Guides and Training

[cdrsubron7]

It seems like most of the links for the manual TDC videos and tutorials are dead. Anyone know where I can download or access them?

Thanks for your help in advance.

[Able Brown]

It seems like most of the links for the manual TDC videos and tutorials are dead. Anyone know where I can download or access them?

Here are some of my favorites. None on are on easy and none are with mods:

Silent Hunter 4 Manual Targeting Noob version



SH4 Double Attack



400 M Torpedo Attack



Radar Approach:


I couldn't find a "best of" playlist I liked.

[Rockin Robbins]

A lot of those links are mine. I'll have to check them out and see which ones work. Good think I've kept local copies of all of them. The Internet is a beastly unreliable place to store stuff. Sure wish Subsim had a way to store the videos, but they're strictly limited. Filefront has been totally reworked in a way that isn't very friendly to what we do any more.

I'll look around and see what works.

[cdrsubron7]

Thanks, Guys.

[19Herr_Rapp86]

I've noticed that most of the tactics I have learned from SH3GWX can be carried over to SH4TMO. The map has similar overlay tools for manual plotting and targeting techniques.(Thank you Paul "Wazoo" Wasserman!) And of course you can't forget your trusty whiz wheel

[19Herr_Rapp86]

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[Rockin Robbins]

Wow! I haven't seen CapnScurvy's Angle on the Bow Calculator in years, although I have one in the chair 4 feet from me. Here's the link to his Angle on the Bow and Speed Calculators web page!

[19Herr_Rapp86]

Great tools to improve the realism that much more

[I'm goin' down]

gutted's solution solver program comes with an angle on the bow calculator built in and ready to go. It is quite extraordinary. You can input the target speed and it will indicate the finite shoot bearing at any angle. He had a three parted video post on you tube for awhile that explained how it worked. I would pay for that device if someone would make one --hint, hint.

[19Herr_Rapp86]

And you can never go sailing without the 2 most important items of all....


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[Rockin Robbins]

My personal preference is to play with no external tools at all. No pausing the game and destroying my immersion to work any version of whiz wheel. No alt-tabbing to any angle on the bow calculator. I don't find that any of that is necessary at all and they ruin the flow of the game.

The real captains had to make decisions in real time and if we want to experience something valid that they experienced, time should not be stopped during the attack.

Sometimes these external tools actually increase complexity while giving you the same answer as determining enemy course and speed by plotting two radar positions 3 minutes apart. Then you can find angle on the bow with the protractor, clicking on the target track ahead of the target, clicking again on the target and a third time on the center of your sub. The angle shown is the AoB. Why leave the game to get it? You just can't get it any more accurately or as quickly any other way.

Yes, it would be nice if we had some more authentic tools in the game. But replacing them with external tools forces us into god mode where we have to stop time to use them.

That being said, if CapnScurvy's Angle on the Bow calculator were available in-game, I'd use it because my objection would be met and I no longer would have to alt-tab out or pause the game.

[I'm goin' down]

Double R, aka RR, should love this. Tracked and sunk an Otari Toramuzu with the OTC real scopes mod at night with no moon, map contacts disabled. Because the dd (or whatever it is) probably had radar, I did not use the TBT, which has illuminated Telemeter markings to get range at night. Plus, with Tokkyo's Revenge, if my sub were at TBT depth (around 30 feet), I am confident it would have been spotted. The OTC real scope's periscope's Telemeter marks are not illuminated, so it is usless at night. Thus the OTC mod could not be of help in planning this attack. What to do? Easy! Set up with an O'Kane shot per the Double R tutorials. (Did I ever understand that technique? We will find out, won't we?) The Otari Tormamuzu was steaming like a bat out of hell at 21 kts. Sheesh. It must have been going to a party or was late for a date! I set up with a 20 degree lead angle and fired as it crossed the wire at 20 degrees (Aob 70 degrees port). It looked like the torpedoes were off course, heading to the extreme port side (left side) of my boat. But wait. The dd, charging like a bull at Pamplona, steamed past 0 degrees, past 355 degrees, past 350 degrees, past 345 degrees, and there it was, sailing directly in front of four torpedoes wakes which were on a course closing on it fast. Two or three(?) hits at 340 degrees port side! I paused the game and grinned. She is going down! Break out the whiskey! Er... I meant the ice cream. Back to the game... so I can watch it sink.

[Rockin Robbins]

Holy Toledo, this guy is making whiskey ice cream!

[19Herr_Rapp86]

Touche on your comment RR! Yes you can not have a god mode and stop time. Completely unrealistic. I put tons of hours in on SH3 GWX at perfecting my manual targeting skills. Observations, distance/speed conversions off observations, all that good stuff. I've got using my AOB calculator and making observations down to a science, mate. No alt-tab or pause needed. Once I have course and speed entered into the computer AOB is easy and fast to come up with. My course + target course + bearing. Timing target zigs comes into play sometimes so AOB is not too difficult there either. My method is to observe general course, and get an angle on bow reading after the first zig, wait for the second zig, then fire on the third zig. Doesn't take enough time to pause game or alt-tab. I've got a pretty effective system set up. It's working for me, and that's really the key, right? Every captain has their own method, and what works for them, works.

[CapnScurvy]

With the use of "tools" comes a learning curve. Like we used to say "this guys so green, he doesn't know which end of the shovel to pick up"!

For most players learning which side is Port, Starboard, what's Relative Bearing, what's Angle on Bow, are new terms that need digesting. The manipulation of a tool like a slide rule, Omnimeter, Is-Was, the AoB Calculator, the To-North protractor on the Navigation Map, all need time to understand and use. Once understood and practiced a seamless progression could be made with real time.

The point is, in real life there was a whole group of trained specialists that were a part of the "Firing Party". Each having their specific task to do and check, while the Approach Officer (usually the Captain) sighted the target. This manual, the "Submarine Torpedo Fire Control Manual" in Chapter 4, referrers to anywhere between 13 to 15 men involved in the firing solution process (depending on what detection system is being used). It stands to reason that the game does not lend itself to use manual targeting and simulate these different specialists duties within a real time environment. Sure, we can with Automatic Targeting, but who wants to follow the "green triangle" to tell us when to fire. There's more to this game than just that.

So a compromise must be struck between a simulation of real duties/activities and real time passage. There is no crime to "take time" in ones attempt to make a simulation of the various tasks involved. As you learn, the process will become less time consuming, more automatic.

Yes, having the firing technique of setting up close to a passing ships track and "leading" the target as if it's a duck flying past a blind, doesn't take a slide rule to figure the shot. If it was always that simple though, the "Submarine Torpedo Fire Control Manual" could have been only 5 pages long! It's not, and for good reason. The purpose is to learn all aspects of preforming your tasks, in all different situations. Isn't that what we find ourselves doing? Each of us simulating what we believe is reality for the enjoyment of playing a game that can be played differently?