[REQ] Realistic Ship Sinking Times

[Galanti]

Is there any way to increase the length of time it takes for a ship to sink? I want to enjoy my victim's slow agonizing descent into the depths. They go down like cinder blocks now.

[CCIP]

Totally agreed. I'm personally hoping that Der Teddy Bar comes through (hint hint) and applies the NYGM damage values to SHIV.

[Galanti]

That would be pretty sweet. I haven't made up my mind about the actual damage model, as I sank a heavy cruiser with four torps, which seems about right. However, I seen posts where players are sinking Yamatos and CVs with 2-3 hits.

Which begs the question: does game difficuly have anything to do with it? IE, does the selected difficulty affect anything besides the visible settings you can configure (like manual TDC, unlimited fuel, etc)

[CCIP]

The game difficulty shouldn't affect it.

What I think is happening is that the game has a fairly large 'critical hit' zone on many units, usually in the boilers. One hit there tends to be sufficient to bring down the whole ship.

Reducing hit zones like that and seriously tweaking a damage model would require a .zon editor. As far as I'm aware, both NYGM and GWX teams for SHIII had their own private .zon editors developed; Der Teddy Bar and Ref are the ones who would have access to these.

What I think needs to be done for a more realistic sinking model with SHIV is
1) Reducing critical hit chances/zones
2) Seriously increasing the flooding times (ships sink quickly because it takes only seconds for a given compartment to fill up with water)
3) Somewhat increasing the overall hit points (not even for all ships, perhaps)
4) (not directly related) Increasing torpedo failure chances (depth error in particular)

[Galanti]

For now I'd be happy increasing the flooding times. Would adjusting values in the main zones file do it, or would I need the zones editor to tweak individual ships?

[CCIP]

I would try adjusting the zones to see what happens. I do know that for more serious revisions, editing individual zones is still usually done. But I think editing the zones file should be able to increase flooding times.

[http]

Realistic sinking time was supposed to be in the game as an realism option and add 8% in realism, but it's missing!

Also missing ''No weapon Officer Assistance'' (add 6%) and ''No noise meter'' (add 2%)...

[CCIP]

Well yes, but there is neither a weapons officer nor a stealth meter in the game.

[CaptainCox]

Look in :
C:/Program Files/Ubisoft/SH4/Data/ (folder is called "Zones")

Only 1 example

;************************************************* ******
;NEW SMALL MERCHANT
;************************************************* ******
[NSKeel]
Category=Keel
Multiplier=5.0
Flotability=50.0
HitPoints=120
Destructible=No
Armor Level=20
Critic Flotation=0.99
Critical=Yes
Critical Chance=1.0
FloodingTime=120
CargoType=None
[NSFlotMain]
Multiplier=1.0
Flotability=8.0
HitPoints=100
Destructible=No
Armor Level=-1
Critic Flotation=0.30
Critical=No
FloodingTime=60
CargoType=Custom
Crash Depth=12
[NSFlotEmpty]
Multiplier=1.0
Flotability=40.0
HitPoints=100
Destructible=No
Armor Level=13
Critic Flotation=0.30
Critical=No
FloodingTime=60
CargoType=None
Crash Depth=12

[NSFlotShow]
Multiplier=1.0
Flotability=5.0
HitPoints=100
Destructible=No
Armor Level=-1
Critic Flotation=0.30
Critical=No
FloodingTime=60
CargoType=None
Crash Depth=12
[NSFlotUpper]
Multiplier=1.0
Flotability=10.00
HitPoints=10
Destructible=No
Armor Level=-1
Critic Flotation=0.01
Critical=No
FloodingTime=30
CargoType=None
Crash Depth=0.5
[NSFuelBunker]
Category=Fuel Bunkers
Multiplier=5.0
Flotability=2.5
HitPoints=100
Destructible=No
Armor Level=15
Critic Flotation=0.3
Critical=Yes
Critical Chance=0.05
FloodingTime=80.0
CargoType=Fuel


I guess one could play with these...

[9th_cow]

it would certainly be nice, i took out a small troop carrier with a single torp and saw the crew bail, but it never sank.
wich to me is much more interesting than seeing it go pop and dissapear.

[malkuth74]

How about we fix the fact that it takes 8-10 torps to kill some ships like Med Frieghters. If you made the sink times any longer or harder I would go insane.

Some ships can still cruise while halfway sumerged and keep on going. That is issues that need addressing.

[Galanti]

Okay, I've definately had some success with tweaking the zones.cfg file, but's kind of flakey. I'm going to grab my GWX zones.cfg and do some comparing. I know the GWX damage model involved changes to individual ship zone files, but I want to look at flooding and criticality in a general way.

[walsh2509]

last mission dropping of a spy on the japanese coast , I get a new update patrol, I've to patrol the japanese coast. With only 4 stern torps left I was not going to hang around to long.

Not long after I dropped the spy off, I had a task force contact, bottom line turned out to be 3 DD and a Liner 18,000+tns the one on the 1st page of the ship rec manual.

Anyhoo, stormy night I was lined up and she was about to pass within 350meters of my stern. Just about seen her funnels and masts could not make out the hull.

Any way I had set all 4 torps depth to 5meters and 1st set at 0angle the other 3, angles 1. 2 and 3. I let her have all 4 torps (my setting 73%) I though that 4 would not be enough. But all 4 hit and I seen flames from her rear funnel and within 3minutes of my 1st torp hitting she was gone, down to a watery grave.

So I don't think the devs have set the sinkings to ultra slow, some do others like that 18,000tn+ Liner were gone in under 3 mins.

Another time I had not torps left, and this 5,000+tn Freighter was sailing close by in the dead of night, I got my deck gun crew to open up on her from close range (500meters) The 1st shot I hit her midship, the 2nd hit her rear deck and when it did , there was a massive explosion and she started to sink . 2 shells.

Again she was gone in about 2 mins...

[Galanti]

Well I think I'm getting somewhere, but will need to test more. Ships seem to last quite a bit longer, but once that 'Unit destroyed' threshhold is crossed, they still go down fast

However, I've just found this parameter in C:\Games\Silent Hunter 4\Data\UPCData\GamePlaySettings:
RealisticShipSinkingTime=true

It says at the top that this file is no longer used but maybe the paramter is still valid! Can't play now, but i'm going to try and put this line in my data/gameplaysetting.cfg and see what happens

[Beery]

I did a study on real sinking times for RUb and I seem to recall that most ships sank fairly fast - between one and ten minutes, with a few taking longer. I'd have to look up the post again (if it exists after all this time) to confirm this.