What do you guys use your deck gun for?
 

Other than hanging laundry....I've pretty much come to the conclusion with the RFB patch the deck guns have become useless.


I understand the whole realism argument....fine fine fine.

But when it takes me 62 shells to sink a tugboat!!! (I counted) and almost an hour of real time waiting for the silly thing to reload.

I'd rather not bother.

All my efforts to enable RFB....AND edit the gun .sim files are coming to naught...(see topic in MOD section)

SO I just wondered if you guys bothered to even use the silly things anymore?:shifty:




p.s. just so you know I love everything else about RFB, but am considering chunking the whole thing just for this one highly irritating issue. I dont want a super cannon or a machine gun.....just not to have to spend a half hour taking out a sampan.

matey, load "websters deckgun mod"
I put 1 or 2 torps into em then surface and blast em. though not the rule, today i sank a fishing boat with 3 rds and another with 7.

Hanging laundry... good idea ! :sunny:

It is a tad ... uhh underpowered but its a lot more realistic and more or less reflects what happend in real ops.

That being said it does help some where you aim and what type of ammo you use. AP right at the waterline, HE on the superstructures helps a bit.

Your still going to take quite some time to sink anything.

Why are you wasting ammo on a tug boat anyhow :hmm:

Typically use it if it's an isolated ship. Even then, I typically put a torpedo in it before I finish it off, if need be.

The 'unrealistic' way I use to set firing speed with either deck guns or when building playable ships, is to try to set them close to the speed of the ones shooting at me. I have seen some merchants that reload quite fast, so I try to set for somewhere around that since they use deck guns too. (And I don't mean the ones shooting at you with AA guns, but the ones that actually are using almost the same gun you are) It may not be realistic as far as "Real life" speeds but it keeps the game on an even playing field.
Just my 2 cents.

Peabody

because rfb is about realism the gun will only do something if you hit below the waterline. you can blast the deck to a clean dance floor and it wont sink it.

that being said you wont "see" a lot it will just finish it off from filling with water so spread your shots out so you flood more than one or two compartments. then just wait for the slow death.

my upgraded deck gun mod gives you lots of ammo plus shells do more damage as well. its not for realism but you can quickly dispatch that hard to sink ship and be on your way. it has two versions, one version also will do away with crew fatigue.

That's funny because hanging laundry was exactly what I was going to say. When I first started playing SH4 I used it on fishing boats but later with mods you have to expect them to have a radio to report you with. I tried using it to expedite sinking of merchants but that just exposes you to danger needlessly imo so now it doesn't get used at all except on sunny days when the clothes are wet.:lol:

I use it as a seriously ballsy way to light my cigars.

It's called Real Fleet Boat for a reason. ;) Ship sinking times and damage are being totally re-done, but don't suddenly expect miracles with the deck gun. It will remain what it was designed to be: a weapon to finish off cripples or targets not worth a torpedo.

On a related note, are you putting crewmen in the deck gun slots? If not, your reload times will be terribly slow no matter what.

I find I still use mine, even with RFB.

Maybe it is just me, but it seems to work best when shooting an already crippled target who has started to flood, I know it helps that its already crippled, but I have had instances where it just took 3-5 round (5-10 in total) UNDER the water line to put down some medium merchants.

Yes I have dudes in my crew slots.

I have spent lots of $$$$ for the premeir gunnery team in the entire navy.'

Ratings anywhere from 90-115.


The reason I wasted 62 shells ona tugboat? Because I didnt want to waste a torpedo on it and I figured....hey....easy 1000 tons.

heh.

Unfortunately the reload times are going to be unrealistic no matter what you do, because with the game it's either feast or famine. In perfect weather the stock reload times are fine, but in real-world conditions with the boat pitching and rolling they are ridiculously fast. Slow them down and you get more realistic average times but everybody percieves them as hideously slow.

As for the amount of shells needed to sink a 500-ton tugboat, here's a dose of reality: it took this u-boat 17 shells to sink a fishing boat less than one-tenth that size.
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/1736.html

There is a reason that modern submarines do not have deck guns. They were an appallingly bad idea. Sinking a lousy tug meant a half hour lollygagging on the surface waiting for your puny posterior to be plastered by a lucky airplane.

Because the submarine was such a lousy gun platform, and dangerous to its crew, the odds of being tagged by an enemy aircraft were only slightly worse than the odds of sinking the target. The risk/benefits ratio was hideous.

If I were Admiral Lockwood, I would have used the deck gun solely as a screening device to detect and eliminate incompetent skippers from my fleet. If your log shows a deck gun use against anything but a junk, you're relieved of command. If you were stupid enough to endanger your crew shooting at an armed merchant or escort, it's the firing squad for you. Your death is a small price to pay for the lives of your crew and that valuable sub you were willing to throw away. OK, I'll throw in a get out of jail free card for use finishing off an unarmed wounded merchie if you have no torpedoes left. Ain't I merciful?

To answer your question if I use it or not....I pretty much ignore it. It is a VERY secondary weapon to me. However, it is great to surface when you have already crippled a vessel like most have stated. Keep in mind that running the RFB cannon makes the sim a bit more challenging. Each torpedo is a precious commodity not to be expended lightly and without planning. If the cannon was set up like the ray gun from The Death Star that took out planet Tatooni you would expend your torpedoes like candy because you know you can just surface if you screw up and start blasting with the cannon. I know now that If I do not get at least one torp into the vessel, I will be spending 80 rounds and 45 minutes attemting to sink a vessel with the cannon. Gets really old really fast. So, I make my calculation precise and my aim true concerning my torpedoes. If the vessel is still afloat I then use my cannon.

Just a side note for the RFB users, make sure your merchant is not armed! RFB is now set up that if your sub takes gun fire or cannon fire....kiss your topside crew goodbye. There has been a lot of work concerning this aspect of the game. You will be dragging bloodied bodies below if you surface against an armed merchant! I know, been there and done that. I did a very stupid thing. I did not look to see if a merchant was armed. I surfaced and blamo! I'm writing condolense letters to the next of kin. Not to mention the many holes in my steel tube and hull damage. So, your cannon just became less effective then once thought:lol:

i hope you mean if the gun takes a hit or nearby hit?

i dont want to see dead crew if i take a hit to the hull or stern because thats too unrealistic and not what i thought rfb was striving for.