Yep, that's how it was done. I too have read how the stadimeter could be moved both vertically and horizontally depending on your desire to calculate for either range or angle on bow. The vertical placement measured height, the horizontal placement measured length......both measurements were compared to what the "known" estimated measurements should be. A tool like the
Range Omnimeter was used to help in calculating the difference between the two (so was a quick mathematician on the firing party). The estimated range came from the height calculation, the AoB of the target came from the length measurement difference.
The stock game needs to be corrected for several things before a good manual firing solution can be gleaned. The mast heights need to be corrected; the Field of View needs to be corrected allowing the scopes Telemeter Divisions to be used for measurement. For instance, when the game was first released the jap CV Hiryu had a mast height of 20 meters (65.6 feet). After a lot of gnashing of teeth, the Developers changed some of the worst offenders (as memory serves me, it was with their 1.4 patch), however their new mast height for the Hiryu is still off the mark by about 6 meters. One of the things you'll run into is some mods don't pay a bit of attention to this type of thing. Take TMO 2.5 and check the Recognition Manual for the Hiryu. The mast height is back to the original figure of 20 meters. To read an accurate stadimeter measurement it should read about 37 meters (121.4 feet). The difference in the height will throw off a stadimeter reading by about half the range it should read.
It's too bad the game limit's us to only using the stadimeter for range finding with the vertical process. Believe me, if there were a way to make the stadimeter work as the real thing I'd of done it. But the stadimeter is "hard coded" in the game (much like the math formula it uses to determine the stadimeters reading), there's nothing we can do about its short comings.
One thing
I know we could do is make the Recognition Manual list more than one height measurement. Allowing a player to choose which particular spot on the target you wish to use when matching the stadimeter water line to it. You'd have to have a better way of telling the TDC/Position Keeper what height to use when you do the stadimeter second image, but for a long time I've considered doing it. The first part of the issue is done with the correction of the Field of View to the measuring device (the scopes view) with Optical Targeting Correction. What's left is to take each target ship and measure to the various spots on the ship (the ships funnel, the top of the bridge, the ships deck), put those measurements into the RM, then make a dial for the ships particular height that's used by the stadimeter and make a range estimate using that particular spot. If you can't see the mast top, use the targets funnel instead. Just something I've had in the back of my mind for a while now.
