Blind navigation

[Boris]

Moin moin Kaleuns,

Has anyone ever considered if it is possible to get rid of the standard course plotting autopilot?

What if the position of your boat wasn't even marked and you had to do all of the navigational plotting yourself... you could even get lost.

This way you would have to use the speed/distance tables to work out how far you have gone in a certain amount of time and continue to plot your position on the map.
It would add a whole new element to the game.

Just a thought...

Boris Well I think its possible to create that kind of mod.

First

Edit the tga bearing mod - make him transparent (easy to do it in Fotoshop).

Second

Delete the course ploting tool - (the player will have to plote the corse using a compass only)

Third
Make some changes in TDC.

But with that kind if realizm using a time comprasion can be very dangerous - (Sorry for my bad English)

[THE_MASK]

Better idea . Have auto navigation or manual navigation selectible in the realism boxs .

[irish1958]

You would need some sort of a sextant to check your location, an accurate clock and a set of reliable tables to make this real.
I don't know if the stars are realistic in SHIII.
This would be a cool feature in SHIV as an elective.
irish1958

[Rosencrantz]

Hmm, I think sky is "realistic" BUT there is some "error" in its "stars positions" if the sky of SHIII is compared to RL sky of those years 1939 - 1945. I'm not a professional when speaking about navigation, so someone more skilled, please, confirm this.

-RC-

[don1reed]

I've been down this path before, also.

Here's what I've discovered.

1) The F5 chart screen is not accurate due to x/y ratio. (it's just eye candy for dragging and dropping a course.)

2) I've tried sailing Great Circle courses and Rhumblines as plotted on real charts, using Omar Reis's computer NAVIGATOR program running in the background and use a Texas Instruments TI-86 with onboard Naviation program from StarPath School of Navigation; in both cases the course being true on a real chart, comes no where near the destination on the SH3 F5 chart.

3) Both of my real navigation programs have ephemeral celestial data for the war years and although the celestial canopy is 'purty' in SH3 it is nowhere near accurate. The Moon is also...just eye-candy with some correct phases. for good measure.

4) A real Kriegsmarine chart for the Nord Atlantischer Ozean has planquadrats that are 'squares' up to about 50°N, where they start to become retangles with a longer vertical aspect rather than what they look like in SH3, longer horizontally. This makes it difficult to determine one's Geo Coord due to the distortion of the Mercatur projection.
-...-

One could still navigate with compass sailing alone. Just don't use the course plotter. You can use the ruler to draw lines (rudimentary course)...then try...try to follow them with compass sailing alone.

Once you plot your course route from point A to point B, Zoom in on the F5 screen so you can no longer see adjoining land masses. Sail by compass and D = ST.

You'll find that storms and other internal forces wiill cause your boat to ... drift.

One other thing...

keep your TC to no greater than 128

Edit: You could also update your location plot only while surfaced (simulating sextant usage, and then, only on cloudless days/twilights)

A good test would be...

just prior to starting a patrol, use the ruler to measure courses and distances to the assigned square, jot them down then erase them from the F5 screen. Zoom in on the F5 screen to where you can see your boat or at least where the little squares show up, then begin your patrol, trying to navigate there and back with compass sailing and Distance = Speed x Time alone.

cheers,

[ref]

Or you can do as I do, check that the Nav officer is on board before leaving shore...

Ref

[don1reed]

Originally Posted by don1reed

You can use the ruler to draw lines (rudimentary course)...then try...try to follow them with compass sailing alone.

Never thought of that. I'm going to try it soon, especially in bad weather.

[Keelbuster]

This is a cool topic. It sounds insanely hard to navigate, and I shudder at the idea of plotting a manual targetting attack without the ownship's 'truth' position. But, i suppose that's how they did it eh?

This would be a wicked feature in SHIV. It would make the endless transit that goes on much more uncertain, difficult, meaningful, adventurous....

Kb

[don1reed]

A great guy over at PTC, George Southrey, created a way to navigate this way with the orig SilentHunter, because the chart screen of that sim is also hosed up.

Although running the mouse over your position gave you your Lat/Long, the actual Lat/Long lines on the chart were not in (60' = 1°) increments. It was extremely difficult to navigate with SH also.

[Myxale]

Wow, thats quite the thing. But having that in Game would probably beat all mods before!

Then every Kaleun here could boast of bein a true navi.

:hmm:

I wish the weather would effect the travelling also. I remember a scene in the Das Boot movie where the Captain was mad at the Navigator because he could not tell exactly where their posiition was due to all the bad weather they had been in. They got off course quite a bit if I recall.

[Salvadoreno]

Bah i dont think this is possible without proper instruments aboard our computer subs and in-depth navigational papers along with properly accurate star placement etc.. Im just gonna hope this i added in SHIV ala Realism check box. That would be great! But if any1 can find ways around the hard-coded SH3 model, then ill try it out!