After fiddling with the game but never playing, waiting around for, what was it, 5 months for patch 1.3, floundering to figure out how to manually target torpedoes, and then getting distracted for another month writing sh4speech, I've finally completed an actual patrol, the first of my career, ever, in SH4. I'm so proud of my boys. *sniff*
Capt. Crunch showed bravery in the face of several unarmed merchant ships which took twice as many torpedoes to sink as a saltier captain's might have. Fortunately, Capt. Crunch had the knowledge and the good sense to liberally use the "load game" feature to keep doing shot after shot until all torpedoes hit. Yes, Capt. Crunch is one of those types of captains. If he's going to go to sea for 2 weeks with only 15 shots or so, they're all going to count.
The first two sinkings were lone merchants, smaller vessels under 2000 tons. A third and fourth were a pair of lone merchants, which was trickier given Capt. Crunch's horrible experience with manual targeting, and having to adjust the second shot for how he's going to react to seeing his buddy in flames a few hundred feet behind him. It only took about 10 tries to get this right and Capt. Crunch learned a lot about the manual targeting and spread angle.
The last sinking was a heavier 8K ton merchant in the middle of a convoy. It was risky since I was low on torpedoes. It took four shots, two of which had to be sent from the aft after spinning around and doing so under the noses of destroyers. Capt. Crunch had the guts to raise his periscope mere feet from the hunting DDs, knowing he could get his shot off since the damaged merchant wasn't moving. Two shots were gone in less than 30 seconds and she finally went down. Capt. Crunch hightailed it out of there faster than Count Chocula after the sun rises. A few depth charges were dropped here and there but they were way off. Capt. Crunch CANNOT be detected (until he crunches on his cereal! But it was silent running and that's not allowed!)
My secret agent (Tony the Tiger) was inserted succesfully to infiltrate Kelloggs, or whatever the hell his mission was, and I limped home with barely any fuel, getting there with 3% fuel remaining.
So, I used the voice the whole time obviously, and must admit, using the attack map to cheat your shots can take quite a bit of the experience away. But I get more annoyed when I miss. But I would find myself repeating "attack map" and "attack scope" to make those constant adjustments. I also found that I preferred to adjust the TDC settings (Stadimeter, AOB, and Target Speed) by hand. Not only does it feel more real, it's a bit quicker for those rapid adjustments. But I used voice for absolutely everything else and it was great. After a while, you get to learn which ones don't require the mouse, and you can multitask - call out one command that you know uses a key while clicking something else with the mouse.
Honestly I don't know how anyone plays the game with manual targeting without using the attack map to cheat. The stadimeter is all over the place with every reading. Speed estimates are hard. Maybe I just suck.
But auto-solutions are too easy. A nice compromise would be a weapons officer that determines three solutions - a quick one (least accurate), a decent one, and a highly accurate one (takes longer). So you manage keeping the ship undetected and out of trouble while determining how long you can afford to refine the shot. The fact that you can instantly lock and get an instant, perfect solution that immediately tells you how good it is is too easy, but manual targeting is a bit too hard. Yeah, I do just suck. I have to admit the later shots got easier with practice.
Anyway, I feel great that I actually completed a damn patrol after more than 6 months of having this game, and Capt. Crunch's career is well on his way to glory. Silent Hunter 4 is part of this nutritious breakfast.