Help identifying merchant ships please

[badb0y]

Hi - three problems.

1 - how do i reset the TDC? In the manual it says "hit the X button on the notepad". Great, er, where the hell is this??

2 - How can i identify merchant vessels? All i have in the ship identification book are fighting vessels. Therefore this means i can't complete step 1 of "using the TDC" when it comes to blasting freight. It follows that i can't pass bearing and range info to the TDC. As i can't reset the TDC then i have the previous shot saved and can't shoot straight ahead.

3 - I can't seem to find the hydraphone lol. ??

Help please!

Cheers.

[badb0y]

any help please? ta

[AVGWarhawk]

Hi - three problems.

1 - how do i reset the TDC? In the manual it says "hit the X button on the notepad". Great, er, where the hell is this??

Note pad is found when at the sonar station. I know of no other note pad. No need to reset the TDC because you set up for each new ship anyway.

2 - How can i identify merchant vessels? All i have in the ship identification book are fighting vessels. Therefore this means i can't complete step 1 of "using the TDC" when it comes to blasting freight. It follows that i can't pass bearing and range info to the TDC. As i can't reset the TDC then i have the previous shot saved and can't shoot straight ahead.
Your manual of ships...there are left and right arrows to scroll through the choice of countries and there is one that just says merchants. Click on the book when you get there. It will open to merchants. If you are using auto TDC the TDC should reset every time you lock a target. If in manual, lock the target and set up the TDC. No reason to reset the TDC.

3 - I can't seem to find the hydraphone lol. ??
Two place to get to the hydraphone, task interface at the bottom, click twice or I believe the F8 key. Once there use the up/down/left/right arrows on the keyboard. Use HOME and END key to rotate the head of the sonar.

[MONOLITH]

"Click the X on the notepad"

That's from the SH3 manual. Remember the notepad next to the SH3 periscope?

Please tell me there's not SH3 reprinted directions in the SH4 manual.


Also, when you open the recognition manual, click on the left arrow once, goes right to Merchants.

[Joe S]

May I make a suggestion?

Someone has uploaded a printable version of the ID manual. find it and print it and forget about the in game version. It is way too difficult to flip through it when you are in a hurry and due to the fact that visibility is short in SHIV you dont get that much time to ID the target. The only reason you need to ID the target is to get the mast height. Mast height on many classes of ships are almost identical. Since range is the least important element of a firing solution I often will input an average mastheight. You can also let sonar or radar send the range to the tdc if you want. I intend to print my own custom version of the recognition manual with pages from original WWII recognition manuals. One of the things I will be doing is computing the average mastheight for each class of target and not the major exceptions. I hope you find this idea usefull. Good luck and Sink em all! Joe S

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome :up: badb0y

RDP

[popeye]

where the hell is the recognition manual??

[AVGWarhawk]

where the hell is the recognition manual??

Press the N key while in scope/TBT view.

[ATR-42]

sounds crazy, but i found looking in the recognition manual to be getting a bit tedious, it started to feel like busy work... "okay, i know im going to find you, i just need to flip to the stupid page..." after a while i was just memorizing the designs...

so it got to the point where i modded the config file so all you need to do in order to identify your target is hit SHIFT + I . done deal. yeah its not ultra real but it keeps the action going and saves me 15 seconds of my life each time i ident a target.

[Joe S]

I did not know you could get crew help in Identifying the target but its not entirely unrealistic. In real life, you had a fire control team to help you out. The person at the scope would describe the target and someone in the fire control team would look through the recognition manual to narrow down the possibilities. Merchant targets were organized in the book by various features such as the type of superstructure, location of the funnel , number and location of masts and kingposts , deck structure and shape of bow and stern. By reporting these featurs the fire control team could assist in the ID. This was often done over a period of time as the sub closed the distance. IN SHIV, due to the short range visibility, you dont have as much time to do the ID. Even so, the only purpose for the ID is to get the mast height which you can estimate or use an average based on the type or class of ship. Joe S

[MONOLITH]

I've become a fan of the "Identify Target" addition.

It does feel like I'm taking a step backwards towards the less realistic settings (like assisted targeting); but the alternative is I struggle to identify which type of escort I'm looking at, and by the time I figure it out, he's too close and out of position for me to fire upon.

So, I'm living with it, shrugging it off as if I have a real smart weapons assistant, and spending more time firing torpedoes.

But even as I type this, I feel like I should simply get more familiar with the ship types and quicker at identifying them.

I don't like cheating.

[badb0y]

ah that's great guys thanks.

Thanks for the forum welcome too lol.

I ended up finding the merchant manual by myself almost by accident but cheers for the heads up anyway. I still have a questino over sonar though - there is a difference between sonar and hydraphone correct? Hydraphone is undetectable because you're just listening, but sonar is active (and therfore detectable) correct? Therfore i should be looking for two seperate devices but can only find one, the active "pinging sonar"? I'll check it out in a bit when back in game. Also the reset TDC button. I'll try using the arrow keys and see what happens. If i loose off my torpedos and the home in on me i'll know who to blame ;)


As for the auto targetting cr@p "you" can kiss my ass frankly. Before even stepping into a mission i was determined to sort out the manual targetting side for myself. This isn't an arcade game but i understand why they left that in.

Am really enjoying the game and am off work till Thursday so presently hunting down convoys.

Some bugs though, particularly in the sound department so nothing major that i can work out. Other than my radar just doesn't seem to do anything.
Sound - either my crew has a stutter or when you set rudder amidships all they say is "rudder....rudder..rudder" which is fairly funny i suppose.
Radar - maybe i'm getting this wrong but when surfaced i go to the radar view and it's simply a blank, inert screen. Nothing that highlights on mouse over appears to do a thing..? :damn:

Cheers.

BB