As you state later on in the thread, it's because of the ship's large compartmentalization. You cannot expect to sink a large freighter like the Large Old Freighter by flooding just one or two compartments.

Check the manual again in regards to damage incurred with two torpedoes hit in the same spot.

Again, read the manual. We have not touched the warships yet.

The more powerful torpedoes have a perfectly normal effect. You, like others here, are likely not spreading out your shots correctly. And yes, the compartmentalization of the ships does play a part.

Read the first post in this thread again.

I can sink this ship with 3 torpedoes properly targeted, every time (just did it on my last patrol, in fact). Set up a test mission with the ship sitting stationary. Go to external view and see where the compartments are located. Now, using auto-targeting, place 3 torpedoes in the three locations that will cause the most damage (hint: they're the masts and the funnel area). This is the methodology we used to make sure all was working right with this mod.

And again, like Observer writes above, we put a LOT of effort into getting this right. Upping the power of the torpedoes in order to try to get the ships to sink faster is nothing but a crutch. If we felt the torpedoes needed an adjustment in power we would have done this, but it flat out isn't necessary. THINK about where you want to place your torpedoes before pressing the firing button. Yes, we concur there is an issue with ships continuing to steam on after taking damage to the engine spaces, but as I wrote above, we are looking into adjusting this. However, in the meanwhile, you shouldn't have any problems sinking the majority of the merchant ships with some prudent targeting.

You know, Luke, these guys are almost as frustrated as real submariners! Real Fleet Boat is genius!:up::up::up::up::up::up::up::up::up::up::up :

I love IT- Great job, guys. Keep up the great work, it has given me TONS of hours of the real thing in a short period of time.

Can not seem to come with the right words of thanking you.

Just want to say THANKS to your team and have not one word of "you should of done this" - BS.


I am LOVING it.

Kisses. Kiss-Kiss-kiss.

I know you guys worked hard on this and just wanted to say:
Playing your MOD ... well, how can we thank you?

It's GREAT !!! and I am putting some [not all] on the BOTTOM of the ocean.

Thanks to the RFB Team.

the super ship effect
 

I concur Rockin Robbins... its extremely frustrating yet fun in the same time.... call me a masochist maybe????

:damn: :damn: :damn: :damn:

and Lurker has used the same damage model in V500 of Op Monsun.... so once more
:damn: :damn: :damn: :damn:

aint submarining great?

Regarding the gun and the damage model of RFB 1.52 and the discussions about it, let me tell you something about RFB 1.51, which I am still using (I want to complete my war career before switching to RFB 1.52).

Here, 99% of the time, it is 1 torpedo per merchant. The ships always slow down after a torpedo hit. It takes about 8 to 10 hits with the deck gun to sink a junk. I sink betwenn 10 to 15 enemy ships per patrol.

I am not advertising RFB 1.51, but it is clear it behaves differently.

So why don't the folks who dislike the new damage model/deck gun/whatever simply switch back to RFB 1.51? When the direction RFB is going, towards more realism and less shot-em-up-gallery-style, doesn't suit one, switch to another mod or another version, it's as simple as that.

I myself am looking forward using RFB 1.52, sure it maybe needs some tweaking, but hey what doesn't.

Glad you like it, ML!

To everyone:

We have a patch now in testing that addresses some issues with the mod, namely submarine damage and merchant ship damage. Now, when an engine compartment is completely flooded it will result in the loss of propulsion for that particular engine.

New Download Locations
 

We have added a new download location for RFB, thanks to the great guys at Beyond the Shadows. :up: See the first post for the new links.

I am having trouble sinking ships too.
 

But I am getting better at placing my shots as Luke has advised us. If I could shoot better maybe I would sink more. So I guess the RFB team has forced me to practice getting my targeting right for each ship, teaching the old dog some new tricks. I installed this Mod because I wanted an even better experience, so whatever I need to do I will just have to learn how to do it. Someday I WILL beat Observer's "diabolical":D Ship Damage Model and send those ships hurtling to the bottom. Thanks to Luke for his hints, I managed to quickly sink a Large Old Split Freighter with torpedoes under each mast and one under the funnel.

I wonder if the manual should have had a generic example of Observer's ship models as a starting point for people like me who are not up to speed on compartment layouts.

As far as the engine room discussion goes. I served on a Fletcher class Destroyer and was aboard a lot of other ships during my time at sea. You could damage the boiler room and knock out a boiler but I can not see how a single hit could damage all the boilers at once. The propulsion equipment is placed near the top of the engine room which would also be hard to kill both engine systems on one shot or even multiple shots. Once the crew deals with the fires, the ship slowed by flooding should begin to speed up and escape. Will this ship sink with the hits you alread gave her or will she recover and get away? Watch it sink or fire a few more fish to be sure? Maybe this is what the team meant by uncertainty.

There's one in there, showing the German tanker.

Nice observations there. I like to think of the flooding/damage system in similar terms. A hit to an engine space or cargo hold that doesn't completely flood could in reality be due to a number of factors, such as good damage control, the ship's layout, etc. I'm not a Navy veteran (Army, sorry :D), but I imagine most modern ships have redundancy/backup systems in place in case one fails or is destroyed. With a little bit of reasonable imagination, then, it's not hard to understand why that one torpedo hit didn't put the ship under. :yep:

Very good news !! :up:

Is there anything to be done with losing target lock problem ? Or should I just have to learn to live with it ? :doh: Ships taking lot more effort to sink are ok, especially if it's addressed a bit. :rock:

Patch
 

As you probably know, I've uninstalled RFB for the time being. I am currently playing 1.5 with PE4 and somebody's Aircraft config overhaul. The problem with the aircraft is a hardcoded one I believe, but you can tweak the config file to minimise the encounters. Does RFB have a air.cfg of it's own built in?

If a patch is in the works and it fixes the problem with the 'Lock', then I'd like to take another look at RFB. Sinking anything is hard enough without that thankyouverymuch! :o

Sinking of the Maine
 

I finished watching the History Channel's show on the real cause of the Maine's sinking and that got me thinking about WW2 ship's coal bunkers. It got me wondering if the coal fire that ignited a magazine on the Maine could happen on a WW2 ship. there would already be a fire and the addition of a torpedo explosion would set the reaction off. It would be a real treat if this were a plausible scenario and the game engine would allow this to be modeled on a rare occasion. After all, an explosion that blasts a huge hole in the ship causing it to sink quickly would be satisfying.

There's already a chance for a "critical" hit. I don't know the actual numbers, but say 5% of engine room hits cause a boiler explosion causing massive damage. I think this percentage represents cases like you described.

Anyone seen a ship (i.e target) settle down perfectly flat and level until she had about a foot of freeboard, then seemingly efuse to go further?

I had another run in with an old European last night. Down to four fish at roughly 2200h, I popped off two at her. First one dudded. Was fortunate to knock out the stern with the second and render her immobile. Surfaced and fired off the last two, one under the funnel, second under the forward mast. Both exploded on impact. Expended what was left of the deck ammo on both sides of the ship at the waterline. She took a long time to start going down. After several hours she was literally looking like a superstructure built on a floating table.

Day started breaking and I figured I'd bug out for home. Never got credit for sinking her on getting back to port. Guess I should have stuck around to see her actually go down (if in fact she did). Maybe I should have rammed her. LOL

Anyway, not meant to criticize the damage model at all. She was a good size target. I 'cheated' and took a look in side with the external camera and she flooded out evenly along her entire length and all compartments. Maybe I was just unlucky, or maybe I should have just waited around a bit longer.

We're still looking into the matter.

Ship Damage Model
 

Well I finally went and did it, a small freighter with one shot. It must have been a critical shot since it blew a massive hole in the engine room and the next compartment, with an impressive ball of fire. Time from firing to ship sinking message was 24 minutes. This picture was taken just after the "ship sunk" message appeared. This shows the team really nailed their design goals, great work RFB team. :up:

http://home.comcast.net/%7Eancient25...es/Sinking.jpg

Yep, sure have. A Hog Island. After one under the stack and one under the rear boom. It was still under way (maybe drifting?) with the aft end completely under and the front deck awash. A third torpedo and about half of my deck gun supply finally put it under after about 45 minutes.

Maybe not common but possible. In 1942 a Japanese submarine torpedoed the SS. Ft Camosun of the coast of Vancouver island. My grandfather was on a corvette that responded. His account, and photos show a large freighter with about a foot of freeboard. The crew had abandoned ship when the submarine surfaced and started shelling the ship. Anyway, long story short the ship was boarded by my grandfathers ship, some deck cargo removed, and it was towed to port and repaired. I'm sure the Japanese submarine captain also thought he had a confirmed sinking.