Getting the deck gunners to use AP rds instead of HE all the time!
 

Now I know when you man the gun yourself (I dont do this,I command the attack from the bridge and let the gunners do the rest) you can switch between AP and HE rds,but what do you do if for some reason you are unable to man the gun (a possible mod conflict,F10 no longer works for me) and the gunners still insist on using HE rds all the time when trying to penetrate a ship's hull? Naturally,the gunners will fare better when hitting cargo or oil tanks on the deck with HE,but not a steel hull! :nope:

Thanks for any insight into this.

Can't you do it under weapons management 'I' somewhere?

I've never tried that,I will have to give it a try ,hmmm.
Thanks for the idea.

There's also an icon for manning the deck gun yourself in the left-hand slideout stations panel - that's what I use to get there. Is that kaput along with your F10 shortcut?

IIRC-Didn't GWX remove AP and star-shells? :hmmm:
:)

It does, but they can be added back into the mix by editing the basic.cfg.

I just tried it, added 1 round of AP for the deck guns to overcome the problem of the crew not automatically loading the guns when I've ordered them to be manned.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...0&postcount=33

The 1 round of AP ammo shows up in game but I haven't had an opportunity to use the gun yet to see if the "auto-load" issue got fixed. Nevertheless it is possible to put the SS and AP ammo back into your loadout.

Thanks frau kaleun. :salute:
I might have to try that. The crew not loading the gun when ordered to man guns has irritated me at the most inopportune times.

:)

You're welcome, but the thanks really go to Sergei who pointed out the relevant section of the basic.cfg file in the other thread. Someone had noted that the stock game was hardcoded to have the crew load AP ammo first when they manned the gun, and since GWX removed the AP ammo from the deck gun loadouts on the basis of historical accuracy, the crew would just stand around waiting to load ammo that wasn't there. I didn't know this, I always just assumed it was some unfixable stock bug that couldn't be avoided. But I figured if GWX took that ammo out, maybe it could be put back in, just as a workaround, without compromising historical accuracy all that much.

That's why I only added one round of AP, since in theory that's all it should take to get the party started automatically. I too find it very annoying to order "Feuer frei" and have nothing happen because the crew is waiting for me to climb down there myself and show them what ammo we DO have. :O:

That is correct.

So are you saying that when you access the deck gun you can see two sets of ammo quantities...HE and AP? :hmmm:

You know, I'm not sure if I went to the deck gun station as I didn't have occasion to use the gun yet - but I did go in the weapons management screen to look at the gun ammo loadout. I had 250 rounds total, 1 AP and 249 HE - which matched my edits in the basic.cfg.

I should be back in the game on a combat patrol tonight so I will look at what shows up when I "man the gun" personally. I hope I'll find something to shoot at too, then I'll know if the crew will start loading it automatically when I order them to begin firing.

I've a sneaky suspicion you won't be able to access that AP round :hmmm:

:wah:

We shall know soon enough.

EDIT: :wah: :wah: :wah:

Yeah, it shows up in Weps Mgmt but NOT when you access the gun station. And I fired two rounds and they were both deducted from the HE total.

Is there a way to get the AP ammo back in the game? What other files would have to be edited?

Really? I just tried it to see if I could get a couple of star shells. No star shells but they show up in WM and I also stuck some AP in there to see how much better they work, I stuck 20 in and they were the first loaded shell and I got to use all 20 but then had to switch to HE because thats all that shows up.
But There were still 220HE left after the 20 AP I fired and thats the ammount I set it for

I guess ill return it to normal now but damn I wish I had some 5 Star shells per patrol (I know they were not issued but damn would it help :))

Real life? An HE round will penetrate into any cargo ship, or destroyer for that matter. AP rounds are made to penetrate the 4" armor on cruisers.

In-game? I sink ships with GWX's HE loadout all the time. I don't see what the problem is.

Considering that the thickest shell plating on an average destroyer or merchant is no more than 1/2" thick, you shouldn't need an AP shell to penetrate, anyway.

Now, if you want to fight an armored warship on the surface...well, that's your prerogative, not mine! :yeah: