no lock at fair distance?

[LCQ_SH]

does anybody knows what file or sensor spec should I modify in order for to be able to lock a ship at a fair distance of 5-6km where it can be clearly seen and identify for a long distance shot or even a surface attack, but TDC cannot work as I cannot lock on it.

I am using OTC. I posted there but no answer so far :hmmm:

[Webster]

I don't recall the specifics but I believe the max torpedo range is limited to 5km or less so its just going to be all wasted torpedos you would be shooting.

as for accuracy at distance, anything over 2000m will likely miss 90% of the time so most of your shots should be between 500-1500m if you want to hit them.

the only thing you will hit over 3000m (other then just blind luck) would be ships anchored in port or a harbor

[LCQ_SH]

I don't recall the specifics but I believe the max torpedo range is limited to 5km or less so its just going to be all wasted torpedos you would be shooting.

as for accuracy at distance, anything over 2000m will likely miss 90% of the time so most of your shots should be between 500-1500m if you want to hit them.

the only thing you will hit over 3000m (other then just blind luck) would be ships anchored in port or a harbor

at torp low speed is 8km, but you are right though. However, being able to lock the target that far should be possible to start programming the TDC and start working in the torp solution (with no need to pause the game at a range of 1,500m or less). My intentions are not to shoot that far, but to be able to work on the TDC and to do that, you need to be able to lock the target.

[Webster]

are you playing stock or GFO? because the super mods will dumb down or reduce the ability to use the lock at distance or bad weather or even if you do lock on at distance, its only for a few seconds.

sometimes the lock can be done by simply raising depth a meter or so to get the scope a little higher

[Rockin Robbins]

Actually it's the environmental mods embedded in the supermods that makes locking targets a problem. I remember when we were testing RFB 2 that it was nearly impossible to keep a lock in fog or at a distance over 1500 yards. First they wanted to say that it was a feature, but couldn't keep from laughing as they explained.

Finally they ratcheted back the environmental tweaks enough for locking to work, but still not as well as the stock game.

Environmental mods introduce lots of things like that and a disparity between what you can see and what the crew can see. For every effect you want there are three more that you didn't intend. Two of them are bad. It's the law of unintended consequences.

The actual game developers were playthings in the claws of the Law of Unintended Consequences too.

[LCQ_SH]

are you playing stock or GFO? because the super mods will dumb down or reduce the ability to use the lock at distance or bad weather or even if you do lock on at distance, its only for a few seconds.

sometimes the lock can be done by simply raising depth a meter or so to get the scope a little higher

TMO RSRD env. mod and OTC.

Does that happen with you GFO mod? If it doesn't I think I will dump everything and stay with only RSRD and GFO. I like hard but realistic escorts though hehe. :arrgh!:

[ColonelSandersLite]

What exactly is "env. mod"? This is probably the source of your problem. The TMO sensors are carefully balanced for use with its own built in environment mod. It's also possible that RSRD has altered sensors and this is causing problems with the TMO Envrionment mod as well. I don't really know, I don't use RSRD (not a fan).

Using straight TMO, I definitely don't have this problem, though there is an annoying tendency for the lock to be lost after a few seconds if the target is over a certain distance away. It's usually pretty far though. It can be worked around by just re-locking the target quickly after lock is lost. I don't know what the default keyboard control is for that, but knowing what it is for your setup makes it pretty easy to do.

[ColonelSandersLite]

as for accuracy at distance, anything over 2000m will likely miss 90% of the time so most of your shots should be between 500-1500m if you want to hit them.

the only thing you will hit over 3000m (other then just blind luck) would be ships anchored in port or a harbor

Now *that* is the worlds worst advice there. Don't believe me?
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=2339904
There was also a video I didn't upload because I got *4* circular runners in one salvo and I just couldn't stop laughing. I will include it for statistical purposes though.

47 Torpedoes launched. I believe *every one of them* was launched at a distance of greater than 2,000 yards. 13 had a run length of 3,500 yards (distance to target obviously further). One shot was over 4000 yards. Around 2/3 of these shots where with the slow mk18.

My averages where:
41/47 87% Hit
1/47 2% Miss
5/47 10% circular

Only one of the 3,500 yard shots missed. (in fact it was the only non-circular runner that missed)

In 6 attacks, I sunk 18 ships.



Skilled long range shooting will both increase the lethality of your attacks and make your attacks more survivable. Saying that shooting accurately past 2,000 yards is impossible is tantamount to saying that you shouldn't run on the track because you might pull a muscle. You will *never* win a race with that philosophy.

Edit: This is not to say that getting to within 1000 yards is a bad idea when you're dealing with a lone unescorted merchant!

[Armistead]

It's been a long time, but tweaking my own env and using TMO, I adjusted crew visuals and could lock on the horizon. Only issue I didn't like was TMO you can auto ID and on the horizon where you could see just mast, you could easily lock and ID ships you shouldn't be able to identify. I was gonna cut that feature back off in TMO, just never got to it.

[ColonelSandersLite]

As an alternative, you can just not use it ;). Personally, I have all the merchants memorized at this point so I tend to use TMO's identify ship feature when I already know what it is as a matter of interface convenience. Just saves me from having to thumb through the rec manual.

[Sniper297]

"Around 2/3 of these shots where with the slow mk18."

And you don't think a wakeless electric torpedo was a factor? Maybe he should have clarified, "any steam torpedo over 2000m will likely miss 90% of the time" since most misses over 500 yards are due to the target seeing the wake and maneuvering to avoid it. The whole advantage of the MK18 was the wakeless feature, with the slow speed and limited range it would have been useless otherwise.

[ColonelSandersLite]

Around 1/3 of those shots where steam torpedoes. I was mixing steam and electric in each attack.

Edit:
Actually, counting them up it was 22 of 47 steam. So closer to half. I didn't stop to think about how the videos where I mixed bow and stern tubes in an attack would skew those numbers.

[TorpX]

It's been a long time, but tweaking my own env and using TMO, I adjusted crew visuals and could lock on the horizon.

Could you elaborate on what you had to adjust to improve lock distance?

[Armistead]

Could you elaborate on what you had to adjust to improve lock distance?







I've got the file loaded, for my night mod, i tried very hard to adj visuals so the crew could see what I easily could, never got night perfect, the crew saw about 1000 yards further than I could spot the ship, I just settled on hey, they're higher and lookouts....but prefer that than not calling out obvious ships. I can't recall if I adjusted visuals for day in any way of the adjustments for that were an after effect, been too long. Obivous env, sensors and sim cfg and seems some ai visuals in the library...also some other things in it, cut off all the lights for most merchants and capital ships, so they don't come on at night and make themselves a easier target, maybe made some aspects of ai harder, some easier....i do run it over an older version of travs mod and seems i adjusted some air files I didn't like in his.

just haven't been into the game in a long time, but if u will pm me your email, i will send u the mod and u can pry into the files.