Manual Torpedo calculator, how do it ?

[Chisum]

Hi mates, long time no see !
I'm back in submarine but this time I would like to play a little bit more seriously. I did never play in manual mod and I want to try it. Everytime I've try, I missed the target...
Could you tell me where I can found a SIMPLE tutorial to be an expert ?

Thanks in advance !
Regards.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Chisum

Hi mates, long time no see !
I'm back in submarine but this time I would like to play a little bit more seriously. I did never play in manual mod and I want to try it. Everytime I've try, I missed the target...
Could you tell me where I can found a SIMPLE tutorial to be an expert ?

Thanks in advance !
Regards.

Might be easier to steer you in the right direction if it was known what part are you having problems with ?

[Chisum]

Hi, thanks to answer.

To be simple: the selection of data. How to adjust the 4 parameters on the settings table? Based on what indications? The first left is the biggest problem ...

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Chisum

Hi, thanks to answer.

To be simple: the selection of data. How to adjust the 4 parameters on the settings table? Based on what indications? The first left is the biggest problem ...

Is this post based on the view from the TDC screen ? I.e., by "The first left..." do you mean the target bearing setting dial ?

[Chisum]

Exactly, named "Azimut" as you can see there.



But a little explain about the 3 others will be welcome too !

Thanks to answering.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Chisum

Exactly, named "Azimut" as you can see there.



But a little explain about the 3 others will be welcome too !

Thanks to answering.

Ok, left to right:

1. That is the direction in degrees the target is moving. I.e, if it was moving NE, it's bearing would be 45 degrees and that is where the white arrow would be pointing at.
The red and green halves symbolize port (red) or starboard (green) directions in this and the angle on bow dial.

2. That is the distance the target is from your sub.

3. That is the angle on bow of the target. Think of this as the bearing (direction) of your sub from the target's bow.

4. That is the speed of the target (outer dial).

Hope this helps.

[Chisum]

Thanks to your help, very kind of you.
I'll try next time.

The big problem is that the target moves and the value taken at a time T1 are not the same at T2, T2=after we set the calculator...

Training must probably the best way to get experience.

Thanks again.

[Hamppupalaa]

You'll get the hang of it eventually, at least I did

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=88961 Here's a guide i used a while ago, works very well. Don't be discouraged if you fail at first, you'll get there. Training is the key

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Chisum

Thanks to your help, very kind of you.
I'll try next time.

The big problem is that the target moves and the value taken at a time T1 are not the same at T2, T2=after we set the calculator...

Training must probably the best way to get experience.

Thanks again.

Like many things, keep it simple. Some like to make it overly complex. It doesn't need to be.
The Fast 90 attack method is a simple, excellent, and historical method to use for the attack.

The link Hamppupalaa gave you is a great one for plotting a convoy intercept too.

[bstanko6]

If you need more tutorials click on my signature below. SH3/5 videos work the same. Good luck friend!

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by bstanko6

If you need more tutorials click on my signature below. SH3/5 videos work the same. Good luck friend!

Definitely watch these, you'll learn a lot in these well done videos.

[Chisum]

Thanks a lot to everyone for your helping.

My apologize to Hamppupalaa, I confess that I did not see his link...
Thanks a lot.

I'm gonna learn now and try all methods.

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

Ok, left to right:

1. That is the direction in degrees the target is moving. I.e, if it was moving NE, it's bearing would be 45 degrees and that is where the white arrow would be pointing at.
The red and green halves symbolize port (red) or starboard (green) directions in this and the angle on bow dial.

Sorry, this has to be corrected. The TDC does not show the actual target course anywhere but through the tactical map itself (if map-updates are enabled in realism settings). The (azimut) dial shows the direction towards the target relative to your bow. In English we would call this 'bearing'. When the little 1/0 switch is to 1 it should be identical to your periscopes/UZO viewing direction. This is the setting you would normally use. If the switch is set to 0 you can manually enter a direction. But there is little reason to.

