Magnetic exploder in Northern latitudes

[in_vino_vomitus]

On patrol in the Aleutians. The sea has been rough pretty much the whole time and all of the targets seem to be destroyers or subchasers. I remember reading that the problems with the magnetic pistol were due partly to the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field near the Equator being different from that nearer the poles - I know that Silva balance their compasses differently, depending on where they're going to see the most use - Anyway - I enabled the magnetic pistol, and so far have fired 21 mark 14's in heavy seas with no premature detonations - Is this luck or a genuine game feature?

[merc4ulfate]

Magnetics often work better in rough seas where as rough water can cause the contact exploders to go off prematurely. It seems the rough water mixed with the sensitive contact exploder often sets them off where as in rough water the magnetics are not so easily influenced.

About a month ago I started to mix things up and have noticed a drop off in DUDS due to trying to use magnetics contacts in rough seas and contact exploders in calm water.

[Bubblehead1980]

On patrol in the Aleutians. The sea has been rough pretty much the whole time and all of the targets seem to be destroyers or subchasers. I remember reading that the problems with the magnetic pistol were due partly to the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field near the Equator being different from that nearer the poles - I know that Silva balance their compasses differently, depending on where they're going to see the most use - Anyway - I enabled the magnetic pistol, and so far have fired 21 mark 14's in heavy seas with no premature detonations - Is this luck or a genuine game feature?

Are you running mods? or playing stock? Stock they were way too reliable, some mods dont have them tweaked properly.TMO does, but there is a bug ive noticed.When I save a game and reload, they rarely prematurely explode after that.

Location, the poles etc has nothing to do with the magnetic detonator in the game)but did in RL) , sea state is how they simulate it.When waves are higher, they have a higher chance of prematurely exploded.I changed this in my game to in any sea state they have a 65% chance of prematurely exploding, this gives me a realistic number of prematures.Definitely keeps my tonnage down in early to mid war.

The contact exploders have nothing to do with location, its about the angle of the hit.The firing pins were not durable enough to take the broadside impact of "perfect" 90 degree shots, so they would crush without detonating the torpedo, this is properly simulated in the game. Firing so torpedoes strike a "glancing blow" say at 45 degrees reduces dud chance a great deal.

Something that always annoyed me is how easy it is to switch detonators in the game, it could not be done with the flip of a switch right before hand, it was a process to disarm the magnetic detonator and was against orders as well.Wish had to choose while in port and couldnt change it while at sea or couldnt do it without it taking time as it would to disable all magnetics.Oh well, its SH.

[in_vino_vomitus]

Running TMO 2.5 - In the tropics I'd never dream of shooting with the magnetic exploder on in heavy seas, but for some reason up North they were 100% reliable. I knew about the firing pin issue - SH1 used to have some videos of a WWII sub skipper and that was one of the things he mentioned in it. Wish I still had the CD - I haven't thought about that for a long time - maybe someone uploaded them to youtube - I'll have to look......

[TorpX]

I wouldn't expect too much from the game as far as historical faithfulness, or proper physics are concerned. Bubblehead is quite correct about the switching and all. The game oversimplifies this, as well as many other things.

Magnetics often work better in rough seas where as rough water can cause the contact exploders to go off prematurely. It seems the rough water mixed with the sensitive contact exploder often sets them off where as in rough water the magnetics are not so easily influenced.

This is not true. There were not seperate exploders. The "magnetic" exploder and the "contact" exploder were one and the same. It was designed to explode by either magnetic influence or impact. The only possible benefit in relying on magnetic influence to reduce prematures would be in running the torpedo deeper, where the water was less turbulent. Historically, most prematures were thought to be due to seawater causing the electrical components to short out. Deactivation of the magnetic influence element of the exploder, more or less, eliminated the prematures.