Where to start ?

[Dalwhat]

Don't think Steam is neccessarily the issue as I play through this and my system is a Phenom II X4 955 with just 4 gig of ram and a Radeon 6800. There are a number of reasons that the system will restrict TC. Maybe shallow water?

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Lancezh

Some questions that arised:

played campaign on Normal 1941, Preselected Submarine.

- I couldnt find an option to switch from Imperial to Metric, is there one ? (The mod has one i think).

That is found in your options menu. Pause the game and it comes up. Alternately, when you start the game you can go to the options screen before you load up your game save. Life is much easier in Imperial, by the way.

Originally Posted by Lancezh

- The Detection Circles around Contacts when in navigation mode, are they reliable ?

Yeah, they're TOO reliable. They shouldn't even be there. TMO deep sixes them. Pay close attention to that wedge behind where they can't detect you at all because of their own propeller sounds.

Originally Posted by Lancezh

- Whats the difference between 3 50 Deckgun and a 4 50 Deckgun ? I can't make sense of the number ?

Here's where you have to relearn the meanings of some well-understood words. We think of caliber meaning the diameter of a projectile. Forget that, this is the US Navy and things will mean what WE want! Understood?

The first number is the diameter of the projectile in inches, 3 inches for the 3 50 and 4 inches for the 4 50. So right away you can see that you want the 4 50.

So what's the 50 number? Well that's the caliber, and in US Navy gunnery speak, the caliber is the ratio between the projectile diameter and the length of the barrel. 50 caliber means the barrel length is 50 times the projectile diameter, so the barrel on the 3 50 is 150", 12' 6" long and the 4 50 barrel is 200", 16' 8" long. You may convert all that to metric at your leisure!

Originally Posted by Lancezh

- I remember when playing the TMO mod for a short time yesterday i burned through my diesel very fast, now in the campaign i have unlimited fuel obviously, however, whats the most cost efficient method to travel ? Surfaced 2/3 i recon or standard ?

With a fleet boat, your best fuel economy is at 9.5 knots (an imperial measurement by the way....) Depending on the mod, that will be at different throttle settings. At that speed with TMO there is no limit to where you can go with no problems at all with running out of fuel. This assumes use of any throttle setting you choose when in pursuit or when evading.

It also assumes that you stay on the surface every single second your life doesn't depend on being submerged. This keeps batteries fully charged as much of the time as possible. If you are running at 9½ knots while charging batteries, those diesels are running wide freakin' open and burning as much fuel as possible to get those batteries back to snuff. You don't want that happening.

Originally Posted by Lancezh

- When spotted by an aircraft does it make sense to change the bearing afterwards or does the AI not care about that ? And i thought about staying surfaced after shooting the plane down so i can make some distance before diving, was that a correct thought ?

Don't be spotted by aircraft. That's the long and short answer. Why? Well, let's talk about the stupidity of pitting submarine against aircraft.

First, the aircraft will get on the radio with its aircraft buddies right away. That will bring more of the lousy things for a 24 hour period or so, looking for you. They'll cover a fairly large area of the ocean. It won't matter too much whether you change course or not. What? You gonna outrun a plane?

Second, the very idea of shooting at a plane is preposterous. Here you have a cheap, mass produced plane containing one easily replaceable fly-idiot (or two sometimes) dropping bombs and shooting machine guns at you. If they hit your pressure hull once, it's over and you lost.

On the other hand, your expensive, slow to produce people tube is full of 80 highly trained and motivated, difficult to replace people, (aside from you, you're easily replaced since you're dumb enough to fight this plane), One hit on your very slow, very large target self and all that is dead. However you have to hit this tiny, rapid moving, cheap, easy to replace plane lots of times to have any chance of downing him. If you DO succeed in downing him, several dozen of his cheap friends are on the way to make your day exciting.

The odds are in the plane's favor. The downside is devastating to our war effort. If you down the plane he won't even be missed and it will make no contribution to winning the war. Heads you lose, tails they win. It's a battle you don't wanna fight.

Don't be seen by aircraft. Don't fight aircraft. Use the AA guns for drying laundry. That's what they were designed for.

[Lancezh]

Haha thank you for the extensive answers =) You misunderstood me though... By no means i'm attacking Planes, but since i didnt have an Air Radar i noticed them when it was to late to dive. Nevertheless i initiated a dive and while getting down i shot the plane down - my question was simply wether it helps to change your course after you've been spotted and your position was reported. But this is answered now i think =)
I installed an air radar so it shouldnt happen again

[washishu]

I don't play all that often and when I do it's usually been SH3, but recently I've been trying to get to grips with SH4 and am making progress with the stock version.

I don't find enemy aircraft to be too much of a problem. With the air-search radar you get a warning well in advance (even if I'm zooming along at high time compression, as soon as the contact is made it drops to 1 - or is it 8? I forget). I then zoom in and watch the contact on the nav. map and at no more than 4 times compression. It's usually fairly obvious whether it will come within visual range and even if it does, if it's at max range it will often just fly on by. If it changes course towards me, I dive.

This is not very realistic perhaps but, at the moment I've got other things to think about and aircraft are a necessary evil and just get in the way of playing the game; and many of them seem to fly into mountains anyway.

One problem I do have is the lifegaurd duty. I was sent to the Solomons; the place was positively littered with what I assume were downed allied aircraft (the usual wreck symbol on the map and in blue). I scoot towards them. . . nothing. After scooting around from one to the other for ages, I gave up and went off to find some ships to sink. In the old, old SH1 I recall, you received a radio message that a downed pilot was awaiting rescue at such and such a map reference.

And on a connected issue, how do you actually complete the mission objective. Eg; Patrol Solomon Islands and there's a star marking the spot. In SH3 you have to get there and tootle around for 24 hrs. In Sh4 I've tootled around for days and still it's mission objective incomplete.

[Lancezh]

Originally Posted by washishu

And on a connected issue, how do you actually complete the mission objective. Eg; Patrol Solomon Islands and there's a star marking the spot. In SH3 you have to get there and tootle around for 24 hrs. In Sh4 I've tootled around for days and still it's mission objective incomplete.

You need to be 100nm within the objective for 48h straight, no interruptions. Just did one.

[washishu]

Ok. I'll bear that in mind.

Re your manual targeting issues, somewhere in this site is a very useful post which includes downloadable pdf flash cards giving the basics of different targeting methods. Can't recall exactly where I got it from but if you search Dick O'Kane method it should find it.

[DrBeast]

Originally Posted by washishu

Re your manual targeting issues, somewhere in this site is a very useful post which includes downloadable pdf flash cards giving the basics of different targeting methods. Can't recall exactly where I got it from but if you search Dick O'Kane method it should find it.

I believe this is it? http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...&postcount=204

[washishu]

That's the ones. I found them very useful. Thanks to the author.

One thing that puzzles me is the business of target range. I've heard folks saying that ". . . range doesn't matter. . ." (within the limits of max torpedo range obviously).

In SH3 I used a 90° approach and AoB and turn scope to 000 gyro angle, then shoot as they cross. So surefire it's almost boring. But how come? The torpedo has to travel x distance at a fixed speed; therfore, the greater the range, the longer it takes to get there. So how does it work that range doesn't matter?

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by washishu

That's the ones. I found them very useful. Thanks to the author.

One thing that puzzles me is the business of target range. I've heard folks saying that ". . . range doesn't matter. . ." (within the limits of max torpedo range obviously).

In SH3 I used a 90° approach and AoB and turn scope to 000 gyro angle, then shoot as they cross. So surefire it's almost boring. But how come? The torpedo has to travel x distance at a fixed speed; therfore, the greater the range, the longer it takes to get there. So how does it work that range doesn't matter?

Range only doesn't matter if you remove it from the equation via vector algebra. Range (as in the distance the torpedo travels) is one of the sides of the triangle that makes up every torpedo shot. The other two sides are the straight-line distance between you and them and the distance the target will travel between launch and impact. In the Dick O'Kane, JPC, etc shots, we remove the range from the equation by accurately calculating the angle whose vertex is located at our submarine and the ratio between the length of the target's distance traveled and the torpedo's distance traveled. The true length (in yards) of the two sides is irrelevant because the two sides will always have the same ratio (8:46 or 12:46 or whatever).

In other words, http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...85&postcount=9

[MKalafatas]

Originally Posted by washishu

That's the ones. I found them very useful. Thanks to the author.

One thing that puzzles me is the business of target range. I've heard folks saying that ". . . range doesn't matter. . ." (within the limits of max torpedo range obviously).

