TDC Seems to be Off

[mrfritz44]

OK, so this is not a chronometer issue......

I can sit in an achorage, line up my bow tubes to zero degrees, enter a zero speed into the TDC and still miss!

My settings are, angle to target off my bow - zero degrees; angle of bow (target) - I set this to 180 degrees; range, I set to 250 yards since it doesn't matter; speed = zero knots.

I used to use this trick all the time in SHIII and it worked beautifully, but in this version it seems haywire.

What gives?

Fred

[heartc]

This sounds very strange. As soon as target speed is zero, all other factors aside relative target bearing become irrelevant, so you could just set them to values whatever you want - depending on whether or not it's a full moon, pigs are flying or frogs are shaving, whatever you wish.

I've raided 3 different ports by now and everytime my torps hit the targets at anchorage dead on.

All I can think of is that this part sounds a bit odd:

"line up my bow tubes to zero degrees"

- What do you mean by this? I just take the target bearing into the TDC by centering the crosshairs on it. Be aware however that in order to enter target bearing into the TDC, you need to transmit ONE of the three other datas into the TDC (some people say it MUST be range, but I'll be damned if this is true, for me it seems to work with any of the three data like range, AOB or speed). In real life there was a "Mark" button for bearing transmission, in SHIV it's not seperate but will be transmitted with one of the other three datas. Note that the scope on US subs is totally independent from the TDC once you have entered the data and got the Position Keeper active, otherwise it would defeat its purpose. You entered data for a given target into the TDC, and then the Target Data COMPUTER computed and updated the fire solution (target position and according gyro angles) continously and in real time no matter how you moved your sub around. The torps would run at the proper gyro angle as long as the target didn't change speed or course, that is.

In fact, what we had in SHIII, especially with the "auto lock" of the periscope on target (which wasn't there either in US nor German subs), was pretty unrealistic and superior to what German subs had iRL. German subs only had a gyro angle solver for *one specific point in time*. When the bearing is like that, AOB like that, range like that and speed like that, THEN gyro angle is like that. Any more than a few seconds away from that, and the gyro angle will be old and thus hoax. There was NO automatic AOB update (or even bearing update with auto-lock) like in SHIII. We had a semi-US TDC in SHIII which was unrealistic for German subs. On the other hand, the TDC for the US subs in SHIV is pretty realistic, in that it updated the target position continuesly after you entered the data, and was in fact superior to what we have in the sim, since they also had a specific MARK button for bearing and could check their fire solution for accuracy by comparing computed target bearing with sighted target bearing - something which is hard to do in SHIV since the computed target bearing is only shown for targets on starboard side and stops working for the ones on port side, and is somewhat hard to read on that small dial on a PC monitor. Search some of the other TDC discussions for further insight to those issues.

[Charos]

I have seen this as well - BUT I understand its a feature.

IE: In real life the Gyro that provides the torpedoe's track angle is not perfect.

Im guessing on low realism they would all run true, but on higher settings the tracking is somewhat random within gyro tolerances.

[heartc]

I have seen this as well - BUT I understand its a feature.

IE: In real life the Gyro that provides the torpedoe's track angle is not perfect.

Im guessing on low realism they would all run true, but on higher settings the tracking is somewhat random within gyro tolerances.

Are you sure about that? I heard about torpedoes running circular, yes. Well, maybe there are indeed some that do not run circular, but not quite right either, but you might not really notice those often since you think it was your own fault - and indeed it would be hard to tell for non-stationary targets. So you may well be right, allthough I doubt that this was the case with the OP since it sounds like it happened more than a few times.
The computed gyro angle itself on the other hand should indeed be perfect *for the data you entered* though, since it is based on simple formulas which are the same everytime. But as with any computer of course: Bull**** in, Bull**** out. ;)

[Fearless]

I run the Sim at Normal setting and do not have the Manual targetting highlighted. Once the cross hairs are on the target then once locked, you still have to make sure that the TDC is aligned to that target hence, I still have to press the red button on the TDC to ensure that that target is put in.

No probs so far in hitting the target. This means it's not fully automatic. There is still some manual element that needs to be done for a sucessful attack.

As for manual selected targetting, unless the proper sequence is followed, ie, Distance, Bearing, AOB, estimated speed then feeding the info into the TDC to obtain a proper firing solution, it's guaranteed that the torps will miss. A salvo of torps at different spread settings is the way to go. Now hopefully one of the new options in the patch will be the ability to select multiple tubes so that firing a spread is easier to do.