**** useless torpedoes!!! | Forums

[Madd__Matt]

My **** torps (G7a and G7e) keep missing my targets, I know i am not any where near the best player of this sim but FFS I wish I didn't have so many duds! I'm on 67% reality and it took 4 torps to hit a T3 1 premature, 2 missed and 1 hit but didn't sink it . I've looked at this forum for answers and have found a few, try to get pependicular fire situations on ships(90 degrees from their course,is that right???) use contact torps in early part of war( I'm in Dec 1940), only use magnetic in calm seas, set magnetics 1-2 Metres under keel.

But they still seem to miss a lot.

Is this article correct:-
In December 1942, well into the war, a new, improved magnetic pistol was introduced which also functioned on contact. It proved very efficient. Until then, writes Dönitz, "the effectiveness of our torpedoes was no greater than it had been during the First World War"

If so I've got a long, sometimes frustrating way to go.

But aside from the game freezes and erratic torps I SO LOVE THIS GAME!! It reminds me of Silent Service and Red Storm Rising on the C64 Brilliant! Thanks UBI, now get all the bugs fixed and it will be Supreme

[Baldricks_Mate]

I'm no expert but after locking onto a target it takes about 10 or so seconds before you can fire accurately, something about the time needed for the settings to be transferred to the torpedo (Historical Realism). Lock and shoot does not work well unless its the last way out from under a dozen DD's. I read that somewhere in all the millions of posts or game docs.

Also stuff the magnetics early on, set the torps in the TDC manually for 2 or so metres; not too deep. In a rolling sea the ship may be heaved by a wave above your fish. The U Boat standing orders early on were to set depth to zero until the problem was fixed, although I may be wrong. Try a zero depth but in bright daylight the steam torps are very visible to the ships.

The rest about being at 90 degrees to the target is reasonably important but not crucial. When you get to figure it out an acute attack angle has its uses.

Also the length of the greenbar over the top of the crew compartment is an indication of efficiency/skill of the crew in the compartment. More is better.

Lastly the boo boo I make from time to time is don't forget to click the "underwater attack" or the compartment may only be manned by a sulking mute & deaf ex-sonar man who couldn't find the head let alone the torpedo to bang it out the pointy end. Heck, he can't find his own pointy end. He was neutered by UBI.

Lastly, keep at it but play around a bit. If what you are doing doesn't work, try it a totally different way. Just throw out what you know or think you know and go silly for a bit. I think it resets the paradigm computer (grey matter). If nothing else you might get a laugh.

Good Hunting

[The Avon Lady]

Originally posted by Baldricks_Mate:
I'm no expert but after locking onto a target it takes about 10 or so seconds before you can fire accurately

Search The Community Manual for "doors".

[Baldricks_Mate]

Fair enough. I tried snap shots with doors open and they generally don't work well.

[MikeJW]

I always use T-Is and set them to fast. Slower speeds seem to miss more. Always open the torpedo door (Q) and remember if you switch tubes in TDC the door you had open shuts. I can make snapshots no problem as long as doors are open and crew efficiency has no bearing on accuracy. Closer is better so I try to get within 1500 meters at the farthest. I never use contact fuses even early on so I dont have to worry about being close to 90 degrees. Its best to set mag fuses 1 meter under keel and in heavy seas make a magnetic shot real close so the seas wont pre mature detonate the eel.

[The Avon Lady]

Always open the torpedo door (Q) and remember if you switch tubes in TDC the door you had open shuts.

If you go into the conning tower or right click on your WO, you can look up and see all the tube door switch and click them all open in advance. Much better than the Q key.

[PsychoSY]

I hardly ever miss my targets anymore what you should do is make sure you have manual targeting and practise in the "Convoy Attack" tutorial and try diferent methods.

My method is i put a rough solution into the TDC and fine tune with the attack map, you can get the exact position on this map if you change the speed of the target ship to 0 and you have the distances correct it will point exactly to it. Verify it with the hydrophone, then depending on how far away the target is go back to manual(with the speed of ship) and count until the estimated time of impact. Click back to auto (with 0 speed) if it doesnt seem to move you have a good firing soultion. If you have map updates on its alot more accurate.

opening the torpedo doors prematurely can get you spotted and they start weaving it makes the job 10 times harder.

And make sure your not using the gas powered torpedos they see the trail and youll have to allow for a increase in speed whilst the torpedo is in the water.

Hands on targeting is ALOT!! more accurate but their are other methods. On my last patrol i killed 5 ships with torpedos and never missed their was a bit of luck involved.