Manual targeting is hard for me

[maillemaker]

OK, now I can hit stuff!

I am using the "fixed wire" method.

Here is how I do it.



1) Point periscope about 10 degrees in front of target. Press "=". This brings my sub's heading to where the periscope is pointing.

2) Once submarine has stopped turning, center up periscope on sub bearing 000. Your vertical crosshair should be in front of the target ship.

3) Wait for the target ship's nose to touch the vertical crosshair. While you are waiting, identify ship in recognition manual and determine ship length. When the target ship's nose touches the vertical crosshair, start stopwatch.

4) Wait for the target ship's stern to pass the vertical crosshair. Stop stopwatch.

5) Use this forumula to determine speed:

(1.852 * ship length in meters) / time in seconds

6) Go to the TDC.

7) Turn on manual data entry.

8) Set Angle on the Bow (AoB) to 90 degrees starboard or port, depending on whether you are on the starboard or port side of the target ship. It does not matter what your actual AoB is.

9) Dial in the target ship's speed.

10) Turn off manual data entry on the TDC.

11) Return to periscope view. Turn the periscope until the gyroscope angle is 000.

12) Wait for target ship to travel across crosshairs. When ship is in vertical crosshair, fire torpedo!

Note: If you don't want to wait for the ship to hit the vertical crosshair, you can turn the sub left or right to speed up the process. It is advisible not to fire until your sub has stopped turning.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED.

First, The simulation is a lot harder this way!

Second, the simulation becomes much more an exercise of pointing your submarine instead of pointing your periscope.

Whoever changed my thread title, manual targeting still sucks!

Steve

[BillCar]

Great stuff! You'll have a lot of fun with this.

For Hitman's optics, you need to hit CTRL + T to lock and unlock the TDC. I forgot to mention that.

Good hunting!

[Pisces]

Maillemaker:

Congratulations on getting better at this.

But at step 8 it actually does matter what the real AOB is. If you didn't turn back to a course that is perpendicular to the tartget course you need to set to the AOB as seen at that point. Only set the AOB dial when you actually are facing a direction that will get an AOB of 90 when the target passes the periscope view. You may have succeded because the actual AOB was not that much different but other situations might have resulted in a miss.

At step 5 the number should really be 1.944 or for simplicity sake 2. The number 1.852 is not correct. Close enough, but not correct.

[vergol]

When in doubt, fire a spread!

[vergol]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but don't forget to open the tube doors before you press the fire button. That one second is a really big deal at longer ranges.

[oldstyle]

Something that I don't understand with the fixed wire method : Why you have to put your sub at bearing 000 to do it ? If you put only your scope at 000 whatever the position of your sub, it doesn't work as well ?
I really don't understand the importance of the position of the sub in this case : what the scope show you is the same if the bearing of the sub is 000 or other, if you're stopped of course ! Perhaps this last detail is the ansewer of my question ?

[BillCar]

Originally Posted by oldstyle

I really don't understand the importance of the position of the sub in this case : what the scope show you is the same if the bearing of the sub is 000 or other, if you're stopped of course ! Perhaps this last detail is the ansewer of my question ?

Yes, you can do it with the scope at any position if you are stopped. But most people are going to be moving, and I don't like to stop my sub while moving in on a target. To point the scope at 000 or 180 negates the movement of your own sub by keeping everything on the same axis.

@ maillemaker:

Yep, that is indeed the beauty of the fixed wire/ fixed line method!

[maillemaker]

But at step 8 it actually does matter what the real AOB is. If you didn't turn back to a course that is perpendicular to the tartget course you need to set to the AOB as seen at that point. Only set the AOB dial when you actually are facing a direction that will get an AOB of 90 when the target passes the periscope view. You may have succeded because the actual AOB was not that much different but other situations might have resulted in a miss.

Ahah! I see now. I always attack from perpendicular to target heading so I did not notice.

I guess what I was thinking is that while you "shoot the line" it does not matter what the AOB is.

I like this fixed wire method. You can get the target speed in about 30 seconds, all while moving in on your target. Once you have the range, just turn left or right 20 degrees and wait for them to cross your crosshairs!

Steve