[REQ] 6 torpedoes for 1 medium merchant ship? Any way to fix this?

[nx02nx02]

I was wondering if there is any way to edit the game so that it doesn't take so many torpedoes to sink a ship. It takes me 5 or 6 direct impact good hits to sink a small ship I cant imagine what the bigger ones will take.

My sub really doesn't even hold enough torpedoes to really do much. Then you have misses and duds.

I would like to edit the game so 1 torpedo will sink any small ship. Is that possible?

[Onkel Neal]

When you are playing, do you have dud torpedoes option turned on?

[nx02nx02]

1941. I did have dud torpedoes but they did detonate. I think it's just the medium merchant ships that are so hard to take down.

I did sink a battleship with 2 hits so The best thing is probably to avoid the medium merchant ships.

[Reyern]

Mediums? I heard the japs used them only for cork transports to their Sake distilleries.

[Gildor]

Maybe you just need to be paitent and let the ship flood and sink. Not all ships go boom and sink right away. Give it time.

[nx02nx02]

Nah its not that. I waited hours for it to sink. I think what it is is just the medium merchant ships are very hard to sink. Some ships seem to sink with one or two torpedoes but the medium merchants are very tough.

Alot of times in a convoy they are the most tonnage targets that's why I was targeting them but I am going to rethink which ships to sink.
I probably will just leave those ones alone. It's just the medium merchants.

[Sailor Steve]

That's interesting, because in SH3 the C-2 (medium) merchants were also much harder to put down than even the big (C-3) cargoes.

[CCIP]

I had no problem putting these guys down. I think this might be an exception, in which case it's probably fine to have a case like that every once in a while (maybe he carried cork! :p )

[walsh2509]

Sub school, I used free camera to look at the damage my torps did as they it, massive holes are ripped out of ships.

I fired 3 into a Large Modern Composite Freighter ALL hits no duds, unless dud also fling up water plumes. 1 hits midships and the other 2 aft of the 1st, slow sinking no!

The other in the convoy same type as above 2 torps "hits" into midship and aft of 1st hit, it sailed on. I got 800 meters behind her and my bow to her stern, my 0 on her 180 I hit her with another torp and up went the water plume as the torp exploded in her stern.

She started to turn, I thought I've either took her props out or damaged her rudders, after 10mins of turns she is back on course. I line up the same shot again and like the 1stern shot I hit her again, again she turns , fire and smoke on the deck above her stern. After about 10min of turns she is back on course with the rest of the convoy , smoke and flames. On she and the other I hit, sailed into the distance as the convoy disappeared from view.

Now if its slow sinking, then as time went by the sinking icons would have come up on my Nav map, they didn't. Unless you have to see ships go down to get the kill??

All my torps exploded and flung up water plumes as they hit these ships, there is something wrong when 3 torp in the side of a ship does even seem to slow them down.

If as you say they are sinking but its very slow, then why when they sink "out of my sight" I don't see the sinking markers on the map and don't get the kill?

[OneTinSoldier]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you have to be within visual range to get credit. For instance, in SH3 this meant being within 7.5-8.0 km or so, just under the 8 km view distance.

[Iron Budokan]

Mediums? I heard the japs used them only for cork transports to their Sake distilleries.


And if I remember correctly they were also historically used to transport ping pong balls and balsa wood tables to the Japanese troops.

[Morts]

hmmm...will the ships actually sink from flodding or will you have to keep pumping torps into them untill they sink from loss of "HP"?:hmm:

[cmdrk]

I haven't stepped off the dock yet. My sub is still on the ways.

Question - where the water plumes as high as a normal torpedo detonation?

Just wonder because sub skippers could see the topedo hit with a fair size spout of water, being the air flask exploded. That would be extreme detail to simulate duds.

[navec]

I have also noticed that it is taking a ridiculously large amount of torps to sink most merchant ships (in comparison to sh3). I turned off duds so I could test out the game. Convoys seemed pretty easy to find, but I end up using all my torps just to sink 4-5 ships.(I had to finish some of those off with the deck gun) This happened on all 3 partrols that I have done so far. It's not just that they are slow to sink, they are not sinking at all, even with a hole the size of a truck in their side.

[Sailor Steve]

I haven't stepped off the dock yet. My sub is still on the ways.

Question - where the water plumes as high as a normal torpedo detonation?

Just wonder because sub skippers could see the topedo hit with a fair size spout of water, being the air flask exploded. That would be extreme detail to simulate duds.
From what I've read there was a water plume with duds, but smaller. As for extreme detail, SH1 had that feature eleven years ago.

[-Pv-]

I don't know if this is simulated in the game, but early in the war the warheads were TNT. I'm not sure which year (2-3?) they started using Torpex and ships would break in half with one hit.
-Pv-

[Galanti]

I haven't seen this at all. Hopefully the devs have modelled the tendency for US torps to detonate a short distance from the target, making the skipper believed it was a direct hit.

However, on the flip side, I have read posters boasting of sinking Yamatos and Kongos with 2-3 torps. I don't believe I care for that one iota. (Yeah, I know Kongo was sunk by only two shots form Sealion, but that must have been the exception, not the rule).

Also, ships sink waaay too fast. We need a GWX/NYGM style damage mod as soon as possible!

