Can you park on the seafloor?

[msalama]

Hi all.

I tried parking my IIA on the seafloor in shallow waters off Kiel. My speed was 2kts and the bottom was sand or silt, but I still suffered some minor hull damage when touching down. Now is this doable at all in SH3/GWX2.0, or should I try to be more careful next time?

It's my understanding that the boats sometimes did this IRL, so it's probably just me being dah n00B here :p But I'd still like to hear your advice and opinions concerning the matter if you don't mind!

PS. My new-fangled career has gone without incident so far. I'm on the high seas some 300km east of Shetland now w/ an intent of patrolling the seas off Lerwick tomorrow. And who knows, maybe I'll even sink some Engländer shipping there... S!

[GoldenRivet]

yes you can do it in GWX but you have to be absolutely stopped before you do so.

1. dive to within 5 - 10 meters of the seabed
2. Stop the u-boat until the speed indication is zero
3. hit "D"
4. Have a damage control team ready
5. you might take some damage but it will be very light

NOTE! - settling your boat on the sea bed AKA "bottoming the boat" was a real life tactic when all else failed: BUT it is not a recognized tactic in SH3, if you do this, it will make absolutely no difference to the detection criteria of the AI sensors. this is a hard code thing IIRC and there is nothing that can be done about it without Ubisoft releasing the SDK which is not likely to ever happen.

If you find yourself trapped in shallow water... bottoming the boat will not change your detectability. the only way you will decrease the chances of being detected will be to go deep and use other tactics recommended in the GWX manual

[Brag]

In SH3 in all its variations there is no practical advantage of bottoming down unless you simply don't have enough water to hide (bad situation to start with).

[SmokinTep]

Only time I spend on the sea bed was to try and fix damage.

[Torplexed]

If you do feel compelled to park on the sea floor, don't forget to feed the meter. :p

[TomcatMVD]

Best way to place your sub on the sea bottom is to blow ballast next to a DD... Flawless technique!

Anyways... I didn't know it was done IRL:huh: , but it does make sense of course... it should screw ASDIC to hell!

[Kipparikalle]

I used this tactic when I sneaked on the Loch Ewe's port, and waited for night before attacking.


I'm going to ask Ubisoft for giving SH3 SDK.
Right now.
Srsly

[Hanomag]

Kaluens,

Once you have aggro, bottoming just presents a target thats not moving. :nope:

Keep moving, stay deep, stay quiet. :arrgh!:

[sturmer]

I'm going to ask Ubisoft for giving SH3 SDK.
Right now.
Srsly

hehe good luck with that, i hope it works well for ya :D but i seriously doubt it that they ever gonna give it to the public.

[CapZap1970]

Yers, it can be done, but very slowly if you want to avoid damage... :up:
I know there is not much todo when a destryer has you pinned, but it can save your life when in desperate need of repairs and yu can't surface. :cool:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t1/capzap1970/screenshots/btm1.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t1/capzap1970/screenshots/btm2.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t1/capzap1970/screenshots/btm3.jpg

CapZap

[Mush Martin]

Come to all stop a few metres above and let the speed bleed off.
then hit normal dive on the planes this will take you down slow enough
to avoid damage.

[seafarer]

Best way to place your sub on the sea bottom is to blow ballast next to a DD... Flawless technique!

Anyways... I didn't know it was done IRL:huh: , but it does make sense of course... it should screw ASDIC to hell!

Actually, on a soft bottom sea floor (sand, mud), I'd expect that a large metal object, like a submarine, would return a sharp, focused and easily recognized active SONAR/ASDIC echo. I'd think you'd stand out from the bottom like a sign post. Wrecks certainly do.

Passive hydrophone's might not find you, but active sure should.

[Hanomag]

BTW Welcome Aboard Kaluen msalama!! :arrgh!:

[TomcatMVD]

Best way to place your sub on the sea bottom is to blow ballast next to a DD... Flawless technique!

Anyways... I didn't know it was done IRL:huh: , but it does make sense of course... it should screw ASDIC to hell!

