Measuring speed?

[Supagoat]

Been looking and haven't seen anything on this posted, apologies if it's a repeat...

I'm a manual TDC kind of guy and I was doing fine with it but I couldn't see a way to measure the speed. The only option was for the guy to tell me we needed to take more measurements... How do I measure target speed?

Thanks!

[coasterdigi]

Take a couple of stadimeter readings a few minutes apart and the XO should be able to give you a speed estimate.

Or, do what I do (if you have map contacts on). Mark the position of the vessel on the map, time for 3:00, and then mark it again. Measure the distance between the two marks. The distance in KM will be the target's speed in knots!

[ddrgn]

You can do it the same way as before. In fact the question is where to take accurate range readings to give you accurate speed readings.

Depending on your realism level you may already be given that information by hovering over the ship icons in the minimap.

Other way to do this is to "0" your heading and drag the "0" line in front of the bow of the ship, start the clock, and end the clock when he is done crossing the stern.

By knowing the length of your target ship and the time (in seconds) it took for the ship to travel over the "0" line you can get the formula for his exact speed.

Theory:

So if your target ship is 147 meters long, and it took 44 seconds for the ship to cross your 0 line, you now know that the ship moved 2.49 meters per second. The formula for figuring meters per second into knots is 1m/s = 1.9 kts

Formula:

(147m) / (44s) x (1.9kts) = 6.3 knots.

Now if you convert using 1m/s = 2.0 kts, that's fine wont be much of a difference.

You can also take this reading from anywhere on the scope as long as your at dead stop.

[MAXLD]

Have you tried clicking/moving the mouse on top of the target ship (while on the map)? I've seen on youtube that a small panel appears on the bottom right side... seems that shows current distance and speed of the target... and seems you can write a exact number on TDC to compensate a little bit.

[ddrgn]

Originally Posted by MAXLD

Have you tried clicking/moving the mouse on top of the target ship (while on the map)? I've seen on youtube that a small panel appears on the bottom right side... seems that shows current distance and speed of the target... and seems you can write a exact number on TDC to compensate a little bit.

Sure can, even in 100% realism you can hover over the minimap until you find the ship and it will tell you its range and speed precisely. Kind of lame but with map contact update off its easier for me to use the tools I have than to fumble around with the minimap.

[Supagoat]

Cool, I'll try taking multiple stadimeter readings. I don't know if it's a known bug or something I'm doing wrong but I'm not getting contacts updated on my map despite having set that realism setting. It's the only 'cheat' I checked. But I can't go back to see if I did the right one so maybe I missed the checkbox.

[SteamWake]

You can change campaign 'difficulty' settings by hitting the escape key while in the pen.