Mod Request : Range to Target
 

Quick question about mod feasibility - does anyone know if it is possible to get the range to a target to be displayed in the deck gun view ?

This would be a major improvement to deck gun firing and is required for the TSWSM to enable a decent level of deck gun use at the engagement ranges we are using (out to at least 14 km).

Thanks all.

the shells from our IJN 5.5 inch DGs always fell at roughly 10 km when their range is 16 km and the target was at 12 km...

maybe 10 km is a maximum in sh4 ?

keltos

I can tell you that driving a large battleship with 15 inch guns... I can happily hit targets out well beyond 10 km...... and actually another key challenge I have is improving the submarine AI crew's ability to aim properly - the hit ratio is very poor compared to RL .... where a target would typically get zeroed in and once it got hit, % success ratio would be good, unless speed / course changed singificanlty. Problem with SH4 standard gunnery is that ths hit ratio stinks - despite being on a stable BB platform and turning down the error value in the guns.sim file for the weapons. Max error angle in the .cfg onlu appears to affect the AI ship accuracy, and not the sub AI crew accuracy.

One thing which does improve accuracy is the special abilities .... however I'm currently encountering horrible CTD issues when using the deck gun special abilites.... and have no clue as to why :-(

In SH3 the IWO told you range to closest ship, but I have never seen this working in SH4, despite other "hidden" features like range to course end, time to course end, etc. being re-activated by modders :hmmm:

I'm pretty sure I've used the "Report nearest visual contact" feature in TMO.

My gun crew cannot hit a god d--n thing.

Why not use the sonarman?
if you request a range to target (locked on a ship in the peri or UZO) he will send out a ping and give you a range...but I think that only works out to 4000 yards or so. but I'm sure the same can be asked of the radarman. and since the fire directors of the main guns were radar controlled (later on anyways) it's not too far from realistic either.

Shammer - good point ... thanks .... I'll see if I can work out what to do in commands.cfg to enable range to target.

An experienced naval officer can estimate the range to within a few hundred yards. Before radar, the gunner would try to bracket the target, and then hone in on it.
In addition to range, you need to guess the ship's course, speed, size, and correct for your course and speed. So hitting a ship from the unstable deck of sub at long range is very difficult.
Deck guns in subs were used, mainly, to finish off a crippled target from close range.
So having the watch officer give you an estimated range is accurate, but the longer the range, the less likely you will hit it anyway.

Irish - while correct, your post is not especially relevant - I HAVE NO INTEREST in improving gunnery from a submarines deck gun..... what I am trying to do is improve the gunnery when manning the turrets of a 15in battelship ..... this post was related to the TSWSM. Reason I posted in this forum is there are some very experienced modders in both and I wanted the best chance of getting help.