Playing surface ships

[Chasryoung]

I find playing surface ships far too easy. Playing a CL Omaha off Wake Island I managed to sink two entire tasks forces including two aircraft carriers and almost a dozen cruisers single handedly and without taking any significant damage.

Is there a way to make it more challenging playing as a surface ship?

Mods are:

1_TriggerMaru_Overhauled_2-5
RSRDC_TMO_V502
RSRDC_V5xx_Patch1
TMO_Visuals_for_RSRDC
Improved Stock Environments_v3_TMO&RFB
Improved Ship Physics 2.6_TMO_RSRDC_OTC
IJN_Radar_Fix_2
TDW_Ship_Plane_Fire_Damage_v1_3_SH4
AI shoots torpedos
LST_TMO_v2
Less Plankton 1.2

[Rockin Robbins]

Not really. This is a submarine simulator. Your ship is eyecandy, not reality and the game treats you like you are a submarine. Playing a surface ship, then, is just a novelty which will never give you any realism at all. Destroyers will ram you. Other ships won't react to you as a surface ship. Silent Hunter is about submarines and you'll never get it to do what you want.

[SaywyerAWR]

That does kinda suck though: I mean I get the reasons (readily) But it would be nice to have a way to set it up so the game was both for surface and sub-surface warships...hmm that's an Idea for a game...

(Personally I only ever really use my surface ships in the single missions. well that or the single war patrols).

[TorpX]

Apart from what RR said (which is all true), another reason surface combat is messed up, is that the ballistics/shell damage/ship zones are not well done. Some of this might be fixable, but much of it not. Most of the devs' efforts went into torpedoes and depth charges.

[polyfiller]

it is indeed possible to have playable ships with working damage models. If I ever get around to releasing the TSWSM, you'll experience what happens when you take damage from either other surface ships or from AI subs torps. Actually getting the damage to work as in causing you to sink and / or ship subsystems to stop working has been quite a challenge, but even worse, getting the effects of repairing things to take effect even more so. I've also discovered a myriad of ways to upset the game engine with a custom damage zone model .. including "ghost ships" where your ship is functional, but completely transparent in game, and also, my favourite so far, where the visual model of your ship lies at the bottom of the sea in two halves, while a transparent functional version happily sails away. My least favourite is a CTD caused by erroneous damage sphere numbering.

[Chasryoung]

it is indeed possible to have playable ships with working damage models. If I ever get around to releasing the TSWSM, you'll experience what happens when you take damage from either other surface ships or from AI subs torps. Actually getting the damage to work as in causing you to sink and / or ship subsystems to stop working has been quite a challenge, but even worse, getting the effects of repairing things to take effect even more so. I've also discovered a myriad of ways to upset the game engine with a custom damage zone model .. including "ghost ships" where your ship is functional, but completely transparent in game, and also, my favourite so far, where the visual model of your ship lies at the bottom of the sea in two halves, while a transparent functional version happily sails away. My least favourite is a CTD caused by erroneous damage sphere numbering.

Sounds like an awesome mod. Wish I had the skills to help make it happen.