Without going into too many details, In TM, the key is in getting damage to the keel zone, which runs the length of the ship, along its bottom. A torpedo has an explosion radius of about 4 meters if i remember correctly. This 4 meter radius doesnt recongize objstuctions like other zones in the ship. Whereever it hits, it will effect a 4 meter circle, and any zone within that circle.
For flooding to start in a zone, a minimum amount of damage must be done. Once flooding has started, it is always to 100%, the only variation being how long it takes.
If you remove the keelzone from the equation, the way some ships are zoned, you could put 4 or 5 fish smack into the side (or even more), just at or just below the waterline and it won't sink. Large merchants in particular. And then they just list to one side. Adding the keelzone back into the equation and it becomes a question of how much periphial damage from the torpedo explosion is spread to the keelzone in order to reach the minimum threshold for it to start to flood. In my tests it was about 2 or 3. Although you can get a lucky hit in.
This keelzone/ship zoning problem ive described is also why you can put as many as 12 torpedos into one side of the Yamoto, and all you'll get is a heavy list. Since the ship is so wide, the explosion radius isnt tapping the keel zone and the compartmental flooding isnt enough to take it down. To sink the Yamato, you'll have to get some really solid salvos along both port and starboard sides of that ship.
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