manual targeting problems are giving me inaccurate firing solutions

[Rockin Robbins]

What mods is who using in what video? Mine or Werner's?

I'd have to check the video now to recall in either case.:rotfl:

[Loud_Silence]

Im specially interested in that compass around the sub in the map

[Rockin Robbins]

Now THAT I can answer. In WernerSobe's and my first video, that was patch 1.2 and we were using the 360º Bearing Plotter mod. Now I don't use that because the little boy has grown up into the 3000 Yard/Meter Bearing Plotter for SH4UBM. It is twice the diameter of the one in the videos and rescales itself into meters for U-Boats. I wouldn't be caught dead using meters on submarines and prefer to use native measurements on U-Boats.

It works with all mods without interfering with anything or harming any innocent animals.

[I'm goin' down]

[First you can sweep the gun to follow the bird and when you're satisfied with the lead angle you can pull the trigger at any time to kill the cute birdie. That is what the PK does.

Secondly, you can aim at a point ahead of the bird, holding the gun steady, and time the shot for when the duckie is at the precise position where the gun aimed at that point will hit the bird. This is how Dick O'Kane and John P Cromwell work with the PK off.]

First, let's talk ducks. If you have never seen a waterfowl migration, you are missing something. I was at the Delevan refuge near Willows, CA years ago in the middle of the winter migration (refuuge capacity is 7 million birds!) and saw millions of birds on the ground, in the air --everywhere. They made so much noise you could not hear blasts from the horn on my car. It was as if every airplane in the world was landing at, or flying over, O'Hare at the same time.

I have seen the weather change so quickly that the birds thought night was falling in mid afternoon and began landing. Once in the midst of a snowstorm that followed sudden rain, sleet and hail storm geese were at 20 -25 yards altitude, ducks at 15, and Swans (as big as B-52s) at 10. I was so shocked I forgot that I was carrying a shotgun. (Swans are federally protected, but must be as big as Thankgiving turkeys.)

Leading with a shotgun is a good idea, and so is sweeping the gun. But that will not work with a blue or green winged teal, the comedians of the duck family. They zig zag (i.e. change course), do loop to loops, and when you are scanning the sky for birds they will cartwheel into a pond at 3 or 4 feet, landing 5 feet from your blind and will start dunking and bathing as if it is summer. They are tiny compared to a fat mallard, and are funnier than hell when darting to and fro. When their wings are spread they display and set of blue or get feathers mid wing, hence their names. Not as pretty as the wood duck, but they change direction as fast and often as a destroyer changes course.

p.s. I am in the midst of manual targeting hell. The war department is going to stop supplying me with boats and start chargng for torpedos. My best moment was when I caught a destroyer sleeping. It did not move for 20 minutes. Neither did my boat until I slowly came to periscope depth and fired two shots at zero degrees. The destroyer awoke, but it was too late. It moved less than a boat length and the first torpedo sunk it. Most of the time though, my periscope is spotted, and my boat is depth charged to "death."

When I submerge when setting up for a shot, I do not think my radar continues to track the target on the attack map. I am running the standard game with only the 3,000 yard compass mod. If radar does not work when I am at periscope depth then using the Dick O'Kane method becomes difficult and hazardous to a boat's health as there is a good chance it will be spotted when checking the bearing of the target, and destroyers are usually on it quickly, while the merchants begin evasive manuevers.
Any suggestions? Maaybe I have this wrong, but I think this is what is happening.

[Loud_Silence]

The mark-3 minutes-mark is very useful to get the speed, and using the protractor in the map is all i need to get AoB (in expense of some realism), but finding the range is a real pain in the ass with the stadimeter. I sank a lone tanker finding its range with the sonar, and i only needed the periscope for the first five minutes. After that i could fire just by using the PK. But using sonar for getting range against a convoy is just like i surfaced and started yelling "hey japanese boats its me! Im here! I want to sink you!"

[Fincuan]

Originally Posted by Loud_Silence

But using sonar for getting range against a convoy is just like i surfaced and started yelling "hey japanese boats its me! Im here! I want to sink you!"

Not so in SH4. You can ping away as much as you want, they won't notice.

[Quillan]

You are correct, once you get below 40 feet your radar antenna is underwater and stops tracking. From about 25 feet to 39 feet depth is what we call "decks awash", meaning the boat deck is underwater but the tower and antennae are out of the water and will still function (your watch crew does go under at 25 feet, though). Go through RR's "Dick O'Kane tutorial" several times; it's a masterpiece. Personally, I use a modified variant of it that doesn't rely on a 90° AOB, but since I went manual I've been strictly using radar boats. I also run TMO, which is important for a different reason.

In TMO, all the boat icons for the map got changed. There are no ship silhouettes at all; all you have is a pencil dot. On the larger scale map, there are no tails on the boxes/diamonds that represent ships, so you only have a vague idea of the direction. Along with this, by default map contacts are left on. So, I use my radar and the dot it produces to get an exact position on the target. A couple of these and I have an exact course, from which I can input the correct AOB for the point I intend to shoot and a range to the point I intend to shoot, and let the TDC do the rest. Then I just hold the scope at that point and shoot as the ship passes the line.