From what I understand and from some of the pictures I've seen, I believe there was only one dial on the TDC/angle solver for gyro offset (spread dial). Thus it affected all tubes and had to be changed between firing of tubes during a salvo.

Speed can be one of the hardest things to figure out, but it’s pretty straight forward with some practice. If you play with the map contact updates on (contacts on nav map updated for you) and using Imperial measurements (get the mod that fixes the mast height problem or run RFB or other mods that include it), here’s what worked for me. It does involve some math though so either be good at mental math or have a calculator handy.

Knots are a unit of speed for boats and planes. Knot means nothing more than nautical miles per hours. If a ship is traveling 15 knots, the boat is traveling 15 nautical miles per hour. Since there is 60 minutes in an hour, we can take an observation of a target between two points and measure the distance it takes to travel over a period of time.

First thing I do once I spot a target is get on an intercept course, then I start tracking to figure out speed. Go to the nav map and bring up the stopwatch. Take the mark tool and mark a point smack dab in the middle of the target, and immediately start the stopwatch. If you are submerged go ahead and lower the scope. Now all we do is wait for several minutes. How long to wait depends on how much time you think you have. Longer you wait, the more accurate the calculation will be. I typically use 6 minutes between observations, so I’ll use that in this example.

At around 5:45 on the stopwatch I start raising the scope and find the target again. Switch to the nav map and right at the 6-minute mark; mark the target in the dead center again. Lower the scope, and now it’s time to take the ruler and measure the distance between your two marks. The ruler is only accurate to a tenth of a nautical mile so you’ll have to eyeball if the distance is somewhere between. Let’s say I have about .55 nautical miles traveled between the two marks according to the ruler. Here the formula:


So here is what it looks like in my example:


I now have the speed of roughly 5.5knots (either round up or down accordingly) for this target. Go ahead and raise the scope and lock on the target. I’m assuming you already have the target identified with the correct masthead height entered, so go ahead and get your range, and send to TDC. Get your AOB either eyeballing it or the method DedEye listed above, and send to TDC. Now enter the speed, and send to TDC. Now click the button to activate the TDC (should turn red). Lower the scope, but occasional take a look.

On the TDC at the top there are two dials. The top most one is your target and the one below that is ownship (our ship). At the top of the dial of own ship there is a mark that if you hover the mouse over it, it’ll display the bearing that the TDC thinks the target should be at. If it matches what you see in the scope, your solution is still good. If it’s off by a wide margin, then the target has either changed course or speed. If thats the case, turn the TDC off and start the process again.

Once the range and impact angle look good and the TDC matches what you see go ahead and fire. I usually fire 3 torpedoes per target (just like most of the successful skippers did in the war) with 2 of the 3 having a slight offset. 90% of the time 2 of them will hit.

My two cents worth - if you're worried about not being able to hit anything with manual TDC, start practicing only with dud torpedoes off and only with subs in 1944-45, after they fixed the torpedoes.

I was getting really frustrated with not hitting anything on manual TDC and blaming my lack of success on my set-up/solutions or TDC bugs etc. Then after reading a lot of the posts in various threads here and doing some concerted testing, I realized that my misses were not really related at all to the TDC (or much, at least - I would still occasionally forget to reset the spread angle between shots or make other simple user errors) - they were simply torpedo failures.

Once I started paying attention to the PK (comparing it to my observed periscope sightings over time), and turned on my event camera for testing, I realized my TDC solutions were essentially perfect, and that almost all my torpedoes were dead on target directionally. However, I was getting torpedo failure rates upwards of 75-80% or more (mostly running deep under the hulls, sometimes premature explosions and only very occasionally a dud strike/bounce-off or a gyro error veer-off). Historically, pretty accurate results for the early war (1941/42) time frame I was playing in based on what I've read, but obviously it's hard to gain confidence in your manual TDC skills when you're not getting many hits.

So, I suggest that you eliminate these torpedo failure variables until you get enough practice with the TDC using reliable torps - then you can decide how much frustration you want to experience with the torpedoes in the name of historical accuracy once you have the TDC mastered.

Good luck and good hunting!

Dean's advice is critical. The TDC does not change targets until you cycle the station keeper mode.
-Pv-

Or do what I have been doing.

