RealuBoat Mod: Gun re-loading time

[yenshi]

Just started using RuB mod to see what it's like, and just wondering if I am encountering a bug or whether vastly longer gun re-load times are intended. I timed my reloads at 1 min 50 secs now, which surely is too long for even the greenest crew, (which mine isn't). Can this be right?

Just wondering...

Thanks

[Beery]

The gun reload time is based on examples of combat gunnery where a start and end time for the shoot were noted. The time was divided by the number of shells expended to give the reload rate. The long reload reflects the fact that 90% of the shells were carried below decks and had to be carried up to the gun one at a time.

[yenshi]

Originally Posted by Beery

The long reload reflects the fact that 90% of the shells were carried below decks and had to be carried up to the gun one at a time.

I guessed that might be the reasoning, and have no real problem with it, but the larger boats for sure, (not sure about type VII) were able to store shells under sections of the deck casing. Probably the most successful use of the deck gun was by Reinhard Hardegen on U123 during Operation Drumbeat, (paukenschlag) . I've read a few histories of Drumbeat in general and U123 in particular and they could get some decent rates of fire if conditions were good....

Just my two cents...

:-)

[FAdmiral]

My 5 cents would be to remove the gun completely and gain
possibly 2 more kts underwater speed. A minute+ is like a
suicide watch to use the gun under those conditions....


JIM

PS. Maybe the gun ammo storge could possible be used for 1
or 2 more torpedos??---------THOSE I CAN USE !!!

[yenshi]

Originally Posted by FAdmiral

My 5 cents would be to remove the gun completely and gain
possibly 2 more kts underwater speed. A minute+ is like a
suicide watch to use the gun under those conditions....

PS. Maybe the gun ammo storge could possible be used for 1
or 2 more torpedos??---------THOSE I CAN USE !!!

LoL.... well of course you are right and the Germans wised up and started removing deck guns in the latter years of the war when it became clear how utterly useless they were. But in the early war years a u-boat commander in a big type IX could use his 105mm to reasonably good effect. Again, U123 and it's success off the USA Eastern Seaboard is the best example I know of.

[FAdmiral]

Yes, U-123 did do some shelling but was in pitch black night shooting at the coast lit up like a Chirstmas tree. You could
see targets clearly and watch your shells explode. If Adm.
King (CNO) had listened to the Brits, that would have never happened. The British had 3 years of experience protecting their coastline and the American Navy was about as naive as you could get off the US east coast in early 1942....


JIM


PS. The US was very lucky that Hitler never let Doenitz send more
than 6 boats to the US east coast !! Probably never than 3 or 4 were there at any one time, the others were in transit.

[Kalach]

I have no problems with the long reload time, or the bad accuracy of the deck gun. The things that upset me about it is you can't 'lock' a type of ammo so your crew can only use it and not choose a different type, and when you finaly do hit that trawler it seems unaffected and sails away

I just use my flak guns for the little boats now, and extra torps if needed to finish off larger targets.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by yenshi

...the larger boats for sure, (not sure about type VII) were able to store shells under sections of the deck casing.

Yes. 20 to 40 rounds. But longer engagements would have necessitated getting rounds from below.

Probably the most successful use of the deck gun was by Reinhard Hardegen on U123 during Operation Drumbeat, (paukenschlag) . I've read a few histories of Drumbeat in general and U123 in particular and they could get some decent rates of fire if conditions were good....

I'm sure they could probably get up to 4 rounds per minute for the first 20 or so rounds in perfect conditions (note that on the Type VII the ready use ammo container was located 12 feet away from the breech, so reloading was unlikely to be as fast as a field gun). But after that 'ready use' ammo was used up the reload rate became very slow indeed - one round per 60 to 80 seconds.

[The Avon Lady]

Download the UnRealUBoat mod (search for the thread on this forum). It includes a mini-mod to undo RUb's deck gun timing changes.

If you don't want to revert to the game's deck gun default, search this forum for another mod that offers you a variety of deck gun reload time files to choose from. I picked a 30 second reload file for my game. That 30 seconds is with a fully efficient deck gun crew.

[Hartmann]

I think that 20-30 seconds is a good balance game-reality with fully trained crew.

[wolfjaeger]

Originally Posted by yenshi

Just started using RuB mod to see what it's like, and just wondering if I am encountering a bug or whether vastly longer gun re-load times are intended. I timed my reloads at 1 min 50 secs now, which surely is too long for even the greenest crew, (which mine isn't). Can this be right?

I just modded up to RUb 1.43 and ran into a similar problem. I verified this by manning the deck gun myself, firing a round and then timing how long it took for the deck gun to reload. In my case the reload took 90 seconds. My suspicion is that reload times can be influenced by the computer's processor speed and memory, especially if you have a lot of overhead tying up system resources. The workaround for this would be to replace the GUNS_SUB.sim file in your SilentHunterIII\data\Library folder with one that has a modified reload time. If you go to the following site, you can download a zipfile containing GUNS_SUB.sim files that have been modified for various reload times:

http://sh3modwork.realsimulation.com/

When I used the GUNS_SUB.sim file for 40-second reloads, the actual reload time on my machine was the 1 minute Beery intended. Given the timing you reported, the 30-second file should do the same for you.

I've been following the whole deck gun controversy, and for whatever it's worth I wanted to weigh in on a couple of things. First, I used the AI gunnery while playing the "Happy Times" mission, and I noticed that there were differences in the time that elapsed between rounds fired. Okay, I was playing this mission pre-RUb 1.43, so the reload time was unrealistically fast. That said, the time differences were enough to suggest that there MAY be some randomization built in to the AI gun crew. Second, although the AI crew tends to be unrealistically accurate, this can be thrown off by how much of a profile your target presents. I found this out when I ordered the deck gun to fire on a C2. My boat's position was about 1500 meters off the C2's starboard quarter, and her profile was at an angle of only 20 degrees. This didn't give my gun crew much to shoot at, and I called a cease-fire after 8 of 10 rounds failed to hit the target. IMHO perhaps the SH3 dev team deserves a little more credit than they've gotten for putting at least a smidge of realism into the deck gun modeling. Of course it could be better, although I wonder if there may be too many variables for this to be practical. In the meantime, I think Beery has given us the best compromise under the circumstances, and personally I wouldn't play SH3 without the latest RealUboat mod.

[rulle34]

Originally Posted by wolfjaeger

I used the AI gunnery while playing the "Happy Times" mission, and I noticed that there were differences in the time that elapsed between rounds fired. Okay, I was playing this mission pre-RUb 1.43, so the reload time was unrealistically fast. That said, the time differences were enough to suggest that there MAY be some randomization built in to the AI gun crew.

Are you sure the green bar above the deck gun crew was full? That can influence the reloading time!

[rulle34]

Originally Posted by yenshi

...and the Germans wised up and started removing deck guns in the latter years of the war when it became clear how utterly useless they were.

The deck gun was removed basicly for two major reasons:
1. The air preassure was to high to stay surfaced for a longer time, hammering with the deck gun.
2. The ships was often armed at that time, so surface was not an option

[wolfjaeger]

Originally Posted by rulle34

Are you sure the green bar above the deck gun crew was full? That can influence the reloading time!

Deck gun station was at full efficiency.