sub won't stop diving

[Pepe le Moko]

Okay i got sunk while trying to attack a convoy.

It is probably not the proper way to do it, but what i did was put myself in the path of the convoy at 20m under the surface and wait for the leading destroyer to pass above me.

The thing is that i got spotted, i suppose i was not deep enough. it was during the day but i had silent running on and wasn't moving.

Anyway my problem was that after i saw the destroyer head straight for me and noticed my stealth indicator was red, i dived. I got depth charged but that's not what killed me.

The sub wouldn't stop diving. I kept trying to stop diving and even blew the ballasts but that didn't seem to do much. So what gives?

[Contact]

If you have used a crash dive command and before reaching 70 meters depth and if you again changed the depth, your u-boat wont be able to hold depth and will descent deeper. You can slow down this process by switching on slow ahead or if this does little help try setting speed to 3 knots. Playing with blow ballast also helps. This is an annoying bug of stock SH3.

[Pepe le Moko]

Yes i have heard about that bug, the thing is that i didn't crash dive, i simply hit D. Also for blowing the ballasts, does the mechanic officer have to be at his station? Mine was leading a repair party so maybe that's why it didn't seem to work.

[GREY WOLF 3]

when you crash dive engines are full ahead dive planes set to max,when you alter the depth it takes time for the depth planes and engines to kick in,stop the dive at 100m you will go down to 150m before the orders are carried out:salute: :salute:

[johnm]

When you use "D" to dive, the sub don't stop. You have to use "A" to tell it to use the current depth. Unfortunately, the sub dives deeper still and then comes up to the depth you asked for.

Another way is to click a depth on the depth gauge, it should stop when you get to that depth.

I gave up using "D" because of these problems. I usually set the depth I want using the gauge (slow method) or crash dive ("C") (fast track!). As already said, crash dive takes you down to 70m. You can stop before then by clicking the gauge.

[Otto Heinzmeir]

Once your in a steep decent its hard to stop, especially if at full or flank speed. Blowing ballast works better once you have already started to level off a bit. I don't use the D key. I think it might set your speed to flank by default, not sure. What I do is just click a depth on the gauge. Say 50m. Then I click the speed I want seperate. This gives you more control.

Since in order to select 50m you first have to switch the the bigger scale meter. I will click 20 meters on the finer scale to start the dive, click the speed I want , change to the larger depth meter and click 50 or whatever I need. Its not as bad as it sounds once it becomes a habit you don't even think about it.

The DD probably picked you up because you were in his sonar cone. I havn't tried this but others that attack from the front of convoys mention angling in between the escorts so your a bit off to the side.

Hitting the bottom in a crash dive happened in real life to. I just read about an account when a German plane mistook a German sub for British and attacked it. The German sub crash dove in shallow water and hit bottom.

[Pepe le Moko]

Thanks for the answers guys, that was really useful. I will do better next time but hey it was only my second convoy attack, i am doing all the targetting by hand and i play with GWX.

For some reason i got into my head that if the destroyer was going fast it couldn't find me with the sonar but now i realize it only applies to the hydrophone.

I'll have to try different techniques, maybe getting right in the middle of the convoy isn't the safest approach.:salute:

[mefaba]

The same thing just happened to me off coast of Ireland. I fired a torpedo on a Tribal class destroyer. Hit it. It started to come closer. I switched to silent running and manually set the depth to 25 meters from the gauge.

But the sub didn't stop diving. I did everything to stop it but no good. :dead:

I was not a crash dive nor I hit the "D" key.

Does anybody know anything about this problem?

[derrinurban]

In your second posting you said that you were performing repairs while this was going on. The other thing that you may not have realized is that if your sub has flooding, it will affect the angle your boat sits in the water.

If the flooding was in the front compartments the nose of the boat will be angled down, sometimes as much as 30-40 degrees. At full or flank speed, you are driving your boat to the bottom. There is no amount of dive plane or blowing ballast that will overcome this. Been there, done that. :damn:

When you send your repair crews to control the flooding make note of which compartments are damaged and follow these guidlines.

- front compartments - perform flood control and watch depth, when you start getting too deep, go to back full or emergency. This will start decreasing your depth. Keep going back and ahead until flooding is under control.

- middle compartments - no affect to diving (ballast and dive planes work normally), other than you are heavier and will need more speed to maintain depth.

- rear compartments - since boat is sitting nose up in the water, a little extra speed is all that is needed to maintain depth. Thing to watch here is if you have damage to engines or drive systems. Do not assume that if you hit flank speed that you are going flank speed. If the engines are damaged, flank speed may only be 2-4 knots until repairs are done. Set depth for 50-100 meters and go ahead full if you have major flooding. Wait, no change, go to flank, wait blow ballast as last resort.

Happy hunting.

[maillemaker]

To address your attack problem, it probably will not do to sit in front of a destroyer and let him pass directly over you, even if you are stopped at silent running. You want to try to approach convoys so that you come in beside the lead escort but in front of the side escort.

Letting a destroyer sail directly over your head is a good way to get discovered. :)

Steve

[unterseemann]

And don't wait at 20,30,40,50m or everything deeper under the surface. Stay at periscop depth it will be more difficult for escorts to detect you ( nice drawing in GWX manual at page B-16 figure B-11) and try to present a low profile to them.

[mefaba]

Guys you all talk about how to avoid destroyers.

I am talking about the manual depth set with the gauge doesn't work. Even in an open sea with no enemy around, I tried to dive to 40 meters and the sub did not stop no matter what I did. I increased speed, lowered my speed etc. The sub went all the way down to 165 meters and crashed the bottom.

This is so annoying.:damn:

[Snestorm]

Yes i have heard about that bug, the thing is that i didn't crash dive, i simply hit D. Also for blowing the ballasts, does the mechanic officer have to be at his station? Mine was leading a repair party so maybe that's why it didn't seem to work.

There was someone in the chief engineer's slot, wasn't there?

That slot is what controls the diving and rising.

[Paul Riley]

Okay i got sunk while trying to attack a convoy.

It is probably not the proper way to do it, but what i did was put myself in the path of the convoy at 20m under the surface and wait for the leading destroyer to pass above me.

The thing is that i got spotted, i suppose i was not deep enough. it was during the day but i had silent running on and wasn't moving.

Anyway my problem was that after i saw the destroyer head straight for me and noticed my stealth indicator was red, i dived. I got depth charged but that's not what killed me.

The sub wouldn't stop diving. I kept trying to stop diving and even blew the ballasts but that didn't seem to do much. So what gives?

Try to engage 'back emergency' while blowing as much air into the ballast as your supply will allow.
Cant say that has happened to me before though,not being able to stop a dive I mean.Maybe the dive planes were stuck?,do you have malfunctions enabled?.