Failing to detonate torpedo

[aluc24]

Hi all,

I'm very frustrated. I started career in SH3 + GWX + several cosmetic mods, and now trying to get some renown by sinking as much tonnage as I can during my patrols with Type IIB. As you know, it has only 5 torpedoes, so every shot counts. Since it's early war, I'm restricting myself to impact pistol, because I red that magnetics are unreliable.

The situation: I found a nice juicy Large Merchant cruising at 5 knots near Easter coast of England in late evening, in moderate storm, determined his speed, course, and prepared attack in the night, 90 degree angle, 700m distance, 3 torpedoes set on impact, fast speed, 4 meters depth, 1 degree spread.

I chose 3 torpedo salvo just in case, since 1 may not be enough to sink this ship, and there might be a dud. I calculated that I should lead by 7-8 degrees.

And... No torpedoes exploded. I loaded save just before shot, re-checked my calculations, tried again. Nothing. Tried different torpedo depth - anything from 1m to 7m (didn't go lower, because target draft is 8,9m). No depth worked. Tried magnetic, set for 10,4-10,9m. Nothing. Tried approaching more closely, to 300m. No explosion. Tried aiming for bow, since it has less curvature. Nothing.

I tried this scenario 9 times. Single torpedoes, salvo, different spreads, depths, speeds, and so on. Not a single explosion.

I uploaded one of the attempts to youtube. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong. I tried every torpedo setting combination I could think of, but nothing worked. I'm positive that my angle solution is correct, and at this range and target size it shouldn't matter a lot. Except for the storm, the conditions are perfect for a successful attack. I mean, in the worst case scenario, at least 1 of 3 torpedoes should explode... During these 9 attempts. That's 27 torpedoes that didn't explode in ideal conditions.

P.S. Realism is set on 100%, so I can't turn on Event Camera to see what happens to my torpedoes...

[GoldenRivet]

Im looking at your TDC settings on the bottom right panel of the screen.

according to those settings, at the time you fire the shot you are apparently shooting at a target with the following TDC settings

Speed: 0 knots

Bearing 000 degrees

AOB 0 degrees

Range 500 meters

this tells me that your fish are leaving the tubes aiming at nothing but open sea as they do not have the programmed data necessary to know where to go in order to hit anything. Your fish are missing astern is my best guess... probably by at least a couple of boat lengths

EDIT: seeing that you are playing on 100% realism you will likely have to input all those parameters manually.

[aluc24]

I left these settings like that on purpose. I don't like TDC. Since I need torpedoes to go straight, I left everything on 0 so that gyro angle is 0. I shoot torpedoes when target is 7-8 degrees right (coming left), so that the torpedoes go straight and impact on 0 degrees.

I could set everything up with correct numbers (tried that), but it also gives 0 degrees gyro angle, so I guess it doesn't change a thing.

[GoldenRivet]

Well by doing it that way you are sort of blind firing your fish, they are designed to steer to a preset gyro angle to "intercept" the target you've sent them after.

If i had to guess why your fish are missing 100% of the time in the given scenario its because the TDC has them launching after a ghost of a target.

I will also mention that by leading the target without the use of the TDC your torpedoes may be all hitting the target at too great an angle and glancing off.

It really is best to set in the TDC settings and then fire.

additionally, double check the draft of the target ship by reference to the ID manual in game... if this is early war, it is possible that all of your fish are running a good meter or two deeper than what you've set due to design flaws.

its best to set them to about one or two meters depth.

try formulating an actual solution to the target and locking that data into the TDC... also set your running depth shallower.

press H to go to the hydrphone station and set bearing to 000 to listen to the torpedo, you can hear if it is tracking straight or turning or whatever... if it is hitting and glancing off you will hear the "clang" sound instead of the boom

[aluc24]

Well by doing it that way you are sort of blind firing your fish, they are designed to steer to a preset gyro angle to "intercept" the target you've sent them after.

Um... Well, that's what I'm doing. Firing at 0 gyro angle, but when target is on 7-8 degrees bearing, so that torpedoes intercept it at 0 degree bearing. The target arrives on 0 degree bearing at the same time as torpedoes.

I can tell by torpedo trail they leave in water that they are going in the right direction at the right time.

Please, take a look at video again. TDC isn't locked. It shoots torpedoes straight, so I time them early to intercept the target.

I will also mention that by leading the target without the use of the TDC your torpedoes may be all hitting the target at too great an angle and glancing off.

As I said, angle is 90 degrees... The perfect one.

its best to set them to about one or two meters depth.

Tried that. Tried all depths from 1 to 7 meters.

try formulating an actual solution to the target and locking that data into the TDC... also set your running depth shallower.

Just in case, I attempted this. There was no impact (torpedo depth 1,5m).

