Indistructable Yamoto!

[IJammer]

Hi
I am a newbie to SH4... so please resist the urge to :har: ok!

After practicing steerage, navigation, diving, surfacing and generally bossing the crew about... I did the torpedo tutorial and took in some targeting tutorials on You-Tube (most helpful :DL). Anyhow, I thought I was now ready for the big one... i.e. sneak in to a heavily defended Japanese port and take out the docked Yamoto! With a combination of surface sailing and submeged passage while trying to keep the batterys charged enough for the final submerged approach to what should be a heavily guarded Yamoto; I eventually arrived (also took out three merchant ships on the way) a few hundred yards off with my bow pointed directly at her! Went through all the torpedo/targeting setups... (zero speed, as she was docked!) I thought... this is it, the big prize and me only just out of sub mariner school :yeah: Loosed off the six foreward Torpedo's at almost point blank range... they all slammed into the Yamoto at various depths and spread... its just gotta be... eh! Not one explosion, they all bounced off her hull and just sank to the sea bed! WTF... :wah: I reversed, swung round 180 degree's and let her have four more torpedo's from the aft tubes... same result. all struck the Yamoto hull but no explosions and no Japanese flag ship abalze and sinking!

Ok Guys... what am I doing wrong? Or does this Yamoto have a Teflon covered hull? I can't beleive I had ten duff torpedo's!

I know, I know... I shoulda started out with something like a few more defenceless merchant men.

Capt. IJammer (soon to be a bilge rat again at this rate!)

[Armistead]

All....sounds like you were too close and the torps didn't have time to activate. Torps won't arm until about 4-500 yards, best range 600 to be sure.

Yamato takes about 8-12 torps, based on playing stock to different mods.
M14's suffer about a 50% failure rate if you have that option enabled, but sounds like you're too close since you said point blank range..

Not to forget...A ship has a blast range, simply, the explosions can reach out and destroy your sub, so don't get too close or you'll kill yourself in the process.

[Gerald]

Quite right, then you have to let the fish have room to arm, :yep:

[IJammer]

Aghhhh... I did check to see if there were any torpedo arming procedures, but never thought about a self arming device linked by a delay with distance factor! D'oh what a noob I am! :oops:

Anyhow, thanks for the advice Guys... I will try again and lay off a bit more next time! I guess I still have plenty to learn :hmmm:

This sub sim is great... I should have tripped over this sim years a go!

I have 'Das Boot' in the DVD player... so will be watching that (again) tonight :)

BBC TV screened 'The Sinking of the Larconia' last night; where U-Boat Capt. Hartenstein sunk the liner (thinking it was a troop ship), then set about rescuing some of the survivors! Quite a good film... but not enough about the U-Boat and operations aka 'Das Boot'! Anyhow, the Larconia film is worth watching if you are a sub enthusiast! :)

IJammer

[Armistead]

If you're playing stock, wait until you find the world of mods, makes it a 100% better game, gameplay and graphics.

[IJammer]

OK... went back, layed off at 1800 yards, lined her up and let loose, took twelve torpedo's then she went! They are making razor blades out of the scrap iron now!:D Must admit I was only in 'normal' mode and was suprised at the lack of resistance or counter measures from the port defences! If nothing else it was a good training mission... so probably time to stick the realism up a few notch'es and make it harder. I was also suprised that when the Yamoto sank... it ended the mission! I was expecting to have to fight/sneak my way out of the port and return to Pearl... that would have been a proper ending to my mind!

I am not sure about the add on mods...? I downloaded SH4 (ver. 1.3) and then the add on U-Boat Missions via Steam, which up graded SH4 to ver. 1.5. I am not sure I can manually add other mods as Steam may check the file structure and reject any other mods and then perhaps fail to run?

Anyhow gentlemen, thanks for your advice, much appreciated. :salute:

IJammer

[Hylander_1314]

Depending on how you play, there are 3 supermods that you may want to consider.

TMO, Trigger Maru Overhaul

FOTRS, Fall Of The Rising Sun

RFB, Real Fleet Boat

All hve differences and personalities of their own.

RFB is the toughest though, as it is set to use everything on manual settings No helpers.

TMO is a balance between gameplay and realism as is FOTRS.

But you can adjust your realism settings as you advance, and how intricate you want to make it.

I'm trying FOTRS for the first time, and it adds more and varied shipping from merchants to sink, to naval vessels.

All 3 though, have there appeal depending on what you want to do. You may wish to try them all to see what appeals to your tastes, and how much time you can commit to gameplay.

[Armistead]

I didn't use steam, but all here that do use mods just fine.