Issues with torpedo loading

[Esanssi]

First of all, since I know you're going to ask it, here's what I'm running:

SH3 + GWX 3.0 + SH3C + Das Boot Sound Mod

Anyways, I set off on my first patrol yesterday. Only about 1 day into the hunt I noticed a merchant fleet and went after it like hell. Succesfully torpedoed one vessel(the bugger snapped right in half! :yeah:) and started harassing the remaining two.

After about 2 ingame hours of chasing them, trying to get the perfect angle on them, I finally had my chance to take one of them down again. So my WO made some calculations(cheatiiiing, I know.. :oops:), and I had my finger on the firing button. But then I noticed the torpedo tubes were still lit red.

Checked with the management menu, the torpedoes were in the tubes but the tooltip on them said "in queue waiting for loading". There's enough crew as I remember reading that under 25% won't be efficient enough and they aren't fatigued. I hadn't taken any damage and I'm pretty sure 2 hours would be sufficient time for a trained u-boat crew to put atleast 1 measly torpedo in a tube.

So, was this some sort of a bug or does it just REALLY take that long to load a torpedo?

This nub thanks you in advance for your replies :salute:

[Mittelwaechter]

Are you rigged for silence?

[Esanssi]

Are you rigged for silence?

Nope. Nor were the tube doors open. This is why I was quite frustrated by this, as there didn't seem to be any logical reason for the issue. :hmmm:

[Mittelwaechter]

Well, there are only a few possibilities for such a scenario.
Get more (qualified) crew into the compartment and an officer too.

Make sure silent running is off - reestablish SR and then switch back again.

Check the 3D situation for the tubes. Switches at the WEPS station clear? F12 to the outside and check the tube caps to be closed.

Do you play with sabotage/malfunctions on?

[Esanssi]

Hmm. Well, I'll have to double-check everything once I put my captains hat on again today.

Sabotage/malfunction settings are switched on, but obviously I didn't take that into account when thinking about this.. Sabotage? On my sub? On my maiden voyage? Never!

Let's hope I can figure out what the heck's causing trouble. :O:

Thanks for all the suggestions again.

[Raptor]

Press the letter i key to bring up the torpedo loadout/inventory screen.

Look to be sure that there is a check mark next to AUTO LOADING in the upper left hand corner.

If Autoloading is off (unchecked), tubes can be loaded only manually by you. Spare eels will show as "in que awaiting loading".


You also need a weapons officer in the control room for loading to occur.



and remind Bernard to close the outer doors on the tubes before he opens the inner doors to reload.:rotfl2:

[Esanssi]

Welp, the same problem still plagued me today. Checked everything you guys suggested and still the buggers insist on being in queue.

Must check everything one more time.. This is highly frustrating. :nope:

[Gargamel]

Try cycling the torpedo tubes by hitting the q ( w maybe I forget) key a few times. That has solved my identical issue in the past. Also toggle silent running on and off to make sure. V

[Esanssi]

- Auto loading is on
- Tube doors are not open
- Not rigged for silent running(toggled it on/off just to make sure)

So it's gotta be something to do with the crew. For the first time my guys have gotten fatigued(I'm assuming that '!' indicates just that). But this already happened when they weren't fatigued so.. What the heck?

For the heck of it, I tried moving my Weapons Officer into the torpedo room and back to the command room and the first torpedos tool tip changed from the 'loading queue' thing to this:

http://i.imgur.com/N19ga.jpg

Does that help you guys any? :06:

[Sailor Steve]

Look at the green bar for the torpedo room. It's showing about 30% effectiveness. This can only be due to fatigue. Just because you're not seeing the '!' above the crewman doesn't mean he's not tired. You need to check each one. Also, you only have one petty officer there who is a qualified torpedoman. You need to have that green bar well up above 50%, and 75% would be even better.

[Esanssi]

Hmm.. Okay, so, it was a crew issue then. Although caused by my nubbery. :O:

Guess I need to spend some more renown points back at port then. Don't recall seeing a qualified torpedoman amongst the PO's on my first round, but it wouldn't be anything new under the sun that I missed something. This is all still so confuzzling to me. Well, now I know better than to rush out to sea before making sure I actually have a crew that can do something.

Too bad I didn't get the tonnage from the one merchant I managed to sink in my patrol grid for some reason. :damn:

About the fatigue system.. What does the '!' next to a person indicate? Critical fatigue, or something along those lines?

[Sailor Steve]

About the fatigue system.. What does the '!' next to a person indicate? Critical fatigue, or something along those lines?
Exactly so. He's about to pass out...or already has. The easiest way around it is to use SH3 Commander and set it to "No Fatigue". Then they'll take care of themselves like they're supposed to.

Commander can also be used to assign whatever qualifications you like, as well as badges and medals.

