[heartc]

Originally Posted by P_Funk

I take it then that that is historical? Because I know that when the Allies captured a U-boat that they were very impressed with the sophistication of the attck scope. I assume then that the American attack scope is a lesser cousin.

Wrong. You don't even have to lock the target in SHIV, just as you didn't have to in SHIII. The deal is that where your scope or TBT is looking at is being transmitted to the TDC the moment you enter any kind of data like speed, AOB or range (in RL they had an additional button for it, "Mark"). Then, when you move your scope or TBT around while the Position Keeper is active (red light on), your scope/TBT is "disconnected" and your gyro angles will not be influenced by that movement until you change or re-transmit any kind of data again (I suggest re-transmitting speed; iRL they pressed the "Mark" button). So, you can still aim with the crosshairs for ship sections as opposed to using the spread feature while the target is "locked" (which is in fact somewhat unrealistic, but can be convenient). It comes down to personal preference.

It is not a lesser cousin to the German scope but in fact has to work like that or the whole point of the position keeper would be mood. An analog computer btw superior to the German system, which was just an angle solver, as opposed to updating target position in real time no matter how you swing your own boat around. With that system, you can in fact go down-scope and know exactly where the target is at any given moment by looking up range and relative bearing on the TDC - provided of course the target hasn't changed speed or course.

Note however that for now the target relative bearing readout neccessary for that is bugged - not the functioning of the Position Keeper, just the readout.
See this thread:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=108128