Never use the Magnet Detonator. Set your torpedos for Contact only, shallow run (just below the waterline).

But don't tell Fife or Christie. They will be p***d!

JCC

Here goes nothing!
 

OK folks, Dean especially. I can't seem to get manual turned off. Does RFB force manual mode? I'm tired of arguing with the options settings and you folks have inspired (?) me to just go it the real way here. I've studied up on all the colorful profanity that will most likely be necessary and laughed myself half to death over the plights of some of you. Now I too will become a victim. It's your fault, Dean. If you hadn't done it with some success I wouldn't even try. I better study that book on profanity one more time before I humiliate myself and waste all those expensive torpedoes. God help me, here I go...

Well I did manage to sink something.... rough seas with a small convoy. didnt have that great of an intercept course but I'd figured I'd give it a shot anyway. Chose a freighter out of the pack and had a ahrd time collecting tdc data because of waves (Im running parallel to the convoy btw) and shot my torps all of which missed. So I said forget it and fired a spread of 6 torps each set to go varying degrees to the left. All missed...except one which hit a small freaighter miracuously in just the right spot giving me a one hit kill. He began to sink slowly and a few min he suddenly exploded in half which sped up his fate rather quickly.http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...-6-2007_17.jpg

I never saw anything like 70% failures before I started using the hardcore torpedo mod.

Manual TDC
 

Speed was always my downfall in that I was always estimating too low and my fish would pass far astern. Practice practice practice! Dont give up.:|\\

A few things to keep in mind:

1) If you're using the historically accurate Imperial measurements, the range will be off when using the Stadimeter. Should be fixed in the next patch. *crosses fingers* I try to drag the stadi about 10% further down the top of the mast to make up for it while using Imperial. Metric seems to be just fine.

2) The Position Keeper button (white/red when off/on respectively) is something that you should know when to turn on and off. The first thing you should do when choosing your fat juicy target is turn on the PK before making any manual inputs. Conversely, when you're done sinking that target, turn the PK button off and reset all 3 inputs to neutral.... Drag the pointer in the speed dial down as far it will go, set AoB to 0 dead on, and set speed to 0. Make sure you click the range input twice as the first time will not do the whole job. It will only input the speed and AoB the first time you click and you'll notice the range doesn't change until you hit it a second time.

3) As many others have mentioned, keep Map Contact Updates on while you practice your Manual solutions. After setting all 3 variables, use the attack map (2nd button from left under navigation section) to find out what your solution looks like. You will see the true location of the target, a white 'X' indicated the location your solution says it's at, and a white line pointing out of the 'X' indicating your estimated Angle on Bow. The latter is the biggest help when you're guessing AoB... and checking the attack map. Try going through all 3 inputs and hit the range input button at the very last. Check your attack map solution, revise and repeat. You will get very good at a fairly quick AoB judgement this way.

There are many ways to determine speed. Having Map Contact Updates on will easily let you use the 3 minute rule (Imperial) or 3:15 rule (Metric). When that's off, or in a hurry.. I like to use the ship length method and how long it takes the target to travel it's own length. There are many many different methods here on these boards for figuring speed and you should check them out.. see what you're comfortable with.


Once you get your first solid hit, it's a very fulfilling moment. You've overcome quite a challenge but there's many more difficult challenges ahead and it's never easy so you know you can always have an engaing time of it.:rock:

LOL - if you're running RFB and playing in 1941/42, even that won't save you. I fired 14 torps at a small freighter in January 1942 - 6 while underway (all missed), 8 more after bringing her to dead stop with the deck gun. Of those last 8, the first 2, set for contact at 10' depth, and the next 5, all set to contact and 3' depth, passed harmlessly under her hull - only the last torp (also set to contact and 3') finally hit and exploded, and she mercifully went down. Obviously, setting them shallow will be better than not, since they tend to run deep, but it's no guarantee of success either. So, for TDC practice purposes, I say go with no duds in 1944/45 till you get the hang of it. :yep:

Well I FINALLY think I got the hang of this. Intercepted a convoy nw of the phillipines at night and sunk a destroyer and passenger carrier w00t

I use Real Fleet Boat but I dont use manual TDC because I'm the skipper of the boat and thats what the crew is for.

:up:

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...trampoline.gif Excellent! And thanks for starting this thread!