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by aluc24

Um... Well, that's what I'm doing. Firing at 0 gyro angle, but when target is on 7-8 degrees bearing, so that torpedoes intercept it at 0 degree bearing. The target arrives on 0 degree bearing at the same time as torpedoes.

Yes, that firing strategy works depending of course on the range. If you do this with a target at 3500 meters range or 2000 meters range vs 500 meters range the results are substantially different for each target.

Your game is not broken and there is no way you have been outfitted with a full compliment of dud torpedoes.

I would highly recommend you use the TDC with the correct target parameters because guesstimating the torpedo on a 0 degree bearing all the time is going to yield an incredibly low success rate.

one last thing you could do is turn on map contact updates and look at the target map screen and watch the torpedoes on the map as they move to the target.

I can almost promise you - if you are using the 0 degree bearing snapshot method at a target you are very likely missing astern, and you will very likely continue to miss astern with probably 80% of your shots or more... unless your firing at extremely close range (400 -500 meters).

and as the war progresses - especially on 100% realism, it will become increasingly difficult to get that close to any convoy target

* i will watch the video again and see if i notice anything amiss

[GoldenRivet]

ok i notice this... at first i couldnt even see your target and assumed the video was too dark on my screen - then i realized... your target almost fills the scope sight.

what do you assume the range to be? under 500 meters? are you super close?

your torpedo will have to travel a minimum of 300 meters to arm its warhead.

it is very possible you are sending a spread of three completely unarmed torpedoes into the hull of the merchant.

[vanjast]

Depth might be your problem too..
If your torp is hitting the 'curved' bottom corner of the hull.. it's the same as a wide angle (horizontal) hit, but in the vertical.. you torp will not detonate.

This is modelled and I've seen it work (or not work!!), by following a torpedo to the target. Set your depth about a metre or two shallower than the ship draft.

[Raptor]

Are your torpedo doors OPEN before you pressed the FIRE button? If not, the game engine will delay the launch while it opens the door. That delay can be enough to make you miss astern.

Assuming the doors are open, try one of these solutions to see exactly what's going on:

1) turn on the Event Camera in the Realism settings. Watch the eel as it runs to the target. See what happens when it gets there.

2) Turn off Dud Torpedoes in the Realism settings. After firing, press F6 and watch the torpedo icon move towards the target. See what happens when it gets there. You can see if it goes under the ship without hitting it, hits the curve of the keel and is deflected without exploding, or hits the target but simply fails to explode.

[Andrewsdad]

Salute !!!

I think GoldenRivet is correct in that you are too close to the target. The torps probably didn't have a chance to arm. Certainly at the distance you were there is practically no chance that they missed ahead or astern.

AD

[aluc24]

I would highly recommend you use the TDC with the correct target parameters because guesstimating the torpedo on a 0 degree bearing all the time is going to yield an incredibly low success rate.

Well, I'm not guessing... I went through a lot of tutorials for no-TDC torpedo firing, and I'm using tables. For example, this table from Carnovaro's Document Collection:



It says that a 44kts (fast) torpedo with target speed of 5kts requires starboard (in this case) lead of 6 degrees (see bottom right image).

I used this before. It always provides very great accuracy, because I do not need to know exact range, opposed to TDC.

one last thing you could do is turn on map contact updates and look at the target map screen and watch the torpedoes on the map as they move to the target.

Well, is there a way I can turn it on for this scenario? I don't believe SH3 allows to do it while on patrol...

what do you assume the range to be? under 500 meters? are you super close?
your torpedo will have to travel a minimum of 300 meters to arm its warhead.

Range is around 700 meters. Pretty sure of it. Way more than enough to arm torpedoes. By the way, I thought only magnetics need arming distance - do impacts also?

Depth might be your problem too..

As I said, I tried every depth I could think of. It didn't work.

Are your torpedo doors OPEN before you pressed the FIRE button? If not, the game engine will delay the launch while it opens the door. That delay can be enough to make you miss astern.

Of course.

[aluc24]

P.S. I tried to listen with hydrophone after shooting torpedoes. There is no "clang" sound.

I tried shooting from 150m distance, just to be 100% sure that torpedo solution is accurate (of course, they wouldn't arm, but they should at least hit the hull of the target). There was no "clang" sound either. Torpedo depth was 2m.

It would seem that they run through the target hull as if it wasn't there... Could this be a game bug?

[GoldenRivet]

There is the possibility that a mod conflict or corrupt file is causing the game to not register this particular ship as a solid object and thus allowing the torpedo to pass through the ship without hitting anything


what mods are you using

[GreyBeard]

Posting a complete list of all the mods you have installed might be helpful. Just my $.02 worth.

Edit: @GoldenRivet: Oops! "what mods are you using" Saw that just moments too late. Didn't mean to be redundant.

[aluc24]

Okay, here it is.