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View Full Version : Ramming speed, keptin


Aquitaine
09-26-07, 05:48 PM
Just started playing SH4 recently. Played Silent Service as a kid and other than a brief bout with 688 Attack Sub (as a slightly older kid) haven't had much experience with submarine sims. Downloaded the great TMaru (lite) mod from this site which took care of a lot of irritating things.

Thought I would share something that just happened. On my third or fourth patrol out from Pearl, I'd run into nothing but convoys -- currently my third. Nearly used up all of my guns 'n butter before even arriving at my destination! The last convoy had an 'Auxiliary Subchaser' along with a 'Medium Composite European Freighter', both of which seem to prefer to fire on me as often as possible. During broad daylight in good weather, I'd learned to shadow them until nighttime.

In this case, it was fairly early morning and I didn't feel like waiting all day just for two ships, so I took a closer look at the Subchaser and it seemed like it had only one gun. Well, I thought, I only have one gun and I'm a better shot than the computer, so I surfaced the ship about 2500 meters out, turned right for him, and opened fire with my 3" bow-mounted deck gun on my Gato. I was down to about 15 shells of each type when I started.

I hit him maybe 10 times before he finally decided to just head right for me. He had a couple of fires going but was moving at a pretty good clip. I decided, what the hell, rather than do a halfass attempt at diving out of his way after brazenly engaging in a shooting match with an ASW ship, I'll go whole hog and probably reload when everything goes south.

So I hit flank speed. Even those small subchasers look pretty big when they're bearing down on you.

When I rammed it (or it rammed me - not sure who gets credit for ramming whom) the sub basically gets tossed aside like a rag doll (which was what I thought would happen). What happened next was remarkable: the subchaser bursts into flames and immediately sinks, while I have light damage to my forward bulkheads that is repaired in a minute or so.

I suppose I just did enough damage with the guns that he didn't have enough of a hull left to mow me over, or is this just a bug? Anybody ram anything bigger with any success?

Fincuan
09-26-07, 06:07 PM
The sub is one mean killing machine what comes to ramming. A 200 ton DD - no problem. An 18 000 ton liner - no problem. Yamato - Haven't tried yet :) If you manage to do it so that only the periscope hits the enemy, then your sub will take no damage at all and anything up to and including a DD or DE will immediately catch fire and sink. :up:

Aquitaine
09-26-07, 07:13 PM
Heady off of my earlier success, I went after one of those armed "Medium European Composite Freighters" that I'd hit with two torpedoes and my remaining shells. It was listing heavily to one side but just wouldn't sink, so I thought I'd give it a nudge.

I parked my submarine ON THE SHIP and there was much screeching of metal ... and no damage to either one of us. I reversed off like a celebrity who'd just run over somebody's dog in a parkling lot, and went right on up over the curb, er, freighter, a second time. No effect.

Also, when I finished the patrol, the "Navy Service Board" gave me two medals I already had for dates six months in the past for service on my previous submarine. This is with 1.3 ... a bit sloppy.

CanadianSilentHunter
09-26-07, 08:42 PM
[/qoute]When I finished the patrol, the "Navy Service Board" gave me two medals I already had for dates six months in the past for service on my previous submarine. This is with 1.3 ... a bit sloppy.[/quote]

That happens alot, medals in the past, It's a semi-decent attempt by the Devs to show the time lapse in war time. Where if you came back with 25000 tons, you wouldn't get a medal right away but your CO would send a dispatch saying how great a captain you are and how you deserve the Medal that he wants to give you. It goes to Washington, gets thrown around the pentegon, orders get sent to give you the medal, your commanding officer has to wait for you to hopefully come back from your next patrol, and then you get the award. You can get more then one of any medal, if you look at some of the Wars Greatest Air Aces, they have the DFC more then 2 or 3 times. Just thought I would pass along that it's not sloppy, just reality.

Aquitaine
09-26-07, 08:45 PM
Getting the same medal multiple times isn't sloppy. Getting them post-dated is, at least the way it's presented.

What you describe makes sense, but that's not immediately obvious to me as the user (one of many things in SH4 that aren't). It's mediocre interface design. Pretty common in games these days, unfortunately, but hardly a deal-breaker...after all, it's a sub sim, not a Navy Bureaucracy Sim. :)

Galanti
09-27-07, 06:51 AM
..but hardly a deal-breaker...after all, it's a sub sim, not a Navy Bureaucracy Sim. :)

Yes, but what a hell of an idea that spawns....a First-Person Shooter in the halls of the BuOrd offices, where you as a bitter sub skipper, enraged at seeing so many of your comrades perish from faulty torpedoes, do battle with the kleptocrats responsible. No guns, but reams of memos!

ReallyDedPoet
09-27-07, 07:44 AM
Welcome to SUBSIM :up: Aquitaine


RDP

hawk2495
09-27-07, 03:59 PM
..but hardly a deal-breaker...after all, it's a sub sim, not a Navy Bureaucracy Sim. :)
Yes, but what a hell of an idea that spawns....a First-Person Shooter in the halls of the BuOrd offices, where you as a bitter sub skipper, enraged at seeing so many of your comrades perish from faulty torpedoes, do battle with the kleptocrats responsible. No guns, but reams of memos!


this is the new mod for Half Life 2 DOD:S Department of Defense: Source. lol (A modern twist, I know it was the war dept back then...lol)