The new torp fuel effects...

[LoBlo]

Has anyone looked at the new torp fuel behavior in the 1.04 patch? I've done some initial testing to see what we can expect and the results are pretty promising.

Ran a quick comparison of Mk48's at 3 different speeds all fired at the same time to observe the effect at range. For testing purposes the fuel was set to 4 units (in the DWEdit database and max torp range = 2.7 nautical miles

Results
55 knot torp max range = 2.2 miles
45 knot torp max range = 2.7 miles (maximum range)
40 knot torp max range = 2.5 miles
35 knot torp max range = 2.3 miles

Speed vs range test (points where torp runs out fuel
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/1772/speedvrangeul7.jpg

Setting the hard cap ranges of the torps increased the torps ranges but not the relative range of the speed settings (i.e. the ranges were greater, but the percent of range lost at speed X were still there).

Basically all one has to do is set the torpedo max range and the max fuel and the engine will now modify the ranges based off the speed. (Seems like theorectically the fuel setting are probably a mute point and just the torp speed and max range are neccessary, the fuel settings seem redundant).

More testing is in order but if things work out as expected then it means that all the doctrine additions that LW&A have implemented to try to model torp speed v range are not neccesary because the engine seems to do the range reductions automatically now. Seems like 45 knots has been arbitrarily set for the optimal torp speed. :up:

Of course if a player doesn't want the ranger vs speed effects, all one has to do is keep the fuel settings in DWEdit at 0 and the speed vs range effects are ignored. Of note is that torps are just stopping, not shutting down (some doctrine changes would be neccessary to ensure that torps that reach a speed of 0 automatically shutdown).

More testing is needed, but a welcomed surprise from the SCS crew.:yep: (AFAIK, the aircraft speed vs range has not changed from previous patches).

[Bellman]

Confirmed with 1.04 (LWAMI 306):

Adcap at 55 kts. and 200 ft. 22 nm.
Adcap at 50 kts and 200 ft. 24 nm.
Adcap at 45 kts. and 500 ft. 27 nm.
Adcap at 40 kts. and 500 ft. 25.5 nm.

[Molon Labe]

For the 50-knot, 27nm torps (UGST, 65-76, "65cm"), the results are:

50 kts: 21.7nm
45 kts: 24.4nm
40 kts: 27nm

I didn't test 35, but it's safe to assume it goes down after that point.

For the 55-knot, 10nm torps ("53cm", 53-56K):
55 kts: 8
50: 9
45: 10
40: 9.3

So, peak efficiency is not necessarily 45 knots. It depends on the weapon's top speed. And it also looks like the peak is going to be 10 knots lower than topspeed, since we have the same result for both 55 and 50 knot torpedoes. (unless it's actually peaking at 9 or 11 or something like that)

Also, it would appear that the difference between range at top speed and range at peak speed is 20%.

----------
EDIT: More Data

USET-80
50kts: 8.0
45kts: 9.0
40kts: 10.0
35kts: 9.0

Mk46
45kts: 4.8
40kts: 5.4
35kts: 5.8

Mk54
50kts: 7.4
45kts: 8.2
40kts: 9.1

Mk50
55kts: 5.6
50kts: 6.3
45kts: 6.8

[LuftWolf]

Good work guys.

The curve is not as steep as I'm going to use for LWAMI 4.xx, but it's definately the correct shape now. Amizaur's data showed that torpedoes indeed do have a peak efficiency roughly 15-25% below max speed (although some, like the TEST fall outside of that with a max speed achieved at something like 26kts out of 40kts max speed), depending on the torpedo.

If the speed is set too slow, the engine becomes inefficient, and the weapons are typically not used at speeds slower than the peak efficiency speed for max range, I mean, not that I could imagine.

Cheers,
David