Idea for realism for Real Navigation

[sub2]

It may be a sound idea that we have a real navigation mod which is not based on the captain/player taking star/sun sightings, but is passive. The captain/player will rely on a navigation map updated by the AI navigator according to whether the weather has been clear enough for sightings to be made. If not, a dead reckoning ship position will be displayed whose accuracy/inaccuracy is dependent on factors such as when the last sighting was made and the speed/progress of the ship made during bad weather, or progress whilst submerged. The dead reckoning plot point could be surrounded by a circle meaning that the ship can actually be at any point in that circle. As we see in 'Das Boot' it is the navigator who takes the navigation readings and fixes position, not the captain. Nevertheless the player/captain will be forced to think according to this new dimension.

[FIREWALL]

I like it. Now go make it.

[sub2]

well...I don't know how. Though if there were classes in modding I'd join up straight away. Had the idea for this mod today whilst driving my London bus.

[Sailor Steve]

I mentioned something similar a couple of years ago. It goes along with the concept that the WE Assist is a good idea, but is flawed because he's perfect. A semi-auto navigation aid which was run by the computer is the ideal compromise.

But I don't think it could be made to work in SH3.

Originally Posted by sub2

Had the idea for this mod today whilst driving my London bus.

I'm glad I don't ride the bus in London!

[ETsd4]

Originally Posted by sub2

The dead reckoning plot point could be surrounded by a circle meaning that the ship can actually be at any point in that circle.

Also a position fix is not an exact position.
Every fix contains errors or inaccuracies.
A Fix needs ca. 10min - 30min of work.
A fix coud have ...
- watch-error (fast/slow watch)
- sextant-error (index-error of the sextant)
- inaccuracies of sextant readings because of the rock of the boat in the waves (0.10 degree error = 10 nm error!)
- reading mistakes of nautical almanac tables during star-fix/sun-fix-calculations
- falsely pick up the wrong star in cloudy weatherconditions during a 3-star-fix
- inaccurate "reading" of the horizon in heavy weather, twilight-condition and/or night conditions.
- calculation mistakes (rounding errors, calculation errors) during fix-calculation.

This is a part of a 3-star-fix-calculation, using the Intercept-Method:

[danzig70]

Nice job!

I wonder if it would be possible to add a sextant on the bridge in the same manner as the UZO or binoculars. It would have to swivel up/down, left/right and have the altitude visible in the view port, but might be interesting.

[postalbyke]

Magui has a sextant... it's hidden behind the stopwatch in the captain's log screen
There is a slight problem with the stars, though... I took some quick sightings just to draw a triangle on the map, and found that i'm almost always off the east coast of britain...?

Request someone reproduces the experiment...

[Pisces]

I think this is the best solution to celestial navigation in SH3/SH4:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=135215

It requires an external script program to get the location from the savegame, and another planetarium program to draw sky and measure the stars. But it comes as close as possible to the accuracy you can expect from the real thing. The sextant used in most mods are just too crude to make a reasonable fix.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by sub2

It may be a sound idea that we have a real navigation mod which is not based on the captain/player taking star/sun sightings, but is passive. The captain/player will rely on a navigation map updated by the AI navigator according to whether the weather has been clear enough for sightings to be made. If not, a dead reckoning ship position will be displayed whose accuracy/inaccuracy is dependent on factors such as when the last sighting was made and the speed/progress of the ship made during bad weather, or progress whilst submerged. The dead reckoning plot point could be surrounded by a circle meaning that the ship can actually be at any point in that circle. As we see in 'Das Boot' it is the navigator who takes the navigation readings and fixes position, not the captain. Nevertheless the player/captain will be forced to think according to this new dimension.

I have done this for SH5 but it would be really hard to do for SH3 due to it's lack of scripting/extending ability (a form of Python). Adding code to the SH3 exe would be one way of doing it though.