The best way to learn easily and quickly how the TDC works is to do so in a single mission with the Auto TDC off, WO on, map updates on, the external view.
The most important part of the manual TDC is to go full manual. That is, in the F6 screen, at the bottom turn on the 'manual input on/off' to..... have you guessed it yet? 'On'.
This allows for the speed to be manually input and bypasses the somewhat quirky notepad speed. As this requires you to continually leave your periscope up all the time and it resets blah blah blah
Initially I set up a mission with number of ships all over the place in front and behind my u-boat that were in a stationary line, remember to untick delete on last waypoint. Also, make sure the wind is 0. As you get better increase the wind.
Step one is getting to know the AOB. Look at the ship, make your guess and then lock the ship and ask the WO. The secret of being able to get good and quick AOB is to use the square structures such as the bridge. Obviously you will have to move the ships around to keep learning.
Step two was to practice attaining the range. Again, using the stationary ships, initially no further than 700 metres, I would perform a manual range and then check that against the WO. The important part here is to not be concerned about 1000% accuracy. Near enough is more than good enough. As you get better move the ships further out, I never went past 4500 metres.
Step three was then setting up lots merchant ships to sail past me at 3 knots. I would at certain points 'pause' and estimate the AOB and range, and again compare that to the WO. From this exercise you will start to be able to estimate what the AOB will be when the ship at relative bearing 20, gets to relative bearing 10.
Step four was then not using the pause and estimate the AOB and range, and again compare that to the WO.
At this stage I had learnt to estimate the AOB and attain the range of a slow moving ship.
Step five was then setting up lots merchant ships to sail past me at 8 knots and higher. I would not pause and estimate the AOB and range, and again compare that to the WO.
The fun begins…
Step six is putting the on the on the fly AOB into practice by sinking the ship sailing past you. As we know the speed, we set it up manually in the F6 screen. We then go to the conning tower and open all tubes manually, if you ask the WO the idiot will close them if you swap tubes etc. Note I am not concerned about the range, range makes a small difference in the accuracy but this only is important at longer ranges at 2000+ metres in which you should not be shooting anyway.
When we fire we then watch the torpedo and the ship converge, or not, through the F6 screen, and/or, the external view. This will sharpen your AOB skills and also show you how small AOB errors will or will not affect certain shots. Hopefully you will also learn what relative bearing and AOB combinations you should or should not shoot at because the torpedo might bounce off the ship due to the angle in which it hits or that they just don't work as the small errors are too large.
Now that we are proficient at attaining quickly and effectively the AOB and the ships distance while not pausing the game we can now move onto calculating the ships speed.
In F5 zoom in on your ship and then attain the ships range only and note the relative bearing. Now ask the WO, go to F5, pause the game and use the protractor to mark off the relative bearing, then use the ruler to measure out the ships range for yours and the WO’s numbers. Un pause wait about 3 minutes and again ships range only and note the relative bearing. Now ask the WO, go to F5, pause the game and use the protractor to mark off the relative bearing, then use the ruler to measure out the ships range for yours and the WO’s numbers. Now measure between the two points, and using Wazoos Nonograph Mod (I remember having to use a calculator) calculate the speed.
Don’t fudge your figures when you see how far you are out, otherwise you will not learn. It will also show you that you do not have to be 1000% precise. To attain a very good firing solution.
While I do all my plotting in real time to make it just that little bit more difficult and as a result I sometime loose a target, there is I feel not cheating involved if during the game you pause while plotting, especially when it is still new for you.
Speed wise SHIII is way too easy, even if the ship capable of 25 knots and is travelling at 5 knots, sees you, it will not speed up.
That’s it, you know are a manual TDC expert.
Use the bridge and other square objects such as cargo containers to judge the AOB.
The other trick is to judge what the AOB will be when you are ready to shoot in 10, 20, 45 seconds and input that.
Range does not matter when making shots under 1000 metres. I cannot stress this enough. Range is handy so that you know if the time has passed, but at under a 1000 metres forget about it.
I use range only for calculating the ships speed and to calc an interception point. After that, I only do a very rough, way rough range estimat for the torpedo stop watch if time permits.
I also actually pre configure my shot anywhere up to 2-3 minutes.
So at the moment of firing the only manual update is the AOB which is a 5 second task.
Use Wazoos Nonograph Mod then speed and distance calcs can be done in seconds with no greater mental input than joining two dots together.
Which is good as if not I might need a little rest between attacks :rotfl:
I hope that this helps.
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