Guides and Training

[Puster Bill]

At the request of MudMarine, here is the thread about Slide Rule Targeting for SHIII/SHIV:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=112765

[kylania]

Originally Posted by curm

Here I am, hopelessly lost. I keep going out there with my navigational training and it is impossible for me to find the place to park the sub. All I do is to wander around the island or whatever it is. I feel like I'm drowning.
HELP

Hi Curm! Welcome to Silent Hunter 4!

For the Navigational Tutorial you don't have to dock your boat anywhere really, just reach the little flag on the map on the north side of the island.

Basically it's just a combatfree place where you can test plotting a corse (F3 then the >--*--> looking button), changing speeds, direction and depth.

Once you reach the little orange star/flag market it'll end your tutorial.

If you have other questions, feel free to ask!

[Driftwood]

Ok, I'm sure feeling like a real noob about now and it's getting frustrating. I've been attempting (key word ) to play at 100% realism.......oops.....97%... I want to see some eye candy. Anyway, I've read pretty much everything in here about using the TDC and setting up attacks.

1) ID Ship, ok, NP.
2) Turn on position keeper. (some say now, some say later).
3) Get target range. NP, I can use the stadimeter just fine.
4) Get AOB. Now I'm not really into all the formulas and methods I've read about in here so I simply give it my best eyeball call and turn the little dial until its about right. I figure that will get better with time.
5) Get speed estimate. Tried a few different methods here and still haven't really settled on one I'm comfortable with, but even that I figure will come with some time.

I get into a pretty good setup, I'm ahead of a two ship convoy, that is traveling slow. Prior to gaining visual on the convoy I use radar tracking for a while and I estimate speed at about 7-8 knots, which is half their top speed. I send each and every observation into the TDC. I check and recheck my fish settings (high speed, contact). The first fish will head off into a reasonable direction (meaning toward the intended target), maybe ahead, maybe slightly behind, however subsequent fish I fire seem to go off in directions that have nothing to do with what I've input into the TDC. I'm running version 1.2 with the latest version of RFB. I'm beginning to think I've got a saboteur working the TDC. Anyone got any ideas besides going back to Dangerous Waters?

P.S. Does using the "L" key for locking the periscope view have anything to do with this?

P.S.S. Or how about leaving on the position keeper?

[John Channing]

Originally Posted by Driftwood

Ok, I'm sure feeling like a real noob about now and it's getting frustrating. I've been attempting (key word ) to play at 100% realism.......oops.....97%... I want to see some eye candy. Anyway, I've read pretty much everything in here about using the TDC and setting up attacks.

1) ID Ship, ok, NP.
2) Turn on position keeper. (some say now, some say later).
3) Get target range. NP, I can use the stadimeter just fine.
4) Get AOB. Now I'm not really into all the formulas and methods I've read about in here so I simply give it my best eyeball call and turn the little dial until its about right. I figure that will get better with time.
5) Get speed estimate. Tried a few different methods here and still haven't really settled on one I'm comfortable with, but even that I figure will come with some time.

I get into a pretty good setup, I'm ahead of a two ship convoy, that is traveling slow. Prior to gaining visual on the convoy I use radar tracking for a while and I estimate speed at about 7-8 knots, which is half their top speed. I send each and every observation into the TDC. I check and recheck my fish settings (high speed, contact). The first fish will head off into a reasonable direction (meaning toward the intended target), maybe ahead, maybe slightly behind, however subsequent fish I fire seem to go off in directions that have nothing to do with what I've input into the TDC. I'm running version 1.2 with the latest version of RFB. I'm beginning to think I've got a saboteur working the TDC. Anyone got any ideas besides going back to Dangerous Waters?

P.S. Does using the "L" key for locking the periscope view have anything to do with this?

P.S.S. Or how about leaving on the position keeper?

When you send your Range and Bearing updates to the TDC, if you don't have the periscope locked, the bearing transmitted will be exactly where the crosshairs of your scope are trained when you hit send. Therefore, if the ship moves a bit between the time you train your scope and the time you do the range/bearing thing and the time you hit send, it is where your crosshairs are when you hit send that will be transmitted to the gyros. In short.... use the "L" key at all times.

Always keep the PK on, or your solutions will not update and you will not be able to track how good your solution is. Keeping it on and comparing the gyro angle on the TDC to the actual bearing through your scope will tell you if you have a good solution or not.

