even more newbie questions! :P

[Canovaro]

Originally Posted by astat333

i am currently lying near Tobruk and have some steady targets in view.
thing is, they are far away - like 8000 meters. i am intending to shoot all torpedos at them and quickly bail out, but there's a problem: mere degree are not exact enough for such small targets - do my torpedos operate on degree measures only, or are minutes being considered as well (even though they don't show up in my attack periscope)?

No unfortunately.
I wouldn't should from that far.
Electric torpedoes don't even run that far.

You better plot their tracks and lay an ambush suberged. And fire from 700 meters or so.

[astat333]

Originally Posted by Canovaro

You better plot their tracks and lay an ambush suberged. And fire from 700 meters or so.

by steady i meant "not moving". they are obviously at anchor there.
and i think i haven't got much time left - there's a patrol ship which will turn around and come back soon, it will probably ping me then. anyway, i cannot give up now, will somehow try to sneak closer, and surely die...

[astat333]

allright i died.



anyway: i have been browsing through threads, wikis, FAQs and manuals, seen so much stuff about "escaping after being detected" etc. etc.

but i still don't know much about not being detected in the first place. i have seen good info about how enemy sonar is working, but i have no idea about enemy hydrophones and the noise of my own screws.
i often get tracked because i decide not to take the slowest, but the second-slowest speed. is there any info on how far the enemy can hear the noise of a sub? i suppose a sub makes less noise than the surface vessels i keep hearing from very high distances..

[KeptinCranky]

The only silent speed is slow speed, 2 or even 1 knots, if you go to the zentrale (F2), just behind your 1wo, or conning tower you can see the engine revolutions, there's 2 dials, if those are 100 or below you're silent, if not, they can and will hear you.

as to distance, depends on lots of things enemy speed, water condition weather, generally you're not safe unless silent at 6km or less, or if heavy weather and at periscope depth, maybe 3 or 4 knots.

as to targetting stationary ships, your scope is generally accurate enough even at 8km

Tobruk is a death-trap, but i guess you found out the hard way

Good luck and sink them all!

[andylegate]

One thing that you could try, and I've found that it works generally well (note I said generally well, not all the time). Since you're at 8000 meters (8 km) these will be long shots.

You can go to persiscope depth and go to All Stop. Either use your hydrophones or allow your sonar operator to do this. note the sonar contact bearing of the stationary ships. You can then compare them to what you see in your scope and they should pretty much match up.

Now, hit F6 and go to your TDC. Click on the little switch that says I/O so that the Bearing, AOB, Distance dials light up. Set the depth of your torpedos for about 3 meters. Set the speed to slow (this will increase the range of your torpeados), if you are using historical torpeados (meaning you get duds) set your pistol for impact. If you're not using historical torpeados, leave them on Magnetic.

Since it appears the ships you want to sink are anchored, you won't have to worry about setting up a "Real" fire control solution (IE sending the torp where the target should be later in time, as your target is stationary, you can send it right to the target).
Set the Distance dial to maximum (no sense in setting it to 8000 meters, only to find out that the target is really at 8060!).
Then use the Bearing and AOB dials to move the fire bearing indicator to lay right on top of the sonar bearing line (or as close as possible to it!). Be aware that if the sonar lines are still moving slightly, it is because your u-boat is still drifting from your last speed. Just wait a little bit.

Once you have the solution set up like that, open your torpedo doors and fire. Go through the other sonar bearing lines and do the same thing. Hopefully, by the time you're done shooting your last torp, you're crew as realoaded your other torps. Go through and do the same thing (as in GWX one shot kills can be rare).

This worked for me at Scapaflow when the fog was so thick, I could not use my periscope. Of course my distance was a LOT shorter than yours. So it's IMPORTANT that you get the fire control solution as close to the sonar bearing line as possible. A single degree off can make the torp miss by hundreds of meters if it has to go nearly 4 miles!!!!

Remember: Always save your sim just before you do this, in case you're not happy with the results, or something goes terribly wrong. That's a nice luxury that we have that the real commanders didn't have.

[astat333]

hmm thanks for the lenghty reply, andy. it's a good read, but doesn't really answer my problem.

i don't need hydrophone bearings as i have visual with the targets. it's just that they're so far away, i cannot aim at the right spot. imagine this:


__A__/TTT\__/FA___
\TxTTTTTTTTTTTTT/


...359....................................000..... ...............................001................ ....


i suppose my best chance would be to just maneuver the whole boat until the target appears to be quite in the middle of a degree mark. no idea if the torpedos are that exact on such distances anyway. it would probably be wiser to take 2 fish per target to guarantee at least one hit.


oh and i play with 100% realism and impact, magnetic historically sucked.

[Canovaro]

I understand your question about the degrees. That's why 8000 meters is too far
And don't even think about using magnetics at this distance. They will blow up somewhere in their way.

Just get closer or forget about it altogether.