Ok, so I've had SH4 for about 3 months now having played SH3 forever, but never played with manual TDC...With SH4 I said I needed to learn how to, because the realism, as well the FOTRS mod insists I really should to get the full enjoyment...So off to youtube I went to take in the learning curve and most were saying turn on your TDC, get ID, distance and speed, then the angle of the center of the enemy ship in relation to the center of your sub where you plan to fire your torpedoes...Every time, my torps went just to the backside of the enemy's ship. I had measured the ships speed, I had a good measure of distance most of the time. I should mention here, that I had a saved game where I could keep playing it til I got it right...So I knew everything about where this ship was going, his exact speed and where or the angle of my sub to his vessel, yet astern went all my torps...I even unloaded on him one full ship length in front of him thinking that was the solution to this immediate problem..Yet astern they went, one full ship length behind....Alas, I read an article on a blog by the name of Kevin Jenkins Blog which says all those youtuber's who say turn on your TDC first thing are wrong. You can enter all the info, save the angle, into your TDC now while it's off, you'll just need to update distance, the angle comes when you have a clear measurable bead on him and once entered only then is your TDC turned on...I did this and entered the angle a second time before firing to ensure it was correctly following...I apparently don't have the "Hard" option checked because I don't have the white line or X on attack map...In any event I fired 6 torps at a heavy cruiser because I wanted to see the accuracy of so many torp's...All hit save one because of the wide angle I used...Any way, this fellow Jenkins is right about many of these youtube videos is my point & it took me a month of Sundays to find out....At least now I can continue on with my career beyond the first mission...I figured if I couldn't fire manually, there wasn't much point of moving on...I am now the Captain of my own ship...Hear me roar
I should add to this, that I was imputting an angle of where the ship was gonna be mid-ship...That was my mistake...Not letting the TDC following him on course...and the angle I used in the end wasn't from mid-ship to mid-ship as many youtubers say, but bow to bow....Shooting mid-ship to midship puts your torpedos one full ship/sub length behind the target.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.