Beginner Questions

[flag4]

Originally Posted by Nukesub

5). Any advice on manual targeting? I have been using this video as a reference to learn:

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Not from me. I've been playing for nine years and my math hasn't improved one bit.

Steve, if I may. I, like you, can not grasp the maths. I shy away from it all the time, and I feel a little sad that I cant do those sums to get the torps to hit. but I just watched the above video and I was mightily impressed at potentially how easy it seemed. have a go and watch it. it runs for nine minutes and I reckon there aint maths to it except multiplying the time travelled by 10 to get the speed.
id be interested to hear your response...once you've watched it...?

[Sailor Steve]

I watched it, and I'm disappointed. I find it no more realistic than using Auto Targeting. First, there is no way you can use the periscope for a few seconds and have the exact bearing and range of every ship in the convoy. On the other hand, getting the speed of one ship will give you the speed of the entire convoy. Second, the stated goal is to keep the periscope above water for as short a time as possible. In real life they had to keep it up long enough to gather the correct information. They also had to recheck several times, which meant raising the scope for as long as was necessary. This means that the goal of keeping the scope underwater is contrary to what they actually had to do.

I technically use Manual Targeting, but I use WE Assistance to get the information, but because it's perfect I use it once every two minutes, and I leave the scope up for as long as seems reasonable to me. I use the Assisted Plotting Mod, which only allows you to mark the position of one ship at a time, not the entire convoy. Despite the "perfection" of the WE, I still manage to miss on a fairly regular basis. My way may not be as realistic as full manual targeting, but it feels right to me.

[Aras]

For manual targeting I can recommend to check this post : http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=88961

I use Manual Targeting as well however I leave Auto Map Contacts on to measure the distance. I really love to gather all the information including range manually however the stadimeter and the recognition manual are not handy in this subject.

Values in Recognition manual are generally false, even the highest mast in given picture does not match with highest mast value Which makes stadimeter useless in my opinion. Did i miss something about it?

I know that in real life everything was not perfect including recognition manual. My nerves can take being depth charged for hours but I can't handle wasting Third Reich's precious torpedoes just because I wasn't qualified enough to calculate a range correctly.

[BigWalleye]

Originally Posted by Aras

For manual targeting I can recommend to check this post : http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=88961

I use Manual Targeting as well however I leave Auto Map Contacts on to measure the distance. I really love to gather all the information including range manually however the stadimeter and the recognition manual are not handy in this subject.

Values in Recognition manual are generally false, even the highest mast in given picture does not match with highest mast value Which makes stadimeter useless in my opinion. Did i miss something about it?

I know that in real life everything was not perfect including recognition manual. My nerves can take being depth charged for hours but I can't handle wasting Third Reich's precious torpedoes just because I wasn't qualified enough to calculate a range correctly.

I use basically the same options. Have you tried Hitman's Optics? No stadimeter, but FoV and scaling are adjusted to give accurate estimates of range and AoB with the graticles. As I understand it (based on Cap'n Scurvy's work on SH4) It's not the rec manual that is wrong, but the image scaling. AAR, I've done quite a bit of static testing, and range and AoB can both be determined pretty accurately.

Couple of other advantages: You don't need to make a positive ID before attacking - many similar classes had similar mast heights. And you don't need to use that thin whisp if a mast. The rec manual also gives you funnel and superstructure heights, A nice fat funnel can be easier to measure than a skinny mast.

Hitman says that these graticles are based on actual surviving Uboat periscopes. He tweaked the camera values to make the measurements work. And they seem to work. My tonnage scores are up, anyway.

[banryu79]

Originally Posted by Aras

My nerves can take being depth charged for hours but I can't handle wasting Third Reich's precious torpedoes just because I wasn't qualified enough to calculate a range correctly.

I have little esxperience (still on the course of my first patrol) but 'till now I'm doing well with "The Straight Shot" and "The Perfect Shot" methods described in the document section shipped with a GUI Mod [hsGUI]

Both methods make use of your torpedo speed and target speed/course to give you a reference bearing to aim to -- no need to calculate target range at all! --

Both methods rely on precompiled tables you use to index 'target speed' on one axis and 'LB angle' (explained in the document, and to calculate it you need to know target course) on the other axis to find the 'shoting bearing'.

Each specific table is build for a specific torped speed settting: I'm using [MaGui F], a Gui Mod, that provides me with three in-game precompiled tables: 30/40/44 knot (plus other useful tools, but these tables are what I was looking for).

If you do not want to use the [MaGui F] mod you can still use the above described methods: just download the [hsGUI] mod for the explanations, then write down the tables on paper (I can provide you with a txt version of the tables if you are intrested, I do not remeber if they come with the documents in [hsGUI] mod folders).