m14's question

[fullmetaledges]

When I get a torpedo hit and it doesn't leave a gaping hole and therefore doesn't even damage a ship really is this how the modeled the mk 14's exploder problems? I very rarely get the gaping holes in ships and often have to use 4 or 5 fish until I get one that blows a hole in them. I am hitting them right under the stack with the contact exploder, any ideas?

[Cakewalk]

It seems that the closer the torp is to 90 degrees to the ship, the better chance you have for a tasty hole. Although sometimes, I have blown the bow off boats with a down-the-throat torp.

[fullmetaledges]

im wondering if they are doing damage when they do not leave a hole. anyone know?

[Cakewalk]

They definitly do; I've torpedoed plenty loads of merchants that sunk without a single hole.

[-Pv-]

"...It seems that the closer the torp is to 90 degrees to the ship, the better chance you have for a tasty hole. Although sometimes, I have blown the bow off boats with a down-the-throat torp..."

If you have duds turned on, a 20-30 degree angle with contact only is more likely to produce an expolsion in the early war.

Newbie Tip:
Don't count on counting holes to know if you've damaged the ship. A better way is to watch for bellowing smoke and flames after a hit, pieces flying in the air during the hit, listing and slowing of the speed, perhaps an endless circle if you damaged the rudder. If you get any or all of the above (this is how the real sub crew evaluated their damage) then no worries. You hurt the ship.
The biggest aircraft carrier the Japanese had was brought down without punching any holes. A lucky torpedo hit a stress beam that drove into one of the boilers like a hammer hitting a nail.
If you see a guyser, but no other indications mentioned above, then you probably got a dud hit. Duds can also produce a guyser, but no siginificant damage. In the real war, duds were known to penetrate the hull of the ship and sit there sticking out with no explosion. They still sprayed some water up when they hit. The Japanese navy used those oportunities to study US torp design.

Newbie Tip2:
You don't necessarily have to keep pumping torpedoes into a ship that is obviously damaged. Sometimes thay can last for a day, or only minutes, but a badly damaged ship might go down without further encouragement from you.
The key is to remain within sighting distance and see how your hits play out over time.
Actually, in SH4 I worked one convoy where I purposely left two damaged ships behind while I worked on more ships to see how well SH4 handled that kind of scenario. I left them so far back they were completely out of sonar and visual range, but I had marked their location. A couple hours later I came back and there they were. I was able to finish them off easily. This was a common problem in SH3 where ships sometimes revived when out of visual range.

Have a little patience and put some holes in other ships or use your time to better evade escorts or recharge your battery, load more torps. Keep tabs on that damaged ship and when the oportunity presents itself, give it the coup de grace if it needs it later. A heavily flooded and listing ship may go down easly with one of two more torps rather than the 6 you tried to use to get it to go down in the 1st salvo. They are certanly a lot easier to chase down and manouver for an ideal shot when stopped and the rest of the convoy has moved on. Just because the ship didn't go down in 15 seconds doesn't mean it never will. Yes, they can also survive your 1st attack, shrug it off and keep moving, but at reduced speed it's not going to get away and if there are other convoy ships, they will eventually abandon the wounded one to save their own skin. Some will hover in the area to pick up survivors, but will not stick around forever.

Because this is a sim and not a FPS, there is no stopwatch or score counter keeping tabs on how fast you take out a target. You can take out MORE and BIGGER targets by being patient, playing smart and taking your time. Being hunted by anti sub forces or trying to take out fast military ships are the only time you have a ticking clock on your back. All the rest of the time, you call the shots and timing and make it work to your advantage. Until the enemy knows you are there, you have all the control. Once the enemy is alerted, your part in the game is over and the enemy is calling the shots and timing. If you get rid of the idea you have 1 hour to play and you have to finish the campaign in that hour, then you will have more fun. I have had missions last for months when I only had an hour or two a week to play. I sank as many ships (or more) as the ones that lasted only a day or less.
-Pv-