Repairing Damage

Originally Posted by Radox

Me again

I was hoping someone could answer a couple of questions about repairing damage and stuff.

Generally when i take damage its usually alot. Invariably i sink and my ballasts dont work. This is really frustrating. Are ballasts bugged or destroyed? What item do i need to repair to repair ballasts? Or is it because i have 1 or more compartments heavily flooded is why its not working?

the game only represents flooding by compartments and not by tanks, also not all damage is shown. only pressure hull damage is seen so you can have massive damage and yet not show a lot of damage on the damage meter. hull damage can only be repaired at home port and only minor damage can be fixed so major damage will remain untill you get a new sub.

Also there is a red guage next to the item that presumably signifies how much damage it has taken. It reads (.24 or .07, etc). Higher the red bar the more damaged it is i guess, but does that mean when the red bar is full its completely destroyed and unrepairable?

the more bar you see the worse the damage, put your mouse on the red bar and it will show you the repair time needed to fix it. if you see the letter "I" then that indicates it is completely destroyed and is unfixable. (the "I" stands for 100% damaged/destroyed)

If i'm stuck on the bottom of the ocean and i can't surface, what do i need to repair to surface? Dive planes?

compressor damage causes air leaks which is needed to surface and pumps are needed to get rid of flooding, just about everything else you dont "have to have" to surface

Can you reduce flooding while under water?

you cant reduce flooding untill the bulkheads are repaired, it doesnt matter if your submerged or on the surface because even if you beach your sub it will continue flooding (even when the hole is above water)

The damage control guys dont seem to do much, but is it worth putting priority on lightly damaged items, or the compartment flooding? (if you had to choose).

yes, make priority of bulkheads first then compressor/pumps then engines


NOTE - in case you arent aware the gun crews with be injured as if still on deck when you are depth charged so always move them to damage control station at start of game in order to prevent this from happening.

[Armistead]

May have been mentioned. When you're damaged the compartments flood. Even after your crew has done all repairs they may still be flooded. The red gauges are important, but the flood gauges at the top that fill up with blue are more important.

Just look in the boxes at the top. You can slowly watch them fill up with blue water or over time or pump out and clear. In this SS you can see the 3 compartments totally flooded with water..the blue boxs at the top. In this patrol they remained that way because the hulls were totally gone. So if everything looks repaired and you're still sinking when you dive or just sinking...check the blue. Also a good way to see where your flooded, so you can deal with it. You can gauge your flooding by how fast the blue fills up.

It's great to have a good damage control team, but I find I do better when I put good mechanics in the actual damaged compartment. I can set the damage repair team to fix one compartment and fill another compartment with good people. Almost always a room full of good mechanics fix a compartment faster than the damage crew fixes the other with equal damage. Anytime you put your mouse arrow over a person it will show them as watch standing or repairing....have the good ones repairing when your boat is damaged...just place em back when fixed.

And yes, I got the crap kicked out of me by TMO's evil planes and escorts and limped home wit 90% damage....

[makinote]

Originally Posted by ETR3(SS)

Check your external camera. If you can't see your rudder then its been blown off. Happened to me a couple of times.

Is there anyway to change heading using only one of the engines?

[Armistead]

NO,,,,sadly...your rudder's gone, forget it and start over..your dead.

hi, I'm using the TMO1.7 , this for me has put life back into SH4. But the damage taken on uboats from 1943 on makes the sim hard. I can cope with all the aircraft and the depth charging making this an exceptional if now very hard sim.

The one single issue I have is when I get caught out and take bomb damage and start to decend into the murky depths. But then, Wow, the bottom and the boats still in one piece, say 150 meters. Damage repair cannot fix the hull because of the on going damage by sitting on the bottom, this is one issue I'm trying to address myself, help would be appreacated.

Thanx to the TMO team for the new life in SH4

sidslot

[magic452]

If emergency surface(blow all ballast) doesn't work than you are sunk, pun intended.

Brenjen gives about as good advice as there is for your situation.

I find it strange that so many people dismiss that tactic; the damage model does take the area of flooding & direction of travel into account.

If you blow ballast, it doesn't have to be a one way ticket. Once you get up above a certain depth (depending on flooding) the engines might hold you; just hit the depth indicator ring to the depth you have risen to at that moment & it'll stop.....preferably before you break the surface & get shot full of holes!

Granted you'll probably have to constantly adjust the throttle & porpoise up & down from just under p-depth to 150-200 feet; & if you go back down too deep for the engines the blow ballast command will have to be used again. If you're lucky the repair crews will win the race against the compressed air & batteries being used up.

Of course nothing is fool proof & you may sink anyway if the flooding is too severe.

Put your very best mechanical people in the flooded compartments, blow ballast and full ahead if the stern is flooded, full back if it's the bow.

Good luck
Magic