Hosed by the TDC!

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by Antiacus

Thanks Pisces.

I should have clarified better exactly what i did. To get his speed, i waited until he was about 10 degrees off the bow and timed him. Then applied OLC's whiz wheel to get the speed.

As for aim, I also was unclear. I aimed a little forward & aft of his beam so that i was actually still aiming for his hull.

I think where I fouled up was when i moved the attack peri to time him i had the TDC window closed so it updated his position at 10 degrees to port. When i moved back to zero i left it open (or maybe vise versa?) so it did not updated. Thus when i fired, the TDC believed he was 10 degrees to port rather than at 0 degrees.

I didn't, however, know that bit about the gyro angle. That makes perfect sense and i'll definitely be using that trick.

I'm still figuring out what exactly makes the TDC update and what doesn't. For instance, say if i set up exactly how i did and rather than manually input the data for range and AOB i used OLC's GUI and figured it all out when he was still 2500m up track from me. If i immediately close the TDC would it update everything as he approached and his range & AOB both changed?

Thanks again!

*edit* I should probably state what mods i'm using: GWX2.0, OLC GUI, and Torpedo Damage Final.

I see, for measuring speed you do need to turn your bow on him if you are moving rather fast. However 10 knots at an angle of 10 degrees makes the scope line to move sideways 1.7 knots ( 10*sin(10) ). That's not going to do your measuring any good. Slow down or a much smaller bow-on angle, prefferably both.

Allright, sounds like your aim itself was not the cause then. But more likely the TDC settings were wrong.

Yeah, leaving the TDC panel open is usually my most frequent mistake. I've lost many torpedos like that. And in a type 2 that matters bigtime to your patrol tonnage.

If you measure AOB well before the target crosses your bow and close the panel right away the TDC will update it when you turn the scope. For AOB measurement (with the OLCgui/Ujagd AOB finder) it is important to unlock scope immediately when you know the visible length so the scope doesn't turn further while using the AOB-finder. Or else the measured AOB and bearing (when the panel closed) do not match. Turning the scope does not update the range setting. That should be done just before firing, assuming it is a big factor in the gyro equation. I'm not completely sure, but I think range affects gyro-angle only significantly when the scope is far away from the bow/stern and range is rather close. The torpedo starts it's journey from the front/rear instead of under the scope, and I think also moves a certain distance straight out of the tube before it turns. At short ranges this turn is a bit bigger than if far away because of an effect known as 'parallax'. But how much that is I don't know. Best is to let the torpedo's not turn at all (no gyro angle) or within +-10 degrees.