Periscope ranging seems ridiculous....

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Rostbef

I'm currently playing:
TMO 2.1
RSRDC 5xx patch 1

I came upon a convoy with a Hiryu type carrier. Couldn't have been a sweeter approach too. Night, decent vis, slight chop on the water. I took a bazillion ranges and charted them. They all looked halfway decent but I could never get a decent speed solution. It varied anywhere from 6 to 10 knots. These were all manual calculations, I never use the button to find it. I took 4 shots. Nevermind that 3 prematurely detonated (not the point of this thread). I missed way behind so he was either much faster or further away than I had ranged him. So I cheated and reloaded. Further ranges showed him almost 700 yards closer. I'm pretty confused. SH 3 always seemed to be much better at periscope ranging. Any mods that work with TMO and RSRDC to fix this?

Welcome aboard.

What you experienced was probably the most realistic thing about SH4. Ranging was difficult and was inaccurate until the advent of radar (even then there were errors). Captains seldom knew the height of the ship and the view from the periscope was not as clear as is sometimes depicted in the video game.

Speed estimation was, in many cases, solely based on the experience of the captain. I would say if you were estimating the speed between 6 and 10 knots you are doing great!

You did not mention what range you were shooting at, but since you mentioned that in your reload the ranges were 700 yards closer, it sounds like you were shooting from far away.

Personally, I find the "inaccuracies" of SH4 to add to the realism and forces me to get up close to the point where the errors have little impact (pun intended) on my firing solution. But everyone plays the game the way they want to. I hope you can find a nice mod that helps you shoot more accurately.

Welcome aboard and Be Agressive. oops, wrong game. Find em and Sink em.