Navigation in real life

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

One area related to celestial navigation DID influence the Captain and we have no analog in the game. That area is error mitigation.

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The correct way to plot a course is to purposely steer a bit further to the north or south .......

It makes sense to me.

If we had to do this, we would probably want distinctive lighthouses and landmarks in our game. Generic features wouldn't help us much.

Originally Posted by BigWalleye

SH5 has a really good implementation of "real navigation." Own position is not shown on the nav map. At regular intervals and when ordered, the navigator takes a sighting. Of course,the boat must be surfaced amd the weather clear. Then it takes a variable length of time for him to work up his sighting. His accuracy and speed depend on his skill. When he's done, your estimated position is marked on the map. For a faster result, the navigator will do a DR from the last celestial fix. The error of the DR plot increases with time from the cel fix. The Kaleun doesn't actually do anything - except worry about where his boat really is.

If someone, who had some programming skills wanted to, most of this could be implemented in SH4. I guess we would have to mark the position on the map ourselves, but we could have randomized errors as a function of navigator skill, etc.

Of course, we would then have to plot our own progress, turns and all, even during our approaches. I'm not sure how many would want to do it. I am presuming those interested in this would not be using map-contacts. It wouldn't make much sense to know our enemies' positions more accurately than we know our own.