[REL] Video Tutorals: TDC + PK advanced.

[Rockin Robbins]

Wish I had a fast enough rig to do movies, but so far no luck. There are four pieces of information that the TDC needs to hit your target. Pop up the periscope and ID the target. This tells your TDC the height of the tallest mast.


Usually the first thing you get is the speed. It most likely won't change if you remain undetected. Here's what you'll do. Have the stopwatch handy. Pop up the periscope and lock onto the target so it is plotted on your nav map. Change to the nav map, type ctrl-x to bring up the stopwatch, with the pencil tool make an x where the target is and start the stopwatch. Down scope.

About two minutes and 45 seconds on the stopwatch (you might need to do it at 2:30 at first until you get coordinated) raise the scope and lock on target. Switch to nav map and press the "x" key to bring up the stopwatch. Grab the pencil and exactly at three minutes x the position of the target. Down scope.

Now the distance between the two positions in hundreds of yards is the speed of the target in knots. 750 yards is 7.5 knots. Plug that into the TDC and press send speed. That's piece of information #1.

Next, we need Angle of the Bow (AoB)/course of the target. Go back to the nav map and use the ruler tool (open the compass first to give you tool help) to connect the two positions you have plotted and extend the line in the direction of target movement. You can use the compass rose on the ruler tool to find the target's course.

To find the AoB, use your protractor tool. You'll click on the target's course ahead of the target, then click again on the middle of the target and a third time on the middle of your submarine. You'll read the angle right beside the target. That's the AoB. Now, which side of the target are you looking at, starboard or port? That tells you whether the AoB is starboard or port. Enter that into the TDC and press the send AoB button. Once we get the position keeper on we'll update that before we shoot. That's piece of information #2.

It's stadimeter time! (Yuck) When you use the stadimeter in the conventional (yuck) manner you are really sending two pieces of information to the TDC, the bearing and the range. So use the stadimeter to put the waterline of one part the split image on the top of the mast of the other and left-click. Then press the send bearing/range button.

Immediately start the position keeper after you enter the range/bearing. You're in the ballpark. Switch to the attack map and you'll see an x marking the torpedo impact point. It should be on top of your target and moving with it. If it is moving in a slightly different direction your AoB needs refining. If it is moving too fast or too slow your speed needs adjustment. And if it is not on top of the target, the range or bearing is off.

If the range is wrong but a line from your sub to the impact point crosses the target, you can shoot anyway because the torpedo will hit the ship on its way to where it thinks the target is. If you're not too far off in range but the line is gaining or losing ground on the target, rather than screw with the stadimeter, I usually just tweak the speed to make it work and shoot. The stadimeter drives me crazy.

I hope this is clear enough. I really wish I could do movies to demonstrate this stuff, because it's really fun once you have a unified picture of the whole process in your head. OK, I know it's not fun yet, you'll have to just trust me.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by znatan

These tutorials where are so good !! Any plans to do the same staff for U-boat missions? The things are little different there with all the new staff?

thanks !!

The guys from the Silent Hunter 3 world know much more than I do so far. I CAN tell you it's an entirely different world, but has enough similarities to make you think you know more than you do.

My first clue was when gutted, aaronblood and I were coming up with the Dick O'Kane method. I didn't understand the U-Boat way of targeting at all. They only understood the U-Boat methods, but could explain how they worked well enough that I could work out how to make the American TDC do that. They had a lot of trouble understanding how the American TDC worked but had a much greater understanding of the attack procedure. Therefore I ended up writing up the Dick O'Kane instructions for the American submarine.

This told me I'd be lost in a U-Boat! Sure enough out came SH4UBM and I was lost in my U-Boat. I've done Dick O'Kanes with the U-Boat and it works marvelously. But the fast-90 technique in U-Boats is even better! Aaronblood is the right guy to write that, not me.

Also, visit the SH3 forums. Everything that works for them works for our U-Boats as far as techniques go. Just remember, it's their forum, not ours. They know something we want to know, not the other way around. Be nice over there!

[Major Johnson]

Man, I'm getting the uneasy feeling that there is more than one way to do manual targeting, and you just have to find out which one works best for you. But, I'm not giving up. I'll get it as some point.

[Major Johnson]

I have a question about the periscope attack video. When he takes the 2nd stedimeter reading he gets the speed of 7 knots and heading of 1 degree. I can see 7 knots being displayed in the stedimeter, but I can't figure out where he is getting the the 1 degree heading. Can someone explain that to me??
Thanks!

[ICApproval]

I had the same problem but the answer is simple.

An officer relays the speed and bearing in the dialogue box, look there. You may need to scroll up if other chatter enters the box right after the information is entered

[Major Johnson]

NO WAY! That's it!!!? DOH!!

Forever the wannabee!! :p

[JoeCorrado]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

Just saw this RR Nice job re-hosting this


RDP

I couldn't locate these from the original links, thank you for reposting!!

[horrgakx]

I've just downloaded these videos, thanks for taking the time to do them.
However, I'm struggling to follow. An example is in the Position Keeper video you say something like "make the target track go north" and turn the wheel, but the target is facing left on the dial (270 deg) and not upwards (000 deg). I think this problem is due to the submarine facing a heading of 090.

This is an unwanted complication and I'm struggling to follow as it is. I think for the moment I'm still using the automatic targeting system, the video has not helped me.

