Contact! What now?

[sixcoins]

Okeedokeee......


So, on my 4th patrol, I couldn't seem to chase anything down. Advice, anyone?

I'm chuggin along, a ship pops up on my map about 50 kilometers out....

stop drop and roll?

I mean...all stop, dive, and listen on the hydro? or... Head towards the contacts projected path...

Whats YOUR advice on standard procedure, here? I'm kinda all over the place. Is there a basic 10 point checklist I should be going through?

FYI- I understand every situation is different... and there are lots of ways to skin a cat...If you could come at me from an 'all things being equal' kind of perspective, that would be Subarashi! (wonderful)

Basic info will do, no need to get TOO detailed... But you can if you want!

Thanks in advance!

[NightCrawler]

Example, if you go north, and the target heading south-East, than the target comes to you...

Another sample, if the target goes south, and you heading west, than you should change course(interception course), than you go SouthWest, than the target comes to you

Example, if the target is behind you, in the same sector, than you could "all engine stop" and wait that target is nearby, and use the stern torp, you change course to west or east... most torpedo will be armed around 450 meter distance...

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by sixcoins

Okeedokeee......


So, on my 4th patrol, I couldn't seem to chase anything down. Advice, anyone?

I'm chuggin along, a ship pops up on my map about 50 kilometers out....

stop drop and roll?

I mean...all stop, dive, and listen on the hydro? or... Head towards the contacts projected path...
...

Well, since it is 50 kilometers out, it's not detected by your sensors (or crew). So hydrophone wont work. It must be a 'radio' report placed silently on the map. Once you click on this icon it should give an idea of it's course, speed and time of the icon. You can use that to draw the direction where it is going. If you follow the steps on the following drawing you can also meet him at the earliest possible time. (depending on how fast you want or can go)

[EDIT] If a significant amount of time has passed since the icon appeared, then you need to calculate his current position based on his probable speed. Once that is plotted you can start the steps of the drawing below.

Courtesy of Kylana for keeping it uploaded to his/her site:

[sublynx]

I would like to add that it would be wise to learn the habit of getting to position always as soon as possible. Later on the allied airplanes will make any long runs difficult, sometimes impossible.

So:
1. Get to visual/hydrophone/radar range as soon as possible
2. Get to torpedo/deck gun range as soon as possible while only just staying out of the target's visual range

- if he sees you he will start weaving, risking a missed shot

3. When in position, I would not wait. I would turn my boat towards the enemy and approach it. Even if you don't use a zigzag mod, the ship might change course anyways, or the weather might change for worse
4. If I used deck guns I would probably only use them at short range. Under 1000 meters. Every shot missed is a possibility that you run out of ammo and your last target stays afloat
5. If the target is valuable I might shoot three torpedoes. One just in front of the bow, one in the middle and the last one just after the stern of the ship. That means I get two guaranteed hits and one guaranteed miss - if my calculations were close and there are no duds. If you use automatic targeting, you probably need only one torpedo.

[derrinurban]

the method Pisces posted is what i have used for years. Works everytime. I usually start heading on a general intercept course while i do my plotting. I dont pause. Haven't missed a contact in forever using that method.

[Maceaciadh]

well you guys are very technical about all this plotting lol i just draw a line along their course and double there speed, so a ship going at 8 Kts travels 16Km(an overestimate but its good to arrive early) then work out roughly when i will intercept that ship based on my distance (i always use full for intercepts far enough away, flank gives you 1-2 extra Kts for alot of fuel waste). once i get there, just dive and listen. i should get there ahead or right on time if i wasn't far away which can throw off your angles which are given to you very roughly

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by derrinurban

the method Pisces posted is what i have used for years. Works everytime. I usually start heading on a general intercept course while i do my plotting. I dont pause. Haven't missed a contact in forever using that method.

Same here. I just use this method to intercept the contacts. 9 times out of 10 I arrive at the scene before the target and I have time to position the boat for an optimum shot.

[sublynx]

I also use the method Pisces described (or sometimes another one, if I'm pretty sure the contact report gives me a good course and speed estimate and the enemy has radar). I feel that by plotting the approach I save fuel, time and get a better chance of finding even those maximum distance contacts. It also somewhat lessens the risk of getting attacked while approaching the target, since by plotting my approach is faster than by my guesstimation.

Well, actually maybe the biggest reason for me plotting the approach, is that for some curious reason I kind of like it I wonder what my mathematics teacher would have said about this...

[sixcoins]

Originally Posted by Pisces

Thanks for this info.... I tried to find the original Kylania site but was unsuccessful finding anything SH3 related...

I finally had the chance to try this out, and on a convoy! Woo Hoo! Unfortunately, I came up short because I don't know what a scaling factor refers to, and couldn't find a definition....

So, I'm just using basic numbers and hoping to find the convoy....

I was hoping you might fill me in on what 'scaling factor' means?

Thanks in advance!

Six.

[sublynx]

Originally Posted by sixcoins

I was hoping you might fill me in on what 'scaling factor' means?

Here's a step by step tutorial on the method:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...utorial&page=8

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by sublynx

.... I wonder what my mathematics teacher would have said about this...

I'm sure he would be proud

[sublynx]

Originally Posted by melnibonian

I'm sure he would be proud

I hope so. She was kind of a tough lady. She might have said that I'm too careless to be trusted my boat's wellbeing on and that I should leave navigating to the Navigator and torpedo calculations to the Weapons officer

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by sixcoins

Thanks for this info.... I tried to find the original Kylania site but was unsuccessful finding anything SH3 related...

When I found the link to that image (after a dreadfull search in Google Images) I noticed from it (s)he had her own domain www.kylania.com So I figured she had a site. But you are right, seems only to be poetry.

I finally had the chance to try this out, and on a convoy! Woo Hoo! Unfortunately, I came up short because I don't know what a scaling factor refers to, and couldn't find a definition....

So, I'm just using basic numbers and hoping to find the convoy....

I was hoping you might fill me in on what 'scaling factor' means?

Thanks in advance!

Six.

The scaling factor isn't really important. It's just a thing to help it make visually clear. You could just draw it 1 km for 1 knot, and it would work correct all the time. It's just that the speed triangle could look really small compared to a far contact distance.

For example, if the distance to the contact is 150 km. And you plot the drawing with 1km to 1 knot. When zoomed out you have this jumbled bunch of navmap tools making up that speed triangle (blue line, red circle to point B, yellow angle). All confined in a region about 10 - 20 km in size, in the corner of the black and blue line. You can't make sense of the shape because it is so small.

If you draw the speeds 10 km to 1 knot then the speed triangle becomes larger. Comparable in size to the actual range to the contact.

Small drawings have a tendency to become a bit inaccurate. But if the green angle matches the number of the yellow one then all is good. If you enlarge the speed of the contact (blue line), then you need to enlarge your speed (red circle) with the same factor. Automagically the leg of the yellow angle on top of the black line, becomes your closing speed enlarged by the same ratio.

Only consider factors of 1, 10 or in rare casses 100. Other numbers make it confusing. This way, all you need to do is shift the decimal point.

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by Maceaciadh

well you guys are very technical about all this plotting lol i just draw a line along their course and double there speed, so a ship going at 8 Kts travels 16Km(an overestimate but its good to arrive early) then work out roughly when i will intercept that ship based on my distance (i always use full for intercepts far enough away, flank gives you 1-2 extra Kts for alot of fuel waste). once i get there, just dive and listen. i should get there ahead or right on time if i wasn't far away which can throw off your angles which are given to you very roughly

Well, yeah, I'm nuts that way. Give me a ruler, pencil and a compass and I am happy.

This way does get to be the required way more or less if you want to get them from far away. I once did a intercept sprint of atleast 12 hours at full speed (16+kts, so atleast 350+ km to go ). And I got there ahead of time. (It did help that the contact actually moved at 4 kts, instead of max 8 kts. But I didn't know that.) Doubling the speeds like you did would make a very cumbersome plot. I would have to expand the size 12 times. And this is just a systematic way that works in all cases in the same amount of time.

You'll even be able to tell if you'll never reach the contact. Then the red circle will never touch the black line because you are too slow. There won't be a point B. Give up now!

[Maceaciadh]

well i just drag my waypoint to the rough bearing line then move up and down to acquire the intercept and see if i can reach it. I wont travel to anything that moves more than 150KM along its course because the inaccuracy of the bearing throws you off by too much unless its a convoy or task force. the bearing varies +or- 11 degrees so you may be outside hydrophone range when you get there and they can pass right by you