[Capt. Morgan]

First off, congratulations on surviving a patrol in TMO as a novice Captain. TMO was created to provide a considerably greater challenge than the stock game.

All excellent points above - look for the videos by Rockin' Robbins and Werner Sobe In the Bag of Tricks... excellent tutorials on manual targeting.

some partial answer to your questions..

Originally Posted by yourgi952

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1. So i can (just) track a ship with hydrophones and plot its course and intercept it etc, but I am confused as to how to attack targets if you don't have time to do all that, like how do you work out their speed ect when they are to close do it the long way.

If you have ID'd the ship and know its length, you can calculate its speed by measuring how long it tales to cross the centerline of your
periscope or TBT (For best accuracy, your sub should either be stationary or pointing directly at the target)... or you can also guess the speed by looking at the bow-wake. With enough experience you can also guess A.O.B. and range just by looking - good enough for a hit at close quarters

2. Also when you when do you go deeper than periscope depth, just when trying to escape or do you attack from there just without the periscope or? probably a stupid question but I have to learn somehow

As you go deeper, you will hear a crewman tell you that you've "crossed the thermal layer". That makes you more difficult to detect, so going that much deeper is a help when evading attacking escorts.

In TMO it is also usually necessary to go that deep in order to successfully sneak past the convoy escorts in order to make the initial attack. (Being able to successfully attack a ship from below periscope depth - aiming by sonar only - is considered a very advanced skill).

During a depth charge attack you can also tell how deep your enemy has set them to explode (the amount of time it takes from the first splash until the explosion will tell you). If the charges are exploding shallow - go deep. If they are exploding deep, periscope depth might be a good place to stay.

3...I have to use time compression obviously and it seems that by the time it goes back to 1x speed after spotting a plane or warship or something that they have already got a bunch of shots off at me, and the bombers are to hard to spot until the last second anyway.

That's exactly what happens. The fastest time compression you can safely use depends on the power of your computer. Sounds like you'll have to slow down. When you are plotting a course to be covered at high T.C., make sure the plot doesn't run into any of the hundreds of tiny islands that litter the Pacific. I usually stay at 1024X or less in empty areas, 128X - 512X if I expect enemy contacts, and 4X - tops in combat situations