How do you ID flags at night?

[vonCrandall]

Clear night and at 1k away I still couldn't make out the flag. I figured that since there was no illumination on board and no lights pointing at the flag that it had to be 'hiding' and on the list of countries we are at war with.

Apparently not; it was Japanese. : /

How do you guys ID flags? Or do you just have to get lucky and get close enough? Makes for pretty horrible night hunting.

[Missing Name]

Sadly, you are quite limited, as the game does not model "cruiser rules." IE you can't inspect a ship's cargo.

Close into minimum torpedo range (~400 metres). You should be able to see the flags in light weather and limited clouds (if there is moonlight, of course!). The presence of defensive arms are also a giveaway.

Don't attack lone merchants at night - convoys are more likely to have enemy or enemy "neutral" shipping.

[kurodai fischer]

i use Flags_enlighten mod v1.0. Mod by DivingDuck and Rubini. its brighter at night than normal flag.

In GWX neutral ships are regularly lighted up so it's pretty easy to identify them. However it's advisable to make sure of unlighted ships, too. Sometimes the location where you spot the ship can help find out her nationality: i.e. in the Western Approaches ships are mostly allied, though in the North Sea (early war) besides hostile units you can run into neutral and friendly units as well. In this case you should check the heading of the ship. If she's sailing towards/from the direction of an Allied nation such as Britain, France or USA, she's likely (but still not one hundred percent surely) to be hostile.
Furthermore, keep in mind enemy merchants when spotting your U-boat will start zigzagging forthwith, while neutrals won't.
In a stormy, rainy and foggy moonless night whit low or zero visibility hunting is like the lottery...

[Pisces]

Turn off ANY light around your monitor. If there is a wall behind it that reflects ambient light, turn of those lights too. Make it as dark as possible. Even obscure or turn of any bright white displayed objects on the screen. Your eyes tune their sensitivity to the brightest spot they can see. So it kills your ability to detect smal changes in intensity in the darker areas on the screen, if there are bright elements in your view. Hit the Del key (keypad .) to remove the user interface overlay.

To make it realistic, only have a red light nearby to allow you to see your keyboard. But that could also distort your perception of yellow/orange.red colors on flags.

[Jaystew]

I used the Nvidia control panel to boost the gamma, I tried just about everything on a CRT monitor but even in the dark at night, the flags were impossible to make out beyond 500m and the whole environment was so dark I couldnt see anything past 1500m.

My gamma is set to 1.59 which is pretty high but not so high the rest of the colors have noticeable bleed, Could even go with 1.5, any improvement is helpful. I tried turning up brightness and contract on the monitor itself but that didnt help.

Basically I don't think its unrealistic that you cant id the flags at night until you are about 1km at night, that is pretty realistic I think, sometimes, you have to make best guess what you are looking at too. More for the shapes.

Real darkness, your eyes dont see colors they see shapes at very low light levels.

[Otto Fuhrmann]

Just get close, and if you can't make it out, let them go. A lone merchant isn't so important anyways. If it is in convoy just assume it is hostile shipping.

[Arnold]

Just for giggles, on my last patrol, I enabled the external camera and used it as a jet pack. Bernard got "drafted" for the mission. It was January, 1940, near the Norway coastline. We got a sound report, steered in that direction, surfaced and strapped Bernard into his jet pack. In heavy seas, at night, Bernard flew off in the direction of the contact. Several hours later he returned ,shivering, to report the contact was a neutral Norwegian freighter. He had flown close enough to the ship to identify the flag.

[Gustav Schiebert]

IRL U-boat commanders had much the same problem. That's why neutrals usually light up their flags like the 20th Century Fox sign - and why regulations usually referred to areas in which 'unlit merchants', rather than 'enemy merchants', could be sunk. Generally the zones were widely known, so neutrals in the area had no excuse if they were sunk. I seem to remember you get radio messages telling you the unlit sinking zones throughout the war, but this isn't reflected in the renown system.

In reality, if you sunk an unlit merchant at night in the North Atlantic you wouldn't be penalised.

[flag4]

Originally Posted by Pisces

But that could also distort your perception of yellow/orange.red colors on flags.

...that has happened to me on quite a few occasions.

get in close and, as probably happened in real life, you sometimes have to take a chance in the heat of battle...

[raymond6751]

Never mind the techno tricks. A real boat captain had to figure it out based on things like lights, course, sea area, and perhaps starshell.

Starshell is the last thing I would consider for a mere merchant ship.

Depending on the time of day, you could consider shadowing on the surface until dawn. This is what really happened. Sub men must be patient.

I just read a book about the Pacific sub war. It was not unheard of to shadow ships all night long.

Alternately, based on her course and speed, you could calculate where to be at dawn in order to intercept the target. Then race off to be there first.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by raymond6751

Depending on the time of day, you could consider shadowing on the surface until dawn. This is what really happened. Sub men must be patient.

Best advice on this question, ever!

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Best advice on this question, ever!

Seconded!

[Father Goose]

Originally Posted by raymond6751

Never mind the techno tricks. A real boat captain had to figure it out based on things like lights, course, sea area, and perhaps starshell.

Starshell is the last thing I would consider for a mere merchant ship.

Depending on the time of day, you could consider shadowing on the surface until dawn. This is what really happened. Sub men must be patient.

I just read a book about the Pacific sub war. It was not unheard of to shadow ships all night long.

Alternately, based on her course and speed, you could calculate where to be at dawn in order to intercept the target. Then race off to be there first.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Best advice on this question, ever!

Originally Posted by Pisces

Seconded!

Thirded! Thirded?
Well anyway, I was researching this question when I came across this thread. (The search button is your friend.)
It is a great answer, not the one the impatient player wants to hear. Nevertheless, the correct answer.

I looked up Raymond's profile and just as I suspected, a retired old guard. A man who has the patience to conduct his sub operations the proper way. Well done!

[flag4]

Originally Posted by vonCrandall

How do you guys ID flags? Or do you just have to get lucky and get close enough? Makes for pretty horrible night hunting.

...get in close - 500 meters or less.