[MarkShot]

You are correct. AOD only has auto-targetting. SH1 had auto or manual.

However, the auto-targetting of AOD is not the fool proof long range solutions which you get in SH3 when you use auto-targetting or ask the weapon officer. Thus, missing quite frequently happened at long ranges. I am not sure if crew skill had an impact on this. There are three levels in AOD.

Although I can appreciate that there are those who prefer to completely manually calculate their solutions (doing everything off the map with plotting and math), I would be happy with falible auto-targetting similar to AOD. I like to play the role of the subs captain. I am responsible for the main decisions: when, where, and how to attack and how to disengage/evade following the attack. I don't feel the need to necessarily workout AOB or speed from screw turns or wake form. In real life, there was a whole tracking party/attack team which handled this. Although the captain did a lot of it when submerged with sightings, it was not a one man show. So, trying to do this all yourself while letting the game run in realtime is perhaps beyond realistic.

With that said, I think SH3's notepad approach to solution creation is a good game play/realism compromise. It forces the player to bring his boat in much closer if he hopes to sink anything. This increases challenge, since the window for successful disengagement becomes much smaller. (Generally, I begin disengaging as soon as my tubes are empty without waiting to see the results of the attack.)