Depth charges not exploding below 130m
 

Hi Subsim members.

I've been playing GWX onealex for a while now, and it appears that depth charges are never set to explode below 130ish meters, I've found a few threads on that, still to me it appears as a bug/exploit, dive deeper and you are safe, which seems unrealistic. Ok, maybe at the beginning of the war they didn't figure out that Uboats could go deeper than they thought but c'mon, by 1942 allies would have adjusted to that.

Is there a mod/fix/tweak to fix that ?

:Kaleun_Salute:

welcome aboard!
 

Can of worms
 

I've been following this topic for a couple of years.


Try looking here for some clues.


In real life target depth measurement was largely guesswork until near the end of the war. Going very deep really did give a very high degree of protection throughout the war. Following the introduction of support groups in mid 1943 if hundreds of charges did not do the trick the tactic was to wait above the target for 24 hours, when it would have to come back up due to lack of battery or air. Escorts do not have this kind of patience in game and if you can avoid detection for about 20 minutes they will go away. 24 hour hunts are not good gaming material.


A related problem with GWX is that the charges are super accurate in depth and you can dodge them by going up or down by 20m when the escort starts its run. To be honest just about everything about the escorts' sensors is messed up in GWX! Not really the modders fault, it's partly due to mistakes in the base game.


I think the best thing to do would be to drastically downgrade the charge depth accuracy by modding the depth_precision parameter in Silent 3ditor. This should negate the depth change tactic and also lead to a few exploding deeper. Not tried this, it might cause escorts to sink themselves when they make shallow attacks.



HOWEVER:

The game to some extent relies on the player's extremely poor ability to see what is going on. This is what gives the game its outstanding "feel" and where later games like uboat get it wrong. It also hides some dodgy simulation and extremely poor AI! The more you find out the more problems you find...

Thanks a lot for those details, might try that depth_precision parameter, but seems tricky indeed,need to test various values. Well for a good sweat I can always go and engage heavily escorted convoys with 60m ocean depth.
Thanks again for your reply.
:Kaleun_Cheers:

Never mind, I got depth charged at 175m depth in April 1942 off the US east coast by British destroyer, was a close call, depth charges exploding behind and right below U-boat, I guess they figured it out after all ...
:Kaleun_Applaud:

In 1942 the British had a 500ft (i.e. 150m) setting so bearing in mind the height of your boat above the keel and the inaccuracy of the fuses (and the possibility of soap!) that sounds entirely realistic. i'm not sure if the fast sinking charges with extra weights gave different detonation depths to those marked on the fuses.
Guessing your depth would be down to the experience of the warship crew, and that is captured in the game.

There's no telling what the game settings are in any particular mod soup. To be honest that's a good thing as it forces you to default to real tactics rather than game exploits. Whilst it adds greatly to the fun it's best to not use the external views too much as it tends to make problems with the simulation too obvious. If you ever get a pack attack on a convoy you can see many crazy things via the external view. The exception is if you sink the whale factory ship in GWX - external view is then essential!