[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by aluc24

If so, why turning range dial in TDC changes gyro angle? It affects torpedo trajectory...

Let me rephrase... it has been my experience that range has very little effect on the solution. generally speaking i have found that the TDC range only has to be your best guess +/- several hundred meters at best. This margin of error increases with range, but i have found, as long as you are within +/- 2000 meters range has little effect on the solution

Originally Posted by aluc24

This is very strange. I recognize that this 90 degree method isn't very comfortable, but I believe it is most effective for impact torpedoes, which, as I red, should be preferred in early war.
As for calculation, I used the table shown above, and also this tool provided by Matmos GUI:

I don't know if you are familiar with it. Outer ring represents target speed x10, middle ring - torpedo speed. You turn middle ring until these points match, and x provides lead angle.
In this case: middle ring set at 44 (fast torpedo speed), outer ring - 50 (5kts x 10), and x reads 6,5 degrees.

What exactly is wrong with this method, then? I used it dozens of times with great results...

I am familiar with it, and so far as SH3 goes, there is nothing wrong with it, That is the beauty of SH3... you are quite free to play the game as you wish... i honestly dont think anything of it... however from a point of view of strategy and tactics, it will become an increasingly difficult method to use against a convoy when compared to the use of the TDC to calculate a proper solution against a target from virtually any attack position. the 90° method of attack will simply become harder to execute as the war progresses. unless the player intends only on attacking merchants sailing alone after say... late 1942, early 1943.

Originally Posted by aluc24

I will try my luck with TDC then, but could you comment on this method I described? Why it didn't work? Target speed is definitely 5kts, AOB is 90 degrees, more or less... Why do torpedoes miss astern?

I cannot say with great certainty why it failed to work. all i know is that when i tried the 90° method, the torpedoes missed astern, that very well could have been in my failing to attack properly. or in my not being as familiar with the method as you are.

I will point out though that when you are 90 degrees to the target's course, and the target is moving right to left as in this scenario, and when they are on a 7-8 degree bearing the AOB is most definitely NOT 90° its probably like somewhere around 79°

AOB is most easily described as how many degrees port or starboard from a 0° bearing the target would see you, not the other way round.... ie. they would see you 30° off the port bow or 60° or 80° etc

when set into the TDC it only has to be relatively close, not necessarily exact. this becomes more true as the target range is reduced or if the target is a particularly large ship because there is a greater margin in error in firing at a massive target like an aircraft carrier.

It could have been the case that the torpedoes malfunction as described in Mittelwaechter's reply above

he says.....

Depth setting of your torpedos may be the problem.

V16B1 requires a wind speed/wave height dependant setting to counter the possibilitiy of surface runners and wave disturbances.
If your setting is too shallow, the mod runs the torpedos at 25 meters depth to simulate the failure.
You say there are moderate storm conditions? 10 meters wind speed results in a minimum depth setting of 4.4 meters (iirc - it's been a while I played the game).
15 meters wind asks for ~ 6.5 meters minimum - often a no go for a successful attack.

As i do not use the V16B1 - any comment i made about it would be completely off the cuff made up, but he seems to be aware that in order to simulate the real life failure of torpedoes in rough seas the depth is reset to 25 meters if you set the depth too shallow. it is possible that he has discovered why your attack failed. - you simply set the running depth of the torpedoes too shallow for SH3's taste, and after firing they went to a 25 meter depth to simulate failure due to high waves... the torpedoes would have passed harmlessly about 20 meters beneath the ship and continued steaming onward until they quit, hitting nothing but open sea water.