Holier than thou (REL)

[Sniper297]

A variation on Websters improved US torpedoes, less explosive power but larger damage radius.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=4380

1. UStorp125 - same explosive power as stock, but with damage radius increased to 125%.
2. UStorp150 - same explosive power as stock, but with damage radius increased to 150%
3. UStorp125plus125 - Explosive power 125%, damage radius 125%
4. UStorp125plus150 - Explosive power 125%, damage radius 150%
5. UStorp135plus175 - Explosive power 135%, damage radius for a really really big hole. Use with caution, inside 1000 yards you can get damage to your own sub.

Comparison shot with stock MARK 14 and the number 5 135plus175 mod;



My preference is for 125plus125, equal to Webster's lowest V1 torpedo but with holes 125% bigger. Spreads out the damage more, but not to the point of sillyness.

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Sniper297

Use with caution, inside 1000 yards you can get damage to your own sub.

*Gulp* The damage radius isn't that large, is it?

Isn't there a way to change the relationship between the damage radius, and the "hole"?

[Sniper297]

No, the size of the hole is directly related to the damage radius. Doubling the radius results in really ridiculous damage, peeling the entire skin off half the length of a battleship, sometimes on both sides. In real life blast radius is proportional to explosive strength, in the game for some reason they made it a separate program. Shipboard explosions can cause damage over a large area or be contained in a small area, it depends on the strength of the material it's exploding inside. Blast overpressure in real life is maximum at the center of the explosion, and decreases further from the center. So a torpedo hit in (for example) the forward engine room of a DE will destroy the compartment and the engine, cause major damage to the after engine room and after boiler room, and minor damage to the forward boiler room which is further away. Underwater explosions in real life are vented upwards (into air, line of least resistance) but the game doesn't model that so if you're passing underneath an exploding ship and within the blast radius you'll get an effect proportional to the distance from the center of the blast. At 150% you could get the usual periscopes and deck gun damage if you're within 500 yards when the fish hits, at 175% and 135% power the damage doesn't peter out completely until further out.

Stock SH4 numbers for the MK 14;

Min EF - 180
Max EF- 350

So the blast itself is a variable, at dead center it can take off anywhere from 180 to 350 hit points. As you move further from center the number of hit points taken from the compartment diminishes.

Min radius - 3.5
Max radius - 8.0

The explosion takes maximum hit points from the center to the min radius, so anywhere within 3.5 meters of center the number will be the same as at center, then be reduced until the max radius of 8 meters - at 8.1 meters from center no damage. Increase to 175% then blast will cause damage out to 14 meters, which is about 46 feet. In itself that won't bother a sub 1000 yards away at periscope depth, but a 46 foot blast radius involves a lot more compartments and can set off some spectacular secondary explosions which WILL go out beyond 1000 yards.

It's actually possible and sometimes happens in the stock game that you take damage from a target blowing up if you're too close to it, but the larger the initial damage the more likely it becomes. Up to the 125-150 you can close to within 500 yards before shooting a battleship, cruiser, or ammo ship and be safe 9 times out of 10, but at 135-175 it's best to stay back at least 1000 yards simply because the big bang is more likely.

[ETR3(SS)]

What you say is true and I can attest to that. I set up a mission in the mission editor for weapons testing placing several ships in close proximity. A merchant carrying ammo exploding can cause neighboring vessels to be caught in the blast and so be destroyed themselves.

It's kind of fun, it's like watch a long line of dominoes fall.

[Sniper297]

It's a weird chain reaction, it somehow makes the radius of the secondaries increase by the same multiplier. Got a small secondary that throws debris which falls 100 to 200 yards away from the target, doubled torpedo blast radius makes the same secondary bigger so the fallout splashes down 500 yards away. And the debris itself is like a bomb falling so it explodes when it hits the water or a nearby ship or boat, setting off yet another chain reaction. While experimenting with the fire damage mod I once blew up an 8 ship convoy plus two of the three escorts by going crazy with the blast radius. Chain reaction was spectacular. Fun at parties but not much use when you're trying to be realistic. 175% is as big as you really need to go, use a reasonable number of torpedoes according to the size and type of target just the 125% radius with no explosive increase will get pretty good results. The EF variable in the ZON file is the cause of many hair tearing sessions watching a carrier with 3 torpedoes in it steam off at 25 knots, if the min is 180 and the max 350 the average would be 265 hit points per hit, applied to three points with a radius of 3.5 meters with lesser damage out to 8 meters. Hiryu has 600 hit points so if you get a bad roll of the dice and all fish cause the minimum of 180 for every hit it will need 4 hits to destroy it. Larger blast radius means more flooding so more likely to sink before losing all the hit points, also slows it down or stops it with the additional flooding.

[Sniper297]

Some shots of the 125-150 mod;

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice : ) Some serious damage there : o

[Sniper297]

Of course you still have to actually hit the target. More fun today, after the fall of Manila I resupplied at Phantom 42 then headed for Java by way of Saigon to see what trouble I could get into over there. Halfway across the South China Sea I met a task force with 1 BB and some CLs in one column, 4 BBs in the center, and some CAs in the far port column. Playing with realistic reload it's very difficult to get 5 BBs, so I decided to try a new tactic. Set one forward tube and four aft tubes for low speed, turned the stern toward the approaching columns and fired 2 each at the leading BBs about 7000 yards. Wound her up and popped the clutch, spun around to head toward them and fired the one forward tube, leaving the other three set at high speed (SARGO, 4 forward and 4 aft). The idea is by the time the slow fish hit and you close inside the formation, some of the tubes will be reloaded by then.

Either the formation changed course or I aimed wrong because I sunk a Furutaka cruiser and a lifeboat, missed both BBs and all the ones in column behind them. Had a cool effect tho, busted up the square dance and turned it into a rugby scrum with ships running every which way and into each other. For the next hour I was running around shooting BBs in all directions while half a dozen escorts were on the other side of the panicked mob trying to get to me without getting run over. When one finally did he was too close to an exploding BB;





and was unable to complete his depth charge run due to being sunk by the fallout.

Expended all 22 fish but did manage to sink all five BBs and a couple heavy cruisers that got in the way of fish aimed at assorted BBs, including one FUSO that obstinately kept dodging around so that 4 out of six shots fired at him were near misses.