Un-real! I just sank a ship!

[Capt. Morgan]

OK, I know, I know, I know... but this was the first time without the aid of map-contacts (never thought I'd be able to do that), using only information available through the periscope, and not an O'Kane/fast-90 setup.

Using Capt. Scurvey's OTC mod, I started to plot range and AOB at about 8000 yds. (luckily, my target was a big 400 footer). Not very accurate at that distance, but I just kept feeding new data into the Position Keeper as she got closer, and it was so cool to watch the range and bearing errors on the PK get smaller and smaller at each update.

At around 5000 yds, it became clear that I would never be able to achieve a good firing position while submerged (my target being both armed and fast) so I turned tail, and put 5MN distance between us. From there, I surfaced and proceed at flank speed to where I my plot told me she would be going.

Almost 90 minutes later she turned up as expected, 1500 yards further away that I had plotted, but more or less on time and course. I corrected the plot, continued up-dating the P.K., and at a (calculated) range of 2800 yds, bearing 32d relative, I gave her a salvo of 3 Mk 14's with 3d separation between each shot.

The first just missed her props. (I did have the event cam on) , and the third missed well ahead - but that was possibly due to the second torpedo, which slammed into her just aft of mid-ships, and immediately broke her keel.

It is incredibly satisfying to not know if you've got it all right until the instant torpedos hit. It's now a whole new game for me.:arrgh!:

Funny, the more I play this game, the more I want to reduce my tonnage.

[magic452]

Funny, the more I play this game, the more I want to reduce my tonnage.

Not really funny, when you sink 50,000 + tons a patrol it becomes rather routine. But when you have to work very hard to get 20,000 or less it makes each one you do get much more satisfying. :yeah:

Congrats on a good sinking. :up: :up: :up: :up:

Magic

[Radio]

Yes, it really is some kind of proud achievement if you happen to sink your first ship "manually", I totally understand you. Make sure you read/watch Rockin' Robbins and Werner Sobe's tutorials as well if you don't already have, those are great!

[EricW]

:salute:

My first manual targeting score had me jumping with my fists in the air!!!

[Rockin Robbins]

It sure beats scrutinizing little red, yellow and green triangles!:D

[Daniel Prates]

It is incredibly satisfying to not know if you've got it all right until the instant torpedos hit. It's now a whole new game for me.:arrgh!:

Funny, the more I play this game, the more I want to reduce my tonnage.


I myself always though that this purist kind of approach is the perfect way of gaming.

[EricW]

I myself always though that this purist kind of approach is the perfect way of gaming.
+1 (million)
I've got 3 ships down for roughly 15,000 tons on my current patrol using TMO 2.2 + OTC & Tokko's revenge......its already a successful patrol......and its taken me the last week and a half (and 5-6 attacks) to get that far.

My favorite campaign ever.....

[tomoose]

....I couldn't agree more. I've had a couple of patrols where I only bagged one or two ships but the satisfaction in manually targetting and plotting just to get those two ships was worth it.

From a gaming perspective, for me, it's not about the kill(s), but rather it's all about the hunt. If unsuccessfull you analyze what you did wrong etc and hopefully correct for it on the next target.
:yeah:

[Andrew82]

Congratulations on a job well done Captain! :salute:

[Diopos]

@Capt. Morgan (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=252462)
Welcome to the dark side.


Funny, the more I play this game, the more I want to reduce my tonnage.

:D Welcome to the even darker side! :up:

@ RR
It sure beats scrutinizing little red, yellow and green triangles!:D

Little red, yellow and green triangles in auto targeting, actual trigonometry in manual targeting (regardless of the various simplified shortcuts). Bottom line: THE TRIANGLES ARE ALWAYS THERE! :wah:

:DL

.

[Daniel Prates]

Little red, yellow and green triangles in auto targeting, actual trigonometry in manual targeting (regardless of the various simplified shortcuts). Bottom line: THE TRIANGLES ARE ALWAYS THERE!
.

