torpedos & solutions

[Shub]

Shub i wish that was true but it tends to happen more often on close ranges (TI 300 to 500) i had 3 "earlies" on the row which even on ranges beyond 2500 havent seen that happening

At 300 meters the sub is too close in my opinion, the torpedo often does not explode or just does not arm, T-I and T-III arm after 300 m, Steinbutt after 400 m. I think firing 500 m away from the ship is really too close either.

On the 1000-2000 m range I have the "right", let's say, amount of earlies/dud, but on the 4500-3000 m range, duds are more common, in my experience.

[Stiletto]

CaptainRogue: Excellent input! Thank-you for taking the time to post that. :-)

[Stiletto]

xXKretschmereXx: I've never seen a "green gyro lock". Where is it displayed and how to I get my Officer to do that for me? Thx! btw, I am a Newbie

[Kaleun_Prien]

Your weapon officer at first has to calculate the topedo solution (mouse over wp-officer to give him that order). The green triangle is shown in the periscope. Normally when the course fom your target comes to -+ 30 angular degree. Often it doesn´t switch to green but you can fire anyway.

[CaptainRogue]

I just thought I would come back and revisit this thread again now that I have been playing for a few months.

As I was suspecting when I first began using magnetic settings on the torpedoes, I did become just as accurate on the longer shots with the mags as I had been with impacts once I got into the groove of using them. I use mags almost exclusively now with the exception of head on shots on a charging escort at 600 - 800 meters in which case I use impact set at 2 m shallower than target's draft.. That seems to be much more consistent than mags in that situation.

The Weapons Officers do vary in accuracy. However some of their accuracy issues can be improved upon with better trained crews.

There is one tendency that some Weapons Officers have and some do not. That tendency is to miss across the bow of the target.

I have observed that those particular misses come from the alignment triangle in the scope being slightly forward of the crosshair in the scope.

It appears that the Weapons Officer is actually controlling scope alignment unless I manually adjust it myself.

If you notice on a close shot that the triangle is not actually sitting directly over the true amidships of the target but somewhat forward of true amidships.

A good Weapons Officer will be sitting center or aft of center of the triangle in the crosshair when he submits his solution. At close range you most likely will not have a miss due to this but get outside 2000 meters and it could very easily become a problem.

The main reason is due to the speed of the torpedo.

The T 1 torpedoes are actually slightly faster than the 40 or 30 knot speed that they are designated to be....this is especially true with the 30 knot setting.

This issue is amplified by the triangle sitting slightly forward of amidships above the targets.

Multiply this speed difference and sighting location by an increased distance and you get a miss that could easily look as if it went under the target when it actually went slightly in front of the target and as I mentioned, this is even more likely on the 30 knot setting.

I believe this causes many players to assume that it was a dud when it really was a miss. The weapons officer will tell you, most of the time if it was a dud (did not explode on impact) or you missed underneath if it was an accurate shot.

This leads to my second point.

Most players seem to want to be right on top of the target....1000 meters or less.

This will definitely increase the misfires and failure to explode issues due to arming distances required for the torpedoes.

With the server having disconnect issues on a regular basis and people losing boats due to collisions because of these ill-timed "Roxanne" moments, It would be advisable to train yourselves to fire at distances greater than 1000 meters.

There is absolutely no reason a level 18 or above Captain with a level 1 Weapons Officer should not be able to hit a target from 2500 meters from a 90 degree approach angle with a 25 degree angle on the bow...especially if you apply these principles in order to fine tune your shots.

Aim small, miss small.

The 30 knot setting takes a little more practice than does the 40 knot setting. However if you count 1, 2,3 fire after the Weapons Officer gives you the solution you should be able to master hitting at 4000 meters on a regular basis on the 30 knot setting with a 90 degree approach.

I often take my first shot on the 30 knot setting so I can hit multiple targets simultaneously and it gives my crew more time to reload the first tube therefore giving me a shot at an extra target before the convoy has an opportunity to react and change course....especially since I shoot the targets far away first and the closest ones last.

Another advantage to the 30 knot setting is that you can fire on large targets like tankers and large warships a single shot at 30 and calculate and fire a second shot at 40 and you will get hits extremely close together in a tighter spread than a salvo shot, thus increasing the amount of damage.

This works particularly well on large warships because you can fire a 2 shot salvo at 30 and immediately follow it with a 2 shot salvo at 40 and have the first tube reloaded and ready to fire a 5th torpedo in her if needed before the escorts have time to react to your location.

In a Type II sub you can easily fire all 5 torpedoes, sink at least 2 merchants and skip back to the bunker to reload before the escorts break formation.

I strongly suggest setting up your approaches at 90 degrees with your most distant targets at 3000 m at a 25 degree angle on the bow. This will put your closest row of targets at approximately 1000 meters or less. On the tighter formed convoys this could possibly give you the opportunity to sink 3 targets on the front row before they know what hit them.

OK, I hope this helps and I especially hope it alleviates the pain of losing a boat due to server issues and having to go 2 weeks in an Aux when you could/should be in your pimped out new/favorite boat with the crew that you painstakenly trained over weeks and possibly even months of missions.

Cheers Mates.