Error of my ways with OLC GUI (help)

[GoldenRivet]

I have recently downloaded the GWX2 version of the OLC GUI with course finder and attack disk etc etc.and i love the immersion this mod provides.

Though im still averaging about 30K tons per patrol with manual targeting, My success for scoring torpedo hits with this mod however is about 50/50.

In almost every solution i prepare, the torpedo tracks aft of the target. my immediate assumtion is that im calculating speed incorrectly.

Ill post what im doing step by step and perhaps someone can show me the error of my ways.

1. Identify the ship
2. Calculate the target speed. I do this by the following method: Im moving at 1kt or less while not turning, when the bow crosses the vertical cross hair in the scope i start time and when the stern crosses the vertical cross hair on the scope i stop time. Length of the ship as taken from the recognition manual divided by time in seconds multiplied time 1.94 = speed in knots.
3. Input speed into the TDC
4. Lock scope to target
5. Open recognition manual by clicking target name
6. count vertical marks to the tallest mast
7. locate vertical marks on the marks ring and rotate so that it aligns with 90 degrees.
8. locate the mast height on the outer ring and read range directly across from it on the mid ring
9. input range to TDC
10. click on the mast height value and rotate it to the length value.
11. count horizontal marks along the ships bow
12. locate the horizontal marks value on the marks ring and read AOB directly across from it.
13. Input AOB into TDC /Open tube(s)
14. Auto Update the TDC
15. Fire

in nearly every case i fire a spread of two torpedoes... in nearly every case one fish strikes the aft 1/3 of the ship while the 2nd fish passes behind the ship.

the bearing must be right as the scope is locked... the range is always fairly close... i think i am either computing AOB or speed incorrectly. sometimes my horizontal marks value aligns beyond 90 degree AOB on the Range/AOB finder even though the AOB is obviously much less than 90 degrees.

any help would be great

[BulSoldier]

I too play with this mod (1.03 though) and i check speed by using the faster method (the scales on the chronometer) and adjust it if target is not exactly 100/150 etc meters long.
The AoB also i measure it by eye.It takes me too much time with the disks.And actualy i get pretty good results (100% playing).I alomost never miss(when firing at mearchants) except the cases insted of 3km on the tdc i place it to 300m

I couldnt remeber the steps so i writed the 3 (speed,distance and AoB) on a piece of paper(while watching the tutorial) and i keep it close to me when playng.

Thats it from me i hope it helps, if not i will keep thinking how to...

[Brag]

Unless the target course is almost exactly 90 degrees to your line of sight, it will appear to be going slower. Add a knot to the target speed and see what happens to the solution.

[GoldenRivet]

@ bulsoldier - numerous times i have used the chronometer scale, but it has often taken longer than 60 seconds for the target to pass the reticle... surely a majority of these ships are moving at faster than 1 or 2 knots?? i was getting much better speed results when plotting solutions on paper. but with this GUI i am proving myself quite useless in the speed estimation department.

@Mikhayl - Opening the tubes is usually one of the first things i do... or i usually do it at some point prior locking in the final solution stats... also i never shoot with a spread of more then 2 degrees unless it is a comple accident.

@Brag - ill try adding a knot like you suggested.

[Schwuppes]

In OLC's tutorial video he just drags the inner cirlce with the seconds it took for the ship to cross the vertical mark to the ships length and reads the speed off that funny little scratch at 58 degrees... works for me pertty acurately.

Why do you do the whole x 1.94 thing?

[Storabrun]

If you ever get AOB higher (to the left of) 90 you are doing something wrong. Of course, the real AOB can be higher than 90 but the result from your calculation will not. When your result is 70 it could also be a real AOB of 110, 40 could also be 140 and it's up to you to make that call. When dragging the mast height to length of ship it might be easier to think about it as dragging the measured distance to the length, since that number will actually follow your mouse when you move it and it doesn't matter if you slip with the mouse, you can always check that the measured range really aligns with the length of the target when you are done.

When you measure speed you do not need to be at almost exactly 90 AOB as someone suggested, anything between 45 and 135 will give very accurate results. It can be higher or lower than that too as long as you can clearly make out where the "tip" of the bow and stern is. Measuring from somewhere bow-left and to stern-right will underestimate the speed, and this could be by a large margin.

The same goes for you own speed. One knot for you could mean that you under or overestimate the speed with much more than that, twice you speed at an AOB of 30. The best bet is to always measure at or very close to a bearing of 000 or 180. Then your speed wont matter, and it's actually better to cruise at 2-3 knots than beeing at a complete standstill, you keep your course and don't drift in the wind.

Your sonarman can also be of some help. Slow is always slower than 8 knots, medium is slower than 12 (for warships this is 18)and fast is slower than 35 while very fast is 35+.

[jimmie]

Turn on weapon officer and automap for the time being but pretend they're not there, then practice session and compare how much off to own manual measure from the "true" answer, is maybe a thing I'd do.

[onelifecrisis]

What sort of distances are you firing from, GoldenRivet?

[onelifecrisis]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

2. Calculate the target speed. I do this by the following method: Im moving at 1kt or less while not turning, when the bow crosses the vertical cross hair in the scope i start time and when the stern crosses the vertical cross hair on the scope i stop time. Length of the ship as taken from the recognition manual divided by time in seconds multiplied time 1.94 = speed in knots.

To get the best possible accuracy, you should turn your u-boat so that you are timing how long it takes the target to cross your bow (0 degree line). Then it doesn't matter what speed you're doing, so you might as well move as fast as you can without being detected in order to minimise the "swinging" of your scope (which at 1kt just might be big enough to have an effect on your reading). This is the method I use.

HTH
OLC

[Pisces]

How do you do step 14? Is it the way OLC intended, mouseclicking the TDC button so the dial panel is removed? Or a keypress assigned to auto-update with SetKeys? Maybe the TDC wasn't propperly set to auto. I stick to OLC's way, no TDC-dials visible means it's on auto. If you fire while scope-locked and the dials are still there, then their gyro is set wrong. Usually the reason why I miss the intended spot or not at all.

What the others said about measuring speed if the scope is not along the uboot's bow or stern is the most probable cause of your error. If you are moving 1 knot and the scope is on 315 or 45 degrees instead of bow or stern while viewing, you cause the scope line to move 0.7 knots sideways. That's definately going to distort a speed measurement of a slow target (6 knots), enough for atleast a displaced hit.

And naturally I promote the use of the 58th degree trick to get the speed value!

[Edit: OLC mentions course-steadyness. Hadn't considered that yet. Thanks]