Maximum detonation depth for DCs?

[Dietrich]

I've been trawling through the forums trying to find something about the maximum detonation depth of a depth charge, but with no luck.

For reference, for testing I'm using GWX-2.1, with no additional mods.

From anecdotal evidence, it seems that in the early war, DCs will not explode at depths greater than about 150 m. I've searched through the GWX manual, but there is no mention of it there.

Looking at the .SIM files, there are the following in \data\Library:

DepthCharges.sim
DepthCharges_SB.sim

These both have the "detonation depth" set to 25.0 m. I'm wondering whether this is the "minimum" depth, rather than the maximum? (By the way, does anyone know what the "SB" means?)


So, there are two main questions for me.

1. Is there a real difference between early-war and late-war DCs?
2. Is there a way to adjust the maximum depth at which a DC will explode?


Any hints/tips greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone.

[Graf Paper]

The His Majesty's Royal Navy Type D Mk. 7 depth charge could be detonated at 900 feet (273 meters). This particular ordinance was first introduced in 1940.

Most "early war" depth charges were set to a maximum detonation depth of 492 feet (150 meters) because it was incorrectly believed by the British Admiralty, at that time, that u-boats could not operate beyond this depth. Minimum detonation depth was 25 feet (7.62 meters).

That more or less exhausts my knowledge of operational depths for depth charges during WWII.

[xristoskaiti]

Maximum detonation depth for DCs in sh3 is 300m
after this depth the DCs are del

Doh!!

Originally Posted by Mikhayl

For the max detonation depth since there's nothing in the .sim file, maybe it's tied to the AI sensors, if a DD knows you're at say 200m it will set its DCs to detonate around 200m ? :hmm:

Yes, that's correct.
But MAX depth is 300 meters give or take.
Hard coded somewhere.
Then the depth-precision setting is applied in a random manner.

Originally Posted by Mikhayl

Re the "SB" in filenames, it's Sergbuto's files if I'm not mistaken.

Again correct.

[Sailor Steve]

Just an opinion: While having them explode at shallower depths early in the war would be more realistic (and we all know I'm nuts for realism) I think it's better the way it is, simply because the u-boat captains wouldn't have been certain of that, and using hindsight as a game mechanism certainly isn't realsistic.

[irish1958]

Whatever they are set, they seem to find me. I have lost more subs than Carter has liver pills.

I know I've read this before but do not remember. Does any one know the rate of decent of DCs in meters per second?

Depth charged by three enemy craft in Med, DCs set deep because time between launch and explosion was quite long. If I had known the rate of decent I could have calculated the depth setting. Would have been nice to know.

[tater]

The US mk7 is 2.7m/s, the mk9 is 6.9m/s.

UK Mk VII was 3m/s, and the VII heavy was 5.1m/s. They has some others that were faster.

I have no idea what SH3 models.

The default DC in SH4 falls at 3m/s.

The only DCs in SH4 that blow at their set depth (in the sim file) are the air-dropped variety. The ship AI overides the setting in the sim (which is unfortunate for the PTO since the IJN did not ever set for target depth, they dropped patterns with different depths set within the pattern).

tater

tater,

There are only two rate of fall settings in SH3.

DC's used by Racks, K-Guns, Y-Guns.
2.4 meters per second

Hedge hogs fall by around 7.? meters per second.

Sergbuto's files may be different.

The prospect of the IJN depth charge problem in SH4 sounds interesting.
A pattern drop with different depths?
Very worth looking into!

[tater]

Yeah, it is. The trick is that air-dropped DCs (and apparently hedgehogs) actually detonate at the set depth, regardless of the target depth.

I think (total speculation here) that the air-dropped DCs detonate at the set depth because the air AI (set in the sim of the aircraft) is hard-coded not to override the DC sim setting, while the AI_ship (whatever it is called, have to look) IS programmed to always override the set depth.

This is a critical failing WRT the PTO since in RL, IJN DCs only had a handful of discrete set depths (Type 95s were 30m, 60m, then a mod to 90m). Later versions had a 120m setting. IJN doctrine was to dump a pattern both across the water (using Y-throwers perpendicular to the escort's path) along the path of the ship (spread due to DD/escort movement), and in depth. With some set to 30, some 60, etc.

The SH engine completely disallows this and the IJN sets the DCs for the last observed target depth, even though they did not actually know the depth because of they way they used their sonar gear (it only gave them Azimuth).

Using hedgehogs is possible, but they also detonate on contact. Air-dropped was an idea (I managed to drop them from a regular dc rack, but they don't sink—though with the new S3D I have some ideas to test to fix this). The trick is that I have a feeling AI_ship will pwn me and override whatever I rig up


tater