How do you get your crew to fire on ships?

[Fattysbox]

So funny situation.

After sending a Nelson to Davy Jones locker north of Scapa, I decided to return to port only to find a Queen Elizabeth also on her way to Scapa. Only had two eels left. Penetrated the screen and first one hit right under the funnel and she comes to a dead stop. Second eel from my stern tube does some extra damage but doesn't sink her.

Funny, the escorts completely ignore me and steam around the stricken battleship as if she doesn't exist :shifty:. I wait a while for her to sink and nothing. I move off to 7000m and surface.

I begin shelling...

No response, not even a broadside...

Oh well, so much for enemy AI.

But my question: I can't seem to get my crew to fire upon the ship without me actually aiming. Would like to use the external camera and see the incoming shells hit the ship, but my deck crew just sit there and wait for me to fire. :shifty:

Anything I can do?

J

[daft]

Mark the target you want to fire at by switching to binocular view (not UZO) by hitting Spacebar when the cross goes red and they'll fire away.

[Fattysbox]

Really?

That an odd way of doing things... So many odd things in SH5... :cry:

[Decoman]

Afaik, the only indirect way to fire on a ship with the deck gun, is to use the binoculars and press spacebar to START firing. There is afaik no STOP command, nor something like a sub-system targeting option available currently.

[daft]

Really?

That an odd way of doing things... So many odd things in SH5... :cry:

I think it was the same in SH4 to be honest, but someone will probably point out the error of my ways if I'm mistaken on this.

[Onkel Neal]

Really?

That an odd way of doing things... So many odd things in SH5... :cry:


Odd and undocumented, thanks my main gripe :)

[Webster]

i could be wrong but i think the way to reset things or in this case to stop the shelling is to man it yourself then unman it.

manning it over rides the fire at will setting (i believe)


but someone should confirm it works for sure before depending on it

[Hanomag]

How do you get your crew to fire on ships?

Did you say please??? :hmmm:

[SabreHawk]

Afaik, the only indirect way to fire on a ship with the deck gun, is to use the binoculars and press spacebar to START firing. There is afaik no STOP command, nor something like a sub-system targeting option available currently.

Actually there is a stop firing command, hit the spacebar again.

[cothyso]

hitting the spacebar again won't stop them, nor a vommand to un-man the deck gun. probably bugged..

i think the only way to stop them at this moment would be to command periscope depth, and then immediately (after they've left the gun) surface again.

[SabreHawk]

hitting the spacebar again won't stop them, nor a vommand to un-man the deck gun. probably bugged..

i think the only way to stop them at this moment would be to command periscope depth, and then immediately (after they've left the gun) surface again.

Did you have binocs on when hitting spacebar?

[Stealth Hunter]

It's going to take a LOT of shells to sink a Queen Elizabeth.:haha:

[robbo180265]

It's going to take a LOT of shells to sink a Queen Elizabeth.:haha:

:rotfl2:

[Webster]

How do you get your crew to fire on ships?

Did you say please??? :hmmm:


the answer is here:

Afaik, the only indirect way to fire on a ship with the deck gun, is to use the binoculars and press spacebar to START firing. There is afaik no STOP command, nor something like a sub-system targeting option available currently.

[DanBolivar]

There is afaik no STOP command, nor something like a sub-system targeting option available currently.

Have you tried throwing a beer bottle and hitting one of the guys in the back of the head?.. No, wait.. hitting the spacebar again works fine. :)

[DrJones]

I just worked a little with the command.cfg file.

Now You are able do let the deck gun and the flak fire.

And You can give them Orders how to Fire.

Attention!!!

This command.cfg File belongs to the Stormy DBSM Mod 1.1.

In the Zipped File there is a discritption in a Text File.

Discritption for Keyboard
Flak

CTRL F Fire Free
CTRL G Hold Fire
CTRL A Short Distance
CTRL S Middle Distance
CTRL D Long Distance
CTRL V Aim on Fighters
CTRL B Aim on Bombers
CTRL Q Aim Any
CTRL W Aim approaching Target
CTRL E Aim Any Target

Deck Gun
CTRL H Fire Free
CTRL J Hold Fire
CTRL K Short Distance
CTRL L Middle Distance
CTRL Z Aim on Hull
CTRL U Aim on Bridge
CTRL I Aim on Wepons
CTRL O Aim on Waterline

Feel free to test it.

