Rigging your tubes for deeper firing

[Dantenoc]

I did a quick search and couldn't find anything (well, actualy, I got a gazzilion posts on completely different subjects), but anyhow, my question is:

Can you change the game so that it allows you to fire your torpedoes from deeper depths? Why are we only allowed to fire from periscope depth? because from deeper I can't see what I'm shooting at? That's my problem and my choice! If I want to waste a torpedoe firing blindly thats my problem! Let me do it!

Is it forbidden because the tube doors couldn't open when very deep because of the extreme water pressure exerted on them from the outside? well... sounds correct in principal, but surely they could handle more depth than just a measly 15 to 20 meters, no?

Is it forbiden because firing from too deep would give the torpedoe a hard time to achieve the desired depth? well, then let me shoot from farther away to permit the torp to rise on his way to the target!

Well, anyway, does anyone now what file variable/value I need to change for this?

[Der Teddy Bar]

I beleive that the current maximum depth to which you can open the torpedo doors is correct.

To change it open the NSS_UboatName.cfg in C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\data\Submarine\NSS_U boatName anc change the value for TorpLaunchMaxDepth=16;meters

[Immacolata]

Maybe it is. I spoke with a real submarine sailor that I meet several times per week. I recommended him SH3 and he absolutely loves it. But why cant you fire your torps from below periscope depth he wondered? They did that often to practice blindfiring. They could get a fix on the position of the ship by hydrophone and calculate its speed, then launch a torped in that general direction from a bit below the surface.

The german subs were not able to handle that?

[Der Teddy Bar]

Maybe it is. I spoke with a real submarine sailor that I meet several times per week. I recommended him SH3 and he absolutely loves it. But why cant you fire your torps from below periscope depth he wondered? They did that often to practice blindfiring. They could get a fix on the position of the ship by hydrophone and calculate its speed, then launch a torped in that general direction from a bit below the surface.

The german subs were not able to handle that?
I cannot find anything specific either way.

[Dantenoc]

To change it open the NSS_UboatName.cfg in C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\data\Submarine\NSS_U boatName anc change the value for TorpLaunchMaxDepth=16;meters

Excellent :up: . I'll play around with it then.

[The Noob]

It's forbidden cause it's cheaty. Firing the Torps from 2000 meters away at a Convoy in salvo mode and pray to hit, begin at 200 meters undetectable from the Destroyers.

And cause hitting a approaching Destroyer from 70 meters down with a torpedo would be cheaty stuff too.

But hey, if you want a Arcade game, no problem. :up:

There is a trick in the "Youruboat.cfg" files to do this.

And here's how it should (never tested) work.

Go to data\Submarine\NSS_Uboat2A

Then open the cfg file in there. But make a backup of it First!

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/870/1bc7.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/5420/2kp2.jpg

:up:

(As usual, i am not responsible if this should *meep*up your install. But with a backup you SHOULD be able to fix it if this happends by overwriting the modified file with the Original.)

[Dantenoc]

mmmm....:hmm:

I seem to remember a story of a XXI type succesfully sinking a ship without ever using the periscope, presumably firing from deeper than periscope depth.

And I also recall Greyrider mentioning that the US gave it a try at firing from 50m, allthough with less than stellar results, so the technique was not officialy adopted.

[The Noob]

Sorry, i took to much time to respond, the others where faster and i didn't notice...i'm so dumb...:oops: ;)

[Der Teddy Bar]

Sorry, i took to much time to respond, the others where faster and i didn't notice...i'm so dumb...:oops: ;)
But yours is better :up:

[kptn_kaiserhof]

i know how its all done but i wont say because im the famus KPTN KAISERHOF:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[LZ_Baker]

The maximum depth the the tube can fire at depends on two things. First, do you have enough compressed air/water to push the fish against the seawater pressure and get it out of the tube. Second, how much pressure can the breech door take? I would think that you could fire from below parascope depth but not by that much. Remeber, every 33 feet (~10m) is another atmosphere of pressure you need to fire against.

[The Noob]

I also forgot to say that you need to do the above step for all the Folders...:damn:

:rotfl::p ;)

Believe me, it HURTS to be so dumb...:rotfl::D;)

[kylania]

Change MaxDepth to 30m! That'll really make avoiding DDs fun and exciting!;)

[Sailor Steve]

American submariners actually trained for blind firing before the war. When war came they said, to a man, that it was a stupid idea and couldn't be done to any great effectiveness. It's probably not in the game because it's so much easier to get a kill that way than it was in real life.

[panthercules]

American submariners actually trained for blind firing before the war. When war came they said, to a man, that it was a stupid idea and couldn't be done to any great effectiveness. It's probably not in the game because it's so much easier to get a kill that way than it was in real life.

What is it about the game that would make it be so easy (any easier than IRL) to score a hit this way in game?

