Mein Kampf with auto TDC

[Bolshybeef]

Hi everyone,

I've just recently re-installed SH3 together with GWX after playing it vanilla for some time in the past, and I must say that you chaps have done a splendid job, it adds so much to the game and makes it so much better in many ways. :up:

I do have a slight problem now, however. I'm on my first patrol in 1939, sailing in a IX, and encounter plenty of good targets. The sea is rough, the weather bad. I position myself at a virtually perfect 90 degree angle, set tubes I & II to impact, fast speed. The range is below 1,000m - I open my recognition manual, lock on to the target, identify it. The compartment targeting mode pops up, I select the fuel bunkers to provide some fireworks to cheer up my crew, and also to make sure the darn thing blows up nice and loud. I fire torpedo I and II, and watch them (F12) swim eagerly towards my target - only to hit well aft of the ship's bridge.

Now, this has happend consistently throughout my first patrol. It is quite frustrating, since it never quite sinks the ship on impact, forcing me to hang around until the ship goes under, and that could well get me into trouble under other circumstances.

I was curious enough to fire up the torpedo tutorial and do some experimenting, and it seems that it remains consistent with my experience. It seems that no matter which compartment you target using the targeting manual, the TDC will always go for a midships shot, since that is where your periscope will lock on to. I have tried auto TDC'ing the screw to prove that, and the torpedo hit in almost the exact same spot that my fuel bunker torpedo went to.

Now, I tried not locking onto my target with the periscope, and instead
aim manually with the periscope at the bow of a ship - and it did indeed hit almost the right spot, only slightly aft, since the ship probably accelerated slightly after spotting my torpedo (the sight is perfect in the tutorial, sunshine and flat sea).

I'm not sure what to make of this. I figure that the ship might speed up enough after spotting my torpedo early enough to let my torpedo trail aft of the target, but that wouldn't be entirely consistent with my experience, since I clearly remember many instances where the ship did not even move until the torpedo hit (bad weather, nighttime, ship already going at full speed).

Also, the fact that I don't open my tubes doesn't make any difference to my aim. I tried firing with or without the tubes open in my experiments, and the results were nearly the same.

Like I said, it is a little frustrating, and I'm not sure how to fix this. I play at 75% realism, with nearly everything on except manual targeting. Anybody have an idea? Or has this even been covered before, perhaps? I'm quite aware that most of you use manual targeting, so you might not notice. :88)

[Foghladh_mhara]

When you lock on the periscope it will always aim at the centre of the ship. What you need to do is unlock the scope again and just aim it at the part of the ship you want to hit after calculating the range. And open the torp doors with the Q button first to make sure theres no time delay in firing

[Bolshybeef]

That's the same conclusion I came to, but then I have to wonder what the point of the compartment targeting mode is when you lock on to a ship. You can click a compartment to lock on to (presumably auto targeting it) when you are locked on to it ('L') with the periscope, but you can't do that when you aren't, if that makes sense.

[Foghladh_mhara]

To be honest with you I never knew such a thing as compartment targeting existed. If you look in the search menu it throws up a few threads that may be of help to you:up:

[Morts]

well i have had it
when i closed in at below 1000 meters from a target

[Brag]

The torpedo will hit where you aim at with the periscope. I've had excellent results (no fireworks) by aiming at the forwardmost mast. Initially it seems the torp had no effect, Within three minutes speed begins to drop. Ship sinks in 8--14 minutes.

[Jimbuna]

Aim for the engine/boiler room....at the very least you'll stop the ship and when the escorts have moved on (Convoy wise) you can finish her off :arrgh!:

[Steppenwolf]

The compartment targeting mode has been disabled in GWX. More accurately, it was broken inadvertently, but the Grey Wolves team was very happy that it was and have stated that they would have broken it intentionally if they had thought of it. This is because there was a built-in "cheat", that if you clicked on one of those little boxes, a hit resulted in a guaranteed kill. If you just used them as a reference and aimed the torpedo yourself (either by unlocking and autoaiming with the crosshair or doing the full manual targeting routine) there was a certain percentage chance of a critical hit, assuming you hit it at all, but it was only a chance, not guaranteed. As a result, trying to click on the little boxes in GWX gives very unpredictable results, usually bad.

You can still use the unlock and aim with the crosshairs method mentioned above. The critical areas are still in the game. Note, however, that the boxes may or may not accurately show their location. The new GWX ships never had their boxes accurately placed (designers just copied the boxes from old ships over to the new ones) and since GWX changed the compartments around on the original ships, the boxes may or may not be accurate on those as well (though generally they are).
With that caveat in mind, here is a link to a chart showing the critical areas from the original SH3:

http://files.filefront.com/shipchartpdf/;6611422;/fileinfo.html
Green = Rudder
Blue = Keel
Pink = Ammo Bunker
Yellow = Engine Room
Orange = Fuel Bunker
Information in BOLD text is the ship's draft.

There is no such chart for GWX, but you can get good information from these two threads, discussing the best locations to target on ships.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=104045
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=103928

Other threads have discussed best locations as well, just use the search function to find them.

[Bolshybeef]

Thanks a lot, that's all I wanted to know. :)

[Kaleun Cook]

But is it possible that if the hit ship sinks after some hours and maybe an escort pushed you off a position near it you don't earn the score?

[Jimbuna]

But is it possible that if the hit ship sinks after some hours and maybe an escort pushed you off a position near it you don't earn the score?

You'll be fine as long as your in the vicinity of the stricken vessel...approx. 30 km :arrgh!: