What on earth happened?

[Subwolf]

Been on patrol for almost two months in my VIIB with a total tonnage of 56000, including a battleship. Everything is just fine, almost home between Helgoland and Cuxhaven moving at 256x. The next thing I know is the boat suddenly got seriously damaged, heavy flooding, engines and everything else destroyed, half the crew dead. A minute later and we're all :dead:

Can't believe it, should be no enemy movement in that area in early -40, didn't see any other ships or aircraft. Shouldn't be any mines there either. What could be the reason is that the cpu couldn't handle 256x near land and other traffic, and I collided with a friendly ship which went down before I could get back to normal time. Or maybe SH3 just went nuts. Any ideas?

I've learned two things from this, no heavy time comp near land, and save a few times during patrol :yep:

Really miss autosave from AOD.

[Myxale]

Collision, Mine, or something along the line!

High TC is a biatch and if it's close to land even more so!
Sometimes high TC near land will make some units jump as a result of you machine trying to process all the shipping around the rendered area! And some might just jump and end in front of your boat!
You get damaged and and flooding! And since TC is fast so is the flooding!

:shifty: Happend to me oft enough! But i got wiser!
When you Nav-Map laggs it's a good idea to tune down the TC!

Sorry for the loss of such agood patroll though! :nope:

[Penelope_Grey]

Was the sea stormy?

[Rommer69]

Once happened to me, north of the strait of Ireland; High TC then plenty of damage and finally sunk in seconds. I ran aground a microscopic piece of ground I did not notice when I plot the way without zoom in the navigation map.:cry:

[Subwolf]

Happend to me oft enough! But i got wiser!
When you Nav-Map laggs it's a good idea to tune down the TC!

Sorry for the loss of such agood patroll though! :nope:

Yes, I got that, something is going on close to me when it laggs. Only problem is it's too late sometimes, can't get it back to 1x. TC is dangerous, but can't be without it.

Well I did save part of the patrol when I quit after that great convoy battle, and HMS Nelson ate four of my eels. But also got some juicy targets after that, lost those.

Was the sea stormy?

Yes in fact it was, wind 15. Guess that didn't make it better..

[Penelope_Grey]

Well what could have happened...

1) you struck a mine because of the boat moving up and down on the waves.
or

2) the rough conditions meant the lookouts didn't spot a ship in your way.

Just my theorums. :know:

[ECAaxel]

actually if you started in 1939 with GWX a message comes though about the brittish planting mines around heigoland so it could well be a mine

[Subwolf]

actually if you started in 1939 with GWX a message comes though about the brittish planting mines around heigoland so it could well be a mine

Really, I didn't get that message, from now on I'll go around Denmark, thanks. I don't like my home base Kiel, but they won't let me change flotilla. Been there for almost a year and got 6 patrols. It's probably because I didn't obey orders when I dumped the lousy grid they wanted me to patrol :cool:

[KeptinCranky]

I've never had trouble with Heligoland mines but I stick fairly close to the coast for exactly that reason....
and now I've gone and jinxed myself haven't I :help:

[Mooncatt]

yup it happens. happened to me once or twice too. as said before. downtime the TC and i doubt u have anymore probs.....a big shame with such a good patrol too. :down:

[jazman]

Unfortunately the lag works for me as a kind of radar, too. If I am out in the middle of the ocean and suddenly I get lags, I know there was a convoy about.

[Whiskey T. Foxtrot]

Unfortunately the lag works for me as a kind of radar, too. If I am out in the middle of the ocean and suddenly I get lags, I know there was a convoy about.

I prefer to think of that as intuition.

[Blacklight]

After a certain date, the west of Helgoland is heavily mined by the Allies. Steer clear of that area. Best bet is to go around to the far east of the island giving it a WIDE berth.
There's a radio message that gets recieved on a certain date where BDU says that British ships are in the process of or have laid mines in that area.

[msalama]

Yup, a mine most likely. Plenty of them hornheads around Heligoland, just ran into one myself a couple of weeks ago there :88) But miraculously enough survived the incident...

[Kielhauler1961]

Same thing happened to me. Lost two boats to mines in early 1940 just west of Helgoland. Some skippers just never learn. :lol:

[predavolk]

TC, schmine compression. It had nothing to do with it. As most of us agree, it was a mine. You don't see those coming at any TC level (including 1x) unless you have an external view active. So it was just bad luck! :down:

[UnderseaLcpl]

British minefield airdropped near Helgoland historically in that period. Hit it myself before.
Seems unfair, some submerged thing sinking you when you can't see it or fight back?:hmm:

[Subwolf]

Thanks for your comments, but after taking a look in the mission editor I can rule out mines. There is a small minefield to the south and east of Helgoland, 5 mines in each, but I passed far to the east of it and was closer to Cuxhaven when it happened. You have this town and a lot of AI traffic to process, not smart to go 256x around there as I did. I believe the damage came from a collision with another ship. Or maybe I even struck bottom in the bad weather, very shallow there. Will be more careful with TC in the future.