Kamikaze Destroyers
 

I have seen what appear both times to have been instances where pursuing DD and DE have dropped depth charges, only to have sunk themselves, apparently because they didn't set the depth correctly and the charge went off literally under the stern of the attacker.


Is this a game bug or did this happen historically?




Shot

shot,

i'd love to see that. where were you and what date or what mission?
i have tried to instigate that type of behaviour by steaming in such as way as to confuse the AI-DD's into laying a pattern that will do what you describe.
:salute:
mb

p.s. BTW, Welcome to SH4 and Subsim.:subsim:

Thanks. I've had the game for a whole, but have only recently had a computer that would play it.



I'm still not entirely sure what is happening, or if what I'm seeing is what I think I'm seeing; but...


Exfiltrating from a Drop the Agent mission, I draw the attention of a DE/Subchaser, and a gunboat. I evade the DE/SC, and then lose sound contact with it. I go F11 to see what the situation is, and I see the DE's stern upended and slowly settling. The gunboat has moved off as well. I did launch a torpedo at the DE, but it was a total snapshot and it missed. I scratched my head and did not curse my good luck, chalking it up to maybe a hiccup in game play.


The next time, I'm playing the Midway mission and I go F11 just in time to see a DD scream past me, while settling by the stern as it's also launching life rafts. It was then that I began to wonder about possibilities, having watched two DDs earlier barely avoid colliding with each other, and thinking that the game may allow for early-war ineptitude on the part of the IJN with regard to things like getting the right depth setting on the ash cans, maybe.


Thought I'd throw it out here and see if anyone has seen anything similar.




Shot

load a mod

yes, we have experienced the same thing. IJN ships DO collide and sometimes sink from the collision damage. it is probably from the Stock game where the IJN skill level is set low.

as Armistead has suggested, you might want to consider playing a mega-mod when you complete your Stock career. nearly every mega has boosted the skill level of the IJN...some believe a bit too much. :03::03::03:
well, have fun.
good luck. and good hunting.
:salute:

I have not only watched a couple of IJN destroyers shoot themselves in the stern (so to speak), but have also recently witnessed a D3A 'Val' dive bomb and badly damage an IJN Akitsuki class DD that was stalking me, such that I could polish Mr Akitsuki off with a torpedo. 'Twas most enjoyable...:Kaleun_Applaud::D Oh, and there was the time that I intercepted a task force, destroyed a Soyru class CV, plus a Kongo BB and, in the subsequent pandemonium and confusion, watched a Nachi class CA ram and sink an Asashio class DD that blundered into its path.

In the same vein, I've found various vessels afire for no apparent reason. They're usually those ugly houseboats...er, gunboats, but last night it was a flaming fishing boat, apparently a Japanese Marie Celeste, off the Straits of Korea.



Twice now I've seen destroyers running at slow speed with heavy lists to port, but no visible damage. Both times were in heavy seas. I assumed it was from collision damage the AI forgot to paint in, but really don't know.




And there was the memorable time one of those houseboats, nearly on top of my sub, was apparently bombed by friendly fire. Next career will have a mega mod.

Don't recall if anyone ever made a mod for depth charges, but when I was playing around making one (\Data\Library\DepthCharges.zon file) I saw that too frequently. What started it was getting tired of the instant kill when a depth charge was too close, so I fired up Silent3ditor and played with the damage radius of the depth charges, trying to make it more realistic. Default is damage 170 to 230, radius 4.5 to 40. I played with values like 100 to 200 damage, radius 2 to 150 or 3 to 100, destroyers would sometimes sink themselves, other settings they would drop one pattern and blow the racks off the stern so they were unable to drop any more.
Finally gave up on the whole idea and just doubled the hit points on the sub and some of the systems, then restored the backup copy of DepthCharges.zon so they quit blowing themselves up. Some sort of mod is the only explanation I can think of, with the stock depth charge I've never seen one damage the escort.