Sabotage?

[tennozan]

Started a new career recently after a few tours in SH4 1.5. Still miss SH3 and glad to start a new patrol. Anyway, in U-255 VII-C starting out in 1942. I use the latest SH3 Commander with it set to sabotage and malfunctions, since best I can tell based on my reading that stuff happened.

Just ran into a large convoy off the coast of West Africa and prosecuted attack on many large tankers. Hit three and severely damaged a T3. After a long reload on two forward tubes I finally sank the T3. By this time the escorts who had missed me on the first pass where on the horizon and headed my way. Plenty of distance and time to dive and evade. Right?

I have sailed in many U-boats. Enough to have a feel for surfacing times and diving. Something was very wrong. No damage visible but my rate of dive was horribly slow. Meter by agonizingly slow meter until at 38 meters a British escort gives us the shakes with a DC attack. Somehow we still evade and at 47 meters seem to be avoiding them sucessfully. I have the game saved but am really wondering if what I am seeing is the effects of a malfunction or sabotage.

Anybody? They're coming for me.

[GoldenRivet]

did you order a crash dive when you sighted the destroyers?

if so one of the sabotage features is that ahead flank will not work... this of course renders your u-boat pretty much useless in a crash dive.

here is a list of possible malfunctions

1. flack guns take additional time to reload or are unable to reload at all. Simulates guns affected by long exposure to sea water, battle damage, poor ammunition quality etc.

2. randomly adjust periscope blur to simulate lens integrity, this disables the attack scope and observation scope.

3. randomly adjust raise and lower times for snorkel to simulate wear and tear, malfunction or sabotage.

4. randomly adjust Fumo range.

5. randomise default diving depth of crash dives (your boat may dive out of control) this simulates stuck tank vents, dive planes etc.

6. reduces top flank speed to simulate mechanical issues with engines.

7. Surface range decreased between 40-80% to simulate fuel leak or excessive engine consumtion of fuel.

8. battery range decreased by 20-75% to simulate worn out batteries, or a malfunctioning recharge system.

9. randomly changes dive times to a poor value.

10. front and rear ratio edited to simulate trim difficulty, boat may be slightly heavy astern causing difficulty in fine tuning depth.

11. Radar set appears operational but range is reduced to virtually zero.

12. increased turn radius

13. who knows what else!!!

[tennozan]

Didn't order a crash dive. I had LOTS of distance between us and usually can just dive and evade. That was like being stuck in some invisible field that wouldn't let me go deeper without a struggle.

Anyway, I made it deep finally and got clear. Prosecuted a lousy attack on a small cargo ship and just made it back to port. Drinks are on me boys. Think I'll sit in my room in the shadows with a pistol tonight and see if we get any late night "visitors".

[Sensekhmet]

So far I suffered damaged periscopes, fuel leaks and damaged engines (the flank ahead issue). On last patrol my boat refused to dive to set depth, it always lingered about 15 meters higher than it was supposed to be. True, I crawled around at 50rpm but I suspect something was broken.

[Kielhauler1961]

Yup, I had two malfunctions in three trips in same career, both times it was the engines. In another, the 37mm flak gun wouldn't work at all but no problem with the 20mm...

[tomfon]

So far i have experienced only the ahead flank malfunction/sabotage and the blur periscopes. This is one of things you don't want to go wrong.