It sound like you are almost there. Best advise is to use a spread of 3 torps (like in real life) with 5 degrees to the left, center and 5 degrees to the right. Experiment with the values (it will change depending on how far you are from your target) and you will start getting hits.

JCC

[starvingartist507]

Any chance I could get a few guides added to this list? I wrote 4 things for a thread a while ago, detailing the math behind a working firing solution. Since I don't have anything else to do with them, could you add them to this thread? I also made a small program that will calculate speed, just like the stopwatch was supposed to.
None if it is spectacular, but someone might find it useful, and nobody is going to see it, if its not posted somewhere...

They are all at:
www.hoofinasia.net

The guides:
http://www.hoofinasia.net/Guides/Stationary_Sub.htm
http://www.hoofinasia.net/Guides/Moving_Sub.htm
http://www.hoofinasia.net/Guides/Vector_Targeting.htm
http://www.hoofinasia.net/Guides/Tabelle_Analysis.htm

The program:
http://www.hoofinasia.net/Wep_Crew.htm
directions:
http://www.hoofinasia.net/wepcrewreadme.txt

Edit: obviously, these things aren't meant to replace any other methods (like pusterbill's afformentioned slide rule targeting), unless you like pounding out numbers yourself, they just help people (like me) to understand the mechanics behind a speed calculation

[Rafter11]

So how do you enter radar range and bearings into the TDC?

bump

[banjo]

Excellent

[Church SUBSIM]

These videos took me from frustrated to highly capable. One of the most valuable links on these forums

Thanks for taking the time to make them and share them.

[Rockin Robbins]

Werner's videos made me a sub skipper. Part and parcel of this thread is to keep his advice alive and helping people. That will include copying his best posts to this thread. We have been accumulating more and more people interested in tactics and techniques with the ability to write clearly understandable tutorials and make great videos.

Our aim isn't to brag or impress you with our sub handling, it's to make YOU able to brag and impress US with YOUR sub handling. So if you've checked out some of the materials and have great stories to share about your success, those stories are welcome here alongside the tutorial stuff. Our aim is to encourage people and let them know that they CAN do this stuff and your success stories are an important part of that.

And remember, there are always several right ways to get the job done! The successful skipper is the one whose bag holds the most tricks so he can pick the best one out for a given situation. Don't let yourself get caught in a rut and do the same thing over and over. Try something new and learn it so you can pull it out when a target calls its name! The more techniques you master the more successful you will be.

One thing that I recommend is that everyone read the Submarine Torpedo Fire Control Manual, a 1946 publication of the US Navy. To start off, just read it through without trying to dissect it or letting it intimidate you. Bookmark it for future reference. We will try to use language from that manual in our tutorials so if you have a question you can just say "that sounds familiar" and look it up. That way we can all speak the same language and won't have to reinvent the wheel in sub lingo. And you can see for yourself that the Dick O'Kane procedure or the John P Cromwell method are nothing really new, just adaptations of real submarine tactics to Silent Hunter.

[AVGWarhawk]

I started fooling with these RR. They work well. Nice job. I like the crib sheets that are printable. Yes, just another trick in the bag!

[Rockin Robbins]

Yes, I was messing around with an Ubuntu Linux program that brought back the old CorelDRAW! days. I found that it would do everything I remembered and for free! So I cobbled up those flash cards. It's nice to have something small enough to hold in your hand to help you remember the steps for the different procedures.

Watch for more of those in the future, which I hope contains a new power supply for my game computer. Thanks for setting us up with this sticky thread. We're going to maintain lots of links back to Werner's thread so all that great material isn't lost, but we'll be able to keep the #1 post in the new thread updated with all the great stuff we're expecting from people we don't even know yet.

[liluoke]

thank you for such a helpful list!

[Rockin Robbins]

The entire goal of this thread is to take the scariest part of Silent Hunter, manual targeting, and convince you that you will be successful in short order. Then we aim to make it true.

Nobody needs to be afraid of manual targeting. There are so many ways to do it, you are sure to find a couple of methods you will immediately like. Once you're hooked you'll never consider going back to auto targeting again. That's a promise.

[TwinStackPete379]

RR is right, once i watched the Werner vids, it all made sense, and it's so gratifying when the fish hits after you've put together the solution piece by piece. This game is fun. Can't believe i only discovered it 10 or 12 days ago.