GWX ship weak spots

[Alexdk]

Hi,

Just been playing GWX and having alot of fun, alot of imoroved immersion over the stock game and now Destroyers worry me! However, sinking ships is more of a challenge now (which is good). No more weak hits sinking ships, however there is nothing more satisfying hitting a ship in the fuel storage compartment and seeing the light up the sky. Since GWX introduces new Ships (i.e Medium & Large merchants) I was wondering if there was somebody who knew their weak spots? Community manuals have a good guide but not on the new vessels. I put 3 torps just in front of the smoke stack on a large merchant, and while it sank it did not explode, anybody have any ideas where a good point to hit it would be?

Thanks in advance

Alex

[rasmus1896]

medium mechant is the same ship as C2.
large merchant is C3 or large merchant.

but usually the fuel bunker i a bit ahead of the engine room witch is under the funnel.

hope it helps

[melnibonian]

Have a look at this http://files.filefront.com/shipchart.../fileinfo.html. It is made for the stock SH3 but it will give you a good starting point for GWX.

[Alexdk]

Fantastic! Thanks for the help. By the way, does anybody know if the Revenge Class Batteship has the same "weak" spots as before? I.e the ammo bunkers. Infiltrated Scapa Flow and sunk the ship there on the stock SHIII want to see if it is possible on GWX.

Alex

[melnibonian]

Alex with respect to the ship sinkings: VonHelsing did a fantastic job in the damage model in GWX and in my opinion it's really close to reality. The GWX Damage Model sinks ships in three ways. By structural damage (you can call it "Hit Points"), by flooding internal compartments and by hitting critical areas. Now each torpedo that is fired in GWX has a random effect in the ship and that effect depends on a number of parameters (where it hits, the angle of impact etc). Generally speaking small ships (Tramp Stramers, Small Merchants etc) will go down with one torpedo (well most times at least) within a couple of hours maximum. Larger Ships will probably require a second, but there are not many merchant ships that will need a third one. My suggestion to manage to sink ships quickly and with one torpedo is to try to hit them in their critical compartments. These are either the ammo bunkers, the fuel tanks or the engine rooms. Every time you hit a ship make a mental note of where the torpedo hit and what the result was. That way you will soon manage to recognise (and remember) the weak spots in each ship type. If you need more info check out the chart I gave you. It is for stock SH3 and doesn't work (fully at least) in GWX, but it will give you a general idea where to aim.

Since you're catching me on a really great mood today I'll also give you some spoilers discovered after the long hours of GWX Beta Testing.

Pyro Ammunition Ship: Try to hit it under the first mast (from the bow) and it will blow to kingdom come.
Large/Medium Tanker: Aim under of just in front of the first superstructure (again from the bow) and you have one shot kill 9 times out of 10.
Victory/Liberty Cargo: Aim for the second mast (from the bow) and she will go down like a rock.
Auxiliary Cruiser: Aim for bow or aft the gun turret and she will blow to pieces.
Bogue CVE: Aim right under the superstructure (Bridge) and she will blow up.
In all the above set the torpedo runnig depth to 3m except from the tankers where you need to set it to 1m. Pistols always imact of course.

Another important issue is the runnig depth of the torpedoes and the gyro and impact angles. As a rule of thumb always try to have an Angle on the Bow of around 90 deg. The most important thing though is the gyro-angle (the angle theat shows how much the torpedo has to deviate from a straight line in front of the sub). That angle should be around +/- 5 deg. You will know it's good when the little triangle on the cross in your periscope becomes green. The running depth of the torpedo is important as that way you can make sure you hit the flat and not the curved part of the hull. In general anything between 1-3m should produce a huge hole and loads of damage to the ship.

That should do for now. Go out there sink some ships and think what I've suggested. You never know what you might find out

Good Luck and Good Shooting

[Alexdk]

Thanks for the tips! They are very much appreciated!

