Good thing I don't know then :DL Well I just sunk 5 sampans but im starting to wonder whether this is all the opposition I'll be getting this early in the war?

I'd call it an advantage gained by learning history... not sure I'd call it "cheating." Many skippers never sunk a single ship during their entire career. While experiencing that in-game may be more realistic, it also makes for a very boring game. Similar to not showering for weeks at a time. On the flip side though, having a list of all the exact dates and locations of convoys and battles and playing based on that list would be pushing it, and would detract from your overall experience... kinda like playing a shooter on "god" mode... it's fun for a couple minutes but gets boring pretty quickly. If you see a convoy every time you play, you'll never experience the thrill of spotting one after only killing stragglers for several weeks.

Maybe a good compromise would be to read up on the history of submarine warfare as you go along in the game... don't read about what happened in '44 if you're still playing in '42. This way, it would be about akin to gaining knowledge from other skippers' experiences as the war progresses.

Welcome to Subsim. I'm just getting through the n00b stage myself. It's a total blast. Just stick with it and keep pushing it... don't get too comfortable with simple auto-targeting... always try to do a little more with a little less and you'll be rewarded handsomely!

Well im being attacked for the first time, and im finding that its a bit of a nail biting experience :timeout:

Just crash dived to 150ft as I was being shelled (I think) from a small boat coming towards me (at least I hope it was, it was coming head on so I couldn't tell :o), another destroyer in the far distance, convoy of 3 tankers. Damn, I'll have my work cut out :yeah:

You might want to dive a little deeper (past the thermal layer, if you're not there already). Rig for silent running. Go very slow. Give them the smallest silhouette possible (try to stay pointed directly at or away from them.) When they're pinging you, they can't listen... this might be the time to make a little noise and slip a little further away then slow down again. Be aware though that if there are two of them, one can listen while the other pings. If they're depth charging you, you'll hear a splash when it hits the water, then the explosion when it goes off. If they're right on you, you'll also hear their propellers churning through the water.

This part is almost as exciting as watching a target blow to smithereens.... almost.:DL

RSRD rewrites the missions also based on the flow of the war, although I don't think they necessarily are written just to through you right into big battles. A lot of people do their assigned missions then go off in hunt of the "big" battles and relive history.

historical shipping lanes
 

TMO comes with a pull-down map of shipping lanes (top left corner of your map screen) as well as some other pull-down references. Use them.
RSRD is not for the impatient, you will have to go hunting early in the war and move around your patrol area. Later, surface radar will help but early on it's partly patience and good guessing. If no luck in your patrol area then slide over to the nearest shipping lane and try your luck there. Do NOT be surprised if you come back from a patrol empty handed and with most if not all your torps. Not every patrol resulted in finding a cooperative enemy merchant(s). That's part of the challenge IMHO and is a tad more realistic. Finding the enemy easily every single time you go out is kinda pointless and partly defeats the purpose of the game itself.

This game scares me :wah: Was just at 200ft (below the thermal layer) and could here the enemy ships propellers through my hydrophone, then realized I didn't need it as I could hear them through the hull :o What heightened the tension was that I was then pinged... bear in mind this was my first enemy contact so I pretty much crapped myself. Thought I'd snatch a quick view through the periscope and a glance at the surface confirmed my worst fears... I could see a boat going right above me and the sound of DC's dropping in:dead:.

Luckily I wasn't blown apart and didn't suffer any damage, was a frightening experience all the same though which left me not wanting to play the game for 5 mins :O: (only 5 mins though :03:)

Currently im at periscope depth with a destroyer quite close by, the 3 tankers in the distance and another destroyer heading roughly in my direction. Strange thing was that I fired 3 torps at the close destroyer, yet they angled of in completely the opposite direction when fired?

