Official situation report on the ship damage model.
What I've achieved so far in terms of realism and gameplay...
1. The "She's going down" message is received
mere seconds before the ship actually sinks. Sometimes you'll pray to receive it sooner...
2. Ships
VERY rarely sink of hit point depletion. The cargo they're carrying is a factor though, which may, or may not be decisive. The new HP system, based on tonnage and armor level, (almost) guarantees a non HP kill. Except for really small ships of course.
3. Ship crews will fight to their last breath, even in hopeless situations. They will also abandon the ship at the last moment. A destroyer for example, will continue to fire it's weapons even if almost half the ship is underwater. Something like CapnScurvy's signature.
4. More realistic use of torpedoes. Hitting a damaged ship listing fore, lets say, in the aft section, will flood the aft compartments, actually creating counter-flooding (a real WW2 tactic) and balance the ship's buoyancy, requiring more torpedoes to finish it than necessary. Hitting the same spot will further reduce HP, but HP are not so much decisive as they were, may not create the additional flooding required to sink her. A nearby compartment may do the job. Watch where you aim.
5. No more arcade "one torpedo kills" on medium/big ships. Hitting the ammo of a cruiser, let's say, will severely damage the ship, will create flooding depending of where it hit her, but may not affect speed or fighting/maneuvering ability, and the crew may contain the flooding, depending on it's severity, position, and the crew's quality.
6. More realistic use of the deck gun. Shooting a freighter at the superstructure will require 10 times the shells. Maybe more. Shoot at the waterline, concentrate on a specific point to create flooding, observe, shoot more if required. Shooting a target randomly, will exhaust your shell supply with limited results due to the new hit point system.
7. No more uncontrollable flooding. Ships had tenths, others hundreds of watertight compartments. A torpedo hit will not affect compartments far from the explosion. It will however damage nearby ones, if you're lucky.
While a ship may seem to have severe listing, it may not be enough for the water to penetrate further, or the crew may contain the flooding.
8. Simulated water pressure. If a ship's undamaged compartment gets underwater by flooding, it's watertight resistance changes dramatically. It will start itself flooding and eventually be destroyed, hopefully unbalancing the ship's buoyancy even more, and spread the flooding to it's neighboring compartments, creating a chain reaction that dooms the ship. All of this depending on the degrees the ship is listing, the damage suffered and the compartments under water.
9. Arcade one torpedo, magnetic keel shot kills are no more. Torpedo depth IS important to create flooding underwater, where it hurts the most, but don't expect to break ships in two. Flooding and listing however compensate enough for the loss.. Getting the ships capsizing is another project I'm working on.
10. Each individual ship has it's own unique sinking time, depending on the ship's tonnage and damage done, even though it uses some shared compartments with other ships.
While there are some other changes, they're not tested enough to be included in the above list. While the above results are certified and working, not every single ship complies to the above. That's the problem some other great modders solved by creating unique, balanced compartments for every ship.
Unfortunately, I don't have the skills required to produce diamonds, like Werner Sobe and Observer did, but the point is that I'm achieving some of the required results with my own way. The real problem I'm facing are the shared compartments. A change done to correct a ship's behavior, may negatively affect others using the same compartments. I guess I'll find a way to overcome this. Frequent problems also stop me. My thanks to CapnScurvy for helping me getting out of a dead end I found myself in.
Balancing is the key, but it requires lots & lots of work, time, coffee and smokes. Not to mention the wife's nagging for divorcing her from her laptop...
This mod is a great challenge for me, but I'll do my best to make something good, my own contribution to the community that's given so much to me all these years!
Best regards,
Billy.