Hi all...Major missed opportunity!

[Tiffer]

I've been playing SH3 for a few years and finally got a rig that'll play SH4. So far i think its good fun, I must admit I do prefer 3 but once i've gotten into the game i'm sure this might change.
I was about to complete my second career mission on Feb 22 1942 having run out of fish and was tranisiting the Karimata Strait when I detected 6 Val dive bombers and ducked down to periscope depth. Immediately my sonarman picked up warships at long range closing and I settled the boat practically on the sea bed, all stop and rigged for silent running.
As the noise grew I popped the scope up and could barely believe my eyes, I had somehow wound up in the middle of an IJN task force with 5 carriers and several other capital ships but with no torpedoes.
I've stopped the game to come on here to write this up, i'm sure i'm not the first person to witness this but the frustration of having to pass up and opportunity like this is too much not to make a note.
I was hoping to post some screenshots but I don't know how to get them on here.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope everybody is enjoying their weekend!

[Munchausen]

:cool: That kind of thing actually happened during the war. So you can imagine how a real skipper must've felt when all he could do was send a radio message, reporting the convoy's position.

[magic452]

Welcome aboard mate and welcome to the frustration of Fleet Boats.
Wait till you get 8 or 10 dud torpedoes in a row.

Had a similar thing happen so I know how you feel. :damn:

Magic

[Akula4745]

Welcome to SH4, Tiffer... I can relate. It seems like every single time I am out of torpedoes the entire dang Japanese fleet sails by! Get used to it. :hmmm:

[Tiffer]

Cheers for the welcome guys. Unfortunately one of the carriers sailed into me, I took major damage and was taking on water rapidly. The boat was lost with all hands :cry:
Back to the drawing board!

[Kloef]

Welcome to subsim!

I know how you feel,frustration is part of the game,but for me the worst is the duds.

I use TMO 1.7 and i'm on a S-Boat..in februari 1941.

Yesterday i fired 4 on a 4000Tons merchant and 3 were duds!

Then fired 4 at another merchant of 8100Tons,3 out of 4 hits....where's the logic in it all,by this time i was happy with my 50/50 ratio on duds,but then...

4 torpedoes were fired at another merchant,ALL DUDS!:wah:

So out of 12 torpedos i had 4 that actually worked,one miss maybe i'm not sure..i sank them all with the deckgun out of blind anger but thats not the way to go..and i refuse to switch off duds in options cause that was really happening at the time..


At least you can report them and hope somebody else will sink them,or try reaching the nearest refeulling/reloading harbour as fast as you can,and try to nail them on their way back..but that chance is slim and you need some other AI unit to spot them for you so you get updates on their position..

[SteamWake]

Welcome to subsim!

I know how you feel,frustration is part of the game,but for me the worst is the duds.

I use TMO 1.7 and i'm on a S-Boat..in februari 1941.

Yesterday i fired 4 on a 4000Tons merchant and 3 were duds!

Then fired 4 at another merchant of 8100Tons,3 out of 4 hits....where's the logic in it all,by this time i was happy with my 50/50 ratio on duds,but then...

4 torpedoes were fired at another merchant,ALL DUDS!:wah:

So out of 12 torpedos i had 4 that actually worked,one miss maybe i'm not sure..i sank them all with the deckgun out of blind anger but thats not the way to go..and i refuse to switch off duds in options cause that was really happening at the time..


At least you can report them and hope somebody else will sink them,or try reaching the nearest refeulling/reloading harbour as fast as you can,and try to nail them on their way back..but that chance is slim and you need some other AI unit to spot them for you so you get updates on their position..

It gets a little better later in the war. In the meantime here are my 3 easy tips for reducing the amount of 'duds'.

1.) forget magnetic detonations they dont work set for impact. Set them to run shallow. Beneath the keel detonations are a pipe dream.

2.) Try not to hit your target at 90 degrees. A little off angle works much better

----->| = doink ----->/ = kaboom

3.) Use the slower speed settings for the torpedoes.

Good luck and good hunting.

[Kloef]

Thanks for the tips,i will try to experiment with the setting some more:up:

I attacked some shipping in a harbour yesterday and tried 2 torpedos on contact,shallow and fast..they hit the side of the harbour and i got the message torpedo hit,see an enourmous spray but probably no damage,then i tried 2 on magnetic detonation and standard speed....2 duds.

I never started a campaign so early in the war...its not keeping me from having fun as usual:03:

Btw you build a great plane,i saw your post!

[SteamWake]

Thanks for the tips,i will try to experiment with the setting some more:up:

I attacked some shipping in a harbour yesterday and tried 2 torpedos on contact,shallow and fast..they hit the side of the harbour and i got the message torpedo hit,see an enourmous spray but probably no damage,then i tried 2 on magnetic detonation and standard speed....2 duds.

I never started a campaign so early in the war...its not keeping me from having fun as usual:03:

Btw you build a great plane,i saw your post!

Thanks for the nice words on the plane, unfortunatly I got absolutly nothing done on it over the weekend, damn housework :oops:

Back on topic yes duds early on in the war espically with RFB installed can be aggrivating. However it is historically accurate (for the most part). Imagine how frustrated the real skippers were.

There are dozens of accounts of similar 'mishaps' and at first it was attributed to the skippers and their methods. It wasent untill later that the actual flaws of the torpedoes became 'known'.

One of the flaws, kind of amusing actually, was that the torpedo running depth was determined through testing with a dummy warhead which was considerably lighter than the real thing. You can guess what the results were. Thats right the torpedoes ran deeper than what you set them for :doh:

[Brenjen]

If you're in a harbor you can use mag-det fairly reliably under certain conditions; you must use the slow setting & be under 700 yards or around there (experiment with the distance as I can't remember exactly) ....& you'll also have to be over the minimum range of 400-500 too, so you have a very narrow window.

But in the sweet spot I'd say more than 19 out of 20 shots work correctly for me.

With con-det you have to watch the angle at which you hit the ship, if it's too steep dud...if it's too straight on (I.E. perfect 90 deg) it can also make a dud.


Afterthought, you must also watch the depth of the harbor on those mag-dets, if they get too close to the bottom they'll blow prematurely.