damage/repairs are confusing

[taukarrie]

i wish this was as simple in SH4 as it was in SH3. in SH3 something was clearly working, damaged, or destroyed. and you could see how the repairs were going if at all.

in SH4 i can never tell if something is repairable or if the crew is even working on it. i understand the concept of the damage control team and that crewmen at their stations in damaged compartments will repair things. and far the most part the guys seem to fix things pretty consistantly. however, when something is taking a long time to repair i will check the damage control view to assess the situation.

now, in the damage control view, things at a glance seem simple. icons in red are damaged. the little red vertical bar in an icon tells how badly sort of serves as a progress bar to tell how far along repairs are. but i soon learned that was not exactly the case.

if i mouse over that little vertical bar it'll display a number. a number that doesnt make sense. for example:

ive got a damaged hydrophone with a completely darkened red bar. mouseover reveals the number 0.027. then ive got a damaged twin 20mm AA gun also with the exact same darkened red vertical bar in the icon. i expected the same number with a mouseover here but instead the number is 0.01. Thirdly, ive also got a damaged drive planes transmission with a completely light red vertical bar. mousing over this bar reveals the numer 1.

i have to assume the transmission is destroyed since i cant turn but i can still man the AA gun and listen to the hydrophone. however, despite the various numbers and damaged contitions to the afformentioned systems nothing is getting repaired. i am aware of and have tended to the following things:

i am NOT silent running.

i have given the crew ample time to sleep before sending them to battlestations or ticking on the damage control team.

all stations are manned. (full crew)

i am surfaced to allow for outter hull systems to be repaired. (guns, etc)




sure, my novice crew isnt the best at repairs but ive been on 8000 x speed for quite a while now. the perfectly functional/damaged aa gun should have at least been repaired.


so i would like to know how to identify on the damage control station how badly damaged a system is, how to estimate repair times, if something can be repaired at all, and what those little vertical red bars mean along with their coresponding numbers.

anyone figure this out?





oh also, i wish i knew exactly what some systems are. i have no idea what a drive planes transmission does or how bad things are when one breaks. compressor, hydraulic pump, main pump... all these things sound important but i couldnt really explain the purpose of any of them.

[ETR3(SS)]

You're right when you say the Damage Control situation in SH3 is much easier to understand, at least in my opinion. For SH4 it sounds like you've pretty much figured out the system. The red bar next to the damaged item is the damage to that item in a percent format. 1 being completely destroyed and 0 being no damage. As for estimates on repair times, the only estimate you will ever get is for the bulkheads if they take damage. I assume that at this point you may have seen some flooding occur in game and saw the water level rising in your DC screen. If you mouse over that you get a time to repair the bulkhead and a time the compartment will be completely flooded in. Something to keep in mind if something is completely destroyed is you can refit at a friendly port and repair that item good as new. But this does not repair Hull Damage.

A Dive Plane Transmission is what controls your Dive Planes, break that and your bow or stern planes won't function anymore. The Compressor is an Air Compressor. You need compressed air to surface the boat, important thing to have! The Hydraulic Pump supplies hydraulics to your Dive Planes Transmission and the Rudder Transmission so that these control surfaces can move. The Main Pump is what you use to dewater your boat should you start flooding. Hope that answers some of your questions.