Knowing what ship it is you are targeting will unlock possibilities such as ranging, measuring speed, knowing how deep to fire torpedoes. All crewmembers have access to a Ship Recognition Manual for both Warships and Merchants. Every ship listed in the Ship Recognition Manual contains dimension data, such as length, width, draught and tallest height as well the ability to measure the height of any feature of a ship. All this information is valuable as it helps captains with their crew to make accurate attacks on their targets.

To open the recognition manual you can press the [C] Key. Once there you can select the Warship or the Merchant manual depending on what ship it is you are looking to identify.

If you whish to close the window, you can press the X in the top right or use Right Mouse Button,

This list are ordered from highest relevance to lowest.

1. Masts Filter - This is the only filter that can yield unique results without any other filters. Hence this filter is recommended to always be used first as it might already provide enough results in order to make a positive identification.
   
2. Superstructure Filter - This filter can effectively eliminate around half the selection and can be set to yield all 5 passenger liners.
   
3. Engine Placement Filter - The engine placement is also specified in the Mast Filter hence: if the mast filter is used, this filter becomes redundant.
   
4. Island Filter - Many players struggle with this filter. One reasons is that it is difficult to determine island on a ship. Also players might struggle with what the definition of an island is. This filter should be avoided if possible and all other filters should be tried first.
   
5. Ship Type Filter - This is a special filter, where you can write out partial words of a name of a ship. So the player needs to somewhat know what ship it is already or at least what size class of a ship it is.

A common mistake is to think you need to start from left and work your way right and use as many filters as you can. Identifying ships might sometimes needs to be done in a hurry so finding a quick and efficient method is recommended. You should try to identify the ship with as few filters as you can.

Here are three methods, one can apply when Identifying ships.
This is suitable when you have visibility on masts. If you are unable to see masts or ships at all you can try increasing your gamma/brightness in other your game video settings or on your monitor.

1. Masts Filter
   
2. Superstructure Filter

This method is slower and should only really be applied if you can not see any masts.

1. Superstructure Filter
   
2. Engine Placement Filter
   
3. Island Filter

If you already know what ship or, know what class it is, you can use this filter.

1. Ship Type Filter

Many times, you set all filters correct and you still can not see any or correct result. Well its a easy solution, "Scroll up". The Recognition manual does not scroll up on its own when less results is available so you have to remember to do it on your own.

The Mast Filter have a text box that you can input a ships [M]ast, [K]ingpost and [F]unnel configuration from a ships bow to stern.

But what is a mast and what is a kingpost? There is so many different types of masts! Well you do not need to know the difference between the masts, all you nee to know is what is a Kingpost and what is a Funnel. Because anything else is going to be a mast by default.

Kingpost.
The kingpost is a crane that, from a front or rear looking perspective, appears like the letter "H". When observed directly from the side, you can not see the horizontal connecting beam and thus you can not as easily determine its characteristic "H" shape. From the side it more looks like an "L" as it have a low hanging crane boom connected on each post.

Masts.
There are many variations of masts, some tall, some short, some thick, some thin, some with crane arms, some without. It does not matter how it looks as long as it does not look like a Kingpost. So if you know what a Kingpost is and what you are looking at, does not look like a Kingpost, then it is a mast.



Funnel.
The funnel can been seen from afar and you can without much effort tell it's a funnel by the smoke that comes out of it. The funnels usually is painted with a dark color, such as black or grey which can contrast itself against the horizon. and is attached or in close proximity to the building in which the engine to the funnel exist.

The Mast Filter
The Mast Filter have a text box you can input 3 letters: M, K and F to represent the 3 different features. You must list them from front to back and you must denote every mast, kingpost and funnel you see. If you skip one, then the filter will not yield the correct results.

Here are some examples that demonstrates the usage of K, F and M in the mast filter text field:

EXAMPLE 1: MKFK Heavy Freighter 8


EXAMPLE 2: MMFMK Heavy Tanker 31


EXAMPLE 3: MMMKF Heavy Freighter 3

The superstructure is the building on top of the ships hull where the crew works, sleep and eat. The superstructures mainly houses the bridge and engines.

Superstructure Filter.
In the recognition manual, you can specify 3 different variations of superstructure configurations for the Superstructure Filter.

Composite
When both engine and bridge shares the same structures

Split
This is when the bridge and engine is separate from each other in two different structures

Passenger
When a superstructure covers more than 33% of the hull.

Variations of shapes
There are many different variation of superstructures. Some of them are exclusive to some ship types. Some of them are exclusively used as the Bridge or Engines, some are exclusively used as composite and others as passenger while others can be combines in a split configuration.


