Silent Hunter 1 Manual Targeting

[gradenko_2000]

Ever since I tried and tested the SH4 Solution Solver and found that it works just as well doing manual 0-gyro shots in Silent Hunter 1, I want to try and do manual targeting ... but then, you can't draw on the map and there's no stadimeter!

How's a guy supposed to find course/AOB? The contact's mouse-over info on the navigational map gives you bearing, speed and range, so I guess it's possible to solve with the cosine law, or are we expected to do like the real skippers and just guesstimate then fire a spread?

[TorpX]

I used to do manual targeting with SHCE quite a bit, and it is certainly possible, even without the mouse-over info. The way I did it, to the best of my recollection, was by using the telemeter marks (on the periscope) to obtain range. I would then pause the game and plot the position, on paper, along with the time. The AoB was estimated by 'seaman's eye'. Be advised that the in-game rec. manual angled views of the ships are not properly scaled. By this I mean, an actual 45 deg. AoB view of a certain ship will not appear as it is drawn in the rec. manual. This gives you the course information, and speed, naturally, is obtained from successive positions, and dividing distance by time. The AoB was, for me, the hardest part, as I was not very good at arriving at an accurate estimate, but I did better once I realised the rec. manual was not an accurate yardstick for estimating AoB.

I don't remember the actual angles of the rec. manual views, but you can figure them out with basic trig. and then you will have a good yardstick to use in estimating AoB. Otherwise, you should just ignore them and use your own experience to estimate AoB.

I hope this helps.