How deep to evade depth charges

[black1]

Hello all, im playing T.M 1.7 and my hat is off to Ducimus for the great job he does, my question is how deep should i go to evade depth charges in deep water say red line is at 240 or so. I hit silent running and go deep and zig zag to evade but they are good and powerful and get me alot of the times. I usually go about 155 just below thermal layer but they still get me. What is a safe distance to dive to with perfect hull integrity to boot. What are some of you tactics and depths, thanks all. Also when you die on a patrol how many revert back to there saved game and continue and how many start a new career over, just curious.

[Peto]

What sub class? You can usually go test depth plus 30% (maybe 50) without a problem. I try to adhere to 30% though and I've never been crushed by depth (unless I had assistance from a depth charge :shifty:).

[simonb1612]

To echo what Peto said. It really does depend on what baot you are in. Do a search on crush depths and you should find some figures in the forums.

ALSO BEAR IN MIND....Any damage to your boat has the potential to greatly reduce the depth that you can go to and return from :)

[Ducimus]

The red line, is your test depth. It is not your actual crush depth. You can acutally go a bit deeper then that. How much deeper? Im not saying, finding out is half the fun! My suggestion is to stand in the conning tower and watch carefully as you go deeper. When the lights start to flicker, thats deep enough, raise up in depth so the lights no longer flicker and you'll be ok - and just above your acutal crush depth.

[fireship4]

What was the maximum depth setting for Jap depth charges in the war (well 1941).

[Torplexed]

For the standard Japanese Type 95 depth charge 30 or 60 meters. 90 meters later on after the Congressman blabbed.

[tater]

^^^ I wish that was true in game. I tired, rather a lot to make it so, but the AI overrides the DC explosion depth setting. So in SH4, all ship-launched DCs can go to ANY depth, and they aim at your depth, they are not limited to 30m spacing, or 7.5m on the Type 2s. They aim at YOUR depth, regardless of how deep. The only mitigating factor is the depth accuracy which is set to 5m in stock, and 7m in my DC mod.

You are never safe from DCs by diving in SH4.

Aircraft dropped DCs actually explode at the set-depth, so those work. I have a mod to set them to 25m and 45m (RL settings).

I'm going to try again to make the roll-racks drop "bombs" instead, so the AI will have no control over the set-depth for the 95s.

tater

[simonb1612]

I am constantly surprised by the discrepancies in what was made historically accurate (i.e. relaibility of early torpedoes) in this sim, and what was not (i.e depth charges and ranges of aircraft).

I do not profess to be an expert on any of these but I wonder if we could gather a master list of such things and submit it to the Devs for their attention. I am sure that some of it could be modded as well, but it sure would be nice to have some consistency :)

[Jib01]

Just as a caviat to this post. In shallow water with 6ft below the keel with a good skipper, the destroyers will blow themselves up because the depth is too shallow so the destroyer sinks itself. This is only is shallow water and assuming you can stay away from his DC run.

Still a bug in the program. The destroyer ran over me but I did not sustain damage. I was looking from outside as the destroyer jumped out of the water passing over me.

Regards
Jib01/02

[Peto]

^^^ I wish that was true in game. I tired, rather a lot to make it so, but the AI overrides the DC explosion depth setting. So in SH4, all ship-launched DCs can go to ANY depth, and they aim at your depth, they are not limited to 30m spacing, or 7.5m on the Type 2s. They aim at YOUR depth, regardless of how deep. The only mitigating factor is the depth accuracy which is set to 5m in stock, and 7m in my DC mod.

You are never safe from DCs by diving in SH4.

Aircraft dropped DCs actually explode at the set-depth, so those work. I have a mod to set them to 25m and 45m (RL settings).

I'm going to try again to make the roll-racks drop "bombs" instead, so the AI will have no control over the set-depth for the 95s.

tater

Question: (Because I'm curious :yep:) Will the AI be able to choose 1 of 2 or 3 depth settings? Or will each weapon mount be preset to a certain depth?

[tater]

If I get this to work, I will just have a single explosion depth for each DC.

So an early escort might get 1 roll rack with DCs set to 30m, and another set to 60m.

Ditto for throwers.

I could also add in duplicate DC racks with no, or invisible, 3d models. Add nodes, and superimpose them. So you'd see 2 racks, but there would really be 4, 2 dropping at 30, 2 dropping at 60. I'd have to add a 3d for later war 95s with the 90m setting.

I think for type 2 DCs, I'd set the depth error at 7.5 and leave it alone otherwise.

[Peto]

If I get this to work, I will just have a single explosion depth for each DC.

So an early escort might get 1 roll rack with DCs set to 30m, and another set to 60m.

Ditto for throwers.

I could also add in duplicate DC racks with no, or invisible, 3d models. Add nodes, and superimpose them. So you'd see 2 racks, but there would really be 4, 2 dropping at 30, 2 dropping at 60. I'd have to add a 3d for later war 95s with the 90m setting.

I think for type 2 DCs, I'd set the depth error at 7.5 and leave it alone otherwise.

Hmm... That would mean that you could set different damage models and radius' to reflect depth :hmm:. Could be another reason to go deep and stay there during a DC attack :yep:...

Thoughts/Ideas/Brainstorming:

1. Do planes have hardpoints? If so, can you put them on escorts?
2. Maybe we sould continue this in the modders forum LOL!

[-Pv-]

There is no magic depth to completely avoid all depth charges. If the DDs know where you are and you give them enough time to adjust their depths and timing, you'll eventually get hit. You need to use TACTICS not just depth.
-Pv-

[tater]

True, PV, in RL, however, this was a limitation on IJN DCs. We knew after a while they set their DCs shallow, but it was something I doubt any skipper would take for granted in RL.

tater

[Steeltrap]

Worth remembering that the Japs didn't have sonar capable of giving accurate depth info on a contact. The Allies started in the same position, but developed improved versions that gave bearing, distance and depth....just one more reason why the submarine war in the Atlantic tilted overwhelmingly in favour of the escorts, while in the Pacific it remained heavily in favour of the subs.

If you consider radar, the Brits lead the world in radar tech in 1939. By the end of 1941, they were still well ahead of everyone. The US gained a lot when they 'formally' joined the war against Germany. They took what they had, gathered tech from the Brits, then went gangbusters......the Japs were perhaps 6-12 months behind the US in radar in 1941....by the end of the war they were at least 2 years behind. The technology gap, therefore, continued to increase during the war in favour of the US, an important factor in the overwhelming success US subs had against the Japs. (As a bizarre aside, the Germans lead the world in IR technology, as they thought that was how the Allies were being so succesful gainst their subs and put a lot of research effort into it!!)