Bearing signal not working without map symbols?

[untugendbold]

Dear fellow captains,

i sometimes get a radio message that another submarine established a bearing signal to a target convoy, but I do not find a way to follow the source to that signal.

I play as "skipper" (restricted to first person view) and got map symbols disabled.
Does the signal rely on map symbols, or how do I otherwise follow directions? If map symbols are needed I would consider the behaviour to be notified about a bearing signal and no information from where it originates, to be a bug. Or am I missing something?

[SpaceBikerV]

What do you mean by map symbols? Radio reports use the blue cone thing similar to hydrophone contacts. I currently play with no contact visualisations so i have to manually plot and approximate the radio’s position. I don’t have experience in skipper mode to say much though

[XLjedi]

Just follow it the same way you do any other radio contact, assume the reported position is where it is now, and determine your course to intercept. To me, the only difference is, once you get there you might have another Uboat to order around.

[s0cks]

Yeah for some reason you don't get a visual indication of the radio signal when map contacts are off. You have to instead guess based on the reported square and their approx course.

[G-Rat13]

When you are on the map click the radio operator’s icon. It will give you a list of targets top left similar to hydrophone and bridge watch stations. Click on the radio target and you can then plot a intercept using ctrl + right click (if I remember right)

[Amsterdamaged]

It is tricky.. (i also play skipper only mode and no icons)

Because it's not always clear, are they speaking a course or a bearing? That is the confusing part..

Course = North is 0 degrees, South is 180 degrees

Bearing = The front of your uboat.. that's 0 degrees. The stern is 180 degrees..

Also.. when ships are zig zagging.. It becomes harder to figure out their course. Because they ain't going in a straight line.


Anyway, the icons on the right are bearings (i am 100% sure about that)
The info box on the left bottom (after you clicked on the icons on the right)

If i am not mistaken that's the course from your current position.


Because they don't explicitely say what is what.. it can be confusing, especially in the beginning. (I needed to do 8 patrols, without finding any ship.. before i realized what i did wrong, haha)

Anyway, your map and your tools on the left side, are you best friend, that's how you can figure out the course of any target.

[Dollburger]

Here's the three basics to real world nautical navigation - bearing, heading, and course. This game doesn't have complex factors like wind and tide, so for our purposes heading and course are the same thing, but in reality they are different terms.

Bearing - This is the angle between two points. The game uses relative bearings, so 0 is straight off your bow. If a ship is bearing 90 degrees then it's directly to your right.

Heading - This is simply the direction your boat is pointed based on the magnetic compass. 0 is north; 180 is south, etc. In the real world there is "true" north and "magnetic" north, but that's not in the game.

Course: Course is the intended direction of travel that factors in wind, tide, wave action, etc. In this game the heading and course are identical since these issues don't seem to impact your ship. In the real world when I am plotting a trip I have to factor these in to make sure I actually go where I want to since the boat doesn't just magically go in the direction the nose is pointed. Course will also use the magnetic compass.

[untugendbold]

Thank you all very much for your input and help!

I do not have a problem to actually intercept enemy ships and I do understand course, heading and bearing. I also know about the blue cones and the "ctrl + right click" to order an intercept course.

But in my game the blue cones are disabled for realism purposes and the "ctrl + right click" gives a message, that this function is not available. Which makes sense, because I tried to disable all the magic helpers. When I click my radio man, there are no targets to select from and when I visit the radio station myself, I got only the usual three options (call for supply, play music, leave station).

I just wanted to point out that the game wants to offer a bearing signal, but it is not implemented, if someone got map symbols disabled.

I assume it was possible for a submarine crew to home in on a moving signal, but how this was done is only simulated with the blue cones on the map and otherwise missing from the game. Could be, that it is because I am still in a Type II A submarine and that its radio capabilities were not sufficient (which would be cool!), but I guess that the bearing signal is in general only showing up as a map icon (blue cone) and there is no other (more realistic) way to achieve the same result if the player got the map helpers disabled.

The hydrophone on the other hand works perfectly fine without any map symbols. I follow changes in my targets bearing, adjust my heading until I am fine with my intercept course, and voila, enemy ship in sight. I wish something similar would be possible using radio signals.

[Mouse Rat]

Originally posted by untugendbold:

Thank you all very much for your input and help!

I do not have a problem to actually intercept enemy ships and I do understand course, heading and bearing. I also know about the blue cones and the "ctrl + right click" to order an intercept course.

But in my game the blue cones are disabled for realism purposes and the "ctrl + right click" gives a message, that this function is not available. Which makes sense, because I tried to disable all the magic helpers. When I click my radio man, there are no targets to select from and when I visit the radio station myself, I got only the usual three options (call for supply, play music, leave station).

I just wanted to point out that the game wants to offer a bearing signal, but it is not implemented, if someone got map symbols disabled.

I assume it was possible for a submarine crew to home in on a moving signal, but how this was done is only simulated with the blue cones on the map and otherwise missing from the game. Could be, that it is because I am still in a Type II A submarine and that its radio capabilities were not sufficient (which would be cool!), but I guess that the bearing signal is in general only showing up as a map icon (blue cone) and there is no other (more realistic) way to achieve the same result if the player got the map helpers disabled.

The hydrophone on the other hand works perfectly fine without any map symbols. I follow changes in my targets bearing, adjust my heading until I am fine with my intercept course, and voila, enemy ship in sight. I wish something similar would be possible using radio signals.

I just made a video explaining the 4 bearings method
And it should do exactly what you think i understand that you want. maybe?
not sure exactly what is the problem

https://youtu.be/27SshBePtd8

[untugendbold]

Originally posted by Mouse Rat:

I just made a video explaining the 4 bearings method
And it should do exactly what you think i understand that you want.

https://youtu.be/27SshBePtd8

Wow my man! This is interesting stuff! It is not what I was asking for, because I want to home in on a RADIO signal (Hydrophone works fine), but I will use that method for my next approach chasing a propeller sound.