Tips for identifying ships?

[echohead]

Hi all,
I just got this game and have fallen in love with it, but unlike most people here I am not a big naval buff and I am having a terrible time identifying ships, mostly merchant ships.

The tutorial videos on these forums have been extremely helpful. I cannot wait to take this game online and play with more experienced players than myself.

[Inner Sound]

Not sure it'll help you in the hurly burly of online, but for solo I've just discovered I can open the ident book, pause the game, and flick through the pages with the game paused.

HTH

[echohead]

Wow, you guys work fast!

That basically solves my only problem with the game

Of course I still am a terrible sub captian, but at least I have fun.

[Frederf]

Identification method:

1. Identify major class: warship, escort, merchant, or coastal.

I feel this is best done with hydrophones and comes with the most "feel." Merchants chug, warships pitter, and very small craft buzz or even have no sound (sampan, junk). Warships with a distinct mechanical whine are a good indication that they are big, juicy targets like carriers and cruisers. Escort warships tend to just have a plain engine noise.

2. What does the funnel look like?

Most ships have smoke funnels for engine exhaust. Is it in the middle? Is it at either end? A funnel at an end means tanker. Cargo merchants have them between the masts. Also take note if the funnel is tall and skinny or short and wide.

3. How many masts does it have?

Most small or medium merchants have 2 masts. The large ones have 3. Pay attention if the masts are single or doubles. There are a few ships with arches instead of single mast poles and that is a good feature to note.

4. What does the rigging look like?

Some ships have what I call "down rigging" like /_|_\ while others have "up rigging" like \|/. These are excellent features to note.

5. What is the shape of the superstructure?

Is it one piece and large? Is it 2-3 small structures? Does the funnel sit on top of the superstructure or does it sit on deck? Large, long, even superstructures can mean personnel transport.

With the above 5 rules you should be able to identify any stock merchant with a question to spare. Warships can be a lot harder but you see those a lot less. Guns and superstructure are the primary reference for cruisers and battleships. Make sure to look at the 45° angle view for a good second perspective on the ship.

Once you think you have a target identified by taking visual characteristics and comparing them against the book... do it in reverse! Pick something distinct on the picture and see if the target has it. I've caught several recognition mistakes this way.

[echohead]

Thanks for the detailed post Fred
I once I get a basic feel for getting a ship ID I will use your method instead of pausing. So far I am playing on 88% realism (only have the updated map markers on). I hope to move upto 100% with no pausing soon.

[Joe S]

Do not get overly concerned about ship ID. The main thing is to recognize the major ship types so you know a destroyer when you see one and get pick out the most valuable merchants as targets. The main reason for ship ID is to get the range, which is the least important of all TDC data. I take the average mastheight for each type of ship and enter that number on the TDC dial for purposes of using the periscope to estimate the range. I do that to simulate what a real skipper would do. However, a shortcut is to simply pre-set the range in the tdc to the distance that approximates the range at the time of firing .Thats up to you . I have also prepared two sheets of average mastheights (one for warships and one for merchants)to go with the printable recognition manual, if you are interested send me a pm and I will send them to you. I have sent them to someone else whom I hope will post them on this forum so everyone can copy from there. For some reason I cannot post attachments, anyone know why? I hope this helps, Joe S

[Joe S]

Here's a link to the mastheight sheets:http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/m...09/mastheight/

I hope you find them useful. Joe S

[Rockin Robbins]

There's an alternate solution to the problem: never identify a target! Well, you do have to identify whether it's friend, foe or neutral, but after that, who cares! There is a family of attack methods called the constant bearing attack.

They all live over at the Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks thread, the Dick O'Kane method, the John P Cromwell method and the vector analysis method. None of them cares about target identification and so long as the torpedo can reach that far, none of them cares about range either! You can set up a constant bearing attack in your TDC a half hour before you shoot and only have to worry about putting your boat into the right position and mashing the fire button at the appropriate times.

[echohead]

I was going to make a new thread about this, but it seems to have enough in common with this thread to stay here:

What about situations where you have to chase down the enemy? I have been reading alot around here about the constant bearing and vector methods (which are amazing btw), but all of the advanced tactics either want you at a right angle, or intercepting from ahead.

When I am in the open water I have ended up trying to chase my prey down from behind, I am not always lucky enough to be set up ahead of them. So instead of using any fancy techniques I found here I just end up punching all their info into the tdc and letting the computer do the heavy lifting

[Frederf]

RR, not to be snooty but constant bearing, vector analysis, etc all require you to know the target's speed. Unless some little bird lands on the bridge and starts talking or you have some very accurate radar going on (which is tough for close timings how SH4 is arranged) you're going to have to plot which means knowing ship dimensions which means identification.

@echohead, Vector analysis is just the generalized form of the 90 or 45 degree attacks. You can be at any angle you like with vector analysis. These techniques are simpler versions of what the TDC handles. In fact, when you generate 0-gyro order solutions in TDC you are effectively doing the exact same math as when you do these simple plotting tricks apart from minor corrections like periscope-tube parallax.

[Rockin Robbins]

I calculate target speed using radar and two positions three or six minutes apart. Usually I've calculated their speed a full half hour to 45 minutes before I shoot the torpedoes, so time isn't an issue. Connecting the two radar positions and extending the line in the direction of movement establishes their course closely enough. Then I submerge well before he is in sight.

At that point, you have never seen the target but know all you have to, and that does not include its identification at all. You know pretty much exactly where he is through the rest of the attack without even looking at him because he is at the intersection of the sonar bearing and target track.

So don't even look! Just set yourself up at the correct angle to the track for your chosen method, get darned close to the track to mitigate any errors, set the torpedoes for speed, depth and pistol, double-check the TDC for a zero gyro shot, eat lunch, play a few hands of poker and when youir sonar man says his bearing is 5º before your shoot bearing you can raise the scope for your first look ever at the target, ten seconds before you shoot.

Then it's push, push, boom, boom, sink, sink and you can finish that last poker hand. It can all be quite hectic depending on which variety of poker you are playing at the time...

Now, at what point in the process did the identification of that target become important?

[Blood_splat]

When I do the Dick O'Kane method I never ID my target.

RR wrote...

Now, at what point in the process did the identification of that target become important?

Well, you do need to set a depth for the torpedos. Although I will admit that I frequently just generically set torps at 13-15'.

Urge

[Frederf]

Oh, so it not only requires radar (which you don't have 1/2 of the war). Thank you for your universal technique.

Next you'll be saying we should use MK18 torpedoes in 1941.

[JREX53]

Frederf,

You can get Surface Search Radar as early as May/June 1942.