Idiot flak gunners don't shoot?
 

U806, Type IXC, 1600kms West of Lorient. April 1942.

I just got divebombed by a Sunderland, and my stupid flak gunners never fired a shot!!!

I spent all this renown before leaving port to give myself two twin 20mm flak guns and a flicking huge 37mm cannon. I was running on the surface one evening, trying to charge my batteries, and I had the flak guns manned, in expectation. Sure enough, flugzeug gesichte, and a Sunderland dove down on me. I ran up to the bridge to watch the fireworks, only to be greeted by a thundering burst of apathy on the part of my useless gunners. They were told fire at will, target all, and once I desperately climbed into the 37mm, I was the only one doing any firing. Pow..................pow......................pow.

What the hell was the problem?

Well, the first thing you should realize is theres a small little bug. Avoidable (i think :roll:) but definatly fixable.

Seems to happen when you manually man the guns yourself. What will happen after that is the AI gunner just sits there like a dummy. Quickly manning the gun, pointing it in the direction of the oncoming aircraft, and firing.... usually does the trick. After "showing the crewman how", the AI seems to get a clue.


Other then that, make sure you have the correct settings on the flak guns via the watch officer. Personnaly i tend to have them, set to "engage closing targets" and "engage any aircraft". That way they fire at whatevers doing an attack run, and not wasting ammo on things they can't hit, or things that are not an immediate threat.

What Mods are you using?

RuB 1.45 lowers the range at which the AI Flak gunners will open fire.

But there is also a waiting period before the gunners open up.

[AI AA guns]
Max error angle=8 ;[deg]
Max fire range=1000 ;[m]
Max fire wait=7

If the wait ends up being the full 7 seconds, then the plane will fire through your zone of fire before they have a chance to open up.

I dunno if this is an issue but... Did you have Ammo?

I was going to say the same thing.....I have had the same situation...only to find out that I was out of ammo.......DOH!!!!!!

You can assign targets manually with binoculars on the bridge, if you weren't already doing so. I use prioritize closing targets, medium range. Even then I usually only get two flak cannons on the plane.

This is, unfortunately, a very common bug.

Cycling between the flak stations and the bridge will wake the gunners up. I've done it enough that I automatically hit F-F4-T-F4-G-F4 whenever there's a plane in range :)

There's no Gaurentee that you bring 1 down anyway out of the box yeah sure take a whole squadron out improved air mod "Dive"

Crew not manning 3.7cm Flak ?
 

Ive only started my campain and havn't upgraded to a Type VIIC as yet (prob next patrol) - but while playing in "Single Mission" mode (the protect the Bismark one, can't remember exact name) I chose a Veteran Crew, 1942/43, and a Type VIIC (U-556) as per mentioned above (phew!) anywayz .... I know the different methods, hotkeys etc involved in getting your crew to man the AA Flak Guns, (F11, F, T, G) but for the life of me I cant get them to man the larger (is it a C/30 3.7cm Flak i think?) positioned lower down & between the other two smaller Flak guns (which they WILL man). The hotkey will take me to the view for it, but un-manned i can't use it. I think the conning tower in use is the VIIC/3 variant. I know u can't man them in rough seas, but even when its calm enough that the smaller Flaks get manned, this one still remains ghosted in the "crew on deck - Flak ..." menu & un-mannable? :damn: I've RTFM and i just cant suss this one out ?? is it an "upgrade" that i need which i don't yet have? any help would be very much appreciated, TIA. btw - i've been playing Silenthunter since the Orig version, and have them all, what a dream come true to see it progress to this its present incarnation - magic!

Hi and welcome
If you go into the crew screen ,make sure all of the available Flak positions are filled
If not you can put a man in there yourself
Make sure you have the full complement of crew too as sometimes it wont fill the guns positions as too few crew

Some times happens you do not receive the alert "Airplane Spotted, Sir", then the window with choices, maintain orders, engage it, and dive to periscope DO NOT appears.... you can not say them to attack the plane.

Then they are in "Hold Fire Status", you need to click on the watch officer icon, and then in the AAA Flak icon, and then you must to manually remove the "Hold Fire" order.

There you can asign many orders, how in example attack at short, medium, or long range, attack fighters, bombers, any plane or incoming planes.

If you do not manually remove the "Hold Fire" order, they "DO NOTHING".


Be ware.... do not sail or navigate with the "Hold Fire" oreder removed, specially arriving or leting port, because if you do it, they will shot down any friendly plane into shooting range.

Anoying, i know, but is what we have.....

Hope this can help..... :up:

I used to have this problem all of the time, I got the above key function fix from the SHIII forum, keyed it in and it's never happened since. In fact, I've shot down (my flak gunners anyway) several Hurri's and a couple of Sunderlands:up:

Hi ! Does anyone know which file those stats are in ?

Mutiny? ;)
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