How the heck do I aim?

[Sceptre666]

Now, I know, this question is going to sound rediculous. However, I was a longtime fan of Silent hunter 3, however, I always used the automatic targeting system. Now that I'm playing Silent hunter 4, I can't make heads or tails over whether my shot is a good one.

Here's what's happening to me consistently. I get to about 1000-800 meters away from my target. I lock on to him, and I wait. Seeing as I can't find any valuable output that tells me how good my shot is, as opposed to the Gyroangle reader that was in Silent Hunter 3, (remember that thing, that the closer it got to 000, the better the shot?) I find myself stuck waiting for the little arrow above my target to turn Green. Now, this is supposedly a "Great shot", however I'm finding that I can't tell at all how good it will be.

And guess what happens? I open my torp bay doors, fire off a few fish, and they almost always end up getting there too early or too late. I'm getting quite confused and agitated by this, could anyone help me figure out how to aim properly?

[DaMaGe007]

open the door just before you fire the fish, if you change tube it closes the door...
Im guessing you are opening them all in advance thinking they stay open ?

[Sceptre666]

No, definitely am not. I open one, fire, choose the next torpedo, open it, fire it, etc.

It's really frustrating, because the last three ships Ive shot at Ive missed with multiple torpedoes. It's really compounded by the fact that I have NO IDEA how to tell if my shot is good or not, outside of the arrows on top.

[DaMaGe007]

Is your sub moving ? I find being stationary or very slow improves my aim.

there is an event camera, I think it was turned off by default in my game, Im still not much of an expert at sh4 yet, so far I have hit a few ships tho.

also they may be duds, firing at 90 degrees isnt nececerily the best shot for american early war torps, and they default to magnetic by default, try impact and see if it helps

[Sceptre666]

No, I always try to make sure I'm not moving. I really am just trying to land some torpedoes on merchants thus far, and if I can't hit them Im a little nervous what happens when I meet up with a convoy and escorts.

[Gildor]

I seem to miss alot with the torp going past the target at the stern.

I fire from a slow speed at almost 90 from 1000-1400 yrds and the view locked.

I am using auto target this patrol till I get use to the game.

I found that most of the shots are at the low speed. Maybe the TDC uses the high speed as a default and miscalculates. Anyways. My SOP now is to put a 5 degree right angle spread on my first shot. It seems to put it in the middle.

[Sceptre666]

I seem to miss alot with the torp going past the target at the stern.

I fire from a slow speed at almost 90 from 1000-1400 yrds and the view locked.

I am using auto target this patrol till I get use to the game.

I found that most of the shots are at the low speed. Maybe the TDC uses the high speed as a default and miscalculates. Anyways. My SOP now is to put a 5 degree right angle spread on my first shot. It seems to put it in the middle.

This is exactly what seems to be happening to me. Also, on a side note, is the torpedo depth gauge in Meters or Feet?

[SAMiV]

I seem to miss alot with the torp going past the target at the stern.

I fire from a slow speed at almost 90 from 1000-1400 yrds and the view locked.

I am using auto target this patrol till I get use to the game.

I found that most of the shots are at the low speed. Maybe the TDC uses the high speed as a default and miscalculates. Anyways. My SOP now is to put a 5 degree right angle spread on my first shot. It seems to put it in the middle.

And happening for me also. I saved to one point where one merchant is closing in, and im already positioned myself for the perfect spot. I always missed with all the torpedoes with auto targeting. I noticed that the PK and stadimeters range numbers didn't quite match, so then i thought to give a little spread angle to torpedoes... about 2.5 to the left in this case, and then all my 4 torpedoes hit.

So.. am thinking that might be just better to start learning/using manual targeting, if one has to tweak with spread angles with autotargeting.

[Capt.LoneRanger]

I switched to autoaim before my last approach and fired 8 torpedos with perfect setting and missed all of them. Considering I usually fire purely on instinct by choosing an angle with the periscope and have over 9 of 10 torpedos hitting my targets, I was really stunned by that poor result.

It seemed the speed on the autoaim was falsely always set to "0". :shifty:

[Rykaird]

I use manual mode and on moving targets (with me stationary) I'm hitting consistently aft, despite having very accurate (plotted) estimates of speed and AoB, and distance confirmed with both stadimeter and a sonar ping.

I'm wondering if the target is increasing speed when he sees the first torp wake? That would explain a lot.

[fidget]

(Deleted since I should completely read a post before replying)

[Sceptre666]

I'm wondering if the target is increasing speed when he sees the first torp wake? That would explain a lot.

I'm gonna wager that this isn't true, because how would changing your angle then mean more hits? Since adding a spread angle helps your torpedoes get there, it's obvious the other ship hasn't adjusted. It also happens in the dead of night, so take that as you will.

[gnirtS]

Ive done some testing using auto tdc and so on. Fire about 70 torpedos.

Now got some conclusions.

Against STATIONARY targets you can do as per SH3, point at where you want to hit and fire away. However if the target is moving i seems to misjudge. It seems to underestimate the target speed.

For example in the torpedo attack mission the ship is 1200yds away travelling left to right at 12kts. Firing there whether locked OR manual aiming it misses to the left (ie towards the rear of the ship).

I found i had to dial in a 3.5 degree right spread to cancel this offset for this scenario to get them hitting spot on. As the ship slowed this error got less and less until 0kts when its spot on again.

Obviously this offset will change depending on distance, angle on bow, target speed,torpedo speed and your speed.
If i could work out how the hell to load a custom mission i'd try it with manual TDC on both stationary and moving targets to see if this is a game wide problem, auto tdc only problem or just a quirk of training mission.

The target is NOT changing speed or moving during these shots, TDC just appears to be shooting aft either through bearing error or mis entering speed. If i can get custom mission to work i'll try to work out exactly what it is.

[Crosseye76]

I've had the same problem. It does not seem to matter if it's a training mission, or a quick mission, or a career. The auto TDC makes the torpedo hit well aft if your fairly close say, 800 -1000 yards, or just miss astern if your farther away.


IIRC, this was a bug in early versions of SH3 as well. The auto setting was setting the ships speed a knot or so too slow. Since you can't adjust in the Auto setting, your shot hits well aft.

[gnirtS]

Just played in a mission with manual TDC on stationary targets and it appears on my system at least the target bearing is ALWAYS the centre of the ship regardless of where you look with the scope (ie it always sets the target as what "L" to lock would hit). Seems to ignore periscope changes totally.

The only way i can target different parts of a ship is by using the Position Keeper/Torpedo window in the attack map screen, selecting a spread then looking where the green line intersects the target ship. It seems to lack a "Send bearing to TDC" option, at least i cant find one.

Anyone else experienced this?