Yes, some of the harbor raiders went in that shallow. Some went in that shallow along the shoreline. Especially when the Japanese started running the coast so as to stay in shallow waters.

I kind of worded that wrong. What I meant was, I was stuck on the bottom, too flooded to surface. What I wanted to know was if it would be possible for the crew to open a hatch somewhere and swim to the surface?

I would think no, at least on the main hatch. The hatch has to be pulled close, meaning with thousands of gallons of water it would be nearly impossible to push open, especially with the limited space. You would have to wait until the pressure was equalized. Its liking trying to open a car door underwater, only magnified due to the increase in door weight and pressure. There could be a way to open a rear hatch, or possibly a loading hatch, but I would think only if the hatch opens in towards you, IMO that would be more of safety hazard because if it does open in you have to over come the force of the water trying to open it to keep a safe watertight seal, while if it opens out away from you the pressure only serves to better seal the hatch. If you were to have away around that, then you have the massive wall of water that comes flying in. Either way, welcome to Davie Jones locker. At least you didn't get rammed and sunk like me :)

AFAIK this did happen at least once, yes. I can't remember the details now, but I think there was a U-boat where some of the crew escaped through the conning tower hatch when they were sunk in shallow waters...

Hmm..I have had weird occurences again with RFB1.52 + Patch 1.52 + RSRDC.

Met Medium European Composite (or something like that) near Palau Islands, Jan 1943.
Fired all 4 aft tubes of my Balao and scored 2 torpedo hits. Ships was slowed from 10 knots to 6. Decided to follow and expanded 20 or so deck gun rounds too. Fired all 6 forward tubes towards ship from ranges 700-450 yards, without scoring sigle hit, no duds, nada.

Vontinued following next to it while reloading and pumping rounds into waterline with 4" deck gun. After 10 more hits, ship suddenly did speed up to 8 knots..and OPENED UP with it's own gun and also machine gun. Shredding my Balao to pieces, of course.

I was like WTF !!! I had been following if from close range for some time, shelling like man posessed. And suddenly it's like it got a new life !

Also, I have had this sort of weirdness with torpedoes before. After scoring couple of hits and couple of duds, rest of torpedoes just do not hit, no matter how many I fire towards the ship. It's not going to evade close range torpedo shots, no matter what..with speeds like that. In previous occurance, I even saw torpedo wakes going straight towards ship. And nothing, no dud message, nada. Very strange, I doubt that all could have gone under the ship, set 10ft. I use automatic targetting, maybe it is borked...but I usually score couple of hits just fine. Only after those first hits I cannot hit at all.

Anyone having any idea what is going on ? I have clean instal of SH4 with 1.5 UBM + RFB1.52 + 1.52 patch + RSRDC 396 for RFB, in that order.

It could be possible that fireing from such close range, your torpedos had no time to arm themselves. Just a thought:hmm:

They'd still register as duds in that case...I think.

I'd not have problem with that if Mk14 arming distance was more than ranges I fired. But there were no duds registered..only "Torpedo Missed" after running long time. When I scored the hits, all 4 torpedoas from aft tubes hit, 2 duds, 2 exploding, all reported as such. Later 6 torps, nada..with closer distance to slower target. One explanation would be that they run too deep...they were all set 10 ft. But all 6 in Jan 1943 ?

I just wanted to take the time to thank the entire RFB team, you guys have done an outstanding job... and have helped to make this one of the best games I have ever played. thank you for all of your hard work!!!

Might be the case then. What's the arming distance of Mk14 ?

Nah... I've done this before, too, more times than I'd like to admit to :shifty:. Usually it happens 'cause I've setting up for a close shot, and I don't take into consideration how much closer the target will travel after I fire the fish. As a result, the torpedo fails to travel far enough to arm itself... and SH4 allows it to simply travel through the target.

No dud message, no "torpedo failed to arm itself". It just continues on 'til the crew states that it missed.

As a side note, I'm loving RFB + RSRDC. I ran into that early war task force that shows up around 110 degrees east, 7 & 1/2 degrees north around December 14, 1941. My patrol area was right outside the Cam Ranh Bay, so I was able to get into the aforementioned area in time to catch it.

The weather isn't great, but it's not horrible. "Good visibility", which gives me nill time to actually get a good speed reading, much less get in a good position. I gotta take what luck has given me. Managed to get all eight torpedos fired, however... only one hit. Three duds. Four misses. I know the warships damage model haven't been touched yet, but the Kongo BB I hit took some water on, tilted to port, and sailed on.

Getting away from the escorts wasn't difficult. I lost the rest of the task force, though, and wasn't able to keep up with the escorts as they sailed back. As a result, I lost 'em... and couldn't find them again.

Oh, that was frustrating. But good.

Torps not arming was probably the case....anyone know what arming distances are in RFB ?

Yes sir. There are escape trunks in the FTR and ATR. The crew of the USS Tang used the trunk after she was hit by her own circle running torpedo. The stern was in the mud and the bow was just breaking the surface. Several got out but were taken as POW for the remainder of the war. What they do is enter the escape trunk and allow water to flow in thus equalizing the water pressure. Once done the outer hatch could be opened. Hatched then closed and filled with air so others may use the hatch. You get about 3-4 guys per loading of the hatch. Read the story on the USS Tang. It will give you the idea behind the escape hatch and what these guys went through.

No Sir, if the torpedo is not armed you get NO "Dud Report" !!
I had once an adventure like yours and i followed the torps with the free camera, 2 hits, no explosion, no dud report. So i controlled the distance on the map and :damn::damn::damn::damn: it was around 400 ft.

As i noticed too late :oops: the post was already answered. My sure arming distances are 550 ft for the Mark 14 till Sept 1943 and 450 ft after it.

In the ingame helptext of RFB its 450/350 ft. So i put 100 ft above because i never be able to estimate the exact distance.

I think I fired those shots further from ship than 400-500 ft. More like 400 YARDS. Unless Position Keeper changes to feet from some point...

But non-arming torps seem most likely explanation.