Shell Holes

[Chris2802]

Hi all
I've been amusing myself lately by sinking convoy escorts then finishing off the freighters with the deck cannon from very close range. This has raised a few questions. It seems only 5 seperate shell holes can be in a ship at any one time, any shell fired after that will never make another hole, so, does this mean any aditional hits below the waterline still count as a hole, only you don't see one visually for performance reasons and is there a value that can be tweaked somewhere that allows more holes in a ship? Finally, does a hole thats above water, but then ends up underwater due to the ship sining slightly then count as a below the waterline hole (ie ship takes on more water) or is it more simple than that and only holes under the usual waterline count as ones that will cause flooding?

Cheers for any input guys!
Chris

[GTHammer]

I believe that ship life is determined by a Hit or Health Point system...Essentially when a shell or torp hits the ship the damage is calculated and added to any previous damage until the ship has accumulated enough and then begins to sink. I don't think its quite so simplified and is probably similar to your sub damage, ie as time passes flooding /depth/ and specific damage to certain parts of the ship factor in somewhere. The number of holes is probably just a graphics thing that probably doesn't 100% reflect the damage model. Someone more familiar with modding the game files could probably tell you for sure. Ask Redwine, he did the Die slowly mod and looked over the damage system.

[vindex]

I have seen ships damaged and sink in ways that were not reflected by the shell holes or other visible damage. The same is true of torpedo damage. I think the visible damage is just an approximation of the "real" damage (i.e., hit points to each "zone" of the ship) that determines what actually happens.

One thing I've noticed is that this is only hull damage, not superstructure damage. I remember seeing a lot more superstructure damage in SH3 -- masts falling, bridges being blown away, etc. Most of the ships I sink in SH4 go down "intact" (unless they blow up completely) and I'm not targeting any differently. I see a lot fewer secondary explosions from hitting deck cargo, but that could be due to the lack of cargo entries in the campaign files.

[SteamWake]

Ohhh lookie holes !

The holes are only cosmetic Im afraid. They in no way reflect the real damage. They (the holes) are there for the coolness factor. Its still better than what we had in SH3.

Hell I have dived my sub with a hole big enough to drive a jeep through.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Ohhh lookie holes !

The holes are only cosmetic Im afraid. They in no way reflect the real damage. They (the holes) are there for the coolness factor. Its still better than what we had in SH3.

Hell I have dived my sub with a hole big enough to drive a jeep through.

Like the textures as well, just wish the sub ones looked more realistic :yep:

RDP

[Chris2802]

Don't get me wrong, I think the holes look great...vast improvement over sh3...was one of the things i really wanted to see, actual holes getting blown in the side of things. Would be nice if it were possible to tweak the max amount of holes allowed in a ship tho...I would think it was only limited for performace reasons, but it'd be cool to be able to completely pepper a ship!

-Chris