Decks awash mod
 

I see there's a mod for decks awash for SHIII, but none for SHIV. The possibility looks like it's there, all the US subs do have a snorkel depth in their CFG files, no idea how to activate something like that.

From what I've read, in real life common practice was to shut the main induction (running the diesels at slow speed they could get enough air through the open conning tower hatch) and flood down to 25-30 feet to run decks awash. In game this really don't work, anything deeper than 22 feet the watch goes below and shuts the hatches and shifts to battery power.

So the questions;

1. Which file or files controls the depth at which propulsion shifts to batteries and the CO2 starts building up?

2. If it's not possible to hack those values, how would I enable a "virtual" snorkel for a US sub with a "snorkel" (decks awash) depth of 26 or 27 feet?

That would probably be better in any case, since the crew seems reluctant to hold any depth between surfaced and 30 feet - I understand depth variations due to wave action, but all too often they seem to forget what depth I ordered, after half an hour or so I find myself around 19-20 feet when they were ordered to hold 27 feet (*%#&@$#! lubbers!). I did try hacking the NSS_Sargo.cfg for a snorkel depth of 8.5 meters (about 28 feet in real money) but it doesn't respond to the ; key at all.

Its possible, but i believe most mods use snorkel depth as radar depth instead. I'm still learning to mod this sim so i'll let someone with more knowledge provide all the details.

Well, I found it, in the \Data\Cfg\Commands.cfg file;

[Cmd195]
Name=Snorkel_depth
Ctxt=1
Str=1033
;Key0=0xBA,C,"Comma"

I spent a few years trying to learn C code before deciding I was never gonna be a programmer, but the one thing I picked up was the semicolon means "comment, do not execute the instruction on this line". SHIV has a lot of SHIII code in it that isn't used, so to activate the snorkel for US subs just remove the semicolon from the front of that last line. It says "comma" but on a US keyboard comma is an external view, the semicolon (next to the L, ";") is the actual command key, hit that and it takes you to "snorkel depth".

Next step is to go to \Data\Submarine\NSS_Sargo (or whatever sub you're modding) and open the CFG file for that;

[Properties]
PeriscopeDepth=18.7;meters
SnorkelDepth=8.9;meters
CrashDepth=40;meters
MaxDepth=132;meters
SurfaceDepth=5.061;meters
TorpLaunchMaxDepth=30;meters
StormConditions=9,0.1;max wind speed [m/s], max rain intensity [0,1]

Little trial and error before I came up with that, I started with 8.5 (28 feet divided by 3.3 French Furlongs, add a 15 guilder Dutch postage stamp) and they reluctantly went down to 24, gradually drifting down to 26 after half an hour or so. Changed to 9.1 (about 30 feet in Christian measurement) and they popped right down to 30, that's too much since it shuts off the diesels, starts using up the battery and building up CO2. 8.9 should be about 29 feet, but again these scurvy dogs are either looking at some depth gauge that I don't see or they're kinda sloppy about following orders.

Just figured that out last night, so now some testing is needed, find a stationary tin can (in a harbor somewhere) and test the distance on the surface where he sees me and opens fire, then see how much closer I can get decks awash before he sees me.

Okay, that works.

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8973/20455362.jpg

In real life you wouldn't flood down that deep with the diesels running with waves that high, shut the conning tower hatch when a big wave comes and everyone's ears pop from the suction, leave it open and you get a lot of water shorting out the electrical equipment in the control room. I set up a test just outside the 5 mile circle for the carrier and destroyer at Kobe;

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4331/99169748.jpg

Running at my "decks awash" snorkel depth the tin can opened fire on me at 3000 yards. Reloading the save I surfaced and ran in again fully surfaced, he opens fire about 4800 yards. If I stop and dive to snorkel depth at the same range he stops shooting since he can no longer "see" me at that range and depth. Not 100% realistic, but it does work.

Very interesting. I'll play around with it myself and hope more skilled modders will look at it.

nice idea ! never checked how far out our snorkel was visible though..

keltos

Dunno, been too many years since I played SHIII so I don't remember much about the actual snorkels. My guess is that they would be visible just a little further than a periscope, but "snorting" with a diesel running underwater would be audible from much further away on sonar. This is wrong;

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/5605/27815746.jpg

I increased the gamma of that one to 150% so the image is clear, fairly dark night sitting decks awash in front of a convoy. If the lookouts were asleep they might miss the conning tower from that distance (I didn't measure but it looks like less than 500 yards) but more realistic would be about 2000 yards. They finally saw me a minute later;

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/8558/68623772.jpg

So it don't make you totally invisible.

Top work Sir :up: As I play RFB and OM both I tried this for the U-boats as well and found the usable values there a bit smaller, i.e. around 7.25 m or thereabouts. Just FYI...