Newbie problem with torpedos
 

I am new to SH3, but love the game.
I am doing a career, finished 4 patrols.

On my 5th patrol I ran across a C2 Cargo and I setup a silent/perfect trap. I used automatic targeting and once the ship was about 180-200 m I launched my torpedo after it was 'green' in the periscope view.

The torpedo 'missed'? How did that happen?

So I come around, setup another shot and launch another torpedo with the C2 Cargo dead ahead of me. Missed again!!! I was about 150 m from the ship.

Now what am I doing wrong? Am I too close? What is the minimum range for a torpedo to be armed?

Or is my depth in correct? I tried changing it in TDC to be about 3 m from 4 m default and it made no difference.

Any help would be appreciated as I am pulling my hair out.

:damn:

It takes 300m for the warhead in the torpedo to arm. So your ones would have bounced off the hull. Don't go so close next time :D

What were the weather conditions? If you have a lock on the periscope it can be lost in seconds by a wave washing over the scope, and it will stay in the postion that the scow was in before the wave washed over. Other than that, the C2 could have changed speed quickly, which has happened to me a few times, which is annoying when you launch a 4 tube salvo. :shifty:

In what way did they miss? Did they go under, to the side or just bounce off??

Ah, I didn't know that I need atleast 300 m for my torpedos to fire reliably. :D

I will stay further away next time.

Hmm, since I had no Picture in Picture enabled I don't know how they missed. But I will keep an eye out.

Thanks for your help guys..

They will have clanged off the hull. I did the same as you before I found out they needed at least 300m :oops: :D

Has anyone found a way to reduced the time it takes for fired torpedos to arm themselves. I've seen a few films where the captain orders the fail-safes removed so he can attack at extremely short range (not always with the desired result)

I think technically that the minimum time for them to arm is 15 seconds, which *usually* (but not always) works out to about 300m in the game. I might be wrong but I don't think there's a way to reduce it.

Well, not really because for a 30 kt torp it takes 10 secs and for a 40 kt one it takes 7.5 seconds on a 300m run.

Allso....remember to open the torpedo doors before firering.
The solution on the target is made on the assumption that the doors are open

USE THE "Q" KEY TO OPEN THEM!

Also read the community manuals :)
http://www.communitymanuals.com/shii...itle=Main_Page

I would like to know why this is the case in real life. Why not arm it 5m from the tube?

Maybe it has something to do with the safety of the sub. If a magnetic torpedo get´s stuck in the tube '5m' fuse is a abit short time to get the torpedo out of the tube. :up:

Also, one of the torpedo problems in the war was premature detonation - after the torpedo has armed but before it reaches the target. If they were set to 5m then a number of subs would probably have blown themselves up. Not a good way to fight a war :)

I can definately back this up, there was a big difference when attacking fast moving ships.

Out of interest, in real life was there a fail safe to prevent torpedos from being fired with the doors closed?

Yeah the fail safe was the distance which was measured by the spinning propeller at the front. In order for the propeller to spin it had to be traveling.

It isn't they won't fire...they need a minimum run of 300m to "arm" before they will detonate.

This was built in as a safety margin factor ....you really don't want a torpedo going off while close to your boat...or even still in the tube... :yep: