Useless deck gun, really.

[kvbrock82]

Hey all,

Last night I was shadowing a light freighter, approx 5000 tons. I screwed up my approach and the target began evasive maneouvers. Since the coast was otherwise clear i decided to surface and attack with my deck gun. Or so i thought..

I pulled up parallel to the target, approx 1000 feet away to his port. I ordered my deck crew to fire at the target, below the waterline. Their aim was so bad you'd think they were high on crack. Anyway, i decided to take things into my own hands as i was obviously not going to achieve anything but a waste of time and ammo.

I switched to AP shells and began pounding the target below the waterline from a distance of 500 feet. I circled the ship putting round after round of both high explosive as well as armour piercing rounds into his hull from all angles. This kept going for ages and there was no visible damage to the target whatsoever. I eventually gave up as it looked like i definitely wasnt getting anywhere. My AP and HE shells were almost finished too.

I highly doubt in real life a small merchant could take anywhere near that kind of punishment. Is this a bug? Im running 1.4 with RFB.

[McHibbins]

Tis is RFB. It is using natural sinking mechanics which means a ship is sinking by flooding not by lowering its hitpoints.
The RFB team lowered the damage of the deckgun/torpedos and increase hitpoints of most of the ships in such way, that it makes no sense to pump lots of shells/torps in your target. They force you to use your DG in a different way.
Just aim for the waterline AND DIFFERENT compartments and it will takes several minutes sometimes hours until a ship will sink.
Patience is the keyword here. I often managed to sink a small freighter with 20 shells, but it takes his time to sink.

This sometimes a little bit annoying for me too....but seems to be more realistic than stock behaviour.

[rein1705]

i sink all kinds of stuff with the deck gun but im using FOTRS

[kvbrock82]

Tis is RFB. It is using natural sinking mechanics which means a ship is sinking by flooding not by lowering its hitpoints.
The RFB team lowered the damage of the deckgun/torpedos and increase hitpoints of most of the ships in such way, that it makes no sense to pump lots of shells/torps in your target. They force you to use your DG in a different way.
Just aim for the waterline AND DIFFERENT compartments and it will takes several minutes sometimes hours until a ship will sink.
Patience is the keyword here. I often managed to sink a small freighter with 20 shells, but it takes his time to sink.

This sometimes a little bit annoying for me too....but seems to be more realistic than stock behaviour.

A lot of things passed through my mind, but the word realistic surely wasnt one of them. :O:
I put over 100 HE and AP rounds into his hull below the water line. I dont think any ship of that size would be able to take such a pounding in real life. I also was circling the boat and hitting him in different compartments from almost point blank range. There was no sign whatsoever that the ship was taking in water too.

[McHibbins]

Hm....what else can I say ? :hmmm: It was discussed several times before.

Just take a look at this thread mate :

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=164889

I´m on your side, but love RFB on the other hand.

[Rockin Robbins]

In real life 100 hits had about an even chance of sinking a freighter. And they could shoot maybe half the speed you can in RFB and couldn't aim nearly as well as you, but probably better than your deck crew.

Also, AP rounds are inappropriate to use on a freighter. All you're doing is putting pinpricks all around which can't leak much water into the ship. HE rounds explode on contact and make a bigger hole.

You can't take the eyecandy as any indication whatever of how much damage you've done to your target. Submarines with large eye candy holes in their sides can submerge. I've sunk lots of targets that had no visible damage. Eye candy is just a nice looking lie. Don't believe it for a second.

[clayp]

I can sink a whole convoy or task force with my daul hopped up 5.25's....:har:

[Platapus]

I have given up trying to sink sampans using the deck gun. I have hit sampans with solid below the waterline shots maybe 10-20 rounds and the sampan still is moving at the same speed. :damn:

Sampans must have awesome fire control systems as one moment they can be completely on fire, the next all fires out. Pretty good for a wooden boat.

I sometimes think that RFB went a little too far with the deck gun. It should not emulate a 16 inch naval gun, but at the same time, it should not be a bb gun either.

[McHibbins]

I have given up trying to sink sampans using the deck gun. I have hit sampans with solid below the waterline shots maybe 10-20 rounds and the sampan still is moving at the same speed. :damn:


The hitpoints of mosts ships are increased to 4000...even the sampans. I´ll try to lower the hitpoints and increase the damage for the DG and torps via s3d-editor. I´ll also take a look at critical chance....this will take lot of time of testing imho :hmmm:

[Rockin Robbins]

Now that's inappropriate for a sampan. Mostly, sampans were sunk with AA fire in real life. That was the only justification for having those otherwise useless things on board!:har:

[kvbrock82]

Rockin Robbins, do you know of a small mod that increases the power of the deck gun?

Not as powerful as the sub nuclear one though :O:

[BillBam]

There are many Deck Gun mods, I use Websters sometimes and it works pretty well, link below.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=139472

[Rockin Robbins]

I really like the guns in TMO, which isn't a small mod. Although you won't be sinking any freighters with your 40mm, it will contribute markedly to sinking it quicker, so long as you have an experienced gun crew for the deck gun and man the 40mm yourself. The 40mm is great for sampans in TMO.

But what most impressed me was when I was playing Jack-in-the-Box with a minelayer in TMO. I would pop up, man the deck gun and the 40mm, pump a few rounds into him, then submerge before he (hopefully) could get close with his guns. I popped up and down seven or eight times and finally, for the first time ever in TMO, won a gun battle with an Japanese naval vessel. He was the only escort for six merchies and was driving me crazy. I was in shallow water and needed him gone.

Granted, he wasn't a battleship. And the battle lasted about an hour, just to sink that boat. But I thought the balance of the combat felt right and the thrill when he burst into flames and stopped shooting was amazing. It was the ultimate game of chicken, but I had to hit him many dozens of times while one hit from him would likely be fatal.

[rein1705]

thats awsom rock!
I remember a time when i dueled with an old subchaser in my S-boat. I've since done this a few times but its not advisable. It took about 20 hits but i killed her.