In-game, our unrealistic TDC bites us. The real TDC did have a ship length input and output. This was mitigated by the fact that during the war well over half the targets were misidentified and often that ship length output was bad by a factor of two.
The Japanese did not let us rent and measure their entire merchant and military fleets before the war, although it would have been more fair had they done so. Our information was very, very fragmentary. Often, the Japanese modified cabin profiles and masthead heights. And they actually built scale models of some ships to foil our database. Our recognition manuals covered a small fraction of the actual Japanese ships on the ocean. Contrast that with the game, where you can't encounter an unknown ship.
There is a game file where you can get the ship lengths. Keep in mind that in TMO, stock, and all other megamods these numbers are wrong some of the time. CapnScurvy has corrected that within OTC, Optical Targeting Correction. In his mod every measurement in the recognition manual is perfect. Looking at OTC is the perfect way to find out exactly which file is involved. I'll look at it tonight and post.
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