[Hinrich Schwab]

To elaborate on what Steve pointed out, the Petty Officer with the Torpedoman rating is the problem. Rated POs and Officers greatly add or detract to a compartment's efficiency. Crewmembers and unrated POs are simply filler to help add to the efficiency. Trained members must be in the appropriate compartment whenever in use. When you get done with the patrol, you may want to add the Torpedoman rating to one or two of the untrained POs to avoid this problem in the future. The Fatigue mods will not resolve low efficiency from an untrained, unrated crew.

[Esanssi]

Exactly so. He's about to pass out...or already has. The easiest way around it is to use SH3 Commander and set it to "No Fatigue". Then they'll take care of themselves like they're supposed to.

Commander can also be used to assign whatever qualifications you like, as well as badges and medals.

I thought I had checked "No fatigue" from the options, but apparently I hadn't.

Regardless, thank you all for the replies! Once again I have learned something :salute:

[Raptor]

You said you moved your Weps officer to the torpedo room and back to the Control Room. He has to stay in the Torpedo Room during the reload to be any good to you.


In both stock SH3 and GWX, when you go to get new crewmen from the barracks, only the officers come with qualifications; WOs and crew do not. You have to qualify them at sea. SH3 Commander makes this easy.

[Mittelwaechter]

IIRC - torpedos are loaded while WEPS station isn't taken. You don't get information about loaded tubes - the officer isn't there to tell you - but the loading sequence works despite of that.

[Raptor]

Just ran a test and you are correct, Sir. I'll edit my post accordingly.:hmmm:

[Kapt Z]

IIRC - torpedos are loaded while WEPS station isn't taken. You don't get information about loaded tubes - the officer isn't there to tell you - but the loading sequence works despite of that.

I think that's correct, but only if you leave the 'auto-reload' option checked. Otherwise you have to have the station 'manned' to order reloads.

[Mittelwaechter]

No need to feed the TDC while loading torpedos.

The WEPS station has not to be manned for reloading the tubes; auto-loading checked/unchecked is irrelevant either.

:yeah:

[Raptor]

Respectfully, (and I just tried it twice to confirm):

With SH3 + GWX, empty torpedo tubes will NOT reload with AUTO LOADING unchecked, no matter how many poeple - qualified or not - are in the torpedo room and no matter whether the Weps station is manned or not.

Unchecking (off) autoload allows you as the player to manually reload any empty tube with any internally available eel, but the game won't do it unless autoload is checked (on). The Weps station does not have to be manned to do this manually.

[u crank]

Respectfully, (and I just tried it twice to confirm):

With SH3 + GWX, empty torpedo tubes will NOT reload with AUTO LOADING unchecked, no matter how many poeple - qualified or not - are in the torpedo room and no matter whether the Weps station is manned or not.

Unchecking (off) autoload allows you as the player to manually reload any empty tube with any internally available eel, but the game won't do it unless autoload is checked (on). The Weps station does not have to be manned to do this manually.

This is exactly how SH3/GWX works for me.

[Kapt Z]

Hmmm. I've been using 'integrated orders' for so long I suppose there must be a hotkey to bring up the torpedo load out screen without the WO being at his station. Asking the WO for torpedo loadout/reloading data is the only way I know to access it.

Since I use the 'no fatigue' option on Commander I just keep everyone at their stations and just manually rotate the bridge watches out of habit and for change of faces.

[Esanssi]

So many replies. :doh:

But so much useful information too! Thanks a lot guys!

I'm sort of baffled by the lack of "lol noob" comments around here. Then again, this isn't your average Counter-Strike or Battlefield forum. :haha:

Since I'm on a roll with this "asking silly questions" thing:
Did I lose the tonnage from that one british merchant ship I sunk in the patrol grid I was supposed to be patrolling because I saved and exited the game after the sinking? Mind you, a fair deal away from the wreck, but still. It shows up in my captain's log and on the map, but not in the patrol report.

[Mittelwaechter]

We are adult and patient, honest and smart U-Boot men - no triggerhappy hyperactive egoshooter kids.
Due to SH3 Copmmander we are used to train rookies and we do remember our own first wobbly steps in this game and how we were happy to find a bunch of helpful people over here at Subsim.

We like to keep it this way.

If you choose to load/select your torpedos manually - well - you have made your choice and no WEPS officer or torpedo crew will help you out. > I < is the hotkey for popping up the torpedo loadout screen.

I have no idea what happened to your patrol report. Are you sure you sunk the ship and was it a foe at all?
Don't know if neutrals or axis show up in the report, I successfully try to avoid sinking them.

EDIT: Oh wait - you didn't finish your patrol but saved and exited. The report will show your claim after docking (at home or at other friendly port), I guess.

