Keeping Depth in an 1XB, 1940

[silentwayIII]

I'm using NYGM ver2.2. First time I decided to start a career with the IXB. Was on my first patrol out of Lorient. Stalked a convoy and then began position preparation for an attack. Reduced speed to 2kts and silent running. The submarine could not hold depth at 2kts and slowly began to sink. Had to increase speed to 3kts to get to periscope depth (now I'm louder than I should be) but could only get to 15 meters. I used the observation scope to fire torpedo's. Did kill two merchants, but was immeadiatly set upon by escorts...Black Swan and Flower. Went deep...175 meters and silent running at 2kts. Could not keep my depth and slowly went deeper. Again, had to increase speed to 3kts to get back to my original depth. And of course was louder and unable to sneak away because i had to carry too much speed/noise.

I've used the VIIB and C with NYGM mod and both of these submarines maintained their depth easily at 2kts. Have played many of the NYGM single missions without problems. Is this an issue with this particular submarine and NYGM?

When I've used the GW mod and this particular type submarine (7 missions so far) or any of the other boats there are no depth keeping problems with any of them. Again using silent running and a speed of no more than 2kts in trying to sneak away.

Any and all help is appreciated.

[kylania]

I'm using NYGM ver2.2. First time I decided to start a career with the IXB. Was on my first patrol out of Lorient. Stalked a convoy and then began position preparation for an attack.

...

Is this an issue with this particular submarine and NYGM?

Did you prepare your attack by crash diving then set your own depth once down a little? If so, you're a victim of the Crash Dive Blues™ which is a stock game bug.

What happens is if you start to crash dive, then change depths before it reaches your crash dive depth, you end up tilted down slightly. This is what causes you to have to run at 3kts+ to maintain depth, even faster with damage/flooding.

The fix for this is to rise above your crash depth, then crash dive again allowing your boat to go the whole way and settle at the proper depth. You can turn during this process but don't manually set a depth. Once you've done this, you're set.

You can see the crash dive blues in action with the external camera, try it out sometime so you understand how it works.

[Der Teddy Bar]

To add to kylania post

ALL NYGM Moded U-boats can travel at 1 knot and maintain depth. To raise your depth you need to be traveling at 2 knots.

With no damage you have the CRASH DIVE BLUES if you cannot maintain depth at at ~1 knot.

The only way to rectify this vanilla SHIII bug is to go above the crash dive depth and re-order a crash dive but allow it to level out at the correct depth before ordering a change of depth.

It should be noted that while you MUST let the crash dive order go through till the u-boat levels out at the crash dive depth, you can however order a change of speed and direction without any issues.


The current crash dive depth is 20 metres due to shallow waters. To change the crash dive depthopen the NSS_UboatName.cfg in C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\data\Submarine\NSS_U boatName and change the value for CrashDepth=20;meters


To help your immediate situation you could exit the game, adjust the crash dive depth to 10 metres below your current depth, start the game, order a crash dive letting it go the entire way while ordering silent running and after it levels out order ~1 knot.

I will also say that evading escorts in TW 2.2 can require you to not just sit there at ~1, to either more quickly or sometimes at all, you may need to use small speed burts only when the escort cannot hear you, very risky and difficult.

Personally speaking, the old way of the Cone of Silence and not having to escape the escorts does nothing for me. Now I must attack in such a way as to survive, and this really comes out as the war progresses.



For Non NYGM Users...
In the default vanilla SHIII you do suffer the Crash Dive Blues but under normal use with the default configurations ability to hover like a humming bird you do not suffer any ill effects until you have flooding in the rear section of your u-boat.

Those using the vanilla SHIII install can check this out by ordering a crash dive and say at 30 metres order a depth of 20 wait until it has been at 20 for a short while and then use the external view.

What you will see is that the stern of your u-boat is down by about 10%

[silentwayIII]

Thanks you Kylania and Der Teddy Bar for the advise. Did take a look at my sub early morning (light) and it indeed was lower in the back. Still could not shake off the escorts though so I waited and finally got a good firing solution on the Black Swan and killed it. The Flower lpassed over me several times but did not drop DC's...he was out. Took a shot at him with my last internal torp and missed. Battery real low decided to surface and try to out-gun and out-run him.

What a rush. It took the 1XC ages to get going. Meanwhile i was getting beat up pretty good, but my gunners were also giving it back. Kept changing position and was able to get my big gun to lay rounds into the Flower and kept the 3.7cm gun working until the Flower was ablaze, astern and finally sunk.

Worst part of it was trying to get up to speed. Never did more than 13kts although the weather and surface was good.

Thanks again.

[Cpt.Thorne]

If you are using SHCmndr 2.6 you might be suffering from malfunction/sabotage to your engines not being able to do faster than 13kts at flank speed

[silentwayIII]

No I am not using SH Commander. Funny thing though on my way back to base, I had a map contact...merchant about 60k away. At flank speed the boat got up to the 16-17kt speed range and stayed there until contact...so. It seems that when I'm in time compression (never go over 256) is when I notice that whatever submarine I'm using, weather conditions permitting, will almost always be able to reach its top speed.

[zzsteven]

After surfacing one of the engines is used to recharge the batteries, speed is reduced as you don't have both engines available for propulsion.

zz

[silentwayIII]

zzsteven. Thanks for that piece of information. Makes sense now that I look back at all of those times when I ran the batteries down and could not get to flank speed until after I was at 100% recharge.

[Albrecht Von Hesse]

zzsteven. Thanks for that piece of information. Makes sense now that I look back at all of those times when I ran the batteries down and could not get to flank speed until after I was at 100% recharge.

You can overrride the battery recharge if you positively need maximum speed right away upon surfacing. Click on your Chief Engineer, then click on propulsion, then click on standard mode. That will have both diesels driving the screws, but your batteries will not be recharged. When you want to recharge you'll have to click the CE again, then propulsion, then recharge mode. Once the batteries are fully recharged the engines will go back to standard automatically.

[hyperion2206]

If you are using SHCmndr 2.6 you might be suffering from malfunction/sabotage to your engines not being able to do faster than 13kts at flank speed

What does that mean? Is that a "bug" or does SH Commander "simulate" the Resistance sabotaging your boat?:-?:hmm::doh:

[[dc]Blade]

Not sure mate, but i had a sailor killed in a bar brawl!!:o