Is 1-2 big ships per patroll good?

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.

[mookiemookie]

I like to put one just in front of the bridge on C3 cargos. Like right where the bridge ends and the cranes are. Set it to 3.5m depth and use impact triggers. Makes a nice big boom more often than not.

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

I like to put one just in front of the bridge on C3 cargos. Like right where the bridge ends and the cranes are. Set it to 3.5m depth and use impact triggers. Makes a nice big boom more often than not.

That's because that's where its fuel bunker is located, and you're running the right depth to hit it smack daub. Makes fer a purty fireball.

The fuel bunker is one of several 'critical hit' locations. Some examples are the fuel bunkers, engine room, ammo bunker, keel, steering and propulsion. Those locations will appear in the recognition manual as selectable boxes when certain criteria* are met:

You have to be within a certain minimum range (with the stock game it seems to be 500 meters, and with GW 1 km; not sure about NYGM), with an AoB around 80 - 100 degrees, and a bearing of 0 +/- 30 degrees (180 +/- 30 degrees for stern targeting).

In other words, near-perfect targeting position.

If you are locked onto the target, have the manual open to the correct ship type/class (easiest [i.e. 'cheating' ] way is to click 'ship' at the upper left of the notepad; that automatically will open the recognition manual to the correct nationality and ship type) and meet the above criteria, you will notice odd little boxes appear superimposed on the ship. Resting your cursor atop them will show you what it is (ex. engine room, fuel bunker); clicking it will shadow-light it, and aim your torpedo there automatically. You're virtually guarenteed a hit under those conditions (unless you forget to open the outer door first, which delays firing and throws off the computation).

I think it's roughly 50-50 with the fuel bunker whether the ship explodes or not. But it definitely greatly improves your chances for a 1-fish kill.

There is a mod out there (I think it's called the merchant vunerability mod) that, when installed, color-codes the ships and always shows the appropriate sweet spots. Just be forewarned: just because the mod shows them, it doesn't permit you automatically targeting them. You still need to be in the right range and position for those boxes to appear. But what the mod does do is help you determine where to try manually targetting your torpedoes for maximum effect.




*I'm not positive about the exact numbers, but from in-game experience (or lack thereof? )

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Albrecht Von Hesse

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.

Yep, got to hole each part of the ship

[Laffertytig]

someone said " Your torpedo will go wherever the periscope crosshairs are"

does the tdc automatically update WHENEVER u move the scope oe must u move the scope then click the tick button to update it?