What do the dashed circles mean?

[sharkbit]

Been playing for less than a week and I've been playing the tutorials and experimenting with some different approaches and getting the feel for the game. And having a blast.

I started the convoy attack tutorial, sunk a couple of ships with my first salvo. I came up astern of the convoy after I had reloaded and wanted to try an end around to get back in front of the convoy and maybe make a night surface attack. I plot a course to skirt the convoy at about 4000m and work my way around.
I'm on the surface and I'm messing around on the nav map, I notice that when I click on a ship, there is a dashed circle around the ship in addition to the information about the ship. The escorts have 2 different dashed arcs around them-one completely around them and the other partially around it, at a shorter range.

So my question is-What are these dashed circles that I'm seeing?

My guess is they are the visual range from each ship, and the second arc on the escorts is the asdic range, but before I could experiment, the game decided that 2 hours of play was enough and I got the "SIlent Hunter 3 has encountered a problem and must shut down..." message.

Of course, my theory leads to another question-

If this is a visual range indicator, is it the max range in ideal conditions(daylight, clear skies) or does it vary with conditions.

After dark, I was just in the inner circle of the trailing escort and nothing happened, but soon after, the game quit so I wasn't able to see what would happen.

[Frank0001]

Hello there, and welcome, new Kaleun!

I'm not sure I am allowed to welcome, seeing myself new too.
But here, your thought was right, it is the visual range of the ship. I am thinking it is for the best possible conditions, since I've approuched ships in bad weather pretty close before, but wasn't detected.

And yes, the inner circle is for the Asdic devices, stay clear of it!

[Graf Paper]

You're both fellow Kaleuns and with the full rights and privileges thereof.

Of course you can welcome others!

We're all inmates in the same asylum. :p

What you've said about the circles is true, Frank0001.

BIG circle is visual detection range in ideal conditions. Little circle is ASDIC detection radius.

Weather, day/night, and ocean states affect the ranges. Night time in terrible weather with huge waves churning the water means you can sometimes approach as close as 1000 meters before ASDIC picks you up and 700 meters before being spotted visually.

The "pie slice" missing in the rear of the ASDIC circle is a dead zone where the escorts can't hear you because of their own engine noise and wake. This is called being in their baffles. ASDIC is also useless for detecting u-boats running on the surface.

You can make it harder to be spotted visually and with ASDIC as well by sailing with "decks awash" where you set your u-boat's depth between 7 and 8 meters. If you do it right, only your conning tower will still be above water with your deck gun just barely showing.

This feature is not available in stock SH3. You either need to have GWX or manually edit your u-boat's configuration files.

Running with decks awash is also very useful for diving quickly without having to resort to a crash dive, such as in shallow waters. In areas with high enemy air traffic, it's also very useful for avoiding being ambushed by ASW planes.

The drawback is it uses a lot more fuel to do this and slows you boat's top speed down by 3 or 4 knots. Use it only when you need extra stealth on the surface or going into danger where diving in the shortest time possible means the difference between life an death.

If you do have GWX installed with SH3, I very much recommend you read through the GWX Manual. It has loads of useful information on tactics and historical u-boat operations.

If you do not yet have GWX...get it! It makes stock SH3 into a whole new game with more bug fixes and features than I have room or time to list here.

Oh! Welcome aboard, sharkbit!

[sharkbit]

So what have you found that works best when approaching or shadowing a target on the surface as far as visual range goes?

I read somewhere that a good rule of thumb is about 5000m max during the day and about 3000m max at night.

I'm sure it depends on conditions and you need to adjust those depending on the conditions and time frame(radar availibilty,experience, and such.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm glad that my assumption was correct. I just wanted to confirm it.

[Graf Paper]

For clear weather and relatively calm seas, 5km-6km is about right during daytime and 3km-4km for night.

Factors that alter this, aside from weather and sea state:

• U-boat speed. The faster you're going, the greater your wake and more easily noticed you become.
• The experience ranking of the crew aboard the enemy ship. Elite (1943-45) crews are eagle-eyed, Veteran (1941-43) can spot you most of the time, and Rookie (1939-1940) crews might miss you even at close range.
• Angle of approach. Ships lookouts have a harder time spotting you when you're approaching from their stern quarters.
• U-boat silhouette. Running broadside to a ship presents a larger silhouette that can be spotted more easily. Going at a ship with your bow toward it or having your stern facing the ship when moving away gives the smallest possible silhouette. This also applies when avoiding ASDIC while you're submerged.
• U-boat Type. The bigger your boat, the easier it is to spot, obviously.

Hope this info has been helpful in extending your survivability in the war.

[Brag]

Welcome aboard, Sharkbit.
There, you got some pretty good explanations that should help you from getting into serious trouble. We now expect great deeds from you. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[sharkbit]

Thanks.
There have been some great and helpful replies.

I started my 1st career patrol Friday night on Sept. 1, 1939 in a Type IIA.
Sank 1 small freighter in which I did a long range intercept on using the techniques I learned from this forum. Had a perfect approach once I sighted him. Unfortuneately, my 1st torpedo missed astern(ok-semi-perfect approach. ), but I got him with a second shot. Nothing else came my way and I was kinda worried about fuel state, so I didn't go swanning about looking for any more targets. I did see some possible intercepts but they were heading the wrong way.
I have to pay more attention to travel ranges at different speeds and such. I'm learning though.

So far, I'm having a blast.

[FIREWALL]

Hi sharkbit Welcome

This part you posted concerns me the most as it normally shouldn't be happening.


but before I could experiment, the game decided that 2 hours of play was enough and I got the "SIlent Hunter 3 has encountered a problem and must shut down..." message.


That is not normal SH-3 . Something is broke.

[Monica Lewinsky]

What do the dashed circles mean?

IT means something like this when Katrina hit New Orleans and FEMA sent buses to get you out!

Get out of Town!

http://learnabit.homeserver.com/lab/fema-rev.wmv

[sharkbit]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

Hi sharkbit Welcome

This part you posted concerns me the most as it normally shouldn't be happening.


but before I could experiment, the game decided that 2 hours of play was enough and I got the "SIlent Hunter 3 has encountered a problem and must shut down..." message.


That is not normal SH-3 . Something is broke.

I've played quite a bit since then, and the game has played flawlessly. I did a nice long 4 hour session on Friday and it ran without a single hiccup.
I don't know why it crashed that time. My computer is about 6 years old. I'm going to up the RAM and I'm working on a couple of video card issues.

[NealT]

You will find that upping the RAM will help quite a bit...particularly in unloading the game.

You will also find that from time to time, the program crashes. Just like every once in a while, any program will crash. Just happens. There are some circumstances that will cause it to crash more readily...and those can be found throughout these forums.

Welcome to the group and remember...

Stay out of Der Kanal and...

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!

[Frank0001]

Hehe, aggressiveness is good, but actually hitting something is better!