my noob questions

[CaptainCorcoran]

Hello everyone.
I'd like to start by saying how cool this website is, you guys have helped me alot, though you dont know it, thanks.

I'm starting this thread for me to you experienced captains out there, so i can periodically pick your brains.

I am completely new to naval navigation and tactics. i watched the how too's up to about video 14, so i got a small gist of how to use the deck guns and navigate via waypoints.

So yesturaday i decided to go hunting on the 1st mission hunting by anglia (uk). after five hours i am severely lacking! how lucky you were J2 to have that convoy streight away! Anyway,
as soon as i see a contact i give chase and can never catch up so i can 90digree the target, im always chasing.
I am surfaced and am at full speed outside the detection circle and just before i enter detection i peri-depth and i loose them or i am chasing their arse end- frustrating!
Is it that if a contact is far moving away I shouldn't bother? and just wait till i get a 'plum' contact thats more or less coming towards me?

Another thing i am having trouble with is, is it only 90digrees that torp's will detonate cause 90percent of my torps rickechet of the targets hull.

and one last nigling thing for now, this morning, i seem to have lost my crew's voice when i click the distance to bottom button. it just pings now like a real sub, the guy doesnt 'say' 15 meters to the bottom sir, type of thing.
The only thing i have installed is darkwrath's new ui. i installed that yesturday and the voice was on, i havent changed anything (idont think) since then. but i boot up sh5 and its gone today, wierd.
maybe i disabled the talk? if you know what i have done let me know.

So, this is my first post asking for guidence, hints, tech. if i have more questions i'l post in here so i dont spam your awsome forum with threads :-)

[Also, i have 'tried' to watch some you tube tutorials on how to torp targets... is it me but most of these are really technical and seem to be talking klingon!? argh i hate abreviations lol]
Much Kudos to you all, i bet you could command a real sub no prob's.

Jai-Ho!
Cpt Corcoran
[HMS Pinafore]

[Lost At Sea]

Welcome onboard Captain !
Will try to answer where I can but please note that I'm frequently wrong...
To start with, I hardly ever give chase in daytime but I might at night for a surface attack. If you chase on a parallel course you must then be much faster than the convoy, get well ahead and eventually take a 45-degree turn towards the convoy's anticipated position, dive and wait :03:.
I generally prefer to guestimate convoy's heading and speed by diving for frequent sound checks instead of a visual chase. If the convoy is heading directly away from me, I will shadow it for 6 hrs or so in case it changes heading. I usually give up.
It took me some time to accept that shadowing a convoy is much more effective by diving frequently for sound checks. You always hear better than see onboard a uboat.
Firing torpedoes is best done with a 90 degrees firing solution, obviously it is not always possible but anywhere near that mark is good, preferably before your target crosses your bow...
Torps will often bounce off, especially early in the war. Anyway, both the angle and the distance you fire from are important. Too close (under 700m) and the torp does not have time to arm itself...

Finally, specific voices and commands in SHV are still a mystery. Works or does not work depending on which mod or vanilla version. Quite irritating but the modding community has certainly saved this sim once again !

I'm a worried captain by nature. I only fire under near-ideal conditions so maybe you'll feel some of the above comments are too conservative to have fun with SHV.
Each his own I guess :D

Lost

[CaptainCorcoran]

Thanks Lost.
I think im figuring it out too. im doing much better with a search pattern /\/\/\ and mirroring that below, took me a while to find out that 100m radious of the initial mission icon to register(i think).

as for torping when i descover its general heading via fast time il head in a guess direction ahead of the ship and then plot its exact course with a marker 1 and 2 and 3 then draw a ruler mark along the marks and extend it till it passes then i get the 90 digree ruler and set a line 90dig' and line up my boat and sit at peri depth waiting... suspence is awsome. i tend to mark a ruler between 500 and 300 and position my sub there, dunno if thats too close but it seems to detonate.
oh and i figured out that if i click the (bottom left map) ship a yellowish line gets created.. i assume this is the trejectory of the torp. so i wait till the yellow line hits my 90 dig' angle and i fire... it has hit 100% so far.
oh and i always make "red alert" with the 1st officer. i think you have to have it to make it all work properly is that right?

is what i do for torping correct? fastest way?

thanks.

Corc'