RFB questions
 

I am interested in getting the RFB mod and so I started reading the PDF manual for the mod. I like the idea of the realistic sinking and other things the mod adds, but I am not thrilled about how the mod makes the ship identification book less accurate for mast heights and so forth.

I play using manual targeting and no map contacts and right now I am not very good at setting up a solution. With the less accurate ship ID book I don't think I would be able to hit anything at all. I guess I am wondering how much the ship ID book has changed with the RFB mod and how difficult does it make getting an accurate range estimate?

Also, can the realistic sinking part of the mod be applied/downloaded separately from the rest RFB somewhere?

In general, plotting a ship involves many different observations, averaging the results, and a lot of guess work. That's how it worked in real life pre-radar, and that's how it works in RFB. So if you want to be able to set up a whole firing solution with just two inputs of distance and bearing, then yes you are going to fail because it didn't work that way in real life and neither does it work in RFB. However, working hard for a good firing solution is a challenge in itself, and it is sure worth it. You just have to remember what happened when you left auto targetting and went for full manual ... it was frustrating at first, then became smooth and second nature in many aspects. RFB works the same way, and you will enjoy the added difficulty, but at the price of some frustration before you master it :up:

Never had any problems with the merchants from the ship ID book but with the warships myself, however in no way does this detract from the excellence that is RFB imo. Just makes it more real with the dreaded mk14's etc!

As Hitman said it's not a question of taking a couple of marks to get the set up, from my experiance with RFB it's more about the gathering of data, taking time to get into the best position rather then the quick off the hip shot. Work at it and its well worth the time and frustrations.