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Originally Posted by Susanna
Hello!
I recently got SH III and now I am increasing slowly the realism settings, which is great fun indeed. (How proud I was when the first manual targeted torpedo hit!  ) But now after turning off the last option 'automated map updates' it seems I have hit a brick wall. Without exactly knowing where the hostile ships are its hard to reach a good intercept point, let alone fire torpedos that hit correctly.
For example, how do I best calculate target range?
I understand the 'notepad method' for measuring range, and it works fine in a tutorial setting (calm waves, target 1000 meters away) but during a real campaign with stormy weather, when the periscope dances up and down and the ship is still a good 3 kilometers away, my measurements seem to be way off or its simply impossible to have the periscope hold still long enough to get a fix.
How do you calculate torpedo settings?
Right now I measure things out of the map and enter them into the TDC, as explained in Dantenoc's great "How to sink a ship" guide. But without map updates that's impossible, and as I don't know how get a ships exact position in the first place, I can't plot the ship in the map manually. *sigh* 
I'd be happy about any help or tips whatsoever!
Captain-in-training Susanna |
Welcome onboard - and welcome to the real frustrations of the 100%
http://www.paulwasserman.net/SHIII/ - the link was given by Kunsa, but its worth posting twice. I suggest you follow through all of this whilst using the convoy attack training mission. It gives you the chance to practice against a slow moving convoy under what are reletively ideal conditions. Remember though - the measuring tool is inaccurate in SHIII (and SHIV) so follow the workaround given above.
The rolling periscope is perhaps the most frustrating part of SHIII, in reality you would have repremanded the Chief Engineer for not holding the trim well and got him to rectify it. Of course, we captains can't do that.
I follow two solutions. The first is to judge with my eye what mark is accurate and then simply move the notpad option line to the mark I have memorised (it doesn't matter that your not by that point lined up - the range will still work).
The second is to lock the periscope on the target, and use the mouse to compensate for the movement of the waves. Again, I memorise the neccecery mark on the periscope and then set the line at that point afterwards.
Finally. Remember, this is the 100% realism club. Your citing is no longer done by a computer that knows the exact dimensions of the ship down to a foot and by a person backed up by a computerised notpad that can compare the perspective of the player to the target. Unless your Otto Kretchmer reincarnate - you will have to use a broad spread of torpedos to compensate for human error
...and thats whats so rewarding about the 100% club - the skill you will have demonstrated when you make that first torpedo hit!!!