Maximum depth charge settings

[Hooston]

I've had several discussions here over the years about the maximum settings for depth charges and I never could square wartime experience of boats evading hundreds of depth charges when at 200m with reported maximum settings of 1200 feet, or 500 feet, or 300 feet (depending on your source). It also annoys me that I can dodge charges in game by changing depth by 20m.
Well, there's been a couple of videos on "U-tube" recently that have enlightened me considerably and I thought I'd share them.
Seems like while they all started with a maximum of 300 feet the British fairly quickly came up with a 500 feet setting, whilst the US eventually had a 1200 feet setting. However it is mentioned that the British gummed up the fuze with soap to bodge a deeper setting. The fuzes were based on total leakage through a hole rather than true hydrostatic pressure and it is apparent that the depth accuracy was poor. You can see that by the coarse 50/100/150/250/350/500 feet settings available.
So you should be fairly safe at 200m (if a little rattled) unless under attack by very late war US escorts or lucky Brits with soap bars.
Canadian (and British) equipment



US equipment


So what does the game do and can it be adjusted? I seem to remember Fifi thought not.

[John Pancoast]

Some fwiw comments:

1. Youtube videos by joe public have become like Wikipedia was when it first appeared, that is to say accepted verbatim as the 100% truth on a subject whether it actually is or not. More often, not. General statement, no idea about these two.

2. A common "mistake" in game modding is to use weapon, equipment, whatever performance specs that are published "lab" specs vs what was their actual useful performance specs in the field (much harder if not impossible to find), which tend to be very different and to a lesser degree of effectiveness.

3. Last but not least, various depth charge settings including depth are easily adjusted in the three depth charges files in the library folder.
Depth was changed very early on by various modders as iirc they never exploded below 150 so all one had to do was go below that for complete safety.

[Mister_M]

I've tried in the past to force the DC to explode past a certain depth, but I didn't manage to make it work. So, unfortunately I guess it's impossible to reproduce a "safe zone" under a certain depth.

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

Depth was changed very early on by various modders as iirc they never exploded below 150 so all one had to do was go below that for complete safety.

I never saw that in game, with whatever mod/supermod. It's impossible (except with a hardcode modification) to control the min or max depth of the DC explosion. In DepthCharges.sim, there is a parameter called "detonate_depth". If I choose a value of 150 meters for example, this won't prevent the DC to explode at 25m or at 200m.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Mister_M

I've tried in the past to force the DC to explode past a certain depth, but I didn't manage to make it work. So, unfortunately I guess it's impossible to reproduce a "safe zone" under a certain depth.



I never saw that in game, with whatever mod/supermod. It's impossible (except with a hardcode modification) to control the min or max depth of the DC explosion. In DepthCharges.sim, there is a parameter called "detonate_depth". If I choose a value of 150 meters for example, this won't prevent the DC to explode at 25m or at 200m.

You never saw it in a modded game because such behavior was part of the stock game. Modding was done to change it. There was another setting which gave them a depth range over their detonation depth, i.e. if the detonation depth was 100 and this range setting was 50, then the charges could explode anywhere between 50 and 150. Iirc they simply would vanish after a certain depth too. But this is all off a rapidly failing memory.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

... But this is all off a rapidly failing memory.

Ya old fahrt! Do you need a shock treatment, a re-charge of the battery bank??



I know I sure do...

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Ya old fahrt! Do you need a shock treatment, a re-charge of the battery bank??



I know I sure do...

I actually had one scheduled............but I forgot the time and date when it was!!


Hope all is well!

[Mister_M]

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

You never saw it in a modded game because such behavior was part of the stock game. Modding was done to change it. There was another setting which gave them a depth range over their detonation depth, i.e. if the detonation depth was 100 and this range setting was 50, then the charges could explode anywhere between 50 and 150. Iirc they simply would vanish after a certain depth too. But this is all off a rapidly failing memory.

I never saw this in an unmoded game either. There is an explosion range setting indeed, but this controls the range of the shock wave (which makes your boat rolling left and right), it has nothing to do with the depth.

Vanilla settings:



And yes, the DC will vanish past 300 or 500 m (I don't remember the correct value), but as everything else: sinking boats, and your own U-Boot ! ...

So, the conclusion is that it's impossible (except with a modification of the hardcode) to prevent the DC to explode above a minimal depth, or to force them to explode past a maximum depth...

The only way to simulate a safe zone past a certain depth is to make the hydrophone and asdic of an attacking ship incapable of detecting you past this depth.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Mister_M

I never saw this in an unmoded game either. There is an explosion range setting indeed, but this controls the range of the shock wave (which makes your boat rolling left and right), it has nothing to do with the depth.

Vanilla settings:



And yes, the DC will vanish past 300 or 500 m (I don't remember the correct value), but as everything else: sinking boats, and your own U-Boot ! ...

So, the conclusion is that it's impossible (except with a modification of the hardcode) to prevent the DC to explode above a minimal depth, or to force them to explode past a maximum depth...

The only way to simulate a safe zone past a certain depth is to make the hydrophone and asdic of an attacking ship incapable of detecting you past this depth.

<shrug> Maybe that is how they addressed the 150 setting, don't know/can't remember. Since I haven't played the game on a regular basis in years due to it's still glaring problems and errors, not even an issue for me anyway.