Are Manual Deck Gun Waterline Shots Possible?
 

Playing SH3 1.4b + GWX3

Manually firing the deck gun is much faster than leaving the gun crew to do it - like twice as fast, I'm suspecting the boys, being good tidy Germans, are giving each round a quick polish and buff before inserting the round in the chamber.

BUT firing manually - through the gun scope - the targeting crosshairs only seem to work horizontally,not vertically - which results in me hitting the hull but nowhere more useful.

The gun crew can hit the waterline pretty consistently, is there some way I can also?

waterline shots are possible. 'vertical' movement is set by altering the range.

If the range to the target is 2000 m, set it slightly shorter. Its difficult to say how much because even with an exact range, movement of your sub caused by the waves will alter your shooting angle. You can actually see your gun barrel lift and lower. Try to fire when the barrell is at the same angle each time. This way, hopefully you can adjust your range setting to get the shots hitting the water several metres short - ensuring your shots hit just below the waterline.

Good luck, practice makes perfect (so they say!)

Johnm, you seem to be clearing up my confusion today. :)

What you wrote makes perfect RW sense. This is such a cool game.

Well, after you figure out the new key controls GWX3 added, that don't (obviously) show up on my Quick Reference Card. I had my kitten walk across the keyboard last night and he sent my sub into a crash dive in shallow water slamming into the bottom and removed the controls from the bottom of the screen. He sat there fluffing his whiskers as I frantically dove into self-taught damage control. The boat survived and he went to sleep.:haha:

Keep in mind that there is a bug with the gun's azimuth which can sometimes cause your shots to go wildly off target even at very close range.:damn: As Johnm says if you start shooting from 2000m try to set the range to 1800-1900m. Use the range to nearest target button frequently so that your WO can give you a "running commentary" about the target's distance and make your adjustments accordingly.

Hope this helps & good shooting...:salute:

My very first career patrol one of my ferrets decided to run across the keyboard. I heard "dive", "surface", "rudder hard starboard","all back full" and some others from the crew. Before I could react, I had backed into the rear of the pen. Didn't do much damage but I started a new career. Not my error.

BdU wants to speak to Blizzard.:88)

What you really want is for the shell to hit the water first and then explode against the side of the ship. You will know when you have the right range when you see the splash and then hear/see the explosion. :up:

Also, if you are close to the ship, within 500 meters, you can't move the vertical targeting of the deck gun below 500 meters so you'll need to back off from the ship. This might also make it see that you cannot control the vertical targeting of the ship.

I am using deckgun on close ranges (700 m or less) mainly, without gun scopes - aiming seems bit easier (better view) when I must take into account rocking of my uboat.

Thanks guys, lots of good advise.

Is it possible to designate which ship you want the automatic gun crew to shell, or can you only select the range and they select the ship?

Needed guns to finish up the Convoy Exam last night, they were very helpful! But a bit more control would have been helpful.

Blizzard? Not Bernard? :haha:

You can select nearest merchant or warship by clicking on your weapons officer bottom left of screen.

Center the ship in your binoculars (stock game had a crosshair, fortunately it has been removed in GWX :up:) and press space. A designated ship will be marked with an arrow and small image of a gun. The same goes for aircrafts.

BTW, is there a way to remove that arrow and gun from binoculars? Any mod? :hmmm: