[REQ] Automated Planning Mod for Real Navigation

[croman81]

I'm wondering who can try and make a mod for Real Navigation that would allow us to automate the sailing. It would need to allow us to select a bearing, speed and time on this bearing... then I could go to sleep and not end up ashore.

For example, we could plan to sail on heading 250 for 15 minutes at 10 kts, then switch to heading 210 for 2 hours, 40 minutes at 9 kts... That way we could plan for 'waypoints' inside Real Navigation mod.

Since I see Kiel harbor automation mods, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I think all of the commands are defined - unfortunately, I can't do it myself.

[THE_MASK]

Just use the vanilla plotting system or am i missing something . Do you use Trevally Automated Scripts v0.6 so the navigator plots a navigation mark on the map every 2 hours . I do .

[TheDarkWraith]

I see what he's asking and it's a good idea. Since I disabled plotting with real navigation you don't really have a way of defining any kind of waypoints or anything for your crew to automatically follow. You could write a script before game start for them to follow but that defeats the purpose. You need the ability to define something for your crew to follow ingame. The defining would be like he mentioned: go to heading x and stay on that heading for y minutes. Turn to heading z and stay on that heading for a minutes, etc. This is something suited perfectly for automation. It just needs a UI for it

[quink99]

This would be a great and most helpful addition to the next NewUIs MOD, TDW, and thanks for the idea, Croman. I, for one, most look forward to using it!

[LemonA]

Why not have a tool for precisely heading, precisely speed, precisely time and precisely shooting, so you can stay all the time in bed?

SH5 has no wind-drift and no water-flow/drift so a "tool" for precisely heading, speed and precisely time while heading a particular course results in a cheat; a cheat which eliminates the need for celestial or coastal navigation. Totaly unrealistic for the 1940s.

[croman81]

Originally Posted by LemonA

SH5 has no wind-drift and no water-flow/drift so a "tool" for precisely heading, speed and precisely time while heading a particular course results in a cheat; a cheat which eliminates the need for celestial or coastal navigation. Totaly unrealistic for the 1940s.

You think about your objectives, your current position and where you need to go. Perhaps you draw some lines on a map, check distances and calculate the time you need to be on a specific leg of the journey. After you decide on a route, it is not a cheat to be able to 'tell you crew' to sail on one compass heading for a specified amount of time and on a specified engine setting. And to tell them, that when e.g. 60 minutes is up, change to a new compass heading. After all, you do it manually all the time and it's easy if you're using Real Navigation - as you cannot plot way points. It's not a cheat if you automate it.

BTW, dead reckoning method remains a valid way to navigate, and was always used. And thanks to TDW journal, you'd have it written down.
Celestial and trigonometric coastal navigation is important, but is hardly the only method. Or have you never been far away from coast in a bad weather?

Re the no wind/current drift... well that's unfortunate, I'd love it to be included, it would be much more interesting - but I for sure wouldn't want to be the one who has to code it - to make it realistic, it would require a huge amount of work.

IMHO, using time compression is a much bigger cheat, and I'm reducing it as much as possible. So is being able to tell your precise speed at any moment to a .1 degree of accuracy.

p.s. (off topic) How was speed calculated while on a submarine in WWII? Specifically, could it be measured while submerged?