Guides and Training

Here I am, hopelessly lost. I keep going out there with my navigational training and it is impossible for me to find the place to park the sub. All I do is to wander around the island or whatever it is. I feel like I'm drowning.
HELP

[Zoomer96]

Hi everyone! Can anyone tell me where the bathythermo graph is in SH4? Sometimes the crew volume is too low for me to hear the report everytime especially if I'm busy getting out from under an escort! I've been lurking around here for quite sometime but this is my first post. I want you guys to know that you all have helped me to stabilize SH4 and I've been playing crash free for about a month. Thanks!

[Puster Bill]

At the request of MudMarine, here is the thread about Slide Rule Targeting for SHIII/SHIV:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=112765

[kylania]

Originally Posted by curm

Here I am, hopelessly lost. I keep going out there with my navigational training and it is impossible for me to find the place to park the sub. All I do is to wander around the island or whatever it is. I feel like I'm drowning.
HELP

Hi Curm! Welcome to Silent Hunter 4!

For the Navigational Tutorial you don't have to dock your boat anywhere really, just reach the little flag on the map on the north side of the island.

Basically it's just a combatfree place where you can test plotting a corse (F3 then the >--*--> looking button), changing speeds, direction and depth.

Once you reach the little orange star/flag market it'll end your tutorial.

If you have other questions, feel free to ask!

[Driftwood]

Ok, I'm sure feeling like a real noob about now and it's getting frustrating. I've been attempting (key word ) to play at 100% realism.......oops.....97%... I want to see some eye candy. Anyway, I've read pretty much everything in here about using the TDC and setting up attacks.

1) ID Ship, ok, NP.
2) Turn on position keeper. (some say now, some say later).
3) Get target range. NP, I can use the stadimeter just fine.
4) Get AOB. Now I'm not really into all the formulas and methods I've read about in here so I simply give it my best eyeball call and turn the little dial until its about right. I figure that will get better with time.
5) Get speed estimate. Tried a few different methods here and still haven't really settled on one I'm comfortable with, but even that I figure will come with some time.

I get into a pretty good setup, I'm ahead of a two ship convoy, that is traveling slow. Prior to gaining visual on the convoy I use radar tracking for a while and I estimate speed at about 7-8 knots, which is half their top speed. I send each and every observation into the TDC. I check and recheck my fish settings (high speed, contact). The first fish will head off into a reasonable direction (meaning toward the intended target), maybe ahead, maybe slightly behind, however subsequent fish I fire seem to go off in directions that have nothing to do with what I've input into the TDC. I'm running version 1.2 with the latest version of RFB. I'm beginning to think I've got a saboteur working the TDC. Anyone got any ideas besides going back to Dangerous Waters?

P.S. Does using the "L" key for locking the periscope view have anything to do with this?

P.S.S. Or how about leaving on the position keeper?

[John Channing]

Originally Posted by Driftwood

Ok, I'm sure feeling like a real noob about now and it's getting frustrating. I've been attempting (key word ) to play at 100% realism.......oops.....97%... I want to see some eye candy. Anyway, I've read pretty much everything in here about using the TDC and setting up attacks.

1) ID Ship, ok, NP.
2) Turn on position keeper. (some say now, some say later).
3) Get target range. NP, I can use the stadimeter just fine.
4) Get AOB. Now I'm not really into all the formulas and methods I've read about in here so I simply give it my best eyeball call and turn the little dial until its about right. I figure that will get better with time.
5) Get speed estimate. Tried a few different methods here and still haven't really settled on one I'm comfortable with, but even that I figure will come with some time.

I get into a pretty good setup, I'm ahead of a two ship convoy, that is traveling slow. Prior to gaining visual on the convoy I use radar tracking for a while and I estimate speed at about 7-8 knots, which is half their top speed. I send each and every observation into the TDC. I check and recheck my fish settings (high speed, contact). The first fish will head off into a reasonable direction (meaning toward the intended target), maybe ahead, maybe slightly behind, however subsequent fish I fire seem to go off in directions that have nothing to do with what I've input into the TDC. I'm running version 1.2 with the latest version of RFB. I'm beginning to think I've got a saboteur working the TDC. Anyone got any ideas besides going back to Dangerous Waters?

