2 newbie questions

[Doolar]

Howdy ,
I'm kinda new to the game and had a few questions . First of all just a brief history to let you know where I'm at . I'm running the GWX mod , I have finished the academy and have started the single missions . I wanted to play a few of those games first just to get a feel for everything . My questions are ...

When under attack and I dive below periscope level the ememy ships disapear from the Nav Chart . How do I use or , what is the best way to use the sonar and/or hydrophone to keep track of attacking destroyers ? The SHIII manual is kinda lame on this .
My second question deels with aiming topedos and the colored arrows . I understand that the green arrows are your best odds for a kill , vs yellow , orange and red arrows . Say for example , your between 700-1000 meters out . Got a green arrow in your periscope . Do you lead your victom ( aim for the bow ), or hit him dead center ? Also should this green arrow be above the waterline ( V ) or below ( ^ ) ?thanx , Doolar

[Steppenwolf]

The colored arrow represents the "gyroangle". This is how far the torpedo has to turn, after leaving the torpedo tube, in order to strike the target. The further it has to turn the less accurate the torpedo is. As the color changes from RED (large gyroangle) through Orange, Yellow to GREEN (Excellent gyroangle) your odds of striking the target increase. Direction of the arrow V or ^ is meaningless. The actual gyroangle is shown on the right side of the Periscope screen, under the notepad.

As to WHERE you hit the ship:
Anytime you have the periscope/UZO crosshairs over a ship and lock onto it (by pressing the L key), the information on your notepad in the upper right will start to automatically update with a firing solution. As long as you have opened the torpedo door ( by pressing the Q key), when you press Fire, the game will attempt to send the torpedo to whatever point on the ship is currently smack in the middle of the crosshairs.

If your are stilll "locked on", this will always be the center of the ship. If you want to aim at some other part of the ship, you need to unlock the periscope/UZO (hit the "L" key again ) and rotate the scope till the part of the ship you want to hit is in the crosshair. Then hit fire. You don't want to "lead" the ship. If you do move the crosshairs off the ship to somewhere in front of it, to try and "lead" it, you will notice that the notepad goes blank and you lose your firing solution.


As to what type of TRIGGER and RUNNING DEPTH to use (These are set on the F6 TDC screen):

The ship's "Draft" is found in the Ship Recognition Manual. If you click on the word "Ship" on the notepad in the upper right, while you have the target locked in your crosshairs, the Ship Recognition Manual will automatically open to that type of ship. Draft is listed on that page.

"M" or Magnetic triggers are designed to be fired UNDER the target and are triggered by the metal hull while the torpedo passes under the ship. If you hit the hull, nothing usually happens. If firing with this type of trigger, set the torpedo's depth to .5-1 meter below the Draft of the ship (i.e. 6.5-7 meters if the Draft is 6 meters). Any higher and you risk hitting the hull. Much lower and you may pass too far under the ship to activate the trigger. This gets much trickier when the seas are rough as the ship is bouncing up and down in the waves. Main advantage is that you can hit the ship from any angle.

"I" or Impact triggers are the ones designed to go off if you hit the hull. If firing this type of trigger, set the torpedo depth to about 1/2-2/3 of the draft (i.e. 3 or 4 meters if the Draft is 6 meters). If you aim much lower you risk bouncing off the rounded part of the hull (Ship's hulls round off as you near the hull's bottom). If you aim too high, the hole you open may not be as effective (It spends time out of the water as the ship rocks back and forth and doesn't flood the ship as fast, or even worse, be above the waterline entirely). Main disadvantage is that the torpedo must strike at an angle no more than 30 degrees horizontally as well (The closer to 0 degrees the better) or it will probably glance off the ship. Main advantage is that there is a better chance of hitting something critical, like the engine room or a fuel bunker (But you can worry about aiming specifically for those later).

[RawRecruit]

If you have map contacts on then you'll get a line that fades out in the direction of the enemy escort that represents the sonar contact. You can ask your sonar operator to follow the nearest warship, too. He'll then continuously call out the ships bearing, speed, etc. What you do from this is up to you. It's quite challenging to stay in the control room and try to visualise in your head what is happening, just as I imagine the real Kaleuns had to do.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

It's quite challenging to stay in the control room and try to visualise in your head what is happening, just as I imagine the real Kaleuns had to do.
Yes, challenging, as you feel like blind there under the surface. For me it's much more fun to do that this way.