Ahoy RedHammer
After reading and rereading some of the the patrol reports of the Fleet boats from the war, You are not far off in your feelings on the matter. In the early part of the war especially, the skippers were frustrated by the very same thing (Apart from the fact that the fish were faulty). I have read too many instances to count of perfect setups at 1000 yrds, 90 degree or comparable AOB, firing 4 fish and ALL MISS!. This is with all the personal assisting the Skipper! Most all torpedos fired at enemy ships in the first year of the war were misses. I've noticed in the game that ship's are taking evasive manuvers as soon as the fish reaches some visable distance, particularly in daylight and it doesn't take the ship much to adjust it's course and have the fish miss. So when you take your calculation, best fire a spread if you attacking during the day.
Point is, don't be frustrated. This is what the Fleet boats in WW2 are all about.
Good Hunting :salute:

When you're first starting out I recommend that you leave map contacts on. Then with your pencil, plot a target position, then another position after 3 minutes. Measure the distance between the two points with your compass. The number of hundred yards between the two points is the speed in knots.

Now you can extend a line between the two points and forward in the direction of travel. With your protractor you can measure the target's course.

This is MUCH more accurate than the stadimeter auto speed and course thing, which is ALWAYS wrong.

If you wish, you can transition to finding the two positions with stadimeter and plotting them manually with map contacts off. Or you can find the 2 positions by active sonar and manually plot them.

I find that map contacts on is just as historically accurate so long as you are equipped with radar. Real radar gave more accurate measurements than our game with map contacts on anyway because the radar was analog and the game has binning from its digital nature.

They also had an entire crew assisting them, a whole collections of tools we don't have a clue about in the game and binocular vision with peripheral capability giving them a much fuller perception of their environment than we have. At best, SH4 lets you experience some of the experience, make some of the decisions and experience some of the dilemmas real submariners did.

But getting all nitpicky about realism is kinda foolish in a game where realism isn't on the menu. You can't even get cold and wet for 4 hours standing watch in freezing rain!

So play in a way that can teach you the concepts of torpedo targeting. That's about the extent of possible realism here anyway. Leave the map contacts on, especially at first. And consult the fun meter once in awhile. If it isn't at 75% or better, change the way you're playing.

Damn Robbins,
If I had teachers like you when I was in school I would have been there a lot more! A compliment. Never stop your posts, I learn every time I read 'em.
Rock On :salute:
D40

Thanks a lot. That-s useful.
 

:up::up: