Is 1-2 big ships per patroll good?

[Dantenoc]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Convience for sure. Think about it. You at the scope calling out the AOB, speed, course. Your TDC man making the adjustments. In the this game you cannot not call out the figures. So the lock acts as the voice command. This is why I use weapons officer assist so he can dial in the figures. It gets to be to much without assist.

Everytime you click on the checkmark on the notepad, it will (unaudibly) call that info to the TDC. The "lock on" feature is independant of this.

The periscope is "wired" into the TDC and will update the "bearing to target" in real time... again, independently of wether your "locked on" to something or are just swiveling your periscope around pointing at thin air. Here's the magical part: as your "bearing to target" is updated in real time by swiveling the scope around, the computer recalculates the AoB setting to compensate for your changing viewpoint. For this said recalculation the computer assumes that whatever your looking at is in your crosshairs. Speed is maintained constant and distance is unfortunately not recalculated in real time, so you might want to "call out" updates on that one... but be sure to clear the notepad of all other information, otherwise it will most probably screw up your AoB (the value leftover on the notepad was valid at some point, but not anymore, and clicking on the notepad with that value still there will force said bogus value in the TDC)

[AVGWarhawk]

Correct! Every value must be erased and fresh one entered on every vessel targeted.In simpler terms as the British called it 'is was' only German engineering turned the mathmatical 'is was' into a real time ever changing reality of the torpedo path. Therefore the British boats had to basically aim the boat using 'is was' were the German TDC was done mechanically and these value fed into the guidance system of the torpedo. So clear the pad or the TDC will be using the old values. Yes,one well placed torp on a liberty ship will break it in two as well as C2 and C3. Normally I get to within 1500m for my solution because you are close enough to account for any small miscalculation using the scope or UZO...unless you do some outlandish miscalculation! I generally find that incorrect AOB can cause a major miss so I attempt to make that bit of information as correct as possible. I always manually dial in the speed of target on the TDC...basically the merchants are doing 7 knots. I find using the stop watch gives outlandish speeds. I never use it.

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

I find using the stop watch gives outlandish speeds. I never use it.

The biggest drawback with the stopwatch-speed calculation is that in order for speed to be accurately calculated your U-boat must be at dead stop and your target at 90 degrees AoB. As the AoB becomes more acute, then speed will seem slower; at 0 or 180 it'll appear 0 knots. And since the speed calculation is essentially using trigonometry to calculate speed, if your U-boat is moving at all that buggers up the calculation too.

[P_Funk]

Originally Posted by Albrecht Von Hesse

The biggest drawback with the stopwatch-speed calculation is that in order for speed to be accurately calculated your U-boat must be at dead stop and your target at 90 degrees AoB. As the AoB becomes more acute, then speed will seem slower; at 0 or 180 it'll appear 0 knots. And since the speed calculation is essentially using trigonometry to calculate speed, if your U-boat is moving at all that buggers up the calculation too.

I dunno about you guys but I ONLY use the Stopwatch with the whole Wazoo tracking method. Unless you guys are referring to the notepad speed thing that doesn't work very well.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by P_Funk

I dunno about you guys but I ONLY use the Stopwatch with the whole Wazoo tracking method. Unless you guys are referring to the notepad speed thing that doesn't work very well.

The notepad speed does not work well in my view. If you are at a dead stop and make the calculations it might work ok. Other than that, most merchants a making 7 kts and I dial that in manually on the TDC...it is more shoot from the hip than anything but if I'm in 1500m or less, any small varience in speed makes no difference. Sometimes you get that fast convoy making 10-14 kts so I just make my best guess and I do that by watching how fast the scope or uzo is moving. Am I in the 100k club as a result....nope but then again I was not attempting to get into the club. So I average 3-4 in my VII sometimes 5-6 if I'm getting the one torp kills.

[Perseus]

One torp, two torps, three torps...?

I had a little encounter y'day with a lone C3 cargo. Got myself into a superb firing position, set tubes to 'salvo' and jammed three eels right into its starboard side. BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.

Stopped engines, waited. And waited. OK, wait some more. Dammit! Set time compression to 32. OK, 128 then. Tick-tick-tick... Nothing.

Darn. OK, another eel at broadside. BOOM. Waited. Waited. Waited, etc.
What the hell...!? OK, TWO EELS MORE THEN!!!

BOOM-BOOM.

Tick-tick-tick...



Then I'd had enough. Fired TWO MORE eels and only then did the final "She's going down!" come through. Of course, by that time, sonarman was going NUTS about the high-pitched screws of three destroyers moving in at high speed

In total I spent nearly a full 24 hrs on one C3 and wasted 8 eels. Fortunately I was relatively close to France so sailed back to St Nazaire and start a new mission.

Originally Posted by Perseus

One torp, two torps, three torps...?

I had a little encounter y'day with a lone C3 cargo. Got myself into a superb firing position, set tubes to 'salvo' and jammed three eels right into its starboard side. BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.

Stopped engines, waited. And waited. OK, wait some more. Dammit! Set time compression to 32. OK, 128 then. Tick-tick-tick... Nothing.

Darn. OK, another eel at broadside. BOOM. Waited. Waited. Waited, etc.
What the hell...!? OK, TWO EELS MORE THEN!!!

BOOM-BOOM.

Tick-tick-tick...



Then I'd had enough. Fired TWO MORE eels and only then did the final "She's going down!" come through. Of course, by that time, sonarman was going NUTS about the high-pitched screws of three destroyers moving in at high speed

In total I spent nearly a full 24 hrs on one C3 and wasted 8 eels. Fortunately I was relatively close to France so sailed back to St Nazaire and start a new mission.

It isn't necessarily how many torpedoes you fire, as it is where they hit. If you're using auto-targetting and just keep hitting the center of the ship, it doesn't help a lot. Try (if you haven't already) evenly distributing the impacts. Also try and target the critical hit areas: engine room and fuel bunkers.