[Esanssi]

I think I'm gonna try to automate that whole torpedo loading affair after this disaster. Manually doing it would be just making my life that much harder :haha:

Short summary of my patrol, to(hopefully) better illustrate what I mean with the missing tonnage:

Left Kiel
-> Arrived at my designate patrol grid AN18
-> Patrolled for 24 hours as per my orders
-> After 24 hours started heading back home
-> Ran into a lone british merchant ship while heading home, but still in AN18
-> Sunk the ship(got the report it sunk, shows up in my captain's log etc.) -> Resumed on course back to Kiel, got about 80km or so away from the wreckage and then I had to quit so checked no ships were around me and saved & exited
-> Few hours later resumed playing(encountered another merchant ship & the torp loading trouble) and finished my return trip to Kiel

Which is when I noticed in the end of patrol report that it said I had no tonnage to claim.

The ship was flying the british merchant navy red-with-union-jack-on-the-corner flag, so I'm assuming it wasn't neutral but indeed "hostile". Or do those merchants still count as neutral?

[Mittelwaechter]

Later in the war you'll have more different torpedo types to choose from and you should get used to load your torpedos manually. It's no problem at all.

The Brits turn hostile 2nd or 3rd September 1939 - if you started your patrol in August 1939 they may still be neutral right now. ;)

You may have run into a rare undocumented bug with your torpedo status and the save game. The saves seem to be tricky for some of us while others have no problems at all.
I do save at periscope depth and it works fine, others try that and get a corrupt save that won't load again.

Try to reproduce your situation the next sortie and we may get more info about your mess.

[Esanssi]

Ah. The timing could be the issue then if indeed the british could still at that point be considered neutral.

[Mittelwaechter]

So let's hope they didn't realize to be sunk by a German U-Boot, or they'll consider you guilty to start the Second World War.

[Esanssi]

Aw schuks.. I knew this patrol was going to end badly, but I didn't expect it to be the reason the Second World War started!

[Sailor Steve]

I think I'm gonna try to automate that whole torpedo loading affair after this disaster. Manually doing it would be just making my life that much harder :haha:
I always keep Auto-Reloads off, the reason being that in real life it was extremely dangerous to reload torpedoes while in combat. A steep dive angle while being depth charged could cause the torpedo to break loose, possibly killing someone or wrecking everything in the torpedo room.

-> Arrived at my designate patrol grid AN18
If you're using GWX don't even bother. You don't get the renown for going to your patrol grid.

-> Patrolled for 24 hours as per my orders
That's something the game screwed up. In real life they were ordered to go to a grid and stay there until ordered otherwise.

-> After 24 hours started heading back home
I go there and stay for a week. If I haven't seen a ship by then I roll a six-sided die. On a 1 I move to an adjacent grid. After two weeks I move on a 2, and so on.

The ship was flying the british merchant navy red-with-union-jack-on-the-corner flag, so I'm assuming it wasn't neutral but indeed "hostile". Or do those merchants still count as neutral?
What month was it? In GWX you start in August, a month before the war begins. The purpose is to get some sailing time in and be on station when the war starts on September 1 (for the Poles. The British are September 3). Before that everyone is neutral.

[Esanssi]

Thanks, thats useful information. I was kind of wondering on how exactly most of you went about your patrols. :)

And yeah I just checked the dates and all this did indeed happen in August, before the war..
Man, I'm not too proud about this right now. :oops:

[Gargamel]

Thanks, thats useful information. I was kind of wondering on how exactly most of you went about your patrols. :)

And yeah I just checked the dates and all this did indeed happen in August, before the war..
Man, I'm not too proud about this right now. :oops:


LOL NOOB!!!

:D


No, but seriously. Check some other threads on that topic, I know steve has discussed it ad naseum before on how he conducts his ppatrols, and others have piped in as well. And yes, Auto loading defaults to on.... EVERY patrol. So make sure you flip that off when your leaving harbor, or you'll have to spend extra time getting your crew to unload the wrong eel to replacce it with the correct one.

[Sailor Steve]

I know steve has discussed it ad naseum.
YEAH! Doesn't that guy ever shut up?




Wait, whut? :doh: :oops:

[postalbyke]

What's the weather like, and are you running SH3.exe with any of the v15/v16 series of... fixes... whoops, latecomer!

I know I was frustrated by lack of loading for a while til I read the manual h.sie lovingly sent with his business.

I don't know anything about logging :P

[Zorrin]

.... getting your crew to unload the wrong eel to replacce it with the correct one.

You can unload them too?

I wish I'd known that at the start of ze damn war. I forgot on occasion to switch to manual loading and just assumed, wrongly, that once an eel was in, the only way out was through the front.

[Gargamel]

You can unload them too?

I wish I'd known that at the start of ze damn war. I forgot on occasion to switch to manual loading and just assumed, wrongly, that once an eel was in, the only way out was through the front.

Yup. Just drag and drop like your loading. Bu you must have a vacant interior spot. You can't fill all your internal spots with externals and be able to unload a tube.