P.S. Does using the "L" key for locking the periscope view have anything to do with this?

P.S.S. Or how about leaving on the position keeper?

When you send your Range and Bearing updates to the TDC, if you don't have the periscope locked, the bearing transmitted will be exactly where the crosshairs of your scope are trained when you hit send. Therefore, if the ship moves a bit between the time you train your scope and the time you do the range/bearing thing and the time you hit send, it is where your crosshairs are when you hit send that will be transmitted to the gyros. In short.... use the "L" key at all times.

Always keep the PK on, or your solutions will not update and you will not be able to track how good your solution is. Keeping it on and comparing the gyro angle on the TDC to the actual bearing through your scope will tell you if you have a good solution or not.

It sound like you are almost there. Best advise is to use a spread of 3 torps (like in real life) with 5 degrees to the left, center and 5 degrees to the right. Experiment with the values (it will change depending on how far you are from your target) and you will start getting hits.

JCC

[starvingartist507]

Any chance I could get a few guides added to this list? I wrote 4 things for a thread a while ago, detailing the math behind a working firing solution. Since I don't have anything else to do with them, could you add them to this thread? I also made a small program that will calculate speed, just like the stopwatch was supposed to.
None if it is spectacular, but someone might find it useful, and nobody is going to see it, if its not posted somewhere...

They are all at:
www.hoofinasia.net

The guides:
http://www.hoofinasia.net/Guides/Stationary_Sub.htm
http://www.hoofinasia.net/Guides/Moving_Sub.htm
http://www.hoofinasia.net/Guides/Vector_Targeting.htm
http://www.hoofinasia.net/Guides/Tabelle_Analysis.htm

The program:
http://www.hoofinasia.net/Wep_Crew.htm
directions:
http://www.hoofinasia.net/wepcrewreadme.txt

Edit: obviously, these things aren't meant to replace any other methods (like pusterbill's afformentioned slide rule targeting), unless you like pounding out numbers yourself, they just help people (like me) to understand the mechanics behind a speed calculation

[Rafter11]

So how do you enter radar range and bearings into the TDC?

[zebidee]

Originally Posted by simonb1612

I just watched legions training video and it really helped a lot. Thanks to everyone who is out there helping us noobies to learn how to play the game. I have a question about the camera functions. When Legion fires off his torpedos a small window opens that shows the torpedo leaving the tube and follows it -a sort of torpedo camera that i cannot find in the game. Can someone please tell me how to access this?

Many thanks

(My first post!!!! ) I would also like to know the answer to this.

What would be nice if someone did a video of avoiding a destroyer/ battleship when it comes to attack you. I have been depth charged many times and am unsure how to really avoid the battleships and then go on to sink them.

[chopped50ford]

bttt for others. great info here.

[raduz]

(My first post!!!! ) I would also like to know the answer to this.

What would be nice if someone did a video of avoiding a destroyer/ battleship when it comes to attack you. I have been depth charged many times and am unsure how to really avoid the battleships and then go on to sink them.[/quote]

take a look here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=104377
it has been written for purposes of SH3 but the principle is almost the same.

Really appreciate the help section up above. I haven't played a sub sim since Gato and 677 so I need a lot of help. Thanks to all that contributed.

Regards
Jib01/02

[Rockin Robbins]

Here is what we've been missing, a one-stop service center for strategy issues. This is just as important as the collection of mods and needs to be stickied, please.

Great job Drebbel and all who contributed!!!

[runningdeer]

Hi all. This might seem a silly question, but I have never been able to get my Observation parascope to work. It goes up and down but is always black.

Does this feature work and how do you make it work?

Thanx for your time.

[Sailor Steve]

How do you know it goes up and down? Because you can hear it? Page Up/Page Down runs the Attack Scope only. For the Obs Scope use Insert/Delete.