Realistic submerged attack

[hewsu]

Im am currently trying to make a multiplayer mission that would be both realistic and fun. I have so far managed to create a time trigger so that I can only take the most action packed part of a submerged attack: the shooting of the torpedoes and skip over the survive for the next 2+ hours of depth charging.

But I have a problem:

It is way too easy to hit and sink as many ships as you have torpedoes for. Especially as I have included the speed and heading of ships in the mission description (since you probably would have those up allready when you are ready to shoot)

Why was it so hard for a U-boat to sink loads of ships once it got inside a convoy? I checked the Uboat vs. ships sunk figures in convoy battles from http://www.uboat.net/ops/convoys/battles.htm and mostly it was near to 1 to 1 ratio.

Did they only manage to get to the outskirts of the convoy? Or were they detected when they made the first shot and were driven away fast? Or maybe submerged attacks against convoys werent very succesfull when it came to sinking ships? (Surfaced night attacks were quite common I believe)

[Puster Bill]

Originally Posted by hewsu

Im am currently trying to make a multiplayer mission that would be both realistic and fun. I have so far managed to create a time trigger so that I can only take the most action packed part of a submerged attack: the shooting of the torpedoes and skip over the survive for the next 2+ hours of depth charging.

But I have a problem:

It is way too easy to hit and sink as many ships as you have torpedoes for. Especially as I have included the speed and heading of ships in the mission description (since you probably would have those up allready when you are ready to shoot)

Why was it so hard for a U-boat to sink loads of ships once it got inside a convoy? I checked the Uboat vs. ships sunk figures in convoy battles from http://www.uboat.net/ops/convoys/battles.htm and mostly it was near to 1 to 1 ratio.

Did they only manage to get to the outskirts of the convoy? Or were they detected when they made the first shot and were driven away fast? Or maybe submerged attacks against convoys werent very succesfull when it came to sinking ships? (Surfaced night attacks were quite common I believe)

Like all fields of endeavor, some commanders were better and/or luckier than others. If you look at the detail for those convoy battles on the web page you linked to, you will see that some boats, while they were in contact with the convoy, never got a chance to fire for whatever reason. Could be because they were detected by the screening escorts, or they were in a bad position and didn't get a chance to get into a better one, or even because of torpedo failures.

Most commanders only sank a handful of ships in their careers, if any. Sure, we all like to think we are the next Prien, Luth, or Kretschmer, but no one likes to think of themselves as the next Paul Heinrich Sass (U-364, no kills, sunk in 1943) or Erwin Manchen (U-879, one ship damaged, sunk in 1945). Those are just two I pulled at random from uboat.net, there are tons of others just like them.

[dize]

well, infact sh3 is still a computergame. many things in this game are rather easy when compared to reality. getting "inside" a convoy, was actually a pretty hard thing to do in rl. its piss easy in sh3, to submerge, let the convoy travel for ur pos, and then sink a few ships from close range.

[Heibges]

Torpedo problems.

By the time the Germans worked out all the problems with their depth-keeping and combat pistols, they were almost beyond the time when it was realistically possible for them to get inside convoys.

[bigboywooly]

Originally Posted by hewsu

I checked the Uboat vs. ships sunk figures in convoy battles from http://www.uboat.net/ops/convoys/battles.htm and mostly it was near to 1 to 1 ratio.

Near one to one figures ?
1940 and 41 maybe
After that the figures are a lot worse

43 was a nightmare looking at that link

11 U-boats3 ships sunk for a total of 26.682 tons
19 U-boats5 ships sunk for a total of 25.515 tons
43 U-boats13 ships sunk for a total of 93.502 tons
43 U-boats9 ships sunk for a total of 53.094 tons
55 U-boats13 ships sunk for a total of 61.958 tons

http://www.uboat.net/ops/convoys/bat...m?convoy=ONS-5 is a great read for the final convoy battle

To answer you question if you read those links a lot of the time weather played an important part in the boats making no attacks
Its easier in SH3 to attack in bad weather
Plus for them it was real so they didnt push the attack as players do

Also Torp problems as Heibges posted above

[Webster]

Originally Posted by hewsu

Im am currently trying to make a multiplayer mission that would be both realistic and fun. I have so far managed to create a time trigger so that I can only take the most action packed part of a submerged attack: the shooting of the torpedoes and skip over the survive for the next 2+ hours of depth charging.

But I have a problem:

It is way too easy to hit and sink as many ships as you have torpedoes for. Especially as I have included the speed and heading of ships in the mission description (since you probably would have those up allready when you are ready to shoot)

i suggest you download gwx and the gwx patch1.03 then retry the same attack. you will find a more realistic feel and conditions. you will be amazed the difference.

all you have to do is click on the links in wooly's post to find the downloads.

as for "the most action packed part" some would argue the struggle to survive the attack and escape alive would be considered the most action pact part.

[Graf Paper]

"the most action packed part"

Let's analyze this phrase, shall we?

"action"

If, by this, you mean having two detroyers, an ASW Trawler, and an Elco Motor Torpedo boat all taking turns at making depth charge runs at you then you are most certainly right.

"packed"

If you're referring to the extreme degree of sphincter pucker you'll be suffering because the previously mentioned escorts have a fix on your position and your boat has just bottomed out in 128 meters from extensive flooding that has left you a sitting duck while your crew works madly to stop all the leaks and get the engines back online, then I'd have to say "packed" is the appropriate word.

Yep. I lived through that and it took a lot of Preparation-H™ to get my bilge keel out of vapor lock.