In SH3 I used a 90° approach and AoB and turn scope to 000 gyro angle, then shoot as they cross. So surefire it's almost boring. But how come? The torpedo has to travel x distance at a fixed speed; therfore, the greater the range, the longer it takes to get there. So how does it work that range doesn't matter?

For example: if the target is traveling at 7 knots, your Mark X torpedo moves at 36 knots, and you shoot from 79 degrees off the bow, you will strike the target precisely on the beam, whether the target is 800 yards away, or 3000.

As a practical matter it's best to move in close, to cover inaccuracies in measurements.

[Lancezh]

Just a quick note on how it goes, thank you all for your tips, the most annoying stuff about stock is by far the ridicoulus amount of planes. It is really just ridicoulus, i had to dive and get up again for about 100 times without even being discovered at all. It was very very annoying and lacking a bit of fun :P

However, since i have TMO installed the game is fun again, and i'm playing on normal settings and enjoying it. Got faceraped by a destroyer that i tried to shake with some AFT torpedoes that both DUD'ded, i paid the prices

[Rockin Robbins]

Hey, I have all kinds of fancy trig and impressive calculations, but they're all just a hatful of numbers that do NOTHING to help you understand how range cancels out of a firing solution when the gyro angle is zero. You don't even have to be 90º to the target track!

OK, want to see and BELIEVE it's true? This is better than a graduate course in trig and you can validate the conclusion instantly to KNOW this is correct. Wait for it.......


Thanks Gutted for the great animation that shows in 10 seconds more than I could explain in an hour. The green line is the shoot bearing. You can see all the targets and moving the same speed at different ranges. The torpedo is shot when the target crosses the shoot bearing. Automatically, the further the range, the longer you lead the target. And you can understand beyond a shadow of a doubt the the principle is true: range does not matter with a zero gyro angle.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Here's where you have to relearn the meanings of some well-understood words. We think of caliber meaning the diameter of a projectile. Forget that, this is the US Navy and things will mean what WE want! Understood?

This is correct except for two minor details (and I do mean minor). First, it's not just the US navy. Every navy uses the same terminology. Yamato's guns were listed as 46cm/45. Second, Calibre still means the diameter of the barrel. '50' is described by the British as saying the gun is "50 calibres in length". As I said minor, but to me significant.

Loved the rest.

[Lancezh]

Some questions have arisen while playing furthermore:
(With TMO 2.5)

Crew Independence - Whenever i'm telling the crew to go to battlestations and tell them to man the deckguns they are not firing on their own, i checked the crew, they are allowed to fire at will, but nothing happens unless i'm actively in that gun and fire myself.

Reloading - Deck Guns seem not to reload allthough they are Manned without me actively sitting in the gun. So i'm shooting... gun starts reloading. Lets say its 25% done, i go to the AA gun, come back after 2 minutes, the 3 50Cal is STILL at 25%, is that intentional ?

Initial Gun Status, when i'm surfacing none of my guns are loaded ever, i always have to load first before i can shoot, is that intentional ? In stock the guns where loaded when surfaced so i could immediately fire away.

Minimumdistance of Torpedoes, when i'm really close to the target in fog for instance, say 500 yards i noticed that all my torpedoes flat out passed under the target and didnt make any contact regardeless of my depth settings set to minimum. Is that intentional or does it take the torpedo some time to arrive at his "traveling" distance before he's able to destroy targets ?

Fog Attacks - I was in such deep Fog attacks that i couldnt see my target (an armed Trader) even 500y close up, so i fired some torpedoes with Auto Targetting out into the blue since i didnt have a better idea of his position other than his sound. How does one go about that ? What range are you picking when you're unclear about your targets exact location ?

Pinging Destroyers - I understand that pinging Destroyers arent listening, so when is the best moment to fire up the engines given that i survive his depth charges ? Do i try to stay behind him so i can gain speed with me being invisible ? What the heck am i doing in such a situation ?

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

This is correct except for two minor details (and I do mean minor). First, it's not just the US navy. Every navy uses the same terminology. Yamato's guns were listed as 46cm/45. Second, Calibre still means the diameter of the barrel. '50' is described by the British as saying the gun is "50 calibres in length". As I said minor, but to me significant.

Loved the rest.

And now you know........the REST of the story! I stand corrected and fully illuminated. Thanks Steve!