Torpedo damage
 

How does the game assign ship damage to a torpedo hit?

Using both auto-targeting and the O'Kane method, I have usually had success by firing the torpedoes* in quick succession, reckoning that they will impact very close to one another, causing maximum damage, but occasionally the ship will become a floating or limping hulk, failing to sink till a final fish or deck gun HE rounds send it to Davy Jones' Locker...

Seems like the game takes into account where the fish hit, or throws in a random "don't sink" command?? :hmmm:

* Generally, I use these to attack merchants
1 torpedo for small ships
2 torpedoes for medium ships and passenger liners
3 torpedoes for large ships

Those with modding experience will be able to answer this question better.

To my knowledge there are different damage zones on a vessel. If you only are hitting one zone then once that zone has maximum damage nothing else is occurring. You might put four fish in a ship when two or there might have done the job by hitting different zones of the vessel. Some might have port and starboard zones as well I am not sure.

I have had some get struck only on one side and not sink until I moved and hit the other side.

If a ship has no deck gun I do not bother with torpedoes. I use my deck gun.

There are damage "spheres" and "boxes" inside the models, and a ship has a total of "hit points" that can be expended. The hit points are what determines the sinking, but hitting a ship in the same place, while it would ultimately do more damage to a real ship, with a 3D model it sometimes doesn't. The area targeted has already expended its local hit points total, so another hit there almost seems to do nothing, though you usually hit a little one way or the other, and some ships sink like that anyway. If you're using manual targeting, aim a bit forward, fire one, pause for the bridge, fire two, pause for the rear king post, fire three (in simple terms), and you should have a good spread. If using manual, you could "lock", hit pk, and fire, unlock move forward, hit pk again, fire, etc., aiming where you want to hit, hitting the PK for a new "aim", and the "TDC" does all your angle solving... spread the hits across a ship's total damage zone. I do usually concentrate on an area though, like the bow to the stack, or try to anyway... :roll: The game does seem to model a hit to the boilers, but doesn't do very well with prop and rudder damage... :salute:

I use the angle adjustment on the TDC to spread out my fish. I have also had situations where I just could not get a lock due to weather and I pointed my bow where it needed to be then fired while turning.

Does varying the depth of torpedoes work on the 3D damage model? As an example, the large modern tanker is shown in the recognition manual as having a draft of 28', so, if I have time, I set the first torpedo to run at 26', the second at 22' and a third and (if needed) a fourth at 18' - my theory being that varying the depth can also spread the damage. It seems to work, because I have had large modern tankers split in half after only two hits just behind the forward deck houses.

Always set your depth ten feet shallower then your desired depth. LOL

Yeah, like merc says, if you have "duds" enabled in the game, they might also run deep, but to your question, going deep and shallow would probably make the "collision detection" place in another damage zone, so I could see that making a difference. There are all sorts of ways to "target" a ship. Read through Rockin Robbin's Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks thread and watch some of the videos there.

Interesting about the "hit points", but makes sense from a game building POV... Will try spreading them out a bit. I usually set all torps at 10 ft and adjust if time allows, reckoning that I can still sink small vessels with a snap shot if that's the only opportunity I have... Also did notice that stern hits didn't do much damage... Thanks!
:Kaleun_Salute:

SH1 seemed to do stern damage, and I don't understand why it's not in SH4... but hit a ship under the stack, and it serves the same purpose. It'd be interesting though, if every once in a while you'd see a damaged ship circle and circle... :salute:

OK I understand the term "snapshot" as it relates to an ADCAP but not in Silent Hunter. Using a snapshot firing technique in Silent Hunter would be a waste of fish.

I likely used a technically incorrect shorthand means of saying "take a quick shot on minimum data because the bad guys are on my a$$"

If my setup looks decent and I get jumped by a DD, I have had some success by taking the shot even with only a "gut feel" that it's right. I can count on one hand the number of times I've used it and reckon it was successful about 3/5 times.

Did some 'sperimenting with autotargeting last night and found success with getting the green triangle on large merchants, launching the first torpedo with a 5 count each for the next two... 100% success with some really impressive secondary explosions and breakups.
Small sample size, but encouraging.

you used the correct term which started in the early days of undersea warfare.
:salute:

Roger

I recently encountered a convoy of large, fast passenger liners in dense fog; my radar could see them approaching, but visibility was near zero, so I dialed my engines so I was almost drifting at 2 knots, while still surfaced, near their projected course. Next thing I knew, a large old passenger liner came barrelling out of the fog, doing 15 knots @ 600 yards.
I quickly shot off two torpedoes, almost purely on a guess, and was shocked when they exploded midships, blew it in half and dropped it within a minute. :timeout: