Problem with SH4 Stadimeter

[NeonsStyle]

Hey All,

I'm new here, and new to SH4. Love the game, but my hit performance on manual sux. I've watched all of Werbers brilliant vids, and learnt alot, but still don't get accurate plots. First I like games on hard, so I'm playing my first career at 72 difficulty. Manual is on as is most other options, except sonar contact on map (so I can make sure my plots are accurate for now). I'm using Patch 1.4 on 2ghz machine with 786Mb ram n nVidia 7600GT card.

The problem is in ranging. The stadimeter always under or overestimates the ranges by a couple of thousand yards. Take the british battleship (can't remember which one - had a mast height of 179.5ft). I was coming out of port, and setup a dummy attack run on it, just to see if I can get the plot sorted.

So, I set the crosshairs on the waterline, PK Off, ID'd it (yes it's correct, and english battleship), and ranged it. It showed it around 7000yds, far yes but I wasn't going to take the shot, just get a plot. Anyway, I waited 15 mins, and took another range, different again by few hundred yards. The ship was stationary outside of Perth harbour. I figured it was because of the distance, so I moved in to 3000 yds. Did the same thing: ID'd, ranged, waited 15 and ranged again. This time the figures matched (I was stationary both times) and enabled PK. I hit speed finder as werber does, it reported correct speed but course was wrong everytime (probably understandably since it was stopped). So I measured AOB on the chart and entered it. It now read correct course, speed and I thought range. So I checked the plot. It was short by over 1000 yards. I did it again, and no matter how careful I was in taking range, making sure crosshairs are on waterline, and making damn sure I got top of mast, it just wouldn't give the correct range. It always read short.

So I took a close look at the stadimeter, and noticed the outer dial (I assume mast height) only goes up to 130, and wondered if this might be causing the range problems.

Every setup I do, real or dummy, always gets the range wrong.

Is there something wrong with the game, or is something up with what Werber did in those vids? I don't think there is as so many people here reported higher degree of hits, and it makes alot of sense.

Does some mod fix this? Speaking of Mods, I see few about, but they don't really explain what they do, and I don't know which to get lol. Trigger Maru or that RFB. If someone could explain would be good.

Thanks

Venus

[LeeVanSpliff]

Let me say that I'm not surprised that you don't hit much when you switch to manual. When I did the same thing in SH3 my crew revealed an enormous patience with their manual targeting challenged captain (I think it was three missions before I actually hit anything).

That being said I often get varying range measurements in SH4 - particularly on long ranges where very little movement in the mouse would make it appear like the target ship was a lot closer or further away (and would result in some strange range measurements). Also the game (at least on my computer) sometimes does not display the top of the masts on very long range, which makes it even easier to get bad data.

One thing I did was lower my mouse sensitivity - that made it a lot easier for me to actually align the water line to the top of the mast when measuring range (I've got this mouse with some buttons for adjusting DPI ... never thought that would be handy outside a FPS game).

Also when I switched to manual targeting in SH3 I was surprised at how close I had to be to hit something. It took me a while to realize that the data that I could produce was not solid enough to hit on long ranges any more. In stead I worked on my sneaking-up-on-stuff and now I generally try to be within 1500m-2000m (being a dumb European, a yard to me is some sort of garden and I will NOT have my crew discussing gardening while on a mission) of an enemy ship before I engage. When you're on shorter range your range measurements will be more accurate and the effects of inaccuracy will be smaller.

Also set your torpedoes to fast if you haven't done so already.

Fire a few practice torpedoes on that English battleships if you want (the Brits are good sports, I'm sure they won't mind). Best of luck shoot sinking some enemy shipping!

[Hitman]

You don't have to align the horizontal crosshair with the waterline at all. That happened in SH3, but not in SH4, which uses a true-to-life split prism stadimeter. Just make the tip of the mast in one image match the waterline in the second and that's all, the stadimeter measures the angle the same.

As for the 130 ft limitation, you might have a point there :hmm: But anyway, just set manually the dial to f.e. 100 ft. and measure on a part of the enemy ship you estimate to be those 100 ft high. Taking a look at the recognition manual it is not difficult to figure it out, it might be the funnel, bridge, or whatever.

In stead I worked on my sneaking-up-on-stuff and now I generally try to be within 1500m-2000m

Well, of course that's what you are supposed to do! A WW2 torpedo only very rarely was shot at distances higher than 2000 meters, and a distance between 500 and 1000 meters was the most preferred :smug:

[NeonsStyle]

Thanks guys, Yes I do set speed high. The problem exists also at short ranges. For instnace, I had 2 merchants on their own up near the Caroline Islands. I setup an attack from 1600 yards out (I too prefer metric but I'm a pilot and like knots :p), I knew their course by plotting sonar contacts as they approached. I even knew the exact distance from me to their course at 90deg to their course. It was 1600 yards. So with 0 bearing facing 90 to their course, at bearing of 30, I ranged him; dropped scope and waited till he was at 10, popped up and ranged him again. That range was about 1900. I thought I'd made a mistake, so I ranged again at 0 bearing, which I knew was 1600 yards and again it was reading way long 1800. I ended up firing 2 with one just catching his stern.

Every time I use it it gets the wrong range even in close. In my first patrol, I shot 24 fish, with 2 hits lol, though I still managed to get 35 tons of ships plus whole mess of aircraft. Did it with the deck gun.

I'm going to try Dick Kane method, but I'd really like to get the TDC working properly.

I don't see an option to adjust the mouse sensitivity in game (might've missed it) good idea though.

Thanks

Ven