Targeting cargo ships?!

Edacyn · 04-11-25, 10:41 PM

Hi, first I apologize for the newbie question.

I just found silent hunter 3, and have it installed, and thoroughly enjoying it. My first sub game back in the day was GATO (if you're old enough to remember that).

Anyways, I'm enjoying learning the manual targeting of torpedos, and the link in the FAQ for manual targeting tutorial is 404.

How do I get the speed of cargo ships if I can't determine their mast height, nor enter it from the identification book?

Also, I'm having a difficult time of determining how to use the UI to get the speed. I get that I can click on the watch icon in the book, but do I need to let it run for 3 minutes and 15 seconds always? Just wondering, thank you.

Again, this is for manual targeting.

Hooston · 04-12-25, 06:05 AM

Congratulations in selecting manual targeting, it's twice the game with it on.

The "manual targeting" via the notepad makes a few assumptions about what your crew are doing for you in the background. It is described quite well in the game manual.
Real uboat commanders were not very good shots even with the whole crew helping them. The biggest factor was the difficulty in measuring range accurately, so attack methods were devised to make this largely unnecessary.
For more "realistic" methods, go look at Tonci87:

Raf1394 · 04-12-25, 06:41 AM

Manual targeting is nice indeed.
A good way to know the target speed. Is when you know the ships length.

For example. The ship you want to shoot at, has a length of 125m.
Make sure you are matched perfectly with the target ship. So you see the entire side of the ship. (Angle On Bow 90)

Something like this

Make sure your own boat is not moving. Point your periscope line in front of the ship. Start a stopwatch timer. Wait for the target ship to pass your periscope line completely. (Front to aft)

When the aft passed your periscope line. Stop your timer. and see how much you got. Lets say you got 43 seconds, then you calculate the formula.

You do the formula. The ships length (125) divided by the timer (43 sec) and multiply by 1,944. That would give you around 5.6 knots.

The formula is ( D / T ) * 1.944 = S

You got different ways to know the target speed. But i always use this haha. Its not bad to do a couple of speed checks. To be sure
The periscope needs to be kinda stable. Its a bit tricky to use the periscope line. if you have high waves or during a storm, when your boat is bouncing up and down

You can also use the UZO on the bridge. Attack periscope or Observation scope also work. You just need that vertical line.

Hooston · 04-12-25, 07:50 AM

Of course 1.944 is more or less 2! So double the length of the target and divide by the time it takes to traverse a fixed point. This is historically correct and I can do it in my head to the nearest knot. There are some mods with clever gadgets or tables to do the sum for you.
...unfortunately a real crew could not maintain periscope depth if the boat was stopped. Most people slow down and point the bow of the boat at the target before taking the reading or use a complicated correction table to compensate for their boat's movement.
...also wave action combined with the crew trying to steer a straight course would cause the periscope to swing side to side as well as up and down so it was necessary to get another crew member to manually stabilise the periscope in azimuth from a gyro reference when taking the measurement. The game does this for you!
...and it was unlikely you would know the target length. There were a LOT of merchant designs and modifications out there! Tonci87 has barred himself from using the manual for merchant ships and does it from experience.
So get close. Less than 1km means you only need to get within +/- 2 knots for a 100m ship.
If you fire when the gyro angle is about zero the range does not matter. That's easy!
Angle on bow is tricky. Most people do it by eye, and practice helps. If you know the target course there are attack disks in most GUI mods to calculate it for you, although I find it easier to do it in my head. Plotting target course on the map helps a lot, you can cheat by turning the map symbols on in the difficulty settings. The real TDC was locked to the submarine gyro as well as the periscope, so if you turned the boat the AoB would be corrected. Unfortunately the game one is a bit wonky and you have to manually update the AoB every time your boat turns.
With reasonable realism settings the game is stupidly difficult and you will get killed before the end of the war. Most of us have all the difficulty settings wound way up and we still do a lot better than real life Kaleuns. I strongly recommend installing a supermod, like the new GWX Knight's Cross or Fifi's NYGM Enhanced Hardcore which are both stand alone "download, unzip somewhere outside Program Files, select windows 7 compatibility and run".

Raf1394 · 04-12-25, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hooston

Of course 1.944 is more or less 2! So double the length of the target and divide by the time it takes to traverse a fixed point. This is historically correct and I can do it in my head to the nearest knot. There are some mods with clever gadgets or tables to do the sum for you.
...unfortunately a real crew could not maintain periscope depth if the boat was stopped. Most people slow down and point the bow of the boat at the target before taking the reading or use a complicated correction table to compensate for their boat's movement.
...also wave action combined with the crew trying to steer a straight course would cause the periscope to swing side to side as well as up and down so it was necessary to get another crew member to manually stabilise the periscope in azimuth from a gyro reference when taking the measurement. The game does this for you!
...and it was unlikely you would know the target length. There were a LOT of merchant designs and modifications out there! Tonci87 has barred himself from using the manual for merchant ships and does it from experience.
So get close. Less than 1km means you only need to get within +/- 2 knots for a 100m ship.
If you fire when the gyro angle is about zero the range does not matter. That's easy!
Angle on bow is tricky. Most people do it by eye, and practice helps. If you know the target course there are attack disks in most GUI mods to calculate it for you, although I find it easier to do it in my head. Plotting target course on the map helps a lot, you can cheat by turning the map symbols on in the difficulty settings. The real TDC was locked to the submarine gyro as well as the periscope, so if you turned the boat the AoB would be corrected. Unfortunately the game one is a bit wonky and you have to manually update the AoB every time your boat turns.
With reasonable realism settings the game is stupidly difficult and you will get killed before the end of the war. Most of us have all the difficulty settings wound way up and we still do a lot better than real life Kaleuns. I strongly recommend installing a supermod, like the new GWX Knight's Cross or Fifi's NYGM Enhanced Hardcore which are both stand alone "download, unzip somewhere outside Program Files, select windows 7 compatibility and run".

Yep agree. I'm a big fan of any hardcore mode. But you need to have patient haha

Aktungbby · 04-12-25, 11:20 AM

Edacyn!

Hooston · 04-12-25, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raf1394

I'm a big fan of any hardcore mode.

Agreed, but I'm not really a great fan of the term "realism". While I love the game there's lots wrong with it at all difficulty levels. In real life the Kaleun would make use of his crew for plotting, operating the TDC, calculations and so forth. The problem is the SH3 AI is absolutely perfect at these tasks and the game becomes just "point the scope and shoot". So you end up doing it all yourself, which isn't really right either!
I would like to be in the position where if I wanted I could be like Mush Morton and say "Carry on, Wachoffizier", then have the crew do the whole attack (quite badly) while I concentrate on looking suitably rugged. I had hopes that the game Uboat would be like that but instead it appears I have to decide what to have for dinner and tell the crew when it is their bedtime!

04-11-25, 10:41 PM	#1
Edacyn Nub Join Date: Apr 2025 Posts: 2 Downloads: 1 Uploads: 0	Targeting cargo ships?! Hi, first I apologize for the newbie question. I just found silent hunter 3, and have it installed, and thoroughly enjoying it. My first sub game back in the day was GATO (if you're old enough to remember that). Anyways, I'm enjoying learning the manual targeting of torpedos, and the link in the FAQ for manual targeting tutorial is 404. How do I get the speed of cargo ships if I can't determine their mast height, nor enter it from the identification book? Also, I'm having a difficult time of determining how to use the UI to get the speed. I get that I can click on the watch icon in the book, but do I need to let it run for 3 minutes and 15 seconds always? Just wondering, thank you. Again, this is for manual targeting.

