question on gyro angle and moving periscope to target front of ship

[tmdgm]

In SH3, once you locked the target with all info, you could move the periscope around and target the front or back of the ship.

Is it the same in SH4? That doesn't seem to work that way. Seems if you want to target the front or back, you use the spread dial on the torpedo function.

[Munchausen]

:cool: In auto mode, no need to lock the target. Just launch a torpedo as the intended part of the ship passes the crosshairs. In manual mode, it works much the same way ... assuming you've made the proper calculations and set them in the TDC.

[Deephunter]

When I played in auto mode, I locked the target for a few seconds to make sure the TDC/PK got all their numbers right. Then I unlocked and swept the periscope to hit the "juicy" spots on the target. Worked for me...:DL

[Armistead]

You can basically do the same. Using the lock funtion, stad, aob, ect..do all the standard things you would do manual targeting. Once you have it all set, unlock the scope and place in in front of the target, but be sure to click that new bearing, then shoot at places you want to hit as the target crosses the wire.

I find this much better shooting spreads.

[tmdgm]

thx, just didn't seem like the gyro angle and stuff was changing when i unlocked and moved the scope around.

[Munchausen]

It doesn't. That's why you need to send the new bearing to the TDC yourself.

[tmdgm]

ah, ok. so you have to take another range/bearing measurement say on the front of the ship and send to tdc?

If so, then it's not quite the same as sh3.

[Munchausen]

It's the one big difference between submarine targeting and U-boat targeting ... the U-boat TDC could be locked to the periscope. It probably has something to do with how you send data to the TDC in subs.

[Major Johnson]

While we're on this targeting topic...........I use auto targeting.......I was in a battle with sub chaser the other night and I found that the sub chaser was able to aviod my torpedos, so I wanted to lead it a little more. To do this I wanted to lead him out past where the targeting indicator stopped blinking. When I fired, my torp just went straight. I'm assuming this is because I didn't use the lock function first?

[Stormflux]

It also depends on whether you have your Torpedo Data Computer set to tracking mode or not (is the big red button lit?).

With the TDC on, you enter each piece of data once, and the firing solution continually updates (you can see the gyro angles moving if you look closely or hover over the arrows).

After you enter your initial firing solution, lower the scope and wait a bit while letting the computer run. After a few minutes, you'll want to check the TDC's solution. Hover over the bearing indicator and it will tell you a number. Raise the scope on that bearing, and if your solution is correct, the target should be smack dab in the middle of your crosshairs! If not, you need to adjust something (probably target speed).

You can also aim at different parts of the ship or even ahead of the ship, just make sure to 'click' the bearing into the TDC and it will work with your range / speed / AoB data to continually update the picture based on what you told it. The TDC assumes the center of the ship is where you clicked, which might be different than the *actual* center of the ship.

[Stormflux]

While we're on this targeting topic...........I use auto targeting.......I was in a battle with sub chaser the other night and I found that the sub chaser was able to aviod my torpedos, so I wanted to lead it a little more. To do this I wanted to lead him out past where the targeting indicator stopped blinking. When I fired, my torp just went straight. I'm assuming this is because I didn't use the lock function first?

Yeah, with auto targeting you can't do this directly. The crosshairs have to be touching a target when you fire, or the torpedo will not have a target. You can adjust using the Spread angle if you want: if the target's at 020 and you want to shoot at 030 instead, adjust +10 degrees on the spread angle.

With manual targeting it's a lot easier. The TDC uses the mast height of the last target you touched regardless of where the scope is actually pointing. Then you just click ahead of (or behind) the target and if your other data is correct, the enemy should zig zag right into your shot. (My problem is I never know whether to aim ahead or behind, I want to say if he's turning toward you, aim ahead and if he's turning away aim behind, but I could be wrong).

[Major Johnson]

Nice tip! Thanks!! I'll be trying that out tonight for sure! :up: