That Damn Clock!

[STEED]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Drag all but a tiny bit of the edge of it offscreen. That way when it pops up, you'll never notice it.

Indeed I did this within the first five minutes of starting to play SH4.

[Rockin Robbins]

First of all, I refuse to slink beneath the surface all day trying to avoid pesky airplanes. If I want to sink ships I have to cover real estate. That means being on the surface every possible second. So I run around at high TC until a plane is sighted. The clock downshifts to 1x. I draw a 5 mile radius circle around my sub with the compass and immediately increase TC to 16 or 32x, checking whether the plane will enter the circle. And if it's not up, I pop up the clock with the "x" key.

If the plane is going to enter the circle, I time it and dive to periscope depth and immediately hit the "+" three times. I watch the second hand to get 5 minutes, decrease TC to 16 or 32x, surface, check the radar and back to high TC until the next plane.

This use of the clock eliminates periscope use and keeps me on the surface and at high TC almost all the time. Even when I'm avoiding the plane I'm not below 16x, so the whole submerge, wait, surface cycle takes less than a minute real time.

Yup, at first I was annoyed at the clock. Now it's my good buddy.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

First of all, I refuse to slink beneath the surface all day trying to avoid pesky airplanes. If I want to sink ships I have to cover real estate. That means being on the surface every possible second. So I run around at high TC until a plane is sighted. The clock downshifts to 1x. I draw a 5 mile circle around my sub with the compass and immediately increase TC to 16 or 32x, checking whether the plane will enter the circle. And if it's not up, I pop up the clock with the "x" key.

If the plane is going to enter the circle, I time it and dive to periscope depth and immediately hit the "+" three times. I watch the second hand to get 5 minutes, decrease TC to 16 or 32x, surface, check the radar and back to high TC until the next plane.

This use of the clock eliminates periscope use and keeps me on the surface and at high TC almost all the time. Even when I'm avoiding the plane I'm not below 16x, so the whole submerge, wait, surface cycle takes less than a minute real time.

Yup, at first I was annoyed at the clock. Now it's my good buddy.

Wow that all sounds complicated.. . I use it to tell what time of day it is :p

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Wow that all sounds complicated.. . I use it to tell what time of day it is :p

So that's what the blasted thing is really for!:rotfl:

[Powerthighs]

Once you get the first radar contact on an airplane how do you tell if it moves into a 5 mile radius around your sub? Do you wait for a visual contact report?

[NefariousKoel]

Originally Posted by Powerthighs

Once you get the first radar contact on an airplane how do you tell if it moves into a 5 mile radius around your sub? Do you wait for a visual contact report?

You could use the compass and make a 5nm circle from your location...

Or wait for a buzzing sound followed by explosions and gunfire.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Powerthighs

Once you get the first radar contact on an airplane how do you tell if it moves into a 5 mile radius around your sub? Do you wait for a visual contact report?

Going to edit the whole blasted thing as I made some screenies that show the process better. First you draw a 5 nm circle around your boat. Then from the point of the airplane, you can draw 2 lines tangent to the circle. This will make a cone shape with the sides of the cone the limits within which you will have to dive.

So there you go: airplane detected and lines drawn. Sorry it's so close to the sub, but it really shows up better that way. Have you noticed that once and awhile radar will detect a plane for the first time this close to your sub? Plenty of time! Let's watch the Nip and see where he's going...

Well, question answered. He's inside the cone and that means he's going to penetrate our 5 nm radius. There's plenty of time. Dive when convenient. Finish your coffee first.

That's it! This allows you to never see or be seen by a plane, while allowing you to stay on the surface almost all the time. Your tonnage goes up, you stay undamaged and you don't have to slink around all day under the surface like a coward. You can't sink too many ships if you're hiding in a rat hole. And you have time to finish your coffee!