04-12-25, 06:05 AM	#2
Hooston 中国水兵 Join Date: Jun 2020 Posts: 274 Downloads: 16 Uploads: 0	Doing things the hard way, or the harder way Congratulations in selecting manual targeting, it's twice the game with it on. The "manual targeting" via the notepad makes a few assumptions about what your crew are doing for you in the background. It is described quite well in the game manual. Real uboat commanders were not very good shots even with the whole crew helping them. The biggest factor was the difficulty in measuring range accurately, so attack methods were devised to make this largely unnecessary. For more "realistic" methods, go look at Tonci87:

04-12-25, 06:41 AM	#3
Raf1394 Commander Join Date: Sep 2024 Location: Europe Posts: 442 Downloads: 3 Uploads: 0	Manual targeting is nice indeed. A good way to know the target speed. Is when you know the ships length. For example. The ship you want to shoot at, has a length of 125m. Make sure you are matched perfectly with the target ship. So you see the entire side of the ship. (Angle On Bow 90) Something like this Make sure your own boat is not moving. Point your periscope line in front of the ship. Start a stopwatch timer. Wait for the target ship to pass your periscope line completely. (Front to aft) When the aft passed your periscope line. Stop your timer. and see how much you got. Lets say you got 43 seconds, then you calculate the formula. You do the formula. The ships length (125) divided by the timer (43 sec) and multiply by 1,944. That would give you around 5.6 knots. The formula is ( D / T ) * 1.944 = S You got different ways to know the target speed. But i always use this haha. Its not bad to do a couple of speed checks. To be sure The periscope needs to be kinda stable. Its a bit tricky to use the periscope line. if you have high waves or during a storm, when your boat is bouncing up and down You can also use the UZO on the bridge. Attack periscope or Observation scope also work. You just need that vertical line. Last edited by Raf1394; 04-12-25 at 06:56 AM.

04-12-25, 07:50 AM	#4
Hooston 中国水兵 Join Date: Jun 2020 Posts: 274 Downloads: 16 Uploads: 0	Life was complicated Of course 1.944 is more or less 2! So double the length of the target and divide by the time it takes to traverse a fixed point. This is historically correct and I can do it in my head to the nearest knot. There are some mods with clever gadgets or tables to do the sum for you. ...unfortunately a real crew could not maintain periscope depth if the boat was stopped. Most people slow down and point the bow of the boat at the target before taking the reading or use a complicated correction table to compensate for their boat's movement. ...also wave action combined with the crew trying to steer a straight course would cause the periscope to swing side to side as well as up and down so it was necessary to get another crew member to manually stabilise the periscope in azimuth from a gyro reference when taking the measurement. The game does this for you! ...and it was unlikely you would know the target length. There were a LOT of merchant designs and modifications out there! Tonci87 has barred himself from using the manual for merchant ships and does it from experience. So get close. Less than 1km means you only need to get within +/- 2 knots for a 100m ship. If you fire when the gyro angle is about zero the range does not matter. That's easy! Angle on bow is tricky. Most people do it by eye, and practice helps. If you know the target course there are attack disks in most GUI mods to calculate it for you, although I find it easier to do it in my head. Plotting target course on the map helps a lot, you can cheat by turning the map symbols on in the difficulty settings. The real TDC was locked to the submarine gyro as well as the periscope, so if you turned the boat the AoB would be corrected. Unfortunately the game one is a bit wonky and you have to manually update the AoB every time your boat turns. With reasonable realism settings the game is stupidly difficult and you will get killed before the end of the war. Most of us have all the difficulty settings wound way up and we still do a lot better than real life Kaleuns. I strongly recommend installing a supermod, like the new GWX Knight's Cross or Fifi's NYGM Enhanced Hardcore which are both stand alone "download, unzip somewhere outside Program Files, select windows 7 compatibility and run".

04-12-25, 11:20 AM	#6
Aktungbby Gefallen Engel U-666 Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: On a tilted, overheated, overpopulated spinning mudball on Collision course with Andromeda Galaxy Posts: 29,976 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	welcome aboard! Edacyn! __________________ "Only two things are infinite; The Universe and human squirrelyness?!!