Yeah, but the compairson would be the same between dunbo and those scary pink elephants. :O: The same, but not quite the same.

There is this... pessimistic schopenhauerian thing about submarine warfare in the 30s and 40s, that you can replicate when you play in full realism. It is this: the gainless, joyless, gloryless feeling you get when returning from a patrol.

I mean, i'm talking about things like that scene from "das boot" where, after torpedoing a merchant and getting hell from a DD for 5 hours, they finally surface and see the british ship they just shot a few hours ago. It is burning, crewmen are agonyzing in the flames, jumping all around in the ocean. This newbie crewman (a wartime reporter) asks something like "aren't we going to pick them up?" only to see that the captain not only does not answer, but also gives him a sinister, somber look and orders 'back one third'.

So it's kinda of a pointless victory, in the existential or philosophical point of view. It does not make you glad even if, after all your toils, you eventually score a hit. This pessimism is also present in peckinpahs "cross of iron", and in the several adaptations of "all quiet on the western front" from Remarque's, just to name a few. The senselessness of war as a whole.

Where I'm trying to get at is: playing in full realism makes suffer like hell just to shadow the eventual target, then having a hard time and almost getting killed just to get an ambiguous shot at it, and missing the target because of duds. Then it's all about getting back home with some dead crewmembers to account for.

Grim, but realistic. And quite immersive.

[Arlo]

Lookin' forward to joining the manual TDC club soon. I'm the kinda guy who'll watch you tube tutorials and scour the threads for all the information I can about the right way to do it. And that's exactly what I did today. Watched a half dozen tutorial vids twice each. Read the threads about patience and attention to detail and how much an immersive adrenaline kick it is. So I dump the training wheels career where I can generally get the crew to turn the right knobs the right way so the torp can either run too deep under the target, dud off its side or maybe hit and go boom (as long as I know I'm on target and its the historical flaws of the torps modeled, I'm good with it).

So .... now its manual TDC all the way. Get in position, slow down so your scope doesn't leave a rooster-tail, poke up the scope for 30 seconds or less and quickly ID the ship with the Sears and Robuck buy a Jap freighter catalog. Down scope while sending the TDC your matching mail order. Adjust heading for max effect. Hold breath (my manual way of timing my exposed scope - better be down before I need another). Get that range the way all the players who got good enough to share a tutorial video did it - stadiotomomameter thingie - split screen - the bottom touching the top of the mast giving an accurate range to target (I've been told and have seen on the vid) ... quick, put in the aob (seems easy enough, the ship looks like it may be 3 or 4 degrees toward me from a 90' right to left course .... speed ... (need a breath - down scope). Ok ... Ok ... count to 15 before I raise it again and while I'm doing that I'm setting the torps to run 5 feet deep and fast ... I think I'm at 3kl yards but the TDC ain't convinced yet. Take a breath - up scope. lock on. .... ok .... speed. Does the lil stopwatch icon need another couple of minutes? Lets try it. TDC estimates target speed at 54 knots. Um .... Ok .... something was done wrong along the way. Stadiomomomcmeter on! Drop the bottom of the top image to the top of the mast on the bottom image - send ... aob ... looks same - send ... speed .... click the stopwatch icon - tgt speed 155 knots. What?! Scopes up too long .... and the ship is passing the closest approach point. Down scope .... curse in faux Swedish.

Ok .. **** ... this is sucking. I can't display in front of the crew my total and complete ineptitude at using the TDC! Hell, they all use it like it's nuthin'. The steward can reach a solution faster than this.

Don't give up ..... you'll get this and it'll be worth it.

Up scope, lock, stammermcfuggitmeter dammit .... double vision with the bottom touching the mastpoint. AOB ... it's away about 10 degrees now. Speed ... 8 knots ... that's more like it! (How come he looks like he's pouring it on, though?!) The 'A' button says locked poor ... does it ever say anything other than 'poor' or 'locked poor?' Not that I've ever seen. ****, this is wearing my old fat arse out. I've got 4, I'll shoot 2. Scopes been up too long. Forgot to hold breath. Hyperventilating anyway. Open tube one, fire one, open tube 2, fire two. Scope down! Aftferburner on! Maybe we'll get another try. Ticktickticktick. Torpedo missed, sir. Oh ... and .... torpedo missed, sir. No schitt? Why am I not surprised.

Scope up, screw holding my breath. Holy fuggin Sister Sophia sitting on my face at mass! That sucker is pointed straight the other way and chewing water like a Japanese gopher on steroids!

*sigh* "Surface the boat - gun crew to your stations!"

(Crew mumbles ... "We're down to 40 rounds. Old man must be the suggiest torpedo aimer in the whole Pacific fleet!" Chief responds, "Why limit him to the Pacific.")

[Capt. Morgan]

Many thanks for all the comments.


It's always bothered me that I, of all people, could sink more ships than Mush Morton. In reality, any captain who could consistently sink 10,000t on every patrol would be an Ace. I'm hoping to get it down to where anything over 30-40,000t requires a lot of work and some luck.

And yes, 3 cheers(:salute::salute::salute:) for Rockin' Robbins and Werner Sobe's tutorials, as well as that 2 part tutorial on sinking multiple ships in convoy (I'll look it up when I get home).

@arol
From what I remember from reading books and patrol reports, Skippers -even the likes of O'Kane - spent a lot of their careers firing 2-3 torp. spreads at 3500T ships (that's almost deck gun fodder in SH4's world), and they fired spreads because duds and misses were not uncommon.

[Arlo]

@arol
From what I remember from reading books and patrol reports, Skippers -even the likes of O'Kane - spent a lot of their careers firing 2-3 torp. spreads at 3500T ships (that's almost deck gun fodder in SH4's world), and they fired spreads because duds and misses were not uncommon.

Most certainly. But they didn't have SH4 and a dozen do-overs indicating that when they use the TDC against the enemy, whatever training they received from the manufacturer now equates to poor solution after poor solution after ... oh, look at that, another poor solution. ;)

(I'll get there.):up:

[Daniel Prates]

Arlo, the manual targeting single mission that you find in the 'tutorials' menu is not a bad one, though very very simple and challengeless. There is a video in youtube...

... which, although also simplistic, is the basic grounds for aiming and shooting in manual mode.

So, simple as the mission and video tutorial may be, i suggest this: watch it several times, then play the mission until you can sucessfully sink that CA repeatedly. Then you will be ready to take on more challenging situations.

Remember, the manual data aquiring procedure is always (or mostly) the same. It is the situation that is constantly changing.

[Arlo]

Arlo, the manual targeting single mission that you find in the 'tutorials' menu is not a bad one, though very very simple and challengeless. There is a video in youtube...

... which, although also simplistic, is the basic grounds for aiming and shooting in manual mode.

So, simple as the mission and video tutorial may be, i suggest this: watch it several times, then play the mission until you can sucessfully sink that CA repeatedly. Then you will be ready to take on more challenging situations.

Remember, the manual data aquiring procedure is always (or mostly) the same. It is the situation that is constantly changing.

Thanks, DP ... I've been essentially doing that. Just airing/sharing a bit of frustration in the best humor I thought I could muster. :03:

[Capt. Morgan]

Most certainly. But they didn't have SH4 and a dozen do-overs indicating that when they use the TDC against the enemy, whatever training they received from the manufacturer now equates to poor solution after poor solution after ... oh, look at that, another poor solution. ;)

(I'll get there.):up:

You will.:salute:

SH4 sure can make you appreciate what a guy had to be able to do in order to command a Fleetboat , let alone be an Ace. The only additional advice I could give is to turn off Dud Torpedos while you are learning manual targeting - no one needs that much frustration.

[Daniel Prates]

Oh and BTW, I mentioned a link and did not post it. Here'tis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y58dWSILYY