Actually, on a soft bottom sea floor (sand, mud), I'd expect that a large metal object, like a submarine, would return a sharp, focused and easily recognized active SONAR/ASDIC echo. I'd think you'd stand out from the bottom like a sign post. Wrecks certainly do.

Passive hydrophone's might not find you, but active sure should.
I've read a couple of times that the closest you are to the bottom, the more complicated it is to pick up a return... mmmh..:hmm:

[danurve]

It was once explained to me that "bottoming the boat" in SHIII simply isn't within the game engine, more or less. Something about an inability to cope with what the bottom actually is. Hence the continuous damage and unsettling.

[Dowly]

yes you can do it in GWX but you have to be absolutely stopped before you do so.

AFAIK, you can do it in stock too. I remember doing it on my infamous Valletta raid back in WaW I using RuB, which, again AFAIK, didnt change nothing about it. :up:

[Sailor Steve]

Best way to place your sub on the sea bottom is to blow ballast next to a DD... Flawless technique!

Anyways... I didn't know it was done IRL:huh: , but it does make sense of course... it should screw ASDIC to hell!

Actually, on a soft bottom sea floor (sand, mud), I'd expect that a large metal object, like a submarine, would return a sharp, focused and easily recognized active SONAR/ASDIC echo. I'd think you'd stand out from the bottom like a sign post. Wrecks certainly do.

Passive hydrophone's might not find you, but active sure should.
I've read a couple of times that the closest you are to the bottom, the more complicated it is to pick up a return... mmmh..:hmm:
Every time this topic comes up, someone goes with what they think makes sense. Not meaning to pick on you, Seafarer, but the reality was far different. At Lingayen Gulf S-38 was grounded on three separate ocassions, and every time it worked. At one point her captain, 'Moon' Chapple, parked on a steep slope and slid down, only to take her up and do it over again! If I remember from Roscoe not only did the sand absorb the sonar waves, but also the shock waves from the depth charges.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_S-38_(SS-143)

[Marriott]

i've only put my boat on the bottom once, and the DD lost me, however that could have been a coincedence.

[Dronston]

Leaving real life for what it is: I never had any problems parking my boat on the sea floor. In stock SH3, GWX 1.03/ 2.0 I always managed to do it with no more than about 3% damage max. Not sure it really helped much escaping attackers, let's just say I never died while on the bottom from DC's or whatever. (depth 80 metres or more - wouldn't try this in much shallower water)

My technique is pretty much the same as the others, get to within 10 to 5 metres of the bottom (if I dive with say 4 knots I give the order to maintain current depth at about 20 m from the bottom (A) when the bow starts to rise I hit A again so you settle close to the bottom. Get speed down to 1 knot, do a regular dive (D). 1 or 2 m. before the bow hits the sand kill the engines and you will slowly settle down in the sands with only slight damage. (using external view here). Most damage occurs when you have too much speed left and the boat starts to "bounce" of the sea floor.
Most important --> take your time to keep things moving slowly.

[FIREWALL]

You mean the rest of you don't have the SDK ?

[XLjedi]

Yeah, I'm afraid the couple times I've found myself hanging out at the bottom it wasn't exactly part of my strategy... rather a welcome gift to keep me from sinking below crush depth.

Bottoming out like that and then managing to make repairs and deal with the flooding and then slowly limping away from that ever present DD, was actually some of the best gaming time I've had with SH3. Very "Das Boot"-ish...

[Dronston]

Bottoming out like that and then managing to make repairs and deal with the flooding and then slowly limping away from that ever present DD, was actually some of the best gaming time I've had with SH3. Very "Das Boot"-ish...

For that reason alone I sometimes steam up Gibraltar on the surface, at wahnsinnige Fahrt to get some attention and then dive as deep as I can and try to slip through, batteries and air quality slowly getting to 0, while the same scene in Das Boot plays iin the background.

A sick bunch aren't we?

:hmm:

[Elmer Kosterman]

Günther Prien bottomed his boat to have a hot meal and wait for nightfall before his raid into Scapa Flow (only cold food was allowed during the mission). From his book, Mein Weg nach Scapa Flow (I Sank the Royal Oak).