Inconsistencies
Nothing is every easy, so there are some inconsistencies. Most superstructures as you can see in the list above can come with or without a funnel and regardless they have a funnel they are still considered a superstructure but there is 2 exceptions:

Examples of Inconsistencies:
It is undetermined if this is a mistake made by the developers or if the definition of what a superstructure is more complex than described in this guide.

Middle or Aft?
Where is the funnel? That is what this filter is about. Is the funnel in the back or in the middle? The engines were located directly below the funnel or rather the funnel were piped up from where the engine were as there was no point in having a convoluted pipe system to make the exhaust go out elsewhere.


Usually Redundant
Another filter that wants you to specify the funnel is the mast filter. While the filter does not work exactly the same, specifying the Mast Filter will yield practically the same as using the Engine Placement filter with an added bonus of also specifying kingposts and masts. Thus making the Engine Placement filter fairly redundant when specifying the Mast Filter.

Common Misconceptions and Mistakes
A common Mistake among new players is to think you should start with specifying this filter as it is located most to the left of all other filters and as our human brain is trained to read things from left to right we assume that there is a logic behind the order of filters. This usually results in a waste of time. You should start with specifying the mast filter and skip this filter all together if possible.

What is an island?
Most of us know of the small landmasses in bodies of water that is called aa island but what feature on a ship is called an island? To answer the questions, we need to define what the hull of a ship is. The hull is the part of the ship that rest in the water. An island on a ship is a part of the hull that is raised.

An absolute filter
The Island Filter is an "absolute" filter, you can not specify "maybe" in it. Either you specify that you see an island or you don't see one. A empty checkbox is not the same as "I don't know" an empty check box means you do NOT see a island. If you are not 100% sure, you should avoid to use this filter. Many players missunderstand how the filter works and thus get wrong results when using it.

Is it an island or a Bulwark?
Everything you see raised in the bow of a ship isn't always a front island. Many ships have a Bulwark, a solid railing designed to prevent water splashing onto the fore deck. For an untrained eye, it could sometimes look like an island and thus you might get incorrect results when using it in the filter.

Further challenges
Sometimes its hard to tell if it is an island you are looking at because there is junk in the way, like cargo boxes, life raft or just poor visibility. Further increasing the ineffectiveness of the filter.

Test yourself
Here you can test yourself and see if you can guess it right. You can start your own lobby, password it or set it up for "no one" and then use the ship recognition manual or you can just guess and hover over the black fields to see the answer.
Y = Yes
N = None
B = Bulwark

Click on the image to enlarge it!

Conclusion
Avoid this filter as much as you can. This filter, I would say to only to be used by veteran players.

The Ship Type filter is a special filter that allows you to search for ships by writing their partial or full name in a text box.

There are six variation of merchant classifications that the recognition manual is categorizing ships in:

• Passenger Liners
  
• Heavy Tankers
  
• Heavy Freighter
  
• Medium Tankers
  
• Light Merchants
  
• Requisition Trawlers

All ships are named after these categories and to tell them apart they have also been assigned a number in the end of their classification.

Questions and Answers
• Do I need to learn the difference between the merchants? - No, not at all, with time you can but its not required.
  
• Why should I use this filter? - You shouldn't, you could if can memorize what class a ship is while perhaps not remembering its unique number you might be able to remember it's class.
  
• Then what is the point of this filter? - If you can memorize the class or even the entire name then you can quickly type in one or more of the words and perhaps faster find what you are looking for. This filter may be more useful for a veteran player rather than a new.
  
• Do I need to include the full name and number? - No, you can include only a partially written word, you don't need to include the number and you can scramble the order. Look at the image below to see an example.

In Wolfpack you can encounter 3 warships, Tribal Class Destroyer, Bittern Class Sloop and a Flower Class Corvette (The Bogue Aircraft Carrier is not yet implemented in the game). While some merchants can have cannons on deck, they are not considered warships. The Sloop, Corvette and Destroyer have active and passive sonar and carries anti-submarine weapons such as depth charges. Each warship have a unique engine sound that can be heard over hydrophone, have a different amounts of cannons and can drop a different amount of depth charges and can close their distance with a submarine at different speeds, all factors that can affect how you behave around them.

The warship recognition manual does not have any filters like the merchant manual does. So with warships you have to differentiate the warships based up on how they look in comparison to each other. Look at details as in shape, the count of various features such as funnels and turrets.

Differentiating Details:

• 2x Funnels
  
• 5x Turrets

Differentiating Details:

• 1x Funnels
  
• 3x Turrets

Differentiating Details:

• 1x Funnel (Grey Paint)
  
• 1x Turret
  
• Front Island (Grey paint under)

At some point this guides usefulness will expire. The developers are making new merchants and and will make a new recognition manual. At that time, I will discontinue this guide or update it to work with the new ships. Perhaps then many of the inconsistencies will be fixed.

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