manual TDC without map contact update
 

I have watched most of tutorial on youtube. Almost all of them have "map contact update" on. Is there any tutorial where "map contact update" is off?

There's a basic flaw with the whole map contacts issue: If you turn map contacts off, then the skipper has to do the job historically done by - wait for it - the plotting party. But if you allow automatic plotting, then the game does so with a totally unreasonable accuracy and consistency. SH3, with hsie's patches, allows uncertainty in the topside watch's reports, which is appropriate, then plots those reports automatically, which, from the Kaleun's pov, is also appropriate. Unfortunately, that can't be done in SH4, AFAIK.

Welcome back!
 

That's my issue rite there. Seems SH4 is kinda arcadish compared to sh5 and modded sh3. I enjoy doing map work. Even with map contact off, it is still easy to do in sh4 since American boats are so much better equipped (with radar, asdic sonar, etc). You can track bearing and range and then you can easily figure out everything else since your true position is known.

And that's a problem only SH5 addresses adequately.

And SH5 is so plagued by bugs and issues. Things like "You can still see the bright starry sky in a heavily foggy night" really leave a bad taste in my mouth.

I'm all about immersion, but I play with 'contacts on'. If this was a real sub, there would be 8-9 on the plotting party and we are doing all the work. I allow myself this crutch. Even with it on, there's still many things to go wrong and miss a shot especially with the Mark 14 torpedo!

It would be a bit different if the game allowed "active pause" so you could spend the time doing the plotting.

The biggest issue is trying to zoom in to get the precision necessary to be sufficient accurate enough.

It's extremely easy to come up with a half-decent fire control solution using three sets of range/bearing info plotted 3 minutes apart, assuming you haven't been spotted. It's the recording of that info in the chart that is difficult given the limitations of the game.