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Originally Posted by maerean_m
I do believe you'll be amazed by what Dan has prepared for you in the terms of TDC and manual targeting  . I would have never thought of the idea he came up with.
We'll be previewing it at the Subsim meeting. |
Any tool to help the newbies enter the joy of manul targeting is welcome
. Both SH3 and SH4 lacked a easy to use intermediary "manual" targetting solution. But I do hope you're not forgetting us veterans. We really need that double split prism periscope conencted to the aob wheel. It was the main reason the germans used the Attack Periscope instead of the obs scope which didn't have that. I trust Hitman has provided you with all the info needed. Here's something I've come across a few times:
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The periscope consisted of a long steel tube which extended out to about five meters from the housing. It had prisms and lenses at both ends. Periscopes suffered from two main problems, the most important was vibration. When fully extended, the long unsupported tube created turbulence on a moving U-boat. At 6 knots, it caused excessive vibration which rendered it almost impossible to use. This was dampened by using an extension bracket to reduce the unsupported length and the pointed end was redesigned to minimize the forward hydrodynamic resistance. Nevertheless, vibrations still occurred, but to a much lesser degree. The other problem was fogging of the lenses. Since the damp atmosphere of the U-boat caused fogging, it was especially important that the tube was not only watertight, but was airtight as well. Any fracture on the airtight casing caused by a depth charge attack would result in fogging of the tubes.
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The important info in this is that you could not see through the scope unless it was fully raised. There were no intermediary positions. Keeping the boat at the proper depth was extremely important. Also, raising the scopes at high depth would result in damaging the scopes. Fogging was possible to fix when on the surface.
I have a preety good idea how to implement them (if not already implemented :rotfl
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- the periscope station (the 3d rotating one with the small seat) had the knobs/switches for rotating the scope, using color filters, zoom level, an aob/range finder wheel.
- the periscope bearing was only available at the top of the scope, on the static part. It was luminated by a small light bulb that rotated with the scope (easy to see in Das Boot, when the captain repeteadly looks up to see the bearing).
- the periscope did not have buttons for firing torpedoes (i think).
Since the periscope seat camera doesn't need to move too much with the boat, some clever use of the mouse can give us quick strafing for access to all of these and it can be stable enough to manipulate the 3d aob wheel with the mouse (actually it only had a knob for setting the height/length). Hmm.. maybe mousewheel over knobs and dials as in Flight Simulator?
The "2d" perisope view should be completely clear, and no, they didn't have periscope lines which changed color during the night. The only thing you would be able to show/hide from here are the orders to the WO and to the helm.
Since the man at the scope did not have access to the TDC, the notepad stylised method of entering data was not bad. It should be optional, allowing you to see the actual dials and manipulate them (such as in sh4 and ACM mod for sh3). But the stylised version would be better for immersion. It should consist of all necesary inputs (tdc and torpedo settings). It should have both stylised dials for quick input, but also text boxes for precise input. Each time you use them, since they don't need to act as temporary solutions, they would be sent imediately to the WO (and thus the TDC).
The aob wheel on the scope might've been actually linked to the TDC itself, but I doubt it, since it had to be reseted for normal viewing.
Now the AOB dial was in fact linked to both the Bearing dial AND the compass. Changing your course also changed the AOB. The link to the bearing (the auto tdc update feature) was indeed optional. But the link to the compass was not optional. If you say a target at 45 degrees bearing wich had a 45 degrees AOB to you, and then you changed the course by 45 degrees into it, at the end of the turn, you would not have a 0 AOB at 0 bearing on the dial (As you do in SH3 and SH4), you'd have a 45 AOB at 0 bearing as it should be. This greatly simplified using the TDC for getting very quick intercept courses (described here ). So the crew had quite a lot to do in fact:
- you could ask him for specific intercept courses, (since you shouldn't see the TDC dials updating in the notepad page), "Give me a bearing for 82 port intercept"... "Yes sir.... bearing 219 should be ok".
- you could give him timed bearing/range data when visibility is poor and he would pass that info to the Nav Officer for plotting (as a double check)
- the Nav Officer would calculate the torpedo travel time after firing.
- the order to fire a torpedo would take about 2 seconds to arrive at the torpedo room (the only place which actually had a button/lever to fire the damn things). But that was already implemented, i think.
- you could order the second officer to look thorugh the OBS scope (or your scope) for ship recognition.
- Actually, the officer should be able to take your place at the scope and conduct the same procedure as you. In the meantime you could stay at the TDC station (releaving the WO) and he would give the data to you
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- Of course, both SO and Nav Officer's experience would greatly impact all their calculations.
This would be as realisticaly as it is humanly possible, And it would allow you to sit back and enjoy the view while the others work, even at 100% difficulty.