I usually try to set up ambushes for my targets, lying in wait for them. Usually, after long periods of observation I calculate their route and speed and attempt to set my self up so I am at a 90 degree angle. Takes time but is rewarding. Did the same in GWX but since I am used to ships dropping like stones this was a bit of a shock. But now that you say they can take several hours to sink that helps, since I usually wait around 10 mins then get impatient and fire a second torp. Guess I have got to practice patience patience patience! But I do prefere the GWX damage model actually, the stock one was a bit to easy to predict, now I never know and am pretty sure allied patrols are not far behind me! well, better get back to it.

Thanks again for all your help!

Regards,

Alex "Bilge cleaner"

[melnibonian]

Any time Alex, that's why we're all here. To help each other

One thing to have in mind here. Weather conditions affect the sinking conditions. If the seas are rough then the ships will sink faster. If the sea is calm they might actually get away with a big hole on their hull. How many torpedoes you will fire depends on other circumstances. For example in a convoy you want the ship to sink asap so you fire as many as you need to bring her down. In a situation where the ship is alone without any escorts you can afford to be economical and hang around for some time.

Good Luck

and if you need any more help give us a shout

[Alexdk]

There was one more thing...anybody know why my VIIB (2nd Flotilla) deck gun and flak gun have no ammo? Happen on both both patrols. Am running GWX I cannot find anything in home base where I can load it. To say was very embarrasing when I surfaced to finnish of a ship on my first patrol to find I didn't have any ammo!!!

Good thing my torpedo tubes where ready....Muhahaha

[melnibonian]

Your question is a classic one. We all had this problem the first time we tried to fire the deck gun. Well once you're in position you just have to click on the shell on the right hand side of the screen. This will load it in the gun and you can start shooting. After that everything comes automatic.

[Alexdk]

Tried that but both eft and right numbers are at 0. Clicked on the only available shell casing and nothing happens:hmm: But will try again...and if my crew forgot to load the gun...well toilet cleaning for the trip!

[Alexdk]

Aha! Ok, but more men on the deck gun and clicked the ammo again and now it loads. Thanks for the tip, woud never have guessed!

Cheers, alex

[melnibonian]

That's odd :hmm: Well an easy way to check if you actually have shells is to click on the Weapons Officer icon. That will give you some options. Click on the Weapon Managment and see how many shells you actually have. If you still have problems try posting a screenshot, you never know it might help us a bit more.

EDIT: Great News. I'm happy you're sorted out. Now go and sink someone

[KeptinCranky]

Hi, I'm fairly new so I don't know the protocol on resurrecting threads, but this one matched my question so here goes,

I've been following the advice in this thread and it works pretty good, Large Cargos and Large Merchants usually go down with just 1 fish now and these matter because they're big tonnage but I'm playing several different careers, still early 1939- december 1940 with different boats, the trouble is with my little type IIa I run into a lot of lone passenger/cargos around the British Isles and they absolutely refuse to be 1 shot kills, or if they do sink from one fish it usually takes about 6 hours, I can't loiter around that long, there's all sorts off nasties out there

I've tried several different shots, magnetic directly under the smokestack, that stops 'em dead but they don't sink

3m impact in the forward and aft cargohold, shakes 'em up but they sail off as if it just scratched the paint, same goes for Impact at 3m in the engineroom, also the same when hitting them at the same depth just where the main superstructure ends aft

I even accidentally blew the screws off of one, that did stop it, but still took a 2nd fish to sink

so for now I'm avoiding passenger/cargos like the plague, the measly 2k tonnes is just not worth that many fish, Uncle Karl can grumble all he likes but I'm not shooting any more of those till I get the lowdown on where to hit them right the first time

[kurtz]

Originally Posted by melnibonian

The running depth of the torpedo is important as that way you can make sure you hit the flat and not the curved part of the hull. In general anything between 1-3m should produce a huge hole and loads of damage to the ship.

...but I thought the whole concept of magnetic trigger was to do more damage by exploding under the ship, is it that this is not correctly modelled in GWX or have I missed something? (again!).
Mike

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by kurtz

...but I thought the whole concept of magnetic trigger was to do more damage by exploding under the ship, is it that this is not correctly modelled in GWX or have I missed something? (again!).
Mike

Magnetic torpedoes do more damage when they detonate under the keel of a ship. If you want to hit the hull of a ship you're better off by using impact pistols.