The crewman operating the TDC can be referred to as the TDC Operator and the player providing the data for the TDC the Weapon Officer. This guide will make references to these roles with the titles mentioned.

can really be any member of the boat, but commonly & recommended the the most idle member of the group (even the Captain can operate the TDC). In situation where everyone is busy, the Helmsman can be the TDC Operator as the Helmsman have a secondary helm station next to the TDC and can multi-task.

is who ever is providing the data for the TDC Operator. On most boats this is the Captain but the Captain can also delegate this to members of their crew. It often happens to be delegated to the Navigator. The TDC Operator should be prepared that data can come from other voices than only the Captain.

IMPORTANT NOTE
No role assignment is permanent and it can change from situation to situation. Sometimes situations requires all crewmembers to be flexible and ready to assist as the TDC Operator.

When you are the TDC Operator, communication is the most important aspect! Failure to properly communicate can result in players not being allowed on the TDC ever again. This is because there is a great degree of trust a Weapon Officer have to give to the TDC Operator that they do their job to perfection. If the TDC Operator sets wrong data the player will break this trust so it is of utmost importance that when you find yourself as the TDC Operator, that you have no distractions around you and that you pay all the attention to the Weapon Officers instructions and communicate back!

When the Weapon Officer issues instructions/orders they need to have a way to know the data they just said came through properly when speaking through their mic, that no PTT, VOIP or even speech related issues made the TDC Operator unable to hear the instructions clearly. The solution to this is if the TDC Operator follow the principal of "Repeat Back & Report Back".

TDC Operators must repeat all orders/instructions given to them while operating the TDC. This is to avoid VOIP, PTT & speech related miscommunication from the Weapon Officer but also prevent other reason the TDC Operator can set wrong data such as: any mishearing due to sound volume, background noise or language barriers. These are only a few problems that can cost the Weapon Officer their entire attack.

TDC Operators should repeat back as they hear the order and AS SOON AS THEY HEARD IT! Do not wait until you set the data, as this can make the Weapon Officer think you did not hear the instructions at all!

The TDC Operator and the Weapon Officer is a team but you as a TDC Operator can only control how well you do your job. DO NOT be the type of TDC Operator who constantly ask, "Repeat" because you are not paying enough attention. Of course if the Weapon Officer instructions isn't provided in a clear enough manner, you have legitimacy to ask for repetition but prevent yourself for being the cause of why you did not hear the order the first time. When you are the TDC Operator focus on the job at hand.

Just because you as a TDC Operator have repeated an instruction does not mean that you had enough time to set the data into the TDC. Of course the faster you can set the data the more of an asset you will become as a TDC operator. In order for the Weapon Officer to trust that you have used the proper amount of time to set your data, you need to communicate when this data is "Set". This can be done by simply saying the word "Set" after you repeated back the instruction and you successfully inputted the data. If you receive multiple data the same time it can be good if you specify which data that was set, by repeating that data too.

Examples
The TDC Operator repeats back the instruction as soon as they hear the instructions and is fast enough to set the data while they are repeating thus saying set in the same sentence.
The TDC Operator repeats back the instruction as soon as they hear the instructions but is not fast enough to set the data while they are repeating therefor remains silent until the data is set, and then the TDC operator says "Set" in the end.
The TDC Operator repeats back the instruction as soon as they hear the instructions but is not fast enough to set the data while they are repeating therefor remains silent until all the data is set, and then the TDC operator says "Set" for each individual instruction.

IMPORTANT NOTE
Every Weapon Officer is different and can develop their own style of communication that will work better for them, so be prepared to adapt to each and every situation and player in the role of Weapon Officer. Not all situations are the same either and will require you to respect the conditions of it and be flexible and adaptable too, the goal is to help the Weapon Officer to allow them to conduct the attack as they please.

The Torpedo Data Computer is located up in the conning tower.

WATCH TUTORIAL ON

To change data for the TDC you can Click and hold LMB and then move your mouse around. If you hold Shift you can make your mouse movements more subtle.

The Angle on bow "AOB" is dependent on the Bearing the TDC is pointing towards. When the TDC Angle Tracker is turned ON (Slaved to any of the following optics: "UZO", "O.P" or "A.P") the Bearing indicator will follow the direction the selected optic is looking at. When the Angle Tracker is set to OFF mode, the Bearing needle itself can be manually set by the TDC Operator to the desired bearing of the Weapon Officer. This is quite uncommon and most of the times the Attack Periscope "A.P" is the preferred tracked optic by many Weapon Officers.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When you hover the mouse over the Bearing indicator, the game calls it "Heading". This is incorrect and probably a bug.

Before the Angle on Bow is set on the TDC, the Angle Tracker needs to be properly set first before the AOB is set. If the AOB is specified first and there after the tracker is set the TDC will not be configured right and the Weapon Officer risk missing their targets.