As can be seen in the text box, the crew has found (about an hour ago) a contact on (azimut) bearing 304. Which after you turn clockwise from the bow ends up at 56 degrees left of the bow (as a full turn is 360 degrees). So 56 port or red. You would confirm this by turning the periscope/UZO (which only shows bow-relative directions) there and see the dial reflect this.

2. That is the distance the target is from your sub.

3. That is the angle on bow of the target. Think of this as the bearing (direction) of your sub from the target's bow.

4. That is the speed of the target (outer dial).

Hope this helps.

That is all correct.

In order to set the 3 dials below you need to set the 1/0 switch to 0 temporarily. Once set it should be returned to 1 to re-enable updating the AOB solution based on periscope/UZO direction. Speed and distance will not be updated automatically by turning or locking the periscope/uzo.

2: Distance can be measured with the periscope after successful identification of the ship, noting that in the recognition manual and then calculation of distance using the stadimeter function. If you are on the surface and the watch officer is out you can also ask for the range to the nearest target. Don't be fooled though, it being shown 2nd place does not mean it is important to get a hit. If you shoot the torpedo forward or backwards within only a small gyro angle(torpedo turn is <20 degrees) it's setting is almost meaningless. Only for close range shots (<1km) with large torpedo turn angle (gyro angle>30) it becomes important to get it ballpark-right.

3: Angle on (the target) Bow. As said by John Pancoast, it is the direction from the target to you, from his point of view. It's the bearing to you seen through his periscope or whatever kind of binocular mount. You can either guess it by visual estimation. Make sure you can identify if the target is pointing away or towards you. And so if the AOB is smaller or greater than 90 degrees. After having plotted the position of the target for a while you may have found it's course and current position. Then you can measure this angle on the map drawing from it's course to your position. There are also graphical user interface mods which include a ring mechanism on the periscope which allows you to calculate this from apparent height and width measurements. If you want to know about this search for Range and AOB finder (or RAOBF for short)

4: Together with the AOB this is the most important setting to get the torpedo lead onto a moving target. You can estimate this by eye, but you may not be so succesful. You can measure this if you know the length of the target. Be at a complete stop and put the periscope line right in front of the target. Or set the periscope forward to 0 and turn boat to have the bow just in front of the target. (Then you can keep moving) Time the passage with a stopwatch. Divide the length in meters by the time in seconds. Then as a simplification you can double it. But multiplying by 1.944 would get the correct speed in knots. Of course you can also calculate this from the distance between plotted map positions if you know the time in between. Plotting in intervals of 3 minutes 15 seconds makes this much easier, as every 100m movement equals 1 knot. A real world calculator is handy, but some mods provide a nomograph tool which only takes placing a properly placed diagonal line across the known distance and time to get the speed.

The other 2 dials on the bottom are the gyrocompass. Which as said above indicates the bearing the torpedo will steer to after it leaves the tube. The dial on the left is showing the full gyro angle in a 360 degree circle. The most right dial is showing the single digits (0-9) and fraction of the gyro angle to read it more precisely.

Then there are dials on the right middle section. Those are for setting:
torpedo depth
switch for selecting magnetic or impact detonator
slow/medium/fast speed of the type 1 torpedo
torpedo tube selector
salvo angle

And ofcourse the top torpedo tube status indicators and firing button.

The game provides the notepad function to set up a manual torpedo attack. But I think it is better to understand the meaning of the dials on the attack-map and learn how to measure the various things by hand. The notepad method is prone to make errors in your targeting. [EDIT: By basing speed on the distance and AOB you have measured crudely] But if you want you can read a clear description of how to use it in the GWX 3 manual. It will apply to unmodded SH3 too for the most part.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Pisces

Sorry, this has to be corrected. The TDC does not show the actual target course anywhere but through the tactical map itself (if map-updates are enabled in realism settings). The (azimut) dial shows the direction towards the target relative to your bow. In English we would call this 'bearing'. When the little 1/0 switch is to 1 it should be identical to your periscopes/UZO viewing direction. This is the setting you would normally use. If the switch is set to 0 you can manually enter a direction. But there is little reason to.

