I am facing the wrong direction....

[I'm goin' down]

Here is another fantastically complicated question from that novice skipper, I'm goin' down. My ship luckily managed to locate the enemy and close to within 4,000 yards. Then, all of a sudden, the enmey vessel moved away at a bearing of, say, 12 degrees, and the distance between the two vessels increased to say 4,300 yards. Therefore, my ship responds by changing its bearing to 12 degrees, expecting to close the range for an attack. When I look at the map and check the distance, the distance is increasing and my vessel is pointing in the wrong direction. (S.O.B., which in submarine lingo means "son of a bitch.") What is my navigator doing wrong, is he a spy, is he incompetent, has my equipment been sabotauged, all of the above, or what is the enemy doing right, or are the mental patients loose and running the asylum?

[Seminole]

I am facing the wrong direction....

...solution: turn around.....or as we nauticals like to express it...come about to course_________....

[SteamWake]

Its pretty unusual in this game for ships to alter course. It does happen but rarely.

Most likely they spotted you and turned away from you and showed you their stern.

The other possibility is you took a quick nap in time compression and the ship crossed your bow. 12 degrees is well within an acceptable solution angle and once the ship gets within ... well 12 degrees or so it crosses zero (your bow) pretty fast when compared to when its at 30 degrees or so. Exponentially faster even You can do the math to prove it to yourself simple algebra.

Oh.... Ive done the same thing. Leave it a TC=8 get distracted for a moment and phooey there goes the shot.

[peabody]

Originally Posted by I'm goin' down

Here is another fantastically complicated question from that novice skipper, I'm goin' down. My ship luckily managed to locate the enemy and close to within 4,000 yards. Then, all of a sudden, the enmey vessel moved away at a bearing of, say, 12 degrees, and the distance between the two vessels increased to say 4,300 yards. Therefore, my ship responds by changing its bearing to 12 degrees, expecting to close the range for an attack. When I look at the map and check the distance, the distance is increasing and my vessel is pointing in the wrong direction. (S.O.B., which in submarine lingo means "son of a bitch.") What is my navigator doing wrong, is he a spy, is he incompetent, has my equipment been sabotauged, all of the above, or what is the enemy doing right, or are the mental patients loose and running the asylum?

Maybe it's just the way it is worded but it sounds to me like you have 'bearing' and 'heading' mixed up. Don't be insulted if I'm wrong but that is what I read.

If the contact is at bearing of 12 degreees that puts him off your starboard bow (your bow being 0 degrees) Just for a 'what if', let's say you are going east (90 degree 'heading') A ship is heading south (180 degee 'heading') He crosses your bow and they call out a ship 'bearing' of 12 degrees. To head toward him you turn to a 'heading' of 102 degrees. The 90 degree you are heading plus the 12 "bearing' to target. (of course he is still moving so that number will keep changing). But if you turned to a "heading" of 12 degrees you would be going almost north. NNE. and the ship is heading south.

I could be totally wrong here, but that is the way I read your question, expecially when you said your ship changed it's "bearing to 12 degrees". It sounds like you changed your "heading to 12 degrees"

If I am wrong I appologize. If I am right, remember when they give bearings it is in relations to the bow of your sub being 0 degrees, no matter which way you are heading. You are getting the direction in relation to your sub, not in relation to the world.

Peabody

[I'm goin' down]

Very interesting replies. I am most grateful.