Sounds like you "get it." By that, I mean you understand the thrill of this game and why a "slow" game such as this is so exciting... way more than a nonstop barrage of cannon fodder in a FPS. It's all in the buildup. If there's no buildup, there's no climax. When you get out of this situation (if you do) you'll be a wiser Captain, and will have a memorable experience. I remember many of my kills, chases, and escapes. I can honestly think about them and get pumped to play the game again. It sounds like you'll be hooked the same way I was. :yeah:

As for your torpedoes going in strange directions... did you fire out of the wrong end of your boat? I've done it before after an hour or so of real-time tracking. Mistakes like that will make you want to bang your head against the wall (:damn:) but you'll probably never make that mistake again. Remember, "experience" is just a fancy way of saying that you learned from your screwups!

If you have auto-target on, I'm not sure what else could have caused that. Ideas, anyone?

Too true. :) On my second or third patrol (without RSRDC), I was off Honshu. I sank about 5 or 6 "Huge European Liners" with my deck gun. They were usually unescorted. It was just a bit too much like an FPS for me.

I already am pretty much addicted :03: haha

Yeah, I fired my 1 and 2 tubes (im assuming those are front, not aft tubes?) at the destroyer after sending the hydrophone bearing to the TDC and after marking it through my attack periscope. They were supposed to veer to the left to hit the destroyer at a bearing of about 300 from me, yet they sped off down a 45 odd degree bearing? Luckily I saved before I fired them (I am still a noob so I need to have some leniency :P) so im back off to try and survive this first encounter :D

No shame in using gamesaves while you're learning. Consider it training time. I did my first couple patrols like that. It's the only way to learn what works and what doesn't. I also recommend learning how to use the mission editor to set up basic attack scenarios. That way you can try many different things without having to spend hours of patrol time in-between.

When you finally bring yourself to the point of not using gamesaves, you get an even more intense nervousness/excitement when you're about to hit that Fire button.

As for you're torpedo problem. Do you have auto-targeting on? If so, you shouldn't have to send any data to the TDC.

Also, firing at something that's at 300 degrees from you is a potshot anyway... the torpedo has to turn approximately 60 degrees depending on the target's speed and direction (aka 60-degree gyro angle) and that will kill a lot of your accuracy. It's better to set yourself up to fire with as small of a gyro angle you can get. Now... that doesn't mean to wait until he's at exactly 0 degrees in your scope, because you have to take into consideration the fact that he's still moving, and the TDC will calculate accordingly, creating a gyro angle to compensate his change in position from the time of firing to the time of torpedo impact. To find your gyro angle, go to your TDC panel and hover your mouse over the lower dial (your ship). This will only work if the TDC already knows his speed and Angle on the Bow. If you're using auto-targeting, the TDC should have that information (I think.)

If you're able to reproduce what happened, take a screenshot right before firing. Make sure it has the periscope view, and all three side panels (TDC, Data Input, and Torpedo Console) visible. This will help us narrow down what's happening.

If you are using manual targeting and the only info you entered was what is above you missed two bits of information. The target speed and also the target heading. Speed is important so the TDC knows how much of a lead it needs to give the torpedo to get to the impact spot on time. More importantly is the target heading, this is the targets actual course as it releases to the compass. Without the heading the TDC does not know what direction the target is traveling, thus cannot accurately shot the torpedo in the right direction. In your case your torpedos probably took off in the direction of your previous shot since you did not change the AoB.

To undertand manual targeting watch some of the many vidoes by Rockin Robbins and WernerSobe, they explain this in very easy to understand steps.

If you're new to sh4, I'd suggest playing stock until it's too easy.:|\\

LOL!!! my guts have ruptured outta laughter :har::har::har::har::har::har:

Its true, Ubi SH5 = Ubi SHYTE Heads # 5

I've decided to start doing my torpedo navigation manually as i'm finding that much easier than just pointing at a ship and firing (however strange that may sound :O:). Also, its just generally more satisfying getting a hit when you've done all the work yourself :DL

Going to start a new campaign though now and leave my old one as it had a few gameplay settings which I wanted to change, but can't now (such as external camera - wanted it but forgot to untick the box and no dud torpedoes! im finding it hard enough already to get a hit without ghaving this extra hurdle to cross :haha:)