Having EXTREME trouble with the torpedo academy mission
 

Hello.

I've been trying to complete the torpedo academy mission (sink the large cargo ship and three smaller ones) for the past four hours, and I can't seem to do it. One of the following always seems to happen:

1. I engage the ships, but for whatever reason, none of my torpedoes go off. In one extreme instance, I hit one of the smaller ships with four torpedoes, all within 30 degrees of perpendicular to the keel, and none of them went off.

2. I lose track of some of the ships and can't kill enough of them because I can no longer find them.

Can anyone help me with this? It's really pissing me off.

Also, does this forum have a search function? I can't seem to find one.

Thanks.

First....hello and welcome to the forum!:salute:

to answer your first question...The reason that your torpedoes are not exploding is because your angle of impact is too much. you want to get as close to 90 degrees as possible.

The torpedo has impact sensors on the tip, and they have to contact the side of the ships hull to trigger the torpex explosive.

Your second question about losing contact is simple. Just go to your navagation screen and you should see the ship that you lose visual contact with. It will be a square symbol on your map.:)

One other thing I forgot to mention. You can also use a magnectic trigger setting to detonate your eel. Ideally you want to set your depth for impact about 1-1/2 meters below the ships keel. Your success for a magnetic impact also depends on how much of a magnetic field the target ship gives off. Usually bigger targets are better candidates for magnectic pistol attacks.:up:

They don't go off, or do they miss entirely?

The TDC menu (Underneath the Navigation chart) will show little graphics off your torpedoes when you launch them. Do they bounce off the ships, or do they just miss?

Welcome aboard!

1)
a) Are you using any mods which increase the likelyhood of duds? If so, perhaps you are just having bad luck.

b) Are you firing from too close? The torpedo needs to travel about 350 metres to arm itself. Note that this is probably not the range to target at moment of firing (unless target is stationary). It is the distance the torpedo actually travels, which could be greater or less than range to target, depending on relative movement of target.

c) Are you firing at a depth where the torpedo is hitting so far down the side of the hull that it is hitting a curved part rather than a vertical part? With impact pistols, set a depth of about 3 metres. With magnetic pistol set a depth of about 1 metre below the keel of the target (with magnetic pistol you don't want to touch the hull at all).

2) As the ships scatter, mark their direction of travel on your map. I don't recall them making numerous course corrections.

3) The Search function for the forum is only visible when you are logged in. You will find it on the menu bar near the top of the page, third item from the right. On my screen it is just below and to the left of the gold button labeled "Make a Donation".

Okay, I figured out the first part, about the impact sensor. However, I looked on my navigation screen and saw no more green squares. I saw long black lines pointing toward reported contacts, but when I follow them, they just disappear. This is really beginning to frustrate me.

The long black lines are there to simulate your navigator plotting a track to the targets last known position.. they will disapear afetr a while, thats normal. You can do a couple of different things, one..Follow the last known bearing of the lost contact, depending on your speed and the speed of the target it may take awhile to reaquire the target visually.

Two. Before you restart the tutoral, turn on your gods eye view in the realism options screen, this will allow you to see your target on the nav map longer.:)

P.S. You can also use time compression to speed up when your trying to catch up to the target.

This is going to sound dumb, but where is the realism options screen? I had been looking for it, but can't seem to locate it. Thanks for all the help.

It's on the large white map in your office before you start your frst patrol of a career. You have to exit out of the naval tutoral first. Once you click on the white map, at the bottom of the screen you will see what % your realism is set at, click on realism, that will bring you into the options screen. After you set your desired realism exit out of your office by clicking on the door. Then go back into your naval academy screen.:)

Okay, I think I have it figured out. I need to first attack the one behind me, because it is moving the fastest (8 kts,) then engage the others. I almost had it, but due to a stupid mistake on my part, I lost the large ship. I'm going to give it a break tonight and try again tomorrow.

If you think you lost one, go down to periscope depth and listen with your hydrophone. It has a much larger range than visual.

Also remember that Magnetic shots are most effective 1) with the torpedo running approx 1m below the enemy keel 2) when the torpedo passes the under the length of rather than across the enemy ship

Welcome aboard.
You may want to visit my Kielman website for some helpful hints.

Okay, now I'm having another problem, possibly a game glitch.

I have completed all the primary objectives in this mission twice (the aft torpedo tube makes knocking out the fastest ship a piece of cake) and gotten the message in the textbox at the bottom that says "All Primary Objectives Completed." However, I haven't gotten the "piece of paper" message that has appeared in the previous three tutorials telling me to return to base, and when I have chosen to "abandon mission" and "return to base," it doesn't count as having been completed. After completing the objectives both times, I have surfaced and tooled around on the surface for a little while, but still no message. Any ideas? Does completing these missions even do anything?

Also, perhaps it's because I didn't read the manual, but what's all this talk about magnetic torpedoes, or whatever? I know what they are, but as far as I can tell, in this mission, I'm stuck in a crappy basic submarine with no sonar and nothing but impact torpedoes and some lousy rookie crew members.

Thanks for all the help, everyone.

All uboats have a hydrophone station (H key) and is functional from the begining of the war. Hydrophone can only listen and gives the direction of sounds but has the best sensor range you get. Only sonar (the thing that says does the ping to get target-range) is an upgrade that comes in later years.

That crappy submarine is the Kriegmarine's workhorse, a type-7 (B). A bit more respect please. If you think that's crappy, try a type 2 in the 1st Flottila when you finnish the academy. Which deserves even more respect :yeah:

The button to change the pistol setting between impact and magnetic is on the TDC panel (F6 key). It is not torpedo type specific, but can be changed at will. (in the game atleast)

And what do you expect from your crew? You are fresh in the academy. So are they.

Okay. Thanks for letting me know those hotkeys. Still, I can't get the game to recognize I completed all my objectives. Here's what happens:

1. I sink 3 small transports plus the large one.
2. The message "All Primary Objectives Completed!" appears in the console at the bottom center of the screen.
3. I go to my radio man and click "Send Patrol Report" and "Send Contact Report" for good measure.
4. I surface the ship and drive around on the surface for about five realtime minutes.
5. I hit escape, click "Yes," then "Return to Base."

Then, next to the "Torpedo" academy section, it still says "no exam yet."

Any solution? Does completing these academy missions actually do anything for me in the main game, or is it strictly training that I can skip, since it seems to not be working?

EDIT: The submarine, crew, and torpedoes are all okay. I'm just looking for something to take my anger out on. Staying up until 3 A.M. trying to complete this mission, then having to get up for a school exam, isn't something I like to do. : )

You may want to check out this link: http://alexbret.perso.cegetel.net/index4875.php (hopefully it works). Although some of the information is outdated most of it is still useful.

And welcome aboard btw...:)

To make the academy mission succeed and count you need to tell the game you want to do the exam. If not it thinks you want to just train it. It's on the screen before the mission is loaded. Choose exam instead of training. Then press start.

[Edit] Succeeding the academy missions as exams should give you a bit of starting renown during the campaign. (1500 iirc, but that may depend on what mods you have) Not that you can do much with it as you begin since any modification to the uboat or crew before the first patrol can get you to loose the renown you earn during the patrol. (stock bug) But before the 2nd patrol you can use it to recruite more experienced crew or other upgrades.

Just a guess here. Make sure you're playing the mission as an exam, and not as training.


What pisces said. I type too slow. ...

Yep, I just figured that out myself. I'm now a full fledged U-boat commander! Thanks!