It depends. Mainly by the weather, 'cause with heavy sea your target will roll and pitch more, and its keel depth will change constanly by a large amount.

So, it could be that your mag torpedo will run well under your target keel at the intersect point... All in all with very bad sea/weather it is safer to opt. for impact and forget magnetic at all.

In any case my rule of thumb is (W stand for Wind):
W < 7 = 0.5 meter under the keel
7 < W > 12 = 1 meter under the keel
W > 12 = 2 meters if you feel lucky, or forget it at all.

If you are using h.sie's V16B1 patches, the Torpedo Failure Fix will cause your torps to run at max depth (25m) if torp depth setting <= 0.4 W. So using a shallow setting with the impact pistol won't alleviate the problem in heavy weather. Better to use magnetic in high winds. I can't say for sure, but I really doubt that keel depth changes due to sea state are modeled in SH3. I'd bet that 6m draft means 6m, period.

I agree, however the problem is Magnetic Pistols are known to have pre detonation problems in heavy weather / rough seas. Better fire them on short range (<= 1000m)

I assure you this little mod works perfectly. :yep:
Did you roll back the SH3 Commander before modifying the files?
Maybe you run some mod in JSGME that uses it's own menu/command files?


Torpedo ranges are easy:
G7a (T1/FAT/LUT) has a speed setting. Slow30kts/medium40kts/fast44kts goes 12.5/7.5/5 km.

Electric eels (TII/TIII/FAT/LUT) have only one speed - 30kts and go ~ 5 km (GWX).
In Stock SH3 there was a difference in range between TII and TIII versions. You can redo and use this to simulate preheating conditions.

The homing torpedos are different:
Falke 20kts - 7.5km
Zaunkoenig 24kts - 5.7 km

The keel is dancing up and down. With H.Sie's patch it may be impossible to hit your target with impact fuse in high seas.
If you have to use a magnetic, it is a good idea to shoot along the keel line - from the back. It doubles (at least) your chances to ignite the fuse as the keel may come down into the correct distance or the eel hits the stern section directly (if the keel is down right then and the torpedo doesn't bounce off).

Use external camera view in rough weather and look at the different depths the keel goes through as the ship pitches.

I'm afraid that up-and-down motion of the image doesn't tell me anything about the modeling of the hull-torpedo interaction. Have you actually seen a magnetic run under a hull in heavy weather? IMO, direct visual observation of a torp running straight and true (with no porpoising to track the surface wave action) and the target hull moving up out of the detonation zone would be the only positive confirmation. I never use an external cam, so I've never looked for it it.

^^

It works exactly like that.

And you can observe the perfect set mag-torpedo bouncing off, with the hull dunking deep.

Doesn't the hull proximity cause detonation as the torp approaches the side of the hull when it is running above keel depth? Also, I thought the choices were "Impact Only" and "Impact + Magnetic". If so, then a shallow runner shouldn't bounce off, but should detonate when it smacks the side. Shouldn't it? Is it even possible to set the Pistol to "Magnetic Only"? No GUI I use shows that option.

Fair enough but I've seen many an eel porpoising as well as striking the side of the hull as the vessel pitches into the sea.

Rgr that.

OK, I'm convinced.

What about the pistol switch? Impact vs Magnetic? Or Impact vs Impact + Magnetic. The original Ubimanual says the latter. But GWX and NYGM don't. Was gibt?

'Course! It was the first, but it couldn't touch the original (and still great) Silent Hunter!

The impact pistol was a mechanical device senitive to a direct push from the gear at the tip of the torpedo. If this push wasn't hard enough the pistol didn't ignite the payload and the torpedo bounced off.

The magnetic pistol was/is an electrical device (on by default) and easily to be switched off (disconnect a cable). It was/is sensitive to the change of the earths magnetic field - altered under a ships keel as by i.e. ore veins in the sea bed or by leaving the tube. The last fact made them arm the torpedo after a certain distance from the tube.

Fast Attack was my first subsim, SHII brought me here though :yep:

http://www.subsim.com/ssr/fastattack/Snarf007.gif

My copy (on a mini-flop IIRC) got tossed with my PCAT long, long ago!

...what a crackin' vid, many thanks Nukesub:up: