There is a depth setting in the DC tweak file. As I recall, the default value was something like 2500 (in 1.2). What is this value, the max depth?

tater

Good question, I added it to the list. I'll have to come up with some sort of lab experiment I can run to get meaningful results.

Question # 13 is updated with new info from the devs, good stuff there. Oh, and Bando, I haven't forgotten about your question # 10 -- yours is just trickier than most since the "historical" info is somewhat outside my realm of expertise. Plus I can't think of any 'experiment' I could run that would get us real answers, so all I have to work with are the values in torpedoes_us.sim. I'll keep on it though. Hopefully we can enlist some help from people w/ more knowledge on such things. ;)

nomad_delta

I've been looking at it as well. What triggered my attention to this was the fact that I could sink a DD with a cutie. In my opinion, 47 Lb of torpex will do damage to a DD (that's the reason I fire the little bugger) but I seriously doubt wether it will sink anything.

When I took a closer look at the sim files I saw some values there that at first don't make any sence. Like 110-190 as min-max values. When I made a calc of real life Torpex/ TNT : min-max values, it did not add up.

This is where I am still, lately having not much time to do anything on the game rig. Hence my question in this thread, hoping someone can pick this up.

This is a usefull thread as far as I can see, good job nomad. :up:

The cutie homes in on sound. It heads for the stern. If it hits the stern it can disable the ship by knocking out the rudders or the props or both. It can also set off the depth charges on the stern which will blow the DD to itsy bitsy pieces.

Neondeon, that may well have happened. Having said that, I still checked the values at the sim files compared to what I found on the internet to be real life values.

Let's look at the cutie and the mk14

cutie 47lb Torpex-----sim file min/max 60/110 (out of my head, not at home right now)
Mk 14 +/- 590lb Torpex---sim file 110/190

=> 47 to 590 (torpex values) is about 1 to 13
60/110 to 110/190 (sim explosive values) is about 1 to 2.5

Conclusion: there's something not right in the explosive power values.

I have not a single clue as to what these values are in the sim files, but I only look at their relative figures.

Again, you may be correct in sinking a DD with a cutie, but in real life, 47lb of torpex would probably have damaged the propellors and the rudder and would have been enough to shake them. I (personally) doubt it would sink them.

I just ran some more tests concerning the magnetic detonators & updated the top post again. Check out question # 15, "Do torpedoes have to actually pass below a ship to trigger a magnetic detonator, or simply be within the magnetic detonation range -- even skimming the surface?" up at the top.

I also created a quick video to demonstrate my findings, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy-B9yxBlm0

As you may notice in the video, this also brings up an interesting question about torpedo damage radiuses. I had those torpedoes set to detonate magnetically at 50 meters, which they did -- but they somehow still managed to do massive damage and sink both of the ships in my test mission!

Now the very highest "max_radius" damage value listed for any torpedo in the torpedoes_us.zon file is 8 meters. So how is it that Mk. 14 torpedoes exploding 50 meters away from the targets are causing massive damage (split one of the ships in two) and sinking them?

Unless I'm missing something here, the torpedoes shouldn't have done any damage at that distance, right?

I'll keep investigating.

nomad_delta

I'm working on this now; there are two depth charge .SIM files, each with their own associated tweak file: "DC_X_H.sim" and "DepthCharges.sim". Does anyone happen to know what the difference is? They each seem to have the same type of content from what I can see, but slightly different values.

Maybe one of them is for depth charges dropped from airplanes?

nomad_delta

Tater:

Ok, so I've run some basic depth charge testing. It's a little difficult since I'm not able to control the depth charging myself and I have to rely upon the AI to do it. I've set up a simple test mission with a single Akizuki destroyer directly behind my sub within easy detection range for testing, though, and that seems to work reliably enough.

The values listed in the DC_X_H.sim and DepthCharge.sim files are:

fall_speed
detonate_depth
depth_precision
explosion_range
explosion_impulse

Out of those, I've tested modifying "detonate_depth" (which I think is the value you were referring to) as well as "depth_precision" and "explosion_range".

I've only run some very basic tests so far, but it's looking for all the world like "detonate_depth" and "explosion_range" don't do anything at all. I say this because I'm not seeing any effect whatsoever no matter what I set those values to, even if I use something ridiculous like 0, 1, or 9999.

depth_precision, on the other hand, does appear to have an effect. It looks like a lower number = more precise, higher number = less precise. Setting a very high number there (9999) resulted in one DC exploding pretty much directly on the destroyer (taking out its own DC racks and props) and another sinking all the way to the bottom w/o exploding during the same test.

Note that this didn't seem to have any effect on the precision of the depth charges themselves, which were launched from the destroyer in a pretty standard pattern, many of which missed entirely even when the depth_precision value was set to 0 or 1.

That's all I have time for right at the moment but there's still a lot more to figure out here so I'll work on it some more, later.

Any thoughts?

nomad_delta

Try it with various skill levels for the DDs. I'm guessing those values are modified by crew efficiency.

DC_X_H.sim is the "Y" guns, DepthCharges is the tin cans from the stern of the attacker

Probably has something to do with it, yep. All tests were run with a "Veteran" Akizuki. I'll try the other skill levels & see what difference it makes.

Ah, that makes sense! Thanks for the tip. It would have taken me quite a while to figure that out by trial & error I bet. ;)

nomad_delta

Range inside the .sim file is how far away the Impulse from the explosion is felt. The rocking of the submarine, not damage. Maybe that is what you are changing.

There is also, as you know, the seperate radius of the DC explosion which is around 20m stock. I thought that was in the .zon file. IIRC I could be wrong.

yeah, the damage part is in the zon, the sim number is the shake effect (no damage---unless you are on the bottom, then a little shake is as bad or worse than a close DC)

This is a possibly silly question. Can you clone the DC files, rename them, and make a new DC type? Cause if we figured out depth, etc, we might be able to make a shallow early war DC...

We could probably do that, but the tricky part would be figuring out how to convince the DD's to actually use the new depth charges. Depends on where the file reference is, I suppose. If it's in another 'moddable' file like a .SIM we could probably pull it off, but maybe not if it's hard coded.

Another possibility would be to simply clone the entire reference inside the depth charge file itself -- effectively adding two depth charge types to the same file, the same as is done in the "torpdoes_us.sim" file. That might be more likely.

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The real problem is that we still haven't figured out how to control the depth charge depth. As I mentioned above, the "detonation_depth" value doesn't appear to do anything at all: I tried values all the way between 0 and 9999 but the depth charges kept exploding at the same depth as always. It appears that the game just ignores the value.

Maybe it's hold-over from SH3 that never got edited out? There seems to be a lot of that going on in the various game files -- makes it really confusing. ;)

nomad_delta

Since this question has been getting a fair amount of attention in the forums, I decided I'd check it out myself. I've updated question # 17, and added a quick video in glorious full-color NomadVision(tm).

nomad_delta

17. In Silent Hunter 4 patch 1.2 (and previous) there was a bug causing the green "estimated torpedo path" line from your sub to disappear from your Attack Map when you crossed the International Date Line. Is that bug still present in Silent Hunter 4 patch 1.3?
Answer: Yes, the bug is still present in the 1.3 patch. The International Date Line is at 180 degrees longitude, just West of Midway. The bug occurs when crossing the IDL, which is most common when one launches out of Pearl, and causes the green "torpedo track" indicator line to disappear from your Attack Map. I have recorded a short demonstration video of the bug taking place, which you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFwcYCFixRM