Unable to lock on Target--

[Markr789]

A problem others seem to have also. From what I gather you only need to left click on the target to lock. That's not working for me and all of my torpedoes miss wildly although I have a perfect 90% set up. I'm coming to UBOAT from Silent Hunter so I know how to set up a shot, Starboard, Port, about 1200 Mts out, etc. They still go either wild right or wild left. Have to say that this is a great game, but extremely poorly documented. Everything I can pick up about manual targeting I get from YouTube vids, most of which are years old. The tutorial's useless in this regard. Any help would be appreciated.

[Mouse Rat]

Originally posted by Markr789:

That's not working for me and all of my torpedoes miss wildly although I have a perfect 90% set up. I'm coming to UBOAT from Silent Hunter so I know how to set up a shot, Starboard, Port, about 1200 Mts out, etc. They still go either wild right or wild left.

Firstly you need to get comfortable with the main TDC interface and TDC boxes.
You can take a little bit of time to understand what each of the dials are.
AOB, SPEED, BEARING etc.
Then the boxes, which does what.(the second tab in the TDC interface, using the small icons on the left)

Then you want to take out as many of the error inducing measurements, you do that by having a solid ambush spot.
As you said 90° either side , perpendicular , within 1km is perfect.
Then the only big error maker will be the speed.

I use the 3mins15seconds method of gathering the speed data.
That coupled with the precise location of the enemy.

This can be gained in a few different ways, if you have contact on just drop a map marker on it wait 3min15s drop another one.
Or if you use the intercept tool on zero speed.
Or actually doing some work with the optics, for that you need how many miliradians is the mast of the ship in the periscope, and do quick maffs.
(mast* K) / miliradians = distance(m)

Id start with having contacts on map, makes everything simpler.
The distance between points takes on 3.15 is the kn speed.
500m is 5kn , 732m is 7.3kn

Then we set up on this "intercept"point between your course and the enemy course.
Introduce all the relevant measurements into the tdc.

Firstly you need to unlink the TDC from the optics in the first box in the box tab, then the lever on the right in the main tab.
Make sure it's both.

Then set up bearing to 0° by mousing over the bearing dial.
Set up speed.
Then set up AOB to 90 either left or right as the enemy moves.
Distance doesn't matter as much in this context, if you are within 1km you can set it up on 800m and forget about it.

And you are set.
Now important bit.. you need to maintain the perpendicular course, so switch between forward 1 and reverse 1.
As long as the sub is within 1km-ish of the intercept point the actual distance doesn't matter so you can freely switch between them.

What is happening is you are building a torpedo solution for the intercept point.

What you need now is wait for the ship to pass bearing 0°.
Open the torpedo interface from the optic, and flood one of them.
Look through the optic, when middle ship is on 0° shoot.

Now i don't have a periscope kill video for this description, but i have a hydro only one.
The TDC method described above is shown in this video.

The only difference is i don't use the periscope to find out the speed of the enemy or to figure out when to shoot.
I do shoot when the middle of the ship is on 0° but i use hydrophone to figure when that is.

The rest is basically the exact same, for the purpose of TDC solution and kill.
TDC setup starts from 22min

https://youtu.be/KDmdpZHpDjw

[Sevrun]

You're saying two separate things. "Please help me." immediately followed by "I know what I'm doing."

I am confused.

P.S. This isn't Silent Hunter. For better or worse.

[Markr789]

I'm saying that I know the principles involved but I have a hard time figuring out how to apply them with U-Boat, e.g, I know what the TDC is for and how to use it from Silent Hunter, but it's not self evident how to apply that knowledge with UBoat's interface. The tutorial's torpedo mission is just for "autopilot" attacks, and locking on target with the periscope is a good example. I don't think the periscope or manual targeting even come into play during the entire Torpedo tutorial mission, so I'm winging it. What I discovered (not in the tutorial but by Googling it) is that if you have hardcore aiming enabled, the crew doesn't do anything with the TDC input it's given even though you're giving them the right input. This might be my problem, or at least a big part of it. I'll try again without hardcore aiming enabled when I get a chance.

I can understand being defensive of a great game, which UBoat is, but I said nothing offensive. As with many great games, the tutorial is sub-PAR. Figuring things out via YouTube vids is made harder by the frequent changes made by the Devs. What applied in 2019 doesn't apply anymore. There should be documentation/a Manual that comes with the game or a site that provides basic info. As far as I can see, there is none.