I have successfully (once) scored hits on a convoy from as deep as 19m (I'd heard somewhere that 20m was the maximum firing depth, so I fired at 19m just to make sure it would work) - never tested it below that but it does work at 19 anyway (running GW 1.0 in a type VIIC at the time).

I was wondering about this the other day - while watching The Enemy Below again for the umpteenth time, it dawned on me that in that scene where the U-boat finally hits the destroyer the U-boat fires from well below periscope depth. It also got me wondering about several movies (including the classic scene in Operation Petticoat) where various types of debris are loaded into the tubes and fired to trick the escorts into thinking the sub was sunk - this always happens at serious depths during DC attacks. If the inner doors couldn't withstand the pressure of opening at those depths to fire torpedoes, then I assume that they couldn't be using the tubes to fire off all this debris from those depths either, right? Soooo, is that debris trick just pure Hollywood fiction, or should it really be possible to fire torpedoes from deeper than just 15-20m or so?

[Dantenoc]

I would imagine that they could fire the tubes from deeper depths in real life. I mean, sure the water pressure can get realy heavy as you go deeper, but that doesn't seem to be a problem when you blow ballast tanks for example, meaning that it is a rather common matter to have presurized air that is stored at an even higher pressure than the sea surrounding you (and hence strong enough to push the sea water out of your sub).

[Sailor Steve]

I think the tubes are flooded before the doors are opened, or the machinery might not be able to push against the pressure. Once the tubes are flooded, the compressed air for the actual firing doesn't have to compete against the pressure, just push the ton-or-more weight of the torpedo.

After the doors are closed again the pumps have to force the water out of the tube for reloading. I don't know exactly how that would be affected by pressure, but I'm sure they could be made strong enough.

[Ducimus]

On a side note, a submerged firing in SH3, without a periscope observation with only sound to go on... that has to take some skill.

[panthercules]

On a side note, a submerged firing in SH3, without a periscope observation with only sound to go on... that has to take some skill.

Certainly to do it repeatedly on single ship contacts would take a lot of skill. In my case, there were so many targets out there that it probably would have been pretty hard to miss. It did take me a pretty harrying 10 minutes straining over the hydrophones trying to figure out what was going on after I discovered at nearly the last minute that the convoy had zigged away from its base course and that I was no longer in the perfect firing position I had expected to be based on my earlier stalking. It was stormy with 400m visibility so periscope sightings would have been impossible, and I decided I had better stay down around 20m anyway to avoid getting run down by some deep-draft tanker or something. Fortunately, I was finally able to figure out the convoys' new general course and approximate distance via the 'phones and get into a decent firing position without being detected by the escorts. I fired all 4 bow torps - 2 were FATs and it sounded like there were a lot of ships up there, so I figured I had a pretty good chance of getting at least a hit or two - as it turned out, all 4 torps hit and I sank 2 ships, all without ever seeing the convoy visually :D

Kinda made up for those times I've tried firing wildly into convoys from periscope depth before crash-diving away from charging escorts, and never scored any hits despite all the targets I could see out there.

[Albrecht Von Hesse]

I should be correct on this --crosses fingers--

Each torpedo tube had an inner and outer tube door, as well as a second outer door (flush with the hull, for drag reduction I suspect). The outer tube door needed to withstand the same pressure of depth as the hull did, and I'd think so would the inner (in case of leakage at depth). The secondary outer door didn't need to withstand any pressure of depth.

The tubes were kept dry until shortly before firing. First the tube would be flooded, then the outer two doors would be opened. The torpedo fit fairly snug in the tube, and didn't need to be 'pushed' against the water pressure, as the tube was flooded and so pressure equalized. All that was needed was enough air-pressure 'oomph' to flush and expel it fully from the tube.

As to blind-firing at depth:

There are several factors required for accurate targeting. Although range and bearing probably could be fairly accurately measured and/or guesstimated, and while target speed also probably fairly accurately chosen, I don't see how AoB could be at all blindly measured, and AoB is quite critical for targeting. Now if you're using acoustical-guided torpedos than pointing them in the general direction would probably work.

The other problem might simply be torpedo construction. They might be unable to achieve proper depth if fired too deep because they're unable to overcome negative bouyancy if fired deeper than they were designed for.

Overall I'd think it should be possible to fire a torpedo at any depth the boat's capable of operating at. But whether the torpedo would function and work is a very different matter than simply getting it out of the tube and into the water.

[Ducimus]

The inner door couldnt withstand much pressure.

The outer doors, opened as one unit. i think there was a hing mechism that combined the two so they opend as one. If the outdoor sheard off or woudlnt close for whatever reason, you were pretty much up the proverbial esturary without a means of locomotion in terms of diving at any safe depth.

Also from accounts ive read, it was not unheard of for the inner door to come off it's hinge's and fall flat on the deck plates. Shockwave's from depth charge's weakened the mountings or something like that, i could never find anymore detail then that.