As can be seen in the text box, the crew has found (about an hour ago) a contact on (azimut) bearing 304. Which after you turn clockwise from the bow ends up at 56 degrees left of the bow (as a full turn is 360 degrees). So 56 port or red. You would confirm this by turning the periscope/UZO (which only shows bow-relative directions) there and see the dial reflect this.

That is all correct.

In order to set the 3 dials below you need to set the 1/0 switch to 0 temporarily. Once set it should be returned to 1 to re-enable updating the AOB solution based on periscope/UZO direction. Speed and distance will not be updated automatically by turning or locking the periscope/uzo.

2: Distance can be measured with the periscope after successful identification of the ship, noting that in the recognition manual and then calculation of distance using the stadimeter function. If you are on the surface and the watch officer is out you can also ask for the range to the nearest target. Don't be fooled though, it being shown 2nd place does not mean it is important to get a hit. If you shoot the torpedo forward or backwards within only a small gyro angle(torpedo turn is <20 degrees) it's setting is almost meaningless. Only for close range shots (<1km) with large torpedo turn angle (gyro angle>30) it becomes important to get it ballpark-right.

3: Angle on (the target) Bow. As said by John Pancoast, it is the direction from the target to you, from his point of view. It's the bearing to you seen through his periscope or whatever kind of binocular mount. You can either guess it by visual estimation. Make sure you can identify if the target is pointing away or towards you. And so if the AOB is smaller or greater than 90 degrees. After having plotted the position of the target for a while you may have found it's course and current position. Then you can measure this angle on the map drawing from it's course to your position. There are also graphical user interface mods which include a ring mechanism on the periscope which allows you to calculate this from apparent height and width measurements. If you want to know about this search for Range and AOB finder (or RAOBF for short)

4: Together with the AOB this is the most important setting to get the torpedo lead onto a moving target. You can estimate this by eye, but you may not be so succesful. You can measure this if you know the length of the target. Be at a complete stop and put the periscope line right in front of the target. Or set the periscope forward to 0 and turn boat to have the bow just in front of the target. (Then you can keep moving) Time the passage with a stopwatch. Divide the length in meters by the time in seconds. Then as a simplification you can double it. But multiplying by 1.944 would get the correct speed in knots. Of course you can also calculate this from the distance between plotted map positions if you know the time in between. Plotting in intervals of 3 minutes 15 seconds makes this much easier, as every 100m movement equals 1 knot. A real world calculator is handy, but some mods provide a nomograph tool which only takes placing a properly placed diagonal line across the known distance and time to get the speed.

The other 2 dials on the bottom are the gyrocompass. Which as said above indicates the bearing the torpedo will steer to after it leaves the tube. The dial on the left is showing the full gyro angle in a 360 degree circle. The most right dial is showing the single digits (0-9) and fraction of the gyro angle to read it more precisely.

Then there are dials on the right middle section. Those are for setting:
torpedo depth
switch for selecting magnetic or impact detonator
slow/medium/fast speed of the type 1 torpedo
torpedo tube selector
salvo angle

And ofcourse the top torpedo tube status indicators and firing button.

The game provides the notepad function to set up a manual torpedo attack. But I think it is better to understand the meaning of the dials on the attack-map and learn how to measure the various things by hand. The notepad method is prone to make errors in your targeting. But if you want you can read a clear description of how to use it in the GWX 3 manual. It will apply to unmodded SH3 too for the most part.

Thanks for the correction Pisces. I knew that, but didn't phrase things very well.
Not even close actually !

[MLGathome]

Haven't played SH3 for a long time, changed from computer and did not install it yet.
I started with GWX and did the manual targeting from the beginning.
The Fast 90 method, where you position yourself on 90 degrees from the target is, as John said, a good start.
Range does not matter with this method. Even if you want to fire a torpedo sooner you can correct easily.

Have a look at this: https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=169935

Happy hunting, Marcel