The ****en stadimeter!!!

[commandosolo2009]

Hello skippers,

I now have the dire desire, to actually shoot my screen where the stadimeter is...

This thing is driving me crazy!! The sonar, which was accurate, is not in the game.. I hate having this argument.

Is there a mod that fixes it? And is there a mod for correcting the per ship length as yllike's manual? I'm frustrated I cant get my eels right and I will switch to n00b targetting if I fail to find a solution.

Sorry guys, pardon my french :S

[Armistead]

SCAF..Ship centered accuracy fix

Think he has a version for stock. Works great with Maxoptics, most people run both together. Should be in the mods section under gameplay.

[magic452]

SCAF and Max Optics may be a bit unrealistic but it makes the game much more enjoyable for me. I did the 100% thing but didn't enjoy it all that much.
Play with contacts on and the above and started having fun with the game again.

Really with all the mods and options you can pretty much play the way you like.

Magic

[Rockin Robbins]

Yeah, it's unrealistic. ***en stadimeter is the exact technical description for it that many a WWII sub jockey had. All right go ahead and use SCAF. The real guys would have loaded it up in a second. Hope you feel plenty guilty.

[Armistead]

Seeing that you don't have the reality skippers had, sonarman and radar men that could give you proper info, feel no guilt for using SCAF...

[Rockin Robbins]

I just thought he'd play better if he felt a little guilty.

[commandosolo2009]

will do fellas. SCAF it is.. grazie mille

[I'm goin' down]

Check out Capn Scruvy's Optical Tarlgeting Correction mod. It is excellent.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

I just thought he'd play better if he felt a little guilty.

If he's like me, I already feel guilty....

[CapnScurvy]

Besides the height measurements being off with several of the ships (so far off, that you'll get a 600 yard range measurement from an actual 1100 yard distance), the game has a terrible time in "producing" a mast top for making a measurement. Some mast flickers and disappears at anything over 800 yards, even in the best of conditions (like when I'm testing for height or length with the target at a standstill, with calm seas).

Here's something you should try the next time you get a chance.

I live in the country with large open fields around my house that sits on higher ground then average. In one direction I can see the buildings of a shopping center some 7 to 8 miles away (about 12 to 14,000 yards distance), also on higher ground. In several directions there are cell towers at various distances. One as close as 1 mile (about 2000 yards), others much farther. Today the weather was bright and clear, at no time today did those tower tops fade in and out as if one second they are there, the next gone! If I had a ruler in my hand I could lower the horizontal edge of the ruler right done on the top of the farthest tower top to get a reading if necessary. The point is, in real life those target mast tops (much like the cell tower antennas) aren't going to play hide and seek with your vision. Considering the periscope has a 6x magnification, those tops are going to be easily seen. So, the game throws us a curve ball by having the targets flicker and disappear in an unrealistic way and there is guilt that the heights are too accurate when a certain mod is used?!

Throw in battle conditions, and a rough sea and its a crap shoot as to whether you'll get a good reading or not, that's WITH the correct height measurement. I've reported before that depending on where the stadimeter is placed on the view between the sea horizon and the upper most part of the scope edge, each horizontal pixel line will give values incorrect to its adjacent pixel line. It depends on where in this viewable area the stadimeter is placed that determines the amount of "difference" one pixel line has, compared to another. If its at the top of the viewable area the difference can be only a couple of meters difference between the two adjacent pixel lines. If it's towards the sea horizon it could be as high as 500 to 1000 yards difference between one pixel line and its adjacent line. This was put into the game to simulate a closer target will have its mast top higher in the viewable area than a far off target. Thus the accuracy is greater with a closer target, than a far off one. The rub is, a pixel line is very small (there are two with the telemeter lines of the stock game), it takes no effort at all to make a couple of pixel line error and throw off the stadimeter calculated measurement by 20 to 30 yards or so on an average try.

No one should feel guilty in using a mod that lists the correct height for a manual targeting played game. Those that should feel guilty are playing the game with the little green triangle telling you when to push the button!!

As you probable know, I've introduced an "advancement" to the SCAF mod. Actually, I consider it a "replacement" to the Ship Centered, Accuracy Fix mod. The Optical Targeting Correction not only corrects the view through the periscopes/TBT and other stations of the viewable world, but provides correct height/length measurements as well. I've just released a version compatible with the RSRDC v550 mod, that will give its campaign files a good workout over the stock game.

Getting as accurate as possible a height measurement for manual targeting is not going to give you spot on accuracy with the stadimeter. The game itself will keep you from achieving that goal. What it does, is gives you a chance at simulating the process the real sub captains used, with results that can keep you interested in the game without throwing it out due to frustration.

[I'm goin' down]

Note that OTC apparently is not compatible with the Easy Aob mod. It is compatible with GFO. Capn Scurvy's release advises that OTC is not compatible with the major mods, excluding RSRDC, which he mentions in his post. I have used it. It is a great mod.

[Armistead]

Yea, would love to try it with TMO/RSRD, so it's ez aob and scaf now.

[CapnScurvy]

would love to try it with TMO/RSRD

Well, I'm working on the compatible edition now. But it's spring! Time to get out and do stuff!!

Besides trying to blend two (three, when you throw in RSRDC) mods together, there is still the work of checking each ship for correct mast height. Length is not an issue; once its measured the ship doesn't grow in length like pinocchio's nose. But, ship height changes like one changes your socks.

Seems everyone has a different idea on how a ship should sit in the water. Whether its due to making the ship respond differently, having "that better look" when it's seen, or trying to have the ship files come as close to what some reference book states the height should be, these efforts create different heights for the ship models. So one mod could have the mast, funnel, whatever, at one height. Another could have the same reference point off by several meters. Couple that with what I've already described as problems (for manual targeting) with the game, and you're still up a creek without a paddle.

Below is a J class destroyer from the GFO mod. Webster let this one slip through after changing the displacement parameter figure when trying to adjust the ships acceleration.



The sea is calm, that's the only reason why the back of the ship isn't swamped. I'm not picking on Webster, (sorry mate) but I'm making a point that when mods change characteristics for one reason or another; unintended results effect something else. Like needing to check and change a mast height measurement.

[Thrair]

Originally Posted by Armistead

Seeing that you don't have the reality skippers had, sonarman and radar men that could give you proper info, feel no guilt for using SCAF...

Pretty much this.

The guy working the sonar is both deaf and has an attention span that would make a 5-year old cringe.

The guy on the radar station is blind.

And to top it off, both of them SUCK at math.




However, the WO has eagle eyes and eidetic memory. In 3 seconds, he can identify any ship, from any angle, in any weather condition, and with 100% accuracy.

[I'm goin' down]

capn scury

The rest: (okay, I did manage a slight grin.)