If you hear the Weapon Officer say their instructions like this:
then they most likely mean to say it in reverse order. If uncertain, then ask.

WATCH TUTORIAL ON

The Angle on Bow can be set with a value from 0 to 180 and a Left/Port/Red or Right/Starboard/Green side need to be specified too. Once the value is set the Weapon Officer might move their optic and this will cause the AOB gauge to move, this is normal and no correction should be preformed as the TDC is working as intended.

WATCH TUTORIAL ON PART 1
WATCH TUTORIAL ON PART 2

When setting a target speed that contains a decimal, the TDC Operator have to use their own eyes to estimate the needles position to best point at the desired speed. It is not uncommon that from person to person a discrepancy of 0.1 is existing. However in order to make sure it is as accurate as it can, pan your camera so the gauge is in the center of your screen (so you can avoid "parallax" related issues) then you can set the decimals according to following positions of this animated image.

As a rule of thumb:

• .1 and .9 is half on the white line and half off it.
  
• .2 and .8 is just off the white line but with no gap
  
• .3 and .7 is off the white line and with a tiny space between the white line and the needle
  
• .4 and .6 is just a like .5 but slightly offset
  
• .5 is 50% the distance between two lines

When setting Range further than 30 hm, the TDC Operator have to estimate the position the needle should point towards in between the numbers of 40 - 45 - 50 etc. This can be hard and an incorrect position of the range needle can result in a incorrect Time of Impact. When playing multi-boat cooperative lobbies, errors to the Time to Impact can result in torpedoes that are not hitting at agreed times (Time of Impact "TOI")

The gap between every line should be subdivided with 4 lines closely to the image demonstrated to the right.

The measurement unit that range is set in is in Hectometer "hm". While it is recommended the Weapon Officer states the range desired in hectometers, this might not always be the case and a TDC Operator might have to convert the heard range into "hm" before setting it.

If a range is specified without unit, one could assume it is in "hm". If uncertain you can then ask the Weapon Officer to clarify if they stated their range in "hm" or something else.
WATCH TUTORIAL ON

The torpedo depth is set based on the keel depth "Draught" and the trigger type of the torpedo.

Impact Trigger
Torpedo depth is expected to be set shallower than the keel.
Magnetic Trigger
Torpedo depth is expected to be set deeper than the keel.

Forward Torpedo Tubes
Aft Torpedo Tubes
Salvo Shot

When the Weapon Officer have fired a torpedo it is a common practice to already on your own choose a new tube (try to select a tube you think the Weapon Officer wants.). When changing tube do also report what the tube contains. So if the Weapon Officer is not content with your choice they can change it by letting you know. This allows for more smoother communication and cooperation between the Weapon Officer and the TDC Operator.

The solution light will remain OFF if the solution is acceptable. If the solution is invalid, the Solution light will turn on and shine red. The TDC will also deny any launch when the light is lit.

If this light is ON and the Range, AOB and Target Speed is all set with valid data, inform the Weapon Officer of this.

WATCH TUTORIAL ON

If you are unable to clearly see when the the solution light turns ON or is OFF, try turning on "Bloom" in your graphics settings.
WATCH TUTORIAL ON

The time to impact "TTI" is the time it takes for a torpedo to reach it's target. The dial that affects this time the most is the range to the target.

When the TDC have the Range, Target Speed and AOB set, the TTI will be relevant to inform the Weapon Officer of.

If the TTI does not change even though the data is changed, the Solution Light is probably ON. This is most likely due to that the range is too far.

The impact angle is the angle the torpedo will approach the targets hull with. This angle is very important when firing impact torpedoes when using the difficulty settings of "Torpedo trigger depends on angle". Even if the setting is off, the Impact Angle could potentially still affect some aspects of the attack.

When running with "Torpedo trigger depends on angle", when you report the TTI to the Weapon Officer, you should then also report the Impact Angle.

In general, the Impact Angle is best to have around 90 degrees for many different reasons.

Every Weapon Officer have done this or will eventually do this... launch a torpedo accidentally. This can be quite frustrating and in muli-boat games this can be devastating for the teamwork and coordination between boats. The creative minds of the gamers of wolfpack have figured out that the TDC can be placed in a "Safe" mode.

The TDC will deny all torpedo launches if the Solution Light is ON. We can induce this by dialing up the range to 100 hm (This only works for when a TII or a TI with speed 40 or 44 kts is selected). This will deny a launch as those torpedoes can not reach the range of 100 hm as the maximum range is 8000 m when using TI 40 kts. If one is however using the 30 kts TI then this trick will not work.

