IJN BBs visual contact range??

LCQ_SH · 03-29-14, 05:04 PM

Does anybody know the maximum range in which a BB can make visual contact?

I am asking because right now I am in Dec 1941 intercepting an IJN Task Force heading to Borneo. I am 12km away from them........they are going at high speed (so no sonar could have spot me, thinking in a correct simulation of escorts sensors, and no radar available in that time (if it were, my signal would be very week I guess...) so why I'm being spotted from so far??

Anybody?

Using TMO, RSRD for TMO and traveller 2.6

Greetings!

TabbyHunter · 03-29-14, 06:11 PM

From what I know of TMO,...it boosts the IJN's ability to detect you to an insane extent......Atleast I think it was TMO.....SH4 Supermods confuse me. My suggestion, keep a range of them being over the horizon and try to get ahead of them. Submerge, silent running, ect ect and pick your targets when they come to you.

Admiral Halsey · 03-29-14, 06:16 PM

Well it depends on a lot of factors really. Your subs speed, time of day, weather etc. Rule of thumb is don't let them get closer then 10 miles or so during the day and no closer then 7 at night before submerging.

BigWalleye · 03-29-14, 06:22 PM

You don't mention whether you were surfaced or submerged. If surfaced, then sighting at a range of 6 nm from the top of a 12-story building in tropical summer visibility isn't too surprising. Even at night, if your were traveling on the surface at high speed, lookouts well-trained in night operations and equipped with arguably the best night-vision optics available at the time might spot you at that range. It's not implausible.

But, if you were submerged, just chalk it up to TMO. TMO is not about realism in a physical sense. To loosely paraphrase Ducimus, it's about making the player feel a historically appropriate sense of risk and uncertainty. In no way should you expect the IJN in TMO to be limited by what is physically possible. If you want physical realism, try RFB, although RFB is an orphan and hasn't been updated since 2010. But in RFB, 'tis said, you begin knowing too much from history, like that IJN depth changes never were set deep in the early war. YMMV.

Admiral Halsey · 03-29-14, 06:41 PM

Actually RSRD undoes a decent bit of the stuff the TMO did to the destroyers and planes.

Sniper297 · 03-29-14, 07:50 PM

"I am 12km away from them"

That's why they're picking on you, using them heathen infidel metric kilometers instead of honest yards and nautical miles in 1941.

merc4ulfate · 03-29-14, 10:38 PM

I have read war reports from sub skippers on the allied side who were spoted at 10,000 yards.

TorpX · 03-29-14, 11:21 PM

12 km is only about 6.5 nm., and this is not an implausible figure. Especially, if it was a clear day, and you were going fast.

03-29-14, 05:04 PM	#1
LCQ_SH Lieutenant Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 266 Downloads: 176 Uploads: 0	IJN BBs visual contact range?? Does anybody know the maximum range in which a BB can make visual contact? I am asking because right now I am in Dec 1941 intercepting an IJN Task Force heading to Borneo. I am 12km away from them........they are going at high speed (so no sonar could have spot me, thinking in a correct simulation of escorts sensors, and no radar available in that time (if it were, my signal would be very week I guess...) so why I'm being spotted from so far?? Anybody? Using TMO, RSRD for TMO and traveller 2.6 Greetings!

03-29-14, 10:38 PM	#7
merc4ulfate DILLIGAF Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: florida Posts: 2,058 Downloads: 210 Uploads: 0	I have read war reports from sub skippers on the allied side who were spoted at 10,000 yards. __________________ Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. ~Isaac Asimov~ Mercfulfate 将補日本帝國海軍

03-29-14, 06:11 PM	#2
TabbyHunter Ensign Join Date: May 2010 Location: Pandora. Not the blue cat people Pandora... Posts: 227 Downloads: 52 Uploads: 0	From what I know of TMO,...it boosts the IJN's ability to detect you to an insane extent......Atleast I think it was TMO.....SH4 Supermods confuse me. My suggestion, keep a range of them being over the horizon and try to get ahead of them. Submerge, silent running, ect ect and pick your targets when they come to you.

03-29-14, 06:16 PM	#3
Admiral Halsey Best Admiral in the USN Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: USS Enterprise (CV-6) Posts: 1,740 Downloads: 317 Uploads: 0	Well it depends on a lot of factors really. Your subs speed, time of day, weather etc. Rule of thumb is don't let them get closer then 10 miles or so during the day and no closer then 7 at night before submerging.

03-29-14, 06:22 PM	#4
BigWalleye Sea Lord Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: On the Eye-lond, mon! Posts: 1,987 Downloads: 465 Uploads: 0	You don't mention whether you were surfaced or submerged. If surfaced, then sighting at a range of 6 nm from the top of a 12-story building in tropical summer visibility isn't too surprising. Even at night, if your were traveling on the surface at high speed, lookouts well-trained in night operations and equipped with arguably the best night-vision optics available at the time might spot you at that range. It's not implausible. But, if you were submerged, just chalk it up to TMO. TMO is not about realism in a physical sense. To loosely paraphrase Ducimus, it's about making the player feel a historically appropriate sense of risk and uncertainty. In no way should you expect the IJN in TMO to be limited by what is physically possible. If you want physical realism, try RFB, although RFB is an orphan and hasn't been updated since 2010. But in RFB, 'tis said, you begin knowing too much from history, like that IJN depth changes never were set deep in the early war. YMMV.

03-29-14, 06:41 PM	#5
Admiral Halsey Best Admiral in the USN Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: USS Enterprise (CV-6) Posts: 1,740 Downloads: 317 Uploads: 0	Actually RSRD undoes a decent bit of the stuff the TMO did to the destroyers and planes.

03-29-14, 07:50 PM	#6
Sniper297 The Old Man Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Philadelphia Shipyard Brig Posts: 1,386 Downloads: 160 Uploads: 19	"I am 12km away from them" That's why they're picking on you, using them heathen infidel metric kilometers instead of honest yards and nautical miles in 1941.

03-29-14, 11:21 PM	#8
TorpX Silent Hunter Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 3,975 Downloads: 153 Uploads: 11	12 km is only about 6.5 nm., and this is not an implausible figure. Especially, if it was a clear day, and you were going fast.