Ship Drifts Off Course

[Pisces]

The helmsman seems to go out for a coffee or something when he is near the commanded heading. And doesn't keep his hands on the rudder wheel until you tell him to stear to a different heading. Bug or lack of realism, I don't know what Ubisoft was thinking. Wrong for sure.

The only way to avoid this wandering of heading (likely due to numerical integration steps adding up small errors in to big ones over time) is to use waypoint placed far away on the map (on land if need be). So the helmsman won't ever be able to home into the waypoint location, but still keeps tracking the heading to it.

I remember people have tested if the boat is drifted of course by wind/weather. I don't know who any more, too long ago. But it was here in the forums for sure. It didn't seem to correlate with wind speeds and direction. There are no currents in the SH3 world (atleast not in the mission editor) so that can't be a reason either.

Maybe this can be corrected with some hardcode fixes to the sh3.exe.

[UKönig]

I never really considered a wandering watch as a "bug", more of an annoyance. I like to think its because Ubisoft wants you to pay attention to your sub and crew. That is, don't just put everything on "automatic" and go wash your car or make a sandwich, or pay the bills. It's like being the captain, in that, now you have to supervise and monitor the actions of your officers and crew. Just as in real life, people make mistakes. Even highly trained servicemen(women) can mess things up in the right situations. Maybe that's their attempt to program the concept of "nobody's perfect"

[Zosimus]

My normal routine: I get a hydrophone contact and proceed toward the ship submerged at flank. When I get the second hydrophone contact I realize that the ship is heading 50º Port or heading 310º give or take. Mindful of the problems with the wandering ships, I use a waypoint to take me on my calculated intercept course. Awhile later I get "ship spotted" and my watch officer informs me that the ship is 4200m and closing. Since I consider this range to be perilously close and an unacceptable risk of detection, I call "Back slow" and start to try to figure out the ship's speed, exact trajectory, range, etc.

Meanwhile my fine navigator and helmsman go hard port, and start slowly backing toward the waypoint. Before I can measure the ship's speed it starts to zigzag.

Is there no better solution to wandering ships than waypoints?

[Pistoliero]

Another thing about drift I noticed- when my uboat is submerged at 140-160+ depth, sometimes it can't follow plotted course and start to circulate instead.
Is it proper behaviour of deeply submerged sub or some bug?

[desirableroasted]

Originally Posted by Zosimus

I call "Back slow" and start to try to figure out the ship's speed, exact trajectory, range, etc.

Meanwhile my fine navigator and helmsman go hard port, and start slowly backing toward the waypoint. Before I can measure the ship's speed it starts to zigzag.

Is there no better solution to wandering ships than waypoints?

Your helmsman is just doing what you told him to do. When you order him to go to Point A, he will try to carry out that order until you override it. By telling him "back slow", you have not overridden it... you have only told him to get there in reverse.

To override, you need to either set a new course, or set your rudder.

[UKönig]

Originally Posted by Pistoliero

Another thing about drift I noticed- when my uboat is submerged at 140-160+ depth, sometimes it can't follow plotted course and start to circulate instead.
Is it proper behaviour of deeply submerged sub or some bug?

This is exactly what happens to me. The more skilled my Navigator is, the less likely he makes mistakes, but, every so often, when at 140m+, he loses his way and starts turning in circles, our U-boat now a dog chasing its tail.

When on the surface, with regular navigational fixes, they don't get lost, and can in fact, be trusted to follow any course I plot for them, no matter how twisty.

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by Zosimus

...
Meanwhile my fine navigator and helmsman go hard port, and start slowly backing toward the waypoint. Before I can measure the ship's speed it starts to zigzag.

Is there no better solution to wandering ships than waypoints?

Nothing wrong with waypoints in itself, just with where you place them. My previous message suggest to place them far away, with the intent of never reaching it. Using the compass icon on the waypoint mousecursor (I hope your mods provide similar functionality as this.) you can set the waypoint track to the intended intercept course.

[goosechase]

Hi everybody, I know I'm a little late in joining this discussion but I'm new to the game and I'm having trouble with going round in circles (I'm using GWX 3.0)
When I plot a course and reach a waypoint the ship just starts going round in circles, I assumed this was a bug and I was going to make a new thread but found this one after searching.
I have experimented with time compression and the distance between waypoints/sharpness of turn and nothing has seemed to work. I'm new to the game and this practically renders it unplayable so you can imagine how it's giving me that sinking feeling lol. Is there a general consensus on how to fix/avoid this problem? It's killing me
PS: I'm only playing on 34% realism (noob)

to expand a little I don't really want to set far away waypoints for example: In the happy times single mission I go ahead and devastate the convoy with an attack then dive down deep and plot a course to turn around(to avoid the depth charging and shake off the escorts), head back out of the area, turn around again and come back towards the convoy (to surface and check for any wounded and stationary ships to finish off) The course is supposed to take two hours to complete (silent running) and I intend to sit back and soak up the tension of being depth charged for an hour or so. However I reach a waypoint and round and round I go.
It's worth noting I'm not doing 180 degree turns and I'm not putting waypoints super close together and like I said, I have experimented but ALWAYS go round in circles. I don't want to start a campaign until I know I can plot a course and don't have to worry. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Pisces]

How much time compression you use in those events? I have hardly ever experienced going around in circles after reaching a waypoint. Most of the time the nearest waypoint gets flushed and it steers to the next one.

[goosechase]

Thank you for the response. I thought at first that time compression was the problem. Problem occurs at 1:1 as well as at faster speeds (I don't remember exactly) x32 and x64 etc.

Also i have noticed my boat is turning the opposite way so say, for example I plot a course and when I reach the first waypoint I need to turn to my port side to head for the second waypoint; my boat will start turning to starboard and proceed to turn to starboard indefinately.

[goosechase]

OK I have discovered that this only happens in the single missions not in the main campaign. Still strange though. Suppose I'll just have to jump straight in at the deep end!

[banryu79]

Originally Posted by goosechase

Thank you for the response. I thought at first that time compression was the problem. Problem occurs at 1:1 as well as at faster speeds (I don't remember exactly) x32 and x64 etc.

Also i have noticed my boat is turning the opposite way so say, for example I plot a course and when I reach the first waypoint I need to turn to my port side to head for the second waypoint; my boat will start turning to starboard and proceed to turn to starboard indefinately.

Why not to post a screenshot of you Navmap showing your waypoints?
An image it's worth a thousand words, expecially sorting out an issue like that...