44 - Sept. '39 - I've found and sunk 5 single merchants so far on my way to and from my patrol zone west of Ireland (around the north way), and am currently stalking a small freighter I spotted on my way home. 4 of the 6 have shown up on my nav map, and 2 I have found via hydrophones.

Seems like a lot of traffic out here, but then again the war has only been going on for a couple of weeks and mostly these steamers are probably still on a peacetime footing. Odd thing is (I just realized), they've all been enemy (5 British and one Commonwealth country of some kind - forgot to get a screen shot of the flag) - no neutrals. In my previous careers I usually have run into a few Norwegians or other neutrals for every enemy ship I've spotted.

Will have to get another couple of patrols at least under my belt to assess how RUB 1.44's traffic levels will work out. So far, so good, but at this rate if this keeps up I'll be way overboard on tonnage before long.

[Enfilade]

In my previous careers I usually have run into a few Norwegians or other neutrals for every enemy ship I've spotted.

[/quote]

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I should have mentioned above that during the patrol in question, I encountered several neutral merchants. Am ashamed to report that I mistakenly sank one Norwegian freighter thinking it was British... you have to get very close at night to detect the lack of a Union Jack on a red flag...lol.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by panthercules

Will have to get another couple of patrols at least under my belt to assess how RUB 1.44's traffic levels will work out. So far, so good, but at this rate if this keeps up I'll be way overboard on tonnage before long.

The traffic is exactly the same as in earlier versions of the mod. If you think RUb is too populous, there's no less populous alternative that I know of.

[panthercules]

Originally Posted by Beery

The traffic is exactly the same as in earlier versions of the mod. If you think RUb is too populous, there's no less populous alternative that I know of.

Not saying that it's too populous - it just seemed a bit target rich on my first patrol compared to several of my later ones in my first career with various earlier RUB versions where I would often be lucky to spot and sink one or two ships the whole patrol (Of course, that was later in the war - I had played several stock-game patrols in that first career before discovering RUB)

I did run into a couple of Norwegian steamers on my way home, and wound up my first patrol with 5 enemy ships sunk for a total of about 22,500 tons (missed that last British kleine frachter I was stalking in the storm )

All in all, a nice introduction to RUB 1.44. Of course - my rookie crew had a hard time keeping the engines running well enough to get us home and my sound man couldn't track contacts for crap toward the end of the patrol (hence the missed kleine frachter), but they're all good lads and I'm sure they'll do better next time out