Guides and Training

[Rockin Robbins]

Yes, hats off in memory of the great WernerSobe, who started the entire manual targeting and targeting school of Silent Hunter 4, right here at Subsim. Werner never returned from his last patrol, but I like to think of him always hunting, always perfecting techniques, always teaching.

Yes, he is gone from Subsim, but he continues to work every day, raising the next generation of manual targeting professionals.

[Frederf]

There's a lot of torpedo targeting already down so I'll see what I can think of apart from that.

Drastically reducing speed and turning 0/180 "slim" to an aircraft contact, radar or visual, is a pretty reliable way to observe it safely while remaining on the surface and get under way again quickly. Keep a finger on that crash dive key in case you're spotted though.

A-scope radar ranges are logarithmic so be careful not to overestimate. 90% of the way between the 5000yd and 10,000yd marks is much closer to 6,000yd indicated than it is to 9,000yd.

Remove the radio_track file from the game's directory and leave the radio on all the time to get instant radio updates for major war events without the silly menu music playing all the time.

The sonar bearing to a contact will generally trail the contact's MoT visual bearing for two reasons: 1. The sound producing part of the contact is the propellers which are located aft of the MoT visual point 2. The speed of sound means that the sound heard currently is associated with where the contact was several seconds ago.

Enemy sensors change behavior under time compression, keep TC use to low values in the presence of escorts.

Keep patrol search pattern turns at right angles or more obtuse to avoid patrolling areas already known to be clear.

Make a habit of depthsounding before diving below periscope depth, especially crash diving.

Count fuel used and time taken on the transit out or calculate how much is needed to get back and add 10%. Write down the date and fuel state you want to leave the patrol area for that 50-70 day endurance and 10% in the tanks as you pull up to the slip.

Use the protractor tool to plot sound contacts based on the width the green light is on making little "crows feet". A history of these on the map helps get a feel for the approach and relative distance.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Frederf

There's a lot of torpedo targeting already down so I'll see what I can think of apart from that.

Drastically reducing speed and turning 0/180 "slim" to an aircraft contact, radar or visual, is a pretty reliable way to observe it safely while remaining on the surface and get under way again quickly. Keep a finger on that crash dive key in case you're spotted though.

And how! Especially important is reducing speed. Why? Because the most visible part of a submarine is the wake! Captain Fluckey used to remain on the surface and reduce speed all the time. Observe the plane. If it approaches to a distance where it could see you, THEN submerge. If you are doing this with radar, there is no reason to crash dive. Just hit D, ahead standard and submerge. If it's a visual sighting and you're doing this hit C and get the heck out of Dodge quickly!

Originally Posted by Frederf

A-scope radar ranges are logarithmic so be careful not to overestimate. 90% of the way between the 5000yd and 10,000rd marks is much closer to 6,000yd indicated than it is to 9,000yd.

A previously unmentioned great gotcha that all who play with map updates off need to take to heart. Great observation!

Originally Posted by Frederf

Remove the radio_track file from the game's directory and leave the radio on all the time to get instant radio updates for major war events.

Enemy sensors change behavior under time compression, keep TC use to low values in the presence of escorts.

Keep patrol search pattern turns at right angles or more obtuse to avoid patrolling areas already known to be clear.

Make a habit of depthsounding before diving below periscope depth, especially crash diving.

Count fuel used and time taken on the transit out or calculate how much is needed to get back and add 10%. Write down the date and fuel state you want to leave the patrol area for that 50-70 endurance and 10% in the tanks as you pull up to the slip.

Use the protractor tool to plot sound contacts based on the width the green light is on making little "crows feet". A history of these on the map helps get a feel for the approach and relative distance.

Great stuff Frederf. Thanks for dropping by and posting this. There is a range at current speed button on the orders bar in RFB and TMO. I don't know about stock.

I've never had a range problem on a single loadout cruise if I kept speed to 9 knots on the surface and stayed up there unless I was absolutely forced to dive. If you get fuel tank damage all warranties are cancelled!

[Frederf]

Oh yeah, the range at current speed button is in stock back to SH3. It's very handy but you have to make sure you're stabilized at speed before you trust it. If you're going 20 kt, order 1 kt, and then immediately press the range at current speed button you'll get 20 kt speed at 1 kt fuel consumption and your navigator will estimate you can sail to the moon with plenty left over.

There's also the issue of getting a very low expected range when recharging batteries since the engines are operating at flank loads for mundane speeds.

Batteries recharge faster as no or slow speeds when surfaced. Engine power going to the screws can't be used to charge.

I've also noticed that the commanded speed and the actual speed aren't one and the same. The command room to-the-0.2-knot dial in front of the helmsman reads different than the GUI dial, usually faster.

Here's a golden tip I almost forgot: Under semi-high TC settings you can check the sea state by how fast the knot-meter wobbles on the GUI. Lots of wobbles means high waves and no wobbles means calm.

Do you know if prop turn counting works in this game or is the sound file static not changing based on merchant speed?

[Rockin Robbins]

Nope, it doesn't work. the game used too few samples and does vary the speed for slow, medium and high speed but not continuously between speeds.

Actually in WWII there were very few targets where speed could be deduced from beat count anyway. They didn't have anything like the modern computer databases that can take a hydrophone input and tell you the name of the ship and how fast it's moving. Most of the Japanese merchant fleet was completely unknown to the Americans. And those that were known were in generally fouled and messy below the waterline, so would run different speeds than they should were they clean and in optimal condition.

For most targets, "speeding up," "slowing down," "running fast," "moving slow," etc, was about as good as you got. We did have some data on a few of the warships.

[Armistead]

RR,

What method do you prefer to use if the convoy is zigging?

[Frederf]

Ok, thought as much but checking. All of the historical documents of the time referred to prop counts as the primary method of attaining speed (sonar training LPs, TDC manual, etc) but this was likely the Navy's bent on the submarine as a fleet asset and warship killer and not a commerce raider. Having much better data for warships would be a natural reason to make the conclusion of prop counts being the "primary speed reference."

[Rockin Robbins]

I haven't found any actual wartime references to taking prop counts and I have a fair collection of WWII related submarine books. My favorite incident is when Dick O'Kane's radar went out and he made a sarcastic comment amounting to "damn, now I'm going to waste half of my torpedoes."

You don't need any better testimony to the relative worth of stadimeter and radar positions than that! Our game experiences faithfully reproduce that result, especially if you run TMO or TMOplot.

[liluoke]

thank you for such a helpful list!

[Rockin Robbins]

The entire goal of this thread is to take the scariest part of Silent Hunter, manual targeting, and convince you that you will be successful in short order. Then we aim to make it true.

Nobody needs to be afraid of manual targeting. There are so many ways to do it, you are sure to find a couple of methods you will immediately like. Once you're hooked you'll never consider going back to auto targeting again. That's a promise.

[TwinStackPete379]

RR is right, once i watched the Werner vids, it all made sense, and it's so gratifying when the fish hits after you've put together the solution piece by piece. This game is fun. Can't believe i only discovered it 10 or 12 days ago.

[Frederf]

RR suggested I transplant this explanation of how the nomograph works from another thread:

I think it's too easy to overestimate the complexity of the nomometer and treat it like it's some black voodoo magic. All it does is calculate time, speed, or distance if you know the other two things.

"How much time does it take to go a distance at this speed?"
Time = Distance / Speed

"How much distance is traveled by going speed for time?"
Distance = Speed x Time

"How fast does something have to go some distance within this much time?"
Speed = Distance / Time

These are the only three questions that the nomometer knows how to answer. If you want to know the course or angle or when the moon will rise, you need to look somewhere else. You ask by drawing a straight line through the two values you do know and the answer is discovered by finding where the line crosses the scale of the value you want to find out.

A practical example is (for me) commonly that I have plotted the target's location and I know its course and speed through previous calculations. I've decided that I want to shoot at the target when it gets to some specific future position since that makes for a good shot with short range and good angles. So I measure the distance from the target's current position to the desired future position and maybe it's 4600yd. Also say for example that the target is going at 8 kts. What I want to know is "How much time is it going to take that 8 kt ship to travel 4600yd?" This is important to me because I want to know how long I have to get into shooting position.

I pull out the ruler tool on the navigation map and I start a line from the 8 kt mark on the speed scale. I pull this line through the 4600yd mark on the distance scale until I cross the last scale, time. I notice that this line that passes through "8kt" and "4600yd" also passes through about 17 minutes. This tells me that something takes 17 minutes to go 4600yd at 8 kt.

Just for fun the problem can be extended. Using the previous result of 17 minutes until the target gets where I want him to be for shooting I discover that my submarine is too far away to make a shot. Oh no! Now I pick where I want to be to shoot which I measure to be 1200yd away from my current position. OK, I have 17 minutes to go 1200yd. How fast do I have to go? Leaving the right end of the line I made in the paragraph above at 17minutes, I drag the left end of the line around until the line crosses through 1200yd mark on the range scale. Then I look to the speed scale to figure out my unknown. The line crosses the mark at just over 2 kts. "I must go 2 kt to travel 1200yd in 17 minutes."

17 minutes later the 2 kt submarine has traveled its 1200yd and the 8 kt target has traveled its 4600yd. The nomometer has allowed me to arrive just in time.

[Rockin Robbins]

And I've been playing mods without a nomograph lately! When I loaded up TMO 1.8 beta, there was my old pal the nomograph again. It's great to have a refresher course on just how useful it is. Thanks Frederf!

[Distortion]

I have a question for the excelent vector analysis attack: If for instance the speed of the ship is 5 knots, I draw a line of 5 miles, from where I start the attack. Is it possible to attack let say from a distance of 2 or 3 miles?

If I would plot the attack from 2.5 miles, doe I need to cut any other lines? like torp speed, and the 500 yards line for the lead angle?

cheers

[magic452]

Distortion The values for the lines are 100 yards for each knot of torpedo and target speed. Ex. Mk 14 high speed is 46 knots, your course line would therefore be 4,600 yards long. Target speed of 5 kn. = 500 yard speed line.

You can shoot anywhere along the course line more than 500 yards (arming distance) but not beyond it, the torp won't travel more than 4,600 yards on high speed.

Spectator explains it much better than I can in post #55 in this thread.
He uses an approach angle of 90° but it works at any angle, I always use something like 60°.
Vector analysis is a firing solution method so you must be in range of the torpedos for it to work,


Magic