Aiming

[Captain Birdseye]

Hi guys, me again.

I play without manual targetting.

I always 'lock' the periscope on the target, however this only seems to lock in the dead centre of the enemy ship.

I've known some of you to say aim a torpedo under the smoke stack, how do I do that?


Secondly, does 'Find Solution' by my weapons officer have any effect on the running of the torpedo's?

Thanks

[Jaman]

Dont lock the target, aim with the periscope (or the UZO) right where you want the torpedo.

[Paul Riley]

Hi capt.

Not sure if this would be much help,but I know what you are getting at here,and it is a very valid question.It would be hard to aim precisely at vital points if you were say parallel to your target,but what you CAN do and I have done it a few times is,alter the speed setting of the torpedo,in very small increments,and make notes of where they land if they hit.So,if you wanted to aim for the rear of the ship subtract upto 0.5kts from the torp speed,even a full knot in some cases,and the same can be done for the front of the ship.Don't forget,if you cant hit a point EXACTLY,which is hard anyway,hitting in the surrounding area will probably cause secondary effects in the area you are after
I appreciate it is not as accurate as when you are facing into him,and you are waiting for him to arrive,you have more time for accuracy then,and for that method to work you would have to unlock the scope,and fire dead straight at the target/vital points.Also,its probably better to do all this from close ranges,no more than about 500m,as any further out and its a case of 'hit or miss'.

Is that any help for you?

[Captain Birdseye]

Thank you.


Paul, that makes some sense, however I don't think i'm that agile with SHIII and would probably panic and screw it up.

I can't just aim at the target as I face it from a 90 degree angle, as Paul says. I'll try it though. Thank you.

[Paul Riley]

Hey capt,don't panic mate,just do your best,and you will be surprised at what you can do.I myself am trying to play for the first time with 100% realism,with map updates off,and is hair raising to say the least,but chatting with some of the guys in here makes you feel better,as they themselves were inexperienced once.
What you ought to do,is go into the academy section and try the torpedo speed alterations from there.The more you do it the more proficient you will get.And always,make notes beside you,like what speed you set,the depth,etc,and watch the torpedo with the external camera,so you can get an idea of what is going wrong,and then alter it again.

[Captain Birdseye]

Thanks mate.

I think i'll try it out next patrol . I've gone from wasting 50% of my eels to wasting around 10% now that my WO finds the solutions. My best moment was spotting two large merchants in a line sailing past me, one magnetic and one impact for each and they were both goners at pretty much the same time. They didn't even know where I was

[Pisces]

With all due respect to Paul for his targetspeed change method, that is not the way to do it. It works, but there are too many variables involved to get it right.

Stick to what Jaman said. You only need to lock the scope during speed measurement with the notepad procedure. After all the data is entered into the TDC and that check mark is clicked you can unlock the scope to choose the desired spot to be fired upon. But don't forget to open the tubes before as closed doors creates a firing delay and the hits endup offset on the target hull..

[Paul Riley]

Hmm,can you explain this in greater detail pisces?
The unlocking and selecting vital spot part,with the notepad.I never realised there was still more to this game than previously thought,and I certainly have no shame in learning even more devastating tactics

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

Hmm,can you explain this in greater detail pisces?
The unlocking and selecting vital spot part,with the notepad.I never realised there was still more to this game than previously thought,and I certainly have no shame in learning even more devastating tactics

I am afraid there is no more detail to explain. It is as simple as that. Ofcourse it only works well if the target speed is correct. As it is a driving variable in torpedo lead.

[Parkera]

As mentioned before, just unlock the scope or Uzo and aim for whatever part of the target you want e.g under the funnel and fire away! Having the tube doors open first is a must as mentioned as it saves vital time.

[irish1958]

To do this:
Ship must not be zig-zagging
You must be close, under 500 meters and range must be accurate
Seas must be calm
Target speed must be accurate and not changing
Torpedo must be on fast setting
AOB must be close to 90 degrees
Torpedo door must be open before shot
Sub speed must be very slow
And, of course, torpedo must not be a dud.

In so far as the game allows you to circumvent one or more of these factors, it is less than realistic.

Screw up any one of these factors and be glad of a hit anywhere.
Accurate shooting is probably possible only when the target is disabled, dead in the water and nobody is shooting at you or lobbing depth charges upon your head.

[Paul Riley]

Originally Posted by Parkera

As mentioned before, just unlock the scope or Uzo and aim for whatever part of the target you want e.g under the funnel and fire away! Having the tube doors open first is a must as mentioned as it saves vital time.

Just to wrap this up,when you normally lock the scope the TDC updates the firing angle for you,yet when its unlocked it simply goes to whatever spot the centre of the scope is at,ie 0deg?That really is quite simple,and I never even knew I could fire while unlocked.So,what exactly is the locking mechanism for?,is it just used for data gathering for the notepad?,which then sends the locked data to the TDC?I don't use the notepad mind you,much prefer manual entry.

[irish1958]

I may be wrong, but I think the locking of the target is a cheat in the game to facilitate to calculating of the parameters of the firing solution, and this did not exist in the WWII optics.

[Pisces]

Yes, I think the Ubisoft developers thought the player needed help keeping accurate track of bearing drift (of the same ship). But starting and stopping the time when the same ship-part (like a mast) is behind the line would have had the same effect. Whatever happens inbetween is of no consequence if you stay motionless and don't turn.

But the Sh3 implementation of attackperiscope and TDC doesn't reflect the actual german stuff anyway. For this locking function they would need some kind of image recognition computer. Guess what the odds are of that in that age.

[Paul Riley]

Well,after trying out shooting unlocked,aimed at precise points on a ship,let me just say it worked like a bloody charm!,absolutely fantastic.Ranges were between 2-3000m,and the precision was practically bang on,after about 10 tests in the academy.Naturally target speed for the torp must be absolutely spot on,for this level of accuracy