To everyone that thinks manual targetting is too difficult...

[benitorios]

Originally Posted by Hottentot

This. I could never stand the map contact updates, since they give perfect / almost perfect data in real time of the target. Target spotted: BOOM! Perfect updating GPS view on the map with exact range and course just few ruler lines away. It's the same reason for why I don't use the weapons officer, he is just way too fast and way too accurate.

Too bad there is not something in between the two options, since playing without any contact updates can be a pain too. I especially miss the lines on the map telling me the direction of a sound the hydrophone man just picked. If there are tens of them (convoy), I usually have better things to do than constantly checking the compass degrees on the map. And I wouldn't mind the crew doing rough estimates of the target's range and bearing. Oh well...

I've been using a mod called the Map update Mod for some time now, and I think it provides what you're looking for: basically, the contacts won't show on map above a certain zoom level, making it virtually impossible to plot a course, let alone calculate speed from the map alone. But they do show for low zoom levels, so you can see contact reports, planes, and ship sunk locations.
On the other hand, the mod preserves the sonar bearing lines on map, which makes it somewhat easier to have situational awareness when you have many sonar/hydrophone contacts all at once.

I remember I had to tweak a couple of things manually in the mod to make it to my liking, but in the end it provided exactly what i was looking for: some useful info on map but removing the perfect info on ship location. Hope that works for you as well.
I can look up the link to the mod if you want. It's somewhere in the downloads section.

[max-peck]

I'm using this too.
It's very good

[Olsin]

I guess it was inevitable...play around with this sim long enough and it's onjly a matter of time before you give manual targetting a crack.....
I've been happy with the arcade feel of sh3 but after reading a few posts i finally reached the "how hard can it be!" point and gave it a go.
I waited for a single contat which turned out to be a small merchant and lined myself up ahead of the merchant at a roughly 90 degree angle perpendicular to the merchants projected heading.

Opened the TDC and clicked the manual/auto tab to green..

I've played around with these controls before but never in connection with a contact. Anyway...a quick 30 seconds play around revealed that the "bearing" dial seemed to adjust the angle the torpedo left the boat and the "range" dial was the range to the contact.

Exit TDC and opened the map.

Using the plotting tool i measured the distance from the front of my boat straight out at 00 degrees to the projected path of the oncoming merchant which was 900 meters and also noted the merchants speed of 7 knots.

Exit map and opened TDC

Dialled the speed dial up to 7 and dialled the range dial up to 900 meters. I then adjusted the bearing dial until the green line showing my torpedo's path was straight out at 00 degrees from my boat....the pointer on the bearing dial was at 13 - which i presumed to mean 13 degrees - when the torpedo angle from the boat was 00 degrees.

Went to periscope and pressed "q" to open the torpedo door and waited until the middle of the merchant was showing at 13 degrees in the periscope. Also noted that the merchant was at just under 900 meters at that point.

Fired.

40 seconds later a direct hit midships. I hadn't used the AoB dial at all and can't remember now what it was set on..didn't think about checking the gyroangle either.....did i luck out and those dials were within parameters anyway or was that a valid approach to manual targetting?

I can't see how i could have done that though if i was in the thick of a convoy unless i purposly only targetted maybe one or two of the richest pickings and left it at that...The remainder of the time used for extraction and reallignement to catch the convoy further along it's course.

And what about zigzagging targets..how on earth do you get a solution on them..is it just about getting close enough so that their slow turning manouvers provides no protection?

[max-peck]

You can still treat it as a standard Fast-90 attack.

Why?

Because the ship is constant helming along a base course.

See pic




The ship sails along the green path as you watch it. But you can treat it as following the base course (in red).

The 3.15 rule still applies.

Mark your two points to get the speed.




This will be the average speed he is making along his base course.

And set your AOB as if the ship was travelling along the base course (red line)

Finally, a rule of thumb if you are short of time.

Once a ship has started constant helmig, it will make about two thirds of the speed it was making before.
I use this quick rule of thumb a lot and hit most of the time

Finally: if weather permits use magnetic pistols, as you may be hitting him at an angle, and an impact pistol may bounce off.

Good luck

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by benitorios

I can look up the link to the mod if you want. It's somewhere in the downloads section.

Thanks for the kind offer mate . There is no need for that, as I don't have SH3 installed at the moment. But once I give it a go again, I'll look this mod up myself. I should have known someone has already created something like this.

[Bakkels]

Originally Posted by max-peck

Finally, a rule of thumb if you are short of time.

Once a ship has started constant helmig, it will make about two thirds of the speed it was making before.
I use this quick rule of thumb a lot and hit most of the time

Hey thanks for this. I could never be bothered to do the calculation for a rule of thumb myself, but still I like todo the manual aiming. I just went with my gut feeling for the target's speed when zigzagging. This should increase my hit-ratio a bit

[Paulski]

By the way, does anyone now if the TDC (when set on auto) takes into account the u-boot's speed when not stationary?