[Roadsweeper]

Use keel shots, by using magnetic detonators, set the torp to run under the keel by about 50cm, and you're sorted. Ive sunk Fuso class BS's in 3 torps... you wanna break its back. Using side impacts you oly create a hole, and youve got to rely on water to do the damage slowly, which the AI crew can counter act with pumping.

Use a keel shot and break its back and the whole ship twists itself apart, huge leaks everywhere, no pump can stop that kinda flooding.

Be careful though, US torps werent as accurate as german ones, they run deeper than set, if you've got a ship with a draft of 9m, you wanna set it to run about 7ish, then she rips open the keel nicely.

Should minimize your torp useage for merchants.

I try and take out the screws, the escorts more often than not leave the cripple behind, then you can surface and finish it off with the deck gun rather than wasting more torps.

[peterloo]

Several Tips:

1) Use magnetic detonaters, and set depth 1~2 meters below draft (depending on weather) :D

2) Fire at different positions so that rate of flooding can be increased
(fire at middle to detonate the fuels, stern to jam the rudder and propeller...) :oops:

3) I'm not sure whether the DEVs have put the cargo carried when putting flooding rate (i.e. sinking time) into account. Had they did so, that cargo might be carring timber, making it difficult to sink) :doh:

Good luck, Captain :|\\

[Ducimus]

zones.cfg is my guess.

[Old Dog]

Early in WW II U.S. Torpedos had big problems with magnetic pistols. Sub drivers waged a long and loud war with the Navy brass before the torps were re-tested and it was discovered that U.S. torpedos ran deeper than they were set to run, and that the magnetic pistol was FUBAR in any case.
Before and during the war with the brass, sub drivers had stopped using magnetic pistols, setting the torps to explode on impact.
When the brass found out about that they were miffed indeed. After the re-testing, the brass were in the "Silent Service".
The Germans had a very similar problem earlier in the war.
My copy of the game has not yet arrived, but it may be that problem is being modeled here.

Fair winds and a following sea
Old Dog

[GoldenRivet]

I have had much success in sinking these medium merchants.

First shot is set to contact exploder and aimed right for the midsection which usually results in a gaping hole in the keel.

second shot is aimed for this mid section and is a magnetic exploder set under the keel.. i would say 70% of the time they split in two.

[Roadsweeper]

I'll second Old Dogs theory, Ive found, using the contact/magnetic setting (with duds disabled), rather than setting the depth to run just under the draft, I set it about 2-2.5m ABOVE the keel line so it nicely scrapes the underside of the keel (depth setting aquired through trial and error mainly, with a lot of misses :( ).

However I'm not sure if this is the contact detonator or the magnetic working here, since it appears, on the magnetic option, both detonators are active. Historically, the nose detonator shouldnt work at such a shallow angle, so I'm thinking it might the magnetic detonator.

How this will work with destroyers I'm not sure, their draft is very close to the min limit for the torp anyways, and they are effected a great deal more by swell.

So, I'm leaning towards the theory that the "run deeper than set" error has been coded it, devs said they wanted to keep things historically accurate, I wouldnt be surprised if it has been added....

[heartc]

However I'm not sure if this is the contact detonator or the magnetic working here, since it appears, on the magnetic option, both detonators are active. Historically, the nose detonator shouldnt work at such a shallow angle, so I'm thinking it might the magnetic detonator.

In Edward L Beach's book "Submarine!" he states that this problem was in fact opposite to the German one: The contact fuze mechanism of USN torpedoes early in the war was apt to jam when striking the target at a 90° angle instead of a lower one, cause the force was too high in that case. So, German contact fuzes were not sensible enough, while USN ones were too sensible. Until this was found out - amongst the other problems - it caused much confusion with the skippers and often they were not believed when reporting perfect shot setups with no results.

[malkuth74]

I haven't seen this at all. Hopefully the devs have modelled the tendency for US torps to detonate a short distance from the target, making the skipper believed it was a direct hit.

However, on the flip side, I have read posters boasting of sinking Yamatos and Kongos with 2-3 torps. I don't believe I care for that one iota. (Yeah, I know Kongo was sunk by only two shots form Sealion, but that must have been the exception, not the rule).

Also, ships sink waaay too fast. We need a GWX/NYGM style damage mod as soon as possible!

That is indeed what seems to happen. I had 3 torps set to impact only and 1 missed and 2 hit but did not put a Hole in the ship at all. They seemed to just blow up and not even damage the ship.

Then I fired 2 torps with Mags on and both torps blew holes into the ship and that was that.

[walsh2509]

I've not tried the under keel method , but I have been dropping my torps lower, to within a couple of meters of draft = 7.5 , I put my torps at 5 and they seem to be, if not sinking ships slowing them down a great deal or stopping them dead in the water.

I then mark there postion and go back later after the DDs have moved on and put them down with my deck gun.

But I will give under the keel a go ..

Thanks for the info .

[bclaw2004]

I found aiming with the periscope midships, FWD and Aft putting at least 3 fish into a medium freighter was much more successfull. I use contact fuses (as long as I remember to change it). And 4 into the large tankers spread along the hull.

I was reading though, that putting a second torpedo in an already hit location didn't have an affect as the area was already destroyed in most cases, ie already flooded.