When the TDC is not in use, ANYONE who realizes the TDC is "Hot"/"Armed" can turn the range up to 100 hm. When this is done, verbalize this clearly to the Captain and crew that the "TDC is Safe".

After an attack is done, the TDC should also be set to "Safe". Always communicate when setting it to safe.

WATCH TUTORIAL ON

If you click on the panel labeled "Torpedo Status" you will open up the Torpedo Management UI. From here you can:

• Reload/Unload Torpedoes
  
• Change Torpedo Trigger Type (Only on reserve torpedoes)
  
• Change Torpedo Speed (Only on reserve torpedoes)
  
• View Torpedo Load/Unload Progress
  
• View layout the configuration of torpedoes

The Torpedo Status Panel shows an analog Torpedo Counter. This is the total amount of torpedoes available both loaded in tubes and as reserves.

To load or unload a torpedo you simply drag and drop a torpedo with your LMB.

You can cancel the process by pressing the X but the torpedo will have to use the same amount of time it was using to load it so far to unload it.

The Forward compartment can only reload one torpedo at the time but it will not affect any reload operation going on in the aft compartment.

You can queue up multiple reloads after another.

Depending on what lobby setting the host have decided on, reload times can differ significantly. You can see the progress of the reload by the grey loading bar that appears on a torpedo when in progress to reload/unload.

Regular Reloading time:
Regular reloading time is 3 min per torpedo per compartment. So a full forward compartment will take a total of 12 mins.

Realistic Reloading Time:
Realistic reloading time is 15 min per torpedo per compartment. So a full forward compartment will take a total of 1 hour.

In the start of every game, memorize what torpedo is loaded in which tube and how they are configured with speed and triggers.

Don't wait for the Weapon Officer to tell you to begin loading. Try to load as they had their torpedoes loaded from the start. If you feel uncertain, then ask.

Report when a tube have been reloaded.

WATCH TUTORIAL ON

There can be many reasons why a Weapon Officer chooses to engage their target(s) with a salvo. When they want to do that you as a TDC Operator needs to know how to set up the TDC right so it will launch the correct torpedoes.


No Solution
If the Solution Light is lit. then see the chapter about the Solution Light. Common errors is: Missing torpedo in salvo configuration, mixed torpedo speeds or types.

No Salvo Configuration for "I II" and "III IV"
There is no way to fire a salvo with tubes 1 + 2 or tubes 3 + 4. This is something the Weapon Officer needs to think about when setting up their loadout. Do remind them of this if situation requires.

The Length dial is only used when firing torpedo salvos and together with the range dial will affect the spread angle.

If the Weapon Officer is not shooting in salvo mode, the length setting does nothing to the TDC and you do not need to worry about it having to be set.



WATCH TUTORIAL ON

A "Down the throat" attack is a attack that will take advantage of the target coming directly towards the U-boat and the Weapon Officer commands the boat to turn so that the torpedo do not have to turn when leaving the tube. This attack allows the Weapon Officer to fool the TDC to shoot even when the Weapon Officer does not have all data that is needed.

1. Set Target speed to 0 kts
   
2. Set Torpedo Depth to 2 m (unless otherwise specified)
   
3. Set Range to ~40 hm

NOTE: AOB does not have any affect on the solution.

I can not overstate the importance of the trust a TDC Operator must gain from a Weapon Officer. The Weapon Officer can not realistic watch every step a TDC Operator does and thus you should not give them any reason to doubt your precision while never sacrifice your integrity, if you make a mistake you must be honest about it. If you are not you might not be chosen to be on the TDC as you will be considered as unreliable.
The Weapon Officer can not effectively evaluate their own performance if the TDC Operator is the one messing up and then on top of that not even admitting their mistakes.

Don't fear imperfection, no one can become better at something if they never try and practice it. Just follow these recommendations: be honest of your inexperience, be honest when you do make mistakes, communicate as instructed in this guide, do what you think the Weapon Officer wants you to do and do not allow distractions when on the TDC.

A while back I had the honor of lending my voice and knowledge to Onkel Neal, the owner of SUBSIM. He was working on a massive project to publish many YouTube video tutorials and invited players from the community to voice these tutorials. They can all be found here: Wolfpack Academy Playlist. The video I took part in was the Advanced TDC Operations Training and it has much of the info that you can also find in this guide.

I can not say my voice performance was at the level that many of the other talents which Neal found but I am happy to have had the opportunity even though I mislabeled the TTI as "Time of impact" instead of "Time to impact"; for those who are more veteran to the community, you will know what I mean.

If you watch his video, leave a comment and say "Fox recommended me this video", I think that Neal will be happy to see some traffic to his videos he worked so hard for.

Other Guides By Fox

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2553649456
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2870513651
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2842875340
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2595952369
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2568475031
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2871279241
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2994179687

Other Guides By other authors