new here with auto-target / salvo question

[rdblan2]

Hello folks! First of all, this place is amazing. I may have tossed the game into the trash after that silly manual shows me how to do next to nothing! Been reading as much as I can and am learning a lot! You folks have some excellent tutorials here.

I'm running 1.4 stock with no mods thus far and realism probably at 0 until I get a hang of things.

With auto targeting, I hit the L button and lock on my intended victim at say 1K yards directly in front of me. I'm all locked up and have a nifty green triangle. I occassionaly miss. When I lock up on the target, the scope swings to the middle of the target. If I unlock the target and move the scope say to the bow of the target am I then "aiming" at the bow? Meaning if I lock up, then unlock, move the scope to the stern of the target, fire, move to middle of target, fire, and move scope to the bow and fire again, are my shots actually "aimed" at the stern, middle and bow and hopefully impacting in those 3 places? Or, am I just wasting time with this tactic? I'm hoping to walk my shots down the target and hit different compartments.

Or, do I need to lock up and use the offset angle for the salvos?

I must say my favorite thing thus far is actually getting a hit. Watching that external camera and hearing that sound: Ba - BOOOOOOOOM! I just want to hear it a little more often. One of the things that helped me the most was learning that I needed to open outer doors. That drastically reduced my missed shots.

Thanks for any help you kind folks can provide and I hope I've explained myself accurately!

[Sailor Steve]

Well, my computer doesn't run SH4 very well so I mostly play around with it rather than play it; all of which means I can't be much help.

All I can really say with confidence is

WELCOME ABOARD!

[RickC Sniper]

If you miss, are you missing astern? Be sure to open all outer doors (Q key) well in advance of firing, as having them closed causes a couple of seconds delay before the torp can leave the tube.


With auto-targeting, both of the methods should actually work. Lock the target, then unlocking and moving to the bow and walking down the ship should work. However, if you unlock it for too long I "think" the solution fades. (it MIGHT only fade if you move the crosshairs completely off the target) I'm not sure as I go manual targeting. The offset dial would be my recomended method.

You can test both in the training mission with the mogami cruiser. Just go to the attack map to see if the green line (torpedo track) looks like it is where is should be when you want to fire.

edit: Oops, I see you are aware of the outer doors.

[Orion2012]

It was my understanding that with auto-targeting, whenever you have any triangle you have a solution. Regardless of locking or not.

i cant say for sure doing it the way you describe will work but just try it and follow the torps with your free cam to see the results.

if your locked on and unlock move forward then fire it works but i was told it must be done quickly to hit what you aim at. for this reason i only fire one torp that way then relock to "update" the target position before unlocking to reaim the next torp.

i think it is because it is still targetting from the last locked position meaning the movement of the ship makes your target point less accurate the more it changes. so by the time you fire your 3rd torp it may completely miss.

[Nisgeis]

Using unlocked auto-targeting does work, as long as the target triangle is below the ship, you can put your aiming point at the bow of the ship and that's where the torpedoes will go. What you must bear in mind though, is that the auto-targetting solutions aren't 100% accurate. If the triangle is yellow, there will be some error to the calculations (the crew) made. The errors get larger the further away from 0 degrees off your bow or 180 degrees off your stern. This applies to stationary targets as well.

[SteamWake]

With auto targeting the torp will go more or less where you point the crosshairs of the scope. Aim at the bow you should hit the bow, aim at the stern you should hit the stern. As a matter of fact its almost too accurate. Given of course you remember to open the doors first, about 5 seconds of delay for them to open (again too fast but whatever).

The 'offset' for example 5 degrees left the torp starts at the centerline of the crosshairs and continues out on a path deviating 5 degrees to the left of the crosshairs.

The reason for the green triangle is to show you have a 'good' solution not requiring a large amout of gyro turn. The reason it snaps to center of the ship when you 'lock' is that basically it gives you the 'best chance' of hitting. But you could leave it locked on center, offset one torp a bit to the left, another a bit to the right and therotically hit one in the bow and the other in the stern. Frankly I almost never use offset with autotarget on. I just set the crosshairs on the bow of the boat and when the section that I wish to hit (typically just aft of the stacks) passes the crosshairs I fire.

One thing the 'auto target' does not do well is judge the depth of vessels. It nearly always plots it too deep. I typically set the torp as shallow as it will go, fast speed, and impact trigger. If you do want to try an under the keel detonation check the vessels draft in the recog manual first and verify that the auto has the torp set for only a foot or so beneath, not 2 or 3 like it typically does.

[banjo]

I play with auto targeting--Orion is correct. If you have a triangle you have a solution. Green just denotes optimum. As long as you have a triangle your torpedo will hit close to it. Be sure to open your doors first or your torp will hit aft of your aiming point. I am using TMO and RSRD and for some reason my first shot always hits slighttly aft of the aiming point. All subsequent shots hit right at the aiming point.

Just use "L" to follow your target. Unlock and aim where you want to shoot. It's best to space out your shots if you shoot more than one torp, i.e., one a third back from the bow and one a third forward from the stern. If I am shooting at a merchie or tanker I shoot one torp about midships and wait to see what happens. Freqquently one is enuf. If not, then I shoot another further aft.

[fishfood]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

...One thing the 'auto target' does not do well is judge the depth of vessels. It nearly always plots it too deep. I typically set the torp as shallow as it will go, fast speed, and impact trigger. If you do want to try an under the keel detonation check the vessels draft in the recog manual first and verify that the auto has the torp set for only a foot or so beneath, not 2 or 3 like it typically does.

+1 to the auto target depth set. Early in an encounter with a convoy (after positioning and finalizing attack angle and speed) I used to have all my torpedoes set for the depth appropriate for an under keel detonation for the specific target I would attack with each torpedo; when I was ready to attack, I flooded all tubes and then rippled off fish after locking each subsequent target.

After some unexplained misses well underneath targets, I started double checking running depths after locking on a target and sure enough, many times the running depth had substantially changed, sometimes as much as 30 feet (!). Thought I had a spy in my torpedo room . Think I made it worse because I would use the periscope and target lock to verify range while doing multiple dry runs of my attack before I actually loosed a fish. Now I simply have all torpedoes pre set to fast, shallow, and magnetic and do a last second torpedo depth, speed, and detonator modification before I fire at each target: no more fiendish rippling of fish...

[rdblan2]

Thanks very much for your responses folks. Much appreciated.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by fishfood

Now I simply have all torpedoes pre set to fast, shallow, and magnetic and do a last second torpedo depth, speed, and detonator modification before I fire at each target: no more fiendish rippling of fish...

If your going for shallow impact set it to impact. Leaving it at Mag/impact can lead to those frustrating premature detonations.

[fishfood]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

If your going for shallow impact set it to impact. Leaving it at Mag/impact can lead to those frustrating premature detonations.

Absolutely, I've noticed a higher rate of early detonation with magnetic running shallow. I usually go magnetic under keel with the first fish per target with any necessary follow up shots going shallow + contact. If the sucker is running flat out with no visible change in ride height and I'm trying to slow him down, I'll go magnetic under keel again, but for the most part it's surface runners on impact for kill shots. An old habit from SH3 where it seemed additional under keel magnetic shots set for the same depth as the first (successful) one would fail to detonate when they actually hit the keel as the ship began to take on water and rode lower.