Not a good start

[Ernohauki]

Hello all.

I got SH4 yesterday and before doing anything i downloaded couple of mods in it. Today i decided to start a new career. Well in my first career i was sailing for hours without meeting any ships at all. But then...suddenly my crew sees airplane but it's too late to do anything now as it's top of us already and it blows my beautiful sub so full of holes that i can't do anything to save it. I am thinking...haha what a bad luck and start a new career. Well this time i meet couple of japanese boats quite early in the game. I target one....launch my torpedoes....and BOOOOM! They all blow up half way to the ship. I must have done something wrong or maybe the enemy ship was too far away. I got a bit frustrated and quit the game planning to try again later tonight with hopefully better luck. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

[DigitalAura]

What mod are you playing?
What is the range of the enemy ships? (a torpedo will only travel 4600 yards on high speed)

Airplanes are really vicious in Trigger Maru Overhauled, and they seem to spot you more frequently than the stock version of the game. If you spot a plane in TMO you better dive deep and quick!!

[Inner Sound]

Hoots man! You've enabled dud torpedoes in Options - Gameplay. Click on the radio on the shelf in the Captains room at your home base to make any gameplay alteration stick.

Fantastically frustrating, but it's what what those boats endured till mid 43. But if you set your fish to

1) contact detonation only
2) slow
3) 12 feet shallower than what the target seems to require

you'll get better % success.

[Ernohauki]

Well yeah. Dud torpedoes. That's what i needed to ask you guys. I was teasing this one merchant ship couple of minutes ago and when i turned torpedoes to blow up on impact every single one of them were dud. Then i took save i had saved before i attacked that merchant and tried with that magnetic thingy and they worked. Any advice what i did wrong?

And about addons. I have Real fleet boats, Pacific enviroment and run silent run deep.

[ETR3(SS)]

Set torpedoes to Impact, slow speed, and as shallow as they can go. Also don't go for a 90º shot ------->|, try for a 45º shot ------>\. At a 90º angle you can crush the pistol before it can detonate.

[magic452]

You didn't do anything wrong, that is just how it was early in the war, dud rate was very high. They ran too deep, exploded too early or not at all.
Between the three the dud rate was 60 or 70%, some load outs were almost 100%

Inner Sound and ETR3 gave you very good advise. That will cut down the duds but not eliminate them.

Magic

[Rockin Robbins]

And what you ran into in your first post was premature explosions. This is also something that happened too frequently with the magnetic detonator. Nothing like advertising your presence to make the fight more fair!

[Munchausen]

Originally Posted by Inner Sound

1) contact detonation only
2) slow
3) 12 feet shallower than what the target seems to require

Number 3 is the important one. I usually set my torps for "magnetic" and "fast" (or, at least, as fast as they can go ... unless it's a long shot). But I subtract 11 or 12 feet from the target's draft ... and my dud rate is never any greater than about 10%.

[Armistead]

I just caught the Midway TF in the Bungo. Let go 6 and had one carrier dead in the water with two hits. One by one I shot 14 torps at a nice angle, slow settings, ect...all duds and prematures....Talk about mad. Luckily for me hours later it finally blew up......

Think how they felt in real life. To have that happen over and over and the higher ups told them those torps weren't the problem. Sub men had to fix the problems, cuz politics wouldn't admit their perfect weapon was junk.

My answer and I like to play more realistic, so I keep an S-boat for my first few patrols is to use M10's...they work. I still carry several when I move up to another boat.....Less powerful, but they work most the time.

Maybe RR knows, I'm not sure of the use of M10's in other boats, if they could've been used or not.

[SteamWake]

This is why I always advise those new to the game to play it unmodded for a while first

The rest have given good advice. Good luck and good hunting !

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Armistead

I just caught the Midway TF in the Bungo. Let go 6 and had one carrier dead in the water with two hits. One by one I shot 14 torps at a nice angle, slow settings, ect...all duds and prematures....Talk about mad. Luckily for me hours later it finally blew up......

Think how they felt in real life. To have that happen over and over and the higher ups told them those torps weren't the problem. Sub men had to fix the problems, cuz politics wouldn't admit their perfect weapon was junk.

My answer and I like to play more realistic, so I keep an S-boat for my first few patrols is to use M10's...they work. I still carry several when I move up to another boat.....Less powerful, but they work most the time.

Maybe RR knows, I'm not sure of the use of M10's in other boats, if they could've been used or not.

Yes the could and were. Same diamater

[Ernohauki]

Now i have new problem. I can't find any ships! I have only sank two small merchant ships but seems like i can't find anymore no matter where i look. Any good spots you would suggest me to go hunt?

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Ernohauki

Now i have new problem. I can't find any ships! I have only sank two small merchant ships but seems like i can't find anymore no matter where i look. Any good spots you would suggest me to go hunt?

Japan sorry couldent resist.

Depends on the time, lots of threads on this question and guides too.

Have a look around here http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=146795

Good luck to ya

Oh yea and welcome to subsim

[I'm goin' down]

You ain't seen nothing yet! Wait until you get serious about manual targeting.