newbey

[captin celtic 12 bore]

first off just joined this forum
second the missus bought me sh4 for christmas and have being playing every day since.
so here come the silly newby questions.
how can you get the uboat manual targeting to figure out ship speed.
i keep getting different results from a contact even when in easy mode.
fleet boats i can guess and set the speed on the speed ring/angle on bow/range device.
but with uboats you have to look and figure out.
thanks
merry christmas:arrgh!:

[Sailor Steve]

Welcome aboard, Celtic! :sunny:

Not using manual targeting myself I'm not going to be much help, but others will be along who can.

[Pisces]

Assuming it works exactly as in SH3, it's by first getting an accurate range and AOB. The speed is dependant on these, and also how steady the heading of the Uboat stays. Then take a long(er) time during the speed measurement to make the periscope bearing drift while it is locked on the target. Short periods suffer from the inaccuracies of the distance and AOB measurement. Also the uboat dancing on the waves could be the cause of these irregular readings. So, increase the size of the periscope drift due to target motion relative to the Uboat own motion to reduce there relative effects.

It is not a very realistic method, as you'd want the periscope up for as short a time as possible. Keeping it locked and watching the target is asking for inbound escorts. I haven't tried it myself yet, but you may not need to keep the periscope locked and up during the period. For the math to work as long as it is locked on the correct target when the time period ends it has the numbers it needs. But I can't remember if the game breaks the Notepad speed-measurement procedure when loosing the lock. It's been too long ago since I used it.

Alternatively you can use a method that is based on a somewhat accurate ID of the target's length. Again, I'm not sure if length is part of the stock SH4 regonition manual. So this may not work until you have a mod that adds this.

The idea is to use the periscope to create an imaginary wall through the sea, and time the duration of the target passing through it. From an ID-ed or guestimated length you can deduce speed.

To keep the wall from moving set the periscope/UZO to 0 or 180 bearing. And steer the boat until the line is just in front of the target's bow. Now wait until the bow hits the periscope centerline, and start a stopwatch. End it when the stern leaves the line. All the while make sure the boat does not turn! Keep rudder amidship, and submerged to be at a steady heading!

Then divide the length by the time in seconds it took, and convert to knots. From meters/second to knots is x1.94, or just times 2 to make it easy and accurate enough. For yards/second to knots it's x1.77. So a not so easy calculation.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome to SUBSIM :sunny:

[THEBERBSTER]

Check out the YouTube SH4 videos and you will get a better idea of what you need to do.

[fireftr18]

Welcome Captin! Permission to come aboard. :salute:
I don't play the German side, so I can't help.
As the officially, un-official, self-appointed assigner of jobs at Subsim, I have a special job for you. Since you like the German side, I'm making you the boat's medic, you can start in The Bilge checking the sailors for crabs.