Sabotage?

[tennozan]

Started a new career recently after a few tours in SH4 1.5. Still miss SH3 and glad to start a new patrol. Anyway, in U-255 VII-C starting out in 1942. I use the latest SH3 Commander with it set to sabotage and malfunctions, since best I can tell based on my reading that stuff happened.

Just ran into a large convoy off the coast of West Africa and prosecuted attack on many large tankers. Hit three and severely damaged a T3. After a long reload on two forward tubes I finally sank the T3. By this time the escorts who had missed me on the first pass where on the horizon and headed my way. Plenty of distance and time to dive and evade. Right?

I have sailed in many U-boats. Enough to have a feel for surfacing times and diving. Something was very wrong. No damage visible but my rate of dive was horribly slow. Meter by agonizingly slow meter until at 38 meters a British escort gives us the shakes with a DC attack. Somehow we still evade and at 47 meters seem to be avoiding them sucessfully. I have the game saved but am really wondering if what I am seeing is the effects of a malfunction or sabotage.

Anybody? They're coming for me.

[GoldenRivet]

did you order a crash dive when you sighted the destroyers?

if so one of the sabotage features is that ahead flank will not work... this of course renders your u-boat pretty much useless in a crash dive.

here is a list of possible malfunctions

1. flack guns take additional time to reload or are unable to reload at all. Simulates guns affected by long exposure to sea water, battle damage, poor ammunition quality etc.

2. randomly adjust periscope blur to simulate lens integrity, this disables the attack scope and observation scope.

3. randomly adjust raise and lower times for snorkel to simulate wear and tear, malfunction or sabotage.

4. randomly adjust Fumo range.

5. randomise default diving depth of crash dives (your boat may dive out of control) this simulates stuck tank vents, dive planes etc.

6. reduces top flank speed to simulate mechanical issues with engines.

7. Surface range decreased between 40-80% to simulate fuel leak or excessive engine consumtion of fuel.

8. battery range decreased by 20-75% to simulate worn out batteries, or a malfunctioning recharge system.

9. randomly changes dive times to a poor value.

10. front and rear ratio edited to simulate trim difficulty, boat may be slightly heavy astern causing difficulty in fine tuning depth.

11. Radar set appears operational but range is reduced to virtually zero.

12. increased turn radius

13. who knows what else!!!

[tennozan]

Didn't order a crash dive. I had LOTS of distance between us and usually can just dive and evade. That was like being stuck in some invisible field that wouldn't let me go deeper without a struggle.

Anyway, I made it deep finally and got clear. Prosecuted a lousy attack on a small cargo ship and just made it back to port. Drinks are on me boys. Think I'll sit in my room in the shadows with a pistol tonight and see if we get any late night "visitors".

[Sensekhmet]

So far I suffered damaged periscopes, fuel leaks and damaged engines (the flank ahead issue). On last patrol my boat refused to dive to set depth, it always lingered about 15 meters higher than it was supposed to be. True, I crawled around at 50rpm but I suspect something was broken.

[Kielhauler1961]

Yup, I had two malfunctions in three trips in same career, both times it was the engines. In another, the 37mm flak gun wouldn't work at all but no problem with the 20mm...

[tomfon]

So far i have experienced only the ahead flank malfunction/sabotage and the blur periscopes. This is one of things you don't want to go wrong.

[Sensekhmet]

I think it's good to form a habit of running some tests at the start of the patrol, just to make sure everything works the way it's supposed to. Depending on the severity of the malfunction, I'll abort the patrol and turn back to base (did that once already, I was loosing diesel fast).

[Kielhauler1961]

I 'm not sure about this but I think Sh3 Commander resets the chances of malfunctions occurring after every reloaded save. On my first patrol in a brand new Type XXI everything was working fine when we left Bergen. The engine breakdown only occured when I reloaded the save game. I hadn't even made it to the open sea!

Good practice to check everything when starting out and after reloading a save game.

[GoldenRivet]

i believe SH3 randomizes these things every time you load the game via SH3 commander.

[Kielhauler1961]

That would be interesting to experiment with. After reloading a save and finding a malfunction, would saving the game and reloading potentially take the problem away? Or would it leave the original problem and give you another malfunction on top for being cheeky?

[Paul Riley]

The ones I have experienced so far are,poor surface speeds (IXC) approx 7kts when set to 12kts,clear seas,both engines engaged.Also,electric batts seemed to be experiencing similar problems.
Last,I noticed after blowing the tanks twice at 200m the air shot to below 25%,whereas before when I used to play without Commander i'm sure the rate wasnt as fast or as much as that.I suspect loose valves somewhere.
As KH said,about the reloading of a save game,my problems have gone after reloading my last save.
Would that really happen?,the problem just disappearing?,or reappearing?.This would cause some obvious serious problems when far out in the ocean somewhere,like oil leaks etc.It would be better to have identified your problems,and decide whether you can risk carrying on.Still,I suppose wear and tear is an option,and is realistic. :hmm:

[Cezbor]

The subject is more and more interesting, gotta try this malfunction option next patrol:hmm:

[sharkbit]

I've experienced 3 different malfunctions so far. At least I think they were, unless the game was acting up. They disappeared after making it back to port and going out on my next patrol.

1. High fuel consumption.
This one almost caught me. I didin't notice it until I was well out into the Atlantic early war and turned for home and just about coasted into Wilhelmshaven on fumes. Avoided the top secret teleport button hidden in the control room, but kept it in mind.

2. Flank speed goes to all stop.
Every time I would ring Flank, the telegraph would go to Stop.
All other settings worked fine. :hmm:
Continued the patrol but just had to remember to ring Full ahead instead of Flank.

3. My latest one-Max speed was about 6 knots at any setting.
It would vary quite a bit too, although that might have been because of the sea state, but I never had it this bad in similar conditions. Of course with this problem, my range was reduced quite a bit and had to go to the tanker in the Canaries to refuel and repair.
Boat worked fine afterward. :hmm:

I try to check things out more often now but I haven't been very diligent at doing so. I would hate for one of those diving malfunctions mentioned above to occur at a bad time.

[Paul Riley]

[quote=sharkbit]I've experienced 3 different malfunctions so far. At least I think they were, unless the game was acting up. They disappeared after making it back to port and going out on my next patrol.

1. High fuel consumption.
This one almost caught me. I didin't notice it until I was well out into the Atlantic early war and turned for home and just about coasted into Wilhelmshaven on fumes. Avoided the top secret teleport button hidden in the control room, but kept it in mind.

2. Flank speed goes to all stop.
Every time I would ring Flank, the telegraph would go to Stop.
All other settings worked fine. :hmm:
Continued the patrol but just had to remember to ring Full ahead instead of Flank.

3. My latest one-Max speed was about 6 knots at any setting.
It would vary quite a bit too, although that might have been because of the sea state, but I never had it this bad in similar conditions. Of course with this problem, my range was reduced quite a bit and had to go to the tanker in the Canaries to refuel and repair.
Boat worked fine afterward. :hmm:

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Where is this tanker you speak of in the Canaries?.Is refuelling/and or repairing at sea an option within Commander?.I really am interested in this new option,and am willing to get the relevant add-on to allow this
And regarding the malfunctions,they all disappear after anchoring at this tanker?.
Its a shame none of these trivial problems cant be repaired by your own repairmen and engineer,as I imagine they would have been very skilled in repairing these common problems at sea,other than a fuel leak,which may have needed re-welding again,to seal the tanks.
VERY interesting all these new options :hmm:

[sharkbit]

Get GWX 2.1.
It includes Milch Cows, tankers at sea, and repair ships in neutral Spanish ports.