46 knots = 25.88 yards/sec.

I don't agree that you need to shoot from close range to get a hit. That enemy ships can spot a torpedo at 500 or maybe 1,000 yds. is certainly true, but that doesn't mean they will see them at 2,000 or 3,000 yards. Close range will only help, if it is less than their torp spotting range.

If you use ISP, the ships will not be able to accelerate/decelerate or turn super-quick anymore. I noticed when I was working on manual targeting methods a while back, that often a ship will see a torp, and execute a sharp turn. It wasn't so much they could 'comb the tracks', but that they slowed down very fast and the torps missed ahead. (I was using a longitudinal spread.) This reminded me of old Roadrunner cartoons where the characters backpedal and skid to a halt, then zoom ahead again.

Obviously, it isn't very realistic. If you try ISP, you won't need to make 'mission-impossible' calculations to hit two ships.

I was not speaking to the matter of errors in general, just the issue of enemy crews spotting torpedo tracks. Yes, ordinarily your chances of a hit are much better, if close. People seem to almost freak out about the torpedo wakes, though. Yes, the game is somewhat unrealistic, but one can still get hits; especially, if the physics are dealt with.

As far as turning is concerned, it is very hard for any ship to accelerate, while it turns. This is because the rudder has such a large drag effect. Merchants are usually cruising at more than half their max. speed. Most ships max. speed with 40° rudder is about 1/2 of their maximum. If they throw the rudder hard over, they will usually loose significant speed. The game's mechanics are not ideal in this regard.

:haha:

Yeah.

I didn't notice this issue either, until I was doing some careful testing in the course of testing a new manual targeting method. As I was running a mission with map contacts, and observing zoomed in close, it was obvious that the merchants were evading the torpedoes.

How big a problem is it? Well, I think it depends on the ship physics you have in your game. 20 or 30 seconds isn't much time to evade, if the ships have realistic limitations, but was enough to frequently evade in the case of stock ships.

What bothered me most about my tests, was that I had set the merchant ship crew to 'novice', and it was a very dark night. They shouldn't have been able to see the torps at all.

I never did any tests aimed at figuring out just how far the problem goes. Nobody seems to know if it is a hard-coded thing, or if the torpedo wake is involved.