Originally Posted by AirHippo
Hi guys,
Finally decided to move into SH3 and it's horrible. Some of this is just what you'd expect having come from years of nuclear boat simulators (the sensors are atrocious, the endurance is pathetic, the speed almost nonexistent, the armament feeble), and is fine with me. The crew management side is certainly interesting, and gives it a much more holistic feel than SC or DW. However, one thing is driving me almost insane, and that's passing the impossible exams. My problem here is that the TDC simply doesn't produce an even vaguely accurate solution; it constantly aims astern of where the ship will be, and on occasion even manages to aim astern of its target's present position when the range gets really close. I can even see, with the naked eye, that the solution the TDC throws out is just plain wrong - a cursory imagined line tells me that the torpedo will miss astern, and nothing whatever will persuade it to change except artificially changing the target bearing, not the AOB, to compensate, from the TDC screen. If I allow the TDC to go through with its supposed routine, a miss is almost inevitable.
This is homicide-inducingly frustrating, and I can honestly say I absolutely hate SH3 at this point, but I am hellbent on at least passing these exams. I only wish to know, therefore, what the hell I'm doing wrong. Currently I literally follow the procedure the game briefing gives, i.e., taking as our example the C2 Cargo in the Torpedo School tutorial:
1) ID and lock to target.
2) ID target type from incredibly clunky book, enter "C2 Cargo" into notepad
3) Estimate range with stadimeter. Around 1,800m.
4) Estimate AOB based on book and a good eye. In this case AOB isn't far off 90 Stbd, which is nice but ultimately meaningless. Enter into notepad.
5) Estimate speed using stopwatch and notepad. This consistently comes out at around 3-4kt, which is what Paulwasserman's manual method also gave me. Enter into notepad.
6) Send the lot to the TDC officer, who is presumably asleep.
7) Nip down to do his job myself, set a spread of two torpedoes: spread angle 1-2 degs, torpedo speed fast, depth 2m, magnetic pistol since it also functions as an impact device. Open doors. Fire.
8) Watch torpedoes miss astern.
9) Go back to TDC and realise that if I draw an imaginary line continuing the solution line, it intersects somewhere around the target's rudder post.
10) Feel a burning urge to visit great pain upon an otherwise blameless programmer.
The only solution I've found? Follow the process down to 6) Above, and then do as follows:
7) Disengage the lockout on the TDC.
8) Use range estimate knob to dial range out until solution line intersects target ship mark.
9) Carefully adjust Target Bearing until solution line intersects bows of marker.
10) Using own wristwatch, measure how far the ship's hull moves, in relation to the solution line, in the estimated travel time of the torpedoes (e.g. if the torpedo travel time is 34s, measure how far along the ship's marker the end of the solution line moves relative to said marker).
11) Mentally convert this to a fraction of the marker's length.
12) Add this fraction to the bow point of the marker at its present position, and aim the solution line at this imaginary point.
13) Fire and hope for the best.
I'd say that at short range (700m or less) this works about 60% of the time but it's 1) A blatant as all hell exploit, and 2) Ridiculously dangerous, since it means having your scope exposed for about two minutes.
At this point I honestly can't see what it is I'm entering wrong here, and I would like to enjoy what is widely considered one of the best subsims yet, so your sage counsel will be appreciated!
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