Peabody's reply helped me put my post in perspective with the other two replies. I changed my bearing "by 12 degrees" to intercept the enemy. I did not change it "to 12 degrees." This apparently means that the ship changed direction. So that leads me to ask, what is the significance of the enemy changing direction? I assume that means it crosses my bow at 0 degrees and that the vessels are proceeding in opposite directions. How do I confirm this, other than the by awareness that the distance between the vessels is increasing? How do I distinguish this situation from one where the enemy is heading away from me by increasing its speed?
__________________________________________________ __________________________
A handsome young guest wearing a zoot suit and named "Jose G. Gonzales" appeared on the original "You Bet Your Life" television show hosted by Groucho Marx. When questioned by Groucho, the guest said that his middle name was Gonzales, and his full name, which Groucho elicited, was "Jose Gonzales Gonzales." A titter ran through the audience. Groucho needed no further prompting. "Does you mother call you 'Jose," "Gozales" or "Jose Gonzales Gonzales"?" to which "Jose Gonzales Gonzales" politely responded, "Oh no, Groucho. She calls me Pedro!" The audience chuckled. Groucho remarked that "Jose, Gonzales or Pedro" was indeded a very funny young man and that they ought to consider becoming a comedy team. Pedro jumped at the possibility and exclaimed that would be fine by him. Groucho inquired, "With all of your different names, what should we name our act?" to which Pedro quick answered, "Gonzales, Gonzales & Marx." Groucho, raising his eyebrows, looked with dismay at the audience, and without skipping a beat, quipped, "How do like that! THIRD MAN BILLING in a two man act!"

[I'm goin' down]

It is extremely gratifying to see all members who have viewed this post, as I feel I do not know what the heck I am doing most of the time. I am dumber than I ought to be, but maybe I am closer to the pack than I thought? Maybe not?

[kylania]

How are you tracking your targets? Via hydrophone only? Or are you visually sighting them as well?

When you do visually sight them are you updating and confirming your previous course plot to make sure it was correct? I'll try to put up some screenshots detailing what I mean in a few.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by I'm goin' down

It is extremely gratifying to see all members who have viewed this post, as I feel I do not know what the heck I am doing most of the time. I am dumber than I ought to be, but maybe I am closer to the pack than I thought? Maybe not?

Sir, we are all profoundly ignorant. However much we know is dwarfed by the immensity of what we do not know. Therefore there are two kinds of people.

Smart people who know that there is much they do not know. They develop new skills and have joy in life.

Dumb people who assume that what they know is all there is to know. They learn nothing new and are condemned to be always disappointed in what life has to offer.

You sound like a smart people!

[Old Dog]

Amen RR

[I'm goin' down]

I was smart enough to take the day off and let my crew rest -- to live and fight another day! (Or, was I afraid they would mutiny and drop me and Wilson (my soccer ball with a painted smiley face) off on a tiny island, so I could lose 40 pounds and spend three years bored out of mind, finally building a raft to sail into a shipping lane to be rescued, and 60 years later produce a movie describing my experiience.) Didn't some bush producer steal my story?

Oh, yea, I am studying Rockin Robbins videos. How he made them is way beyond this captain, and one of the great surrpises of this forum.

[doulos05]

It is extremely gratifying to see all members who have viewed this post, as I feel I do not know what the heck I am doing most of the time. I am dumber than I ought to be, but maybe I am closer to the pack than I thought? Maybe not?

I felt the same way with my posts. I'm only a few days ahead of you on these forums, and I've asked many of the same questions you have. I do have the fortunate advantage of having played Silent Service on the NES growing up (the fact that the destroyers don't always detect you is my favorite part of this game, in SS my tactics were 1)Draw out the destroyers and sink them with bow shots, 2) sink the merchants with deck gun) but that game glossed over a lot of stuff this one doesn't (like always putting you in a position where you can intercept).

I have to say the community here is pretty awesome. Which is fortunate, given the sad state of the manual. Speaking of which, any chance of a "community manual" like what they had/have for SHIII?

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by doulos05

any chance of a "community manual" like what they had/have for SHIII?

Always been talk of a wiki for SH4 never saw fruition though.

Fortunatly just about anything you could want / need to know is covered here on SubSim.

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Fortunatly just about anything you could want / need to know is covered here on SubSim.

True, but I've always liked a systematic organizational system.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by doulos05

True, but I've always liked a systematic organizational system.

Are you trying to say Subsim is disorganized??... oh... well its sort of orginized. Check out the guides sticky at the top

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Are you trying to say Subsim is disorganized??... oh... well its sort of orginized. Check out the guides sticky at the top

Are you trying to say we're organized? Them's fightin' words! We don't even have uniforms. We're too busy having fun to be organized.