Also, you clearly understand the concept and how everything works. Sometimes you move too quickly and don't expain in much detail what and why you're doing something. Again, I'm struggling to follow.


Thanks.

PS - Suggestion - why not update the original post with working links?

[brett25]

hi. this is so awsome, a big thanks! Just what I was needing. No more auto target for me, now I can begin to play for real.

[piersyf]

I too have enjoyed these tutorials. They are fantastic! I do have a question though... in the tutes Werner says there can be sonar error. OK, fine. On another thread I saw someone had written that the sonar works perfectly (OK, maybe they meant accurately...) My question is this; on a recent attack I had a nice slow merchant who had no idea I was there so no zig zag or anything. I decided to do a dual solution; both with scope raised and using sonar for ranging. On the battlemap I noticed that the sonar plot was always about a boat length behind the visual track and about 50yds closer. Doesn't sound like much, but I shot at 900yds range on sonar bearings and the torp missed astern. I corrected the gyro angle manually to intersect the visual plot and scored a hit.
Could this be inexperienced crew? It's obviously no problem in Werner's boat... I pinged that merchant maybe 20 times and 90 percent were as described (the other 10 percent were long and behind). Sonar error gives deviations, but this was a consistent error in location.

[Rockin Robbins]

I've just updated my The Dick O'Kane (UB & FB) and Fast-90 (UB only) attack methods post to include new, easier to understand step-by-step (follow the bouncing ball!) procedure PLUS a brand new tutorial on Wazoo's great Fast-90 attack technique for U-Boats. Yes, if you order now I'll give you our Dick O'Kane slide seminar, the simple, step-by-step directions that even your cat could use successfully, and if you order in the next thirty minutes, I'll include absolutely free of charge, my entirely new, easy to understand procedure for Wazoo's incomparable Fast-90 U-Boat attack! That's three great tutorials for the cost of one! Then you can say with me "Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am the meanest son of a biscuit eater in the valley!"

Please note that although I share credit for the Dick O'Kane attack procedure with aaronblood and gutted, the Fast-90 technique was originated and named by Wazoo. Names are important and it ticks me off to see lazy people not give credit where credit is due and who take it upon themselves to rename something created by others. Damn, I sound as cranky as Ducimus!:rotfl:

[Rockin Robbins]

In honor of WernerSobe and in partial compensation for the fact that no sonar only attack procedures other than Werner's have been published, I have developed the Dick O'Kane Sonar Only (by God!) Attack Technique.

After much reflection and realization that Subsim's unfortunate combination of U-Boat and Fleet Boat enthusiasts in the same forum has resulted in a predictable competition of U-Boat and Fleet Boat enthusiasts. The flood of U-Boaters from SHIII and the many SH4 people (including myself) who have jumped into the new U-Boat aspect of SH4 into the formerly exclusive Fleet Boat SH4 world has served to make an atmosphere unfriendly to Fleet Boaters and U-Boaters alike. The mods for both sides are squeezed into the same mod forum, contributing to the same problem there.

Therefore, I am posting all Fleet Boat oriented tutorials and videos in a forum dedicated to Fleet Boat culture, Subsowespac. I will continue to post links here for the benefit of people who could benefit. I will continue to sail my U-Boat, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have. I will continue to post and have a lot of fun at Subsim while I wait for a change of heart in their unfortunate decisions that do a disservice to fleet boaters and U-Boaters. This is not an anti-U-Boat diatribe, it is a statement of fact and intention.

So here is the link to the new Dick O'Kane Sonar Only (by God!) Attack Video. And while you're at it, spend some time over at SubSoWesPac, a site dedicated to Fleet Boat submarine simulation.

[Hitman]

After much reflection and realization that Subsim's unfortunate combination of U-Boat and Fleet Boat enthusiasts in the same forum has resulted in a predictable competition of U-Boat and Fleet Boat enthusiasts.

But....there are indeed separate forums for UBM and SH4, so what's the problem? :hmm:

[Rockin Robbins]

A once robust and vibrant community is a wasteland now. When I could visit evey day and find my choice of dozens of posts to reply to and a post stayed on page 1 for a day, we have progressed to an atmosphere where posting has slowed to a crawl. A post can linger on page 1 for weeks now. Before release of SH4UBM that would not have happened. Subsim just doesn't feel as friendly any more. Obviously, there must be others who feel as I do.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating abandoning Subsim. None of my stuff is actually leaving here. It will continue to be as available as before, but you'll have to visit another place to get it. I'm suggesting adding to the places you visit, and recommending SubSoWesPac as a fleet boat friendly place where like-minded people do not conflict with each other.

[Hitman]

The slowing down in posting isn't due to UBM, as otherwise it would have shifted to the UBM forum, which it hasn't. It has been a general slowdown which IMHO is probably due to the fact that the game is not so new any longer.

I am member of the SubSowesPac forums already since long and it's a great community, much smaller than subsim and composed of great enthusiasts of Fleet Boats -so enthusiastic that they have kept the old SH1 alive and healthy until SH4 came out!- but the posting traffic isn't also that high. The ambience and friendliness is great, though

Fleet Boars aren't so popular outside the US as german U-Boats and that's a fact, so it's logical that SH4 will not see worldwide the amount of success that SH3 saw until people get more and more used to the concept of the submarine Pacific War and discover its greatness