jazman
11-13-07, 03:14 PM
After a while I realized auto targeting is way too easy, so I decided I'd make the jump to manual.
I had lots of practice lining up shots on sampans and fishing boats on my first patrol (without shooting, of course). I was just itching to try it out. I finally loosed a torpedo on a subchaser, blowing its bow off. I had aimed for the middle, though. The main benefit of that was I was forced to evade three subchasers over a long time in my old S-boat.
On my second patrol I drilled a couple of merchants totalling about 8000 tons. The success is a thrill, and since I'm not "automatic" yet, I was shooting spreads of four torpedoes. I now understand why you might do that, so that at least two, if not three, of them hit and make a sure kill.
So you can imagine the frustration as I completely missed a large modern composite, with a spread of four. I overestimated its speed and / or overestimated its range. I'm using the O'Kane method described elsewhere, so I'm not depending on the position keeper over time.
Next patrol, I got another large modern composite in my sights, and put three of four torpedoes in it. It kept going, so no kill! The hits all landed forward of where I had aimed, the first fish missed forward. Oh, and I had avoided the escort in getting a nice shot.
I'm enjoying the manual targeting very much over auto targeting. It's not that hard to learn. It's especially tense setting up shots on fast-moving targets (like a task force, which is what I'm doing in my current patrol), where it takes a little bit of time, but you can't be leisurely about it, and you know there are lots of escorts around. Another nice challenge is when the ships are zig-zagging.
I had lots of practice lining up shots on sampans and fishing boats on my first patrol (without shooting, of course). I was just itching to try it out. I finally loosed a torpedo on a subchaser, blowing its bow off. I had aimed for the middle, though. The main benefit of that was I was forced to evade three subchasers over a long time in my old S-boat.
On my second patrol I drilled a couple of merchants totalling about 8000 tons. The success is a thrill, and since I'm not "automatic" yet, I was shooting spreads of four torpedoes. I now understand why you might do that, so that at least two, if not three, of them hit and make a sure kill.
So you can imagine the frustration as I completely missed a large modern composite, with a spread of four. I overestimated its speed and / or overestimated its range. I'm using the O'Kane method described elsewhere, so I'm not depending on the position keeper over time.
Next patrol, I got another large modern composite in my sights, and put three of four torpedoes in it. It kept going, so no kill! The hits all landed forward of where I had aimed, the first fish missed forward. Oh, and I had avoided the escort in getting a nice shot.
I'm enjoying the manual targeting very much over auto targeting. It's not that hard to learn. It's especially tense setting up shots on fast-moving targets (like a task force, which is what I'm doing in my current patrol), where it takes a little bit of time, but you can't be leisurely about it, and you know there are lots of escorts around. Another nice challenge is when the ships are zig-zagging.