Question about Radio Contacts

Has anyone ever received a Radio Contact (those within the 300km range) that was anything other than a single ship or an occasional two ship contact? Has anyone every received a contact report of any kind about a merchant ship convoy?

I've played SH3 for almost one year and have just recently reinstalled the stock game with the addition of Grey Wolves. I've always thought the stock game played too much like an arcade game so I usually reduce the the 300km Radio Contacts to 25km - 50km range. I think this has a more realistic feel. Any opinions on this?

[joea]

Well I do receive convoy contact reports but they are noted as convoys in the message. Plus the square is usually a bit larger. (Using RUB 1.45) I think you may miss out on convoys doing what you do...better to reduce the number of single ships but I hope someone else with more knowledge about that chimes in.

[robj250]

I don't think you'll get much convoy action with the restriction you put on your range.

With single contacts reduced to 300 km but convoys left alone, the odds are you'll get a convoy report long before it's that close. Of course sometimes you'll run into a convoy without ever getting a report.

[robj250]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

With single contacts reduced to 300 km but convoys left alone....

Ooops, I didn't know there were two separate figures. I didn't look.

[tycho102]

Originally Posted by robj250

Ooops, I didn't know there were two separate figures. I didn't look.

Important contacts are the convoys, I believe. Opportunity are the singles.

During the war, uboats were always being attacked as soon as they reported a convoy. They eventually learned to race at top speed for an hour, report the convoy's position, then race toward a firing position while combat ships closed in on the radio transmission position.

What I'm saying here is that convoys were radio'd in all the time. Certainly not every convoy, which is one of the limitations of SH3.

So, I have my "important" contacts cranked up to 8000km, and then I choose to which convoy would be most likely to have been reported. During the early years, they were intercepting them closer to England because they couldn't get enough uboats out into the middle of the Atlantic to get the contact report earlier.