Download Link

http://www.mediafire.com/file/oi4tmejzioi/C:\fakepath\Command Mod.zip

[Fattysbox]

To the above post: this is interesting, I'm going to have to check it out!


"It's going to take a LOT of shells to sink a Queen Elizabeth."

Um yeah. After an HOUR of shelling and running out of ammo I decided to call it in.

[SteamWake]

On the topic of merchants firing upon you I made an interesting observation last night.

I was attacking a large merchant and fired two torpedoes at it while at periscope depth. Both struck but wasent enough evidently they can immediatly stop flooding and ignore fire... but thats another topic.

I dedided to surface and finish her with the deck gun. We popped up and actually had enough morale for the wo to order the deck gun manned, I then 'mark' the target and they begin firing away.

There was no return fire so I started sailing closer. I noted we were outside of the magic grey circle. We continued closing the distance when suddenly their guns open up. Uhhhhh all back full center rudder... A quick check of the map we were now within the magical grey circle.

The conditions were low visibility, night time with fog. The ships magic grey circle was quite small indeed maybe 1,000 yards. As we backed away at some point their fire just stopped.

So I'm assuming that the issue is that you can see and fire from a much greater range than that of the merchants. If you close that range they will fire upon you.

[SabreHawk]

Well yeah Steam, thats always been the case with Uboats. They are nearly invisible at night, and we can certainly see a merchant at a much further distance than they can see us.
And it certainly stands to reason that they cant shoot what they cant see. A waste of amutition.
And nothing magic about the circle, its just the range that they can see at given the current conditions. Even SH3 had that, it just wasnt gray shaded and you had to be zoomed in to a certain point to see it, as well as the ASDIC range and pattern on DDs the same way.

In SH3 I'd have WO man the gun and then hit hold fire, and then not order the firing till we were within 3000m or less. Cause from further away the guys missed too often, and again was a waste of ammo.
And of course, if we couldnt see them at all ya cant even target them much less shoot at them.

[SteamWake]

I call them magic circle because in real life you would not have any idea as to what their actual visual range would be nor could you zoom a map to find out :03:

Anyhow the whole point of my post was to illustrate why sometimes a ship does not fire upon you.. they simply cant 'see' you.

I'm not sure what the aircrats excuse is. ;)

[SabreHawk]

I'm not sure what the aircrats excuse is. ;)

Yeah now thats a good one, I've had on this first patrol many, many aircraft sightings yet none have attacked and fly right by and not even so much as flip me the bird.
So much so that I've even manged to break my old habit in SH3 of automaticly crash diving anytime I hear "Aircraft spotted". Cause I knew that if the watch spotted any, that the aircraft was already on his attack run.
As I know that the AA guns were only installed for those times when diving cannot be accomplished, for whatever reason.

The best defense a Uboat has against aircraft is to dive and get out of sight, and dont even think of surfacing till you know they aren't coming around for another pass, or aren't just circling just outside your visual range in the vent your brave enough to resurface right away.

[darklighter]

Just hit the surface the boat button to get them to un-man the gun. There is a few seconds of lag where a few extra shells go down range.

[SteamWake]

Just hit the surface the boat button to get them to un-man the gun. There is a few seconds of lag where a few extra shells go down range.

Huh... sure thats logical.. I'll have to try that.

Hey ever 'forget' the gun was manned while sneaking up on a convoy when all of a sudden they let loose? Not very stealthy :haha:

If you get the crew morale mod alot of these issues can be eliminated as they will actually follow orders.

[SabreHawk]

Just hit the surface the boat button to get them to un-man the gun. There is a few seconds of lag where a few extra shells go down range.

Yep, though it might not be the right way it should happen it does work and every time too.
Yep a lotta strange and funny things like that in SH5 no doubt, and we can only hope that patch 2 fixes them.