Damage model in SH 5

[Bubblehead1980]

Just curious as to what you guy swho have played SH 5 think of the damage model for enemy ships you sink.How the explode, take torpedos etc? Realistic or arcadish? improvements? same? not as good as SH 4? bodies/debris in water or will that have to be modded again?

Also, hows the u boat damage model? Armored tank, realistic or ? Any good depth charging stories? or are the escorts weak sisters like in SH 4 stock or tough?

[iambecomelife]

I'm not impressed so far. The merchant ships often seem to disintegrate in huge fireballs once they lose all their hitpoints. Realistically, only vessels carrying flammable substances should react that way. At the other extreme, there have been some reports of vessels taking too long to sink or proceeding at near top speed with heavy damage.

In the next few days I will be working on both ship and torpedo hitpoint values so that there is a bit more uncertainty when you hit a ship. I would like to have randomized flooding rates for individual ship compartments, but I am not yet sure if this is possible. If I'm satisfied with the results I will release my changes as a mod.

On the plus side, the particle effects themselves are the best yet for an unmodded Silent Hunter series game. Fire graphics are amazing. Smoke is adequate, but needs more detail. Explosions are also beautiful, but a bit arcade-ish, and end too quickly. In all likelihood we will be able to mod the particles with existing tools or (hopefully) an updated version of S3d Editor.

I can't speak as to the U-Boat damage model - haven't taken any damage yet. Other users report that the boat can't withstand surface fire very long, which is good IMO. No more unrealistic deck gun battles with destroyers.

Lifeboats are supposed to be in but I haven't seen any yet. Debris seems to be crates only - no bodies.

[Sunfighter]

Yea i havent been too impressed with the damage, its way over the top for merchant ships, and i find it strange that a ship burning from end to end can just keep on going like nothing is wrong.

Ive found it very hard to actually sink a ship without taking its hull to 0 first. Ive only seen it happen twice. To be honest, im not even sure shooting below the waterline sinks a ship faster then just randomly firing at it till its hull is 0. Ship sinking seems pretty good animation wise, they generally sink fairly well. I even got the HMS Hood to roll over and capsize. Ive even seen the classic stern first sinking by a troop ship, once it reached a certain angle, the stress on bow from being raised in the air caused it to snap and the ship broke in half. Unfortually the bow didnt just fall back to the water, but it collided with the stern and proceded to stay stuck up making a horrible noise finally after several minutes of the two halves bumping the bow settled and sunk under the waves, the racket was annying though.

[Queensryche]

Not to mention when you sink a ship and see it on the bottom, the flag is still waving and the crew is still walking around the ship like nothing happened. lol

It's pathetic.

[Onkel Neal]

Man, 4 years lurking. Welcome, Queensryche

i saw a youtube video show the ship explode with purple and green flashes coming out. the ship sank too quickly but slightly slower then sh4 (5 seconds longer then sh4 maybe) the ship i saw sink was very unnatural like and when it hit bottom after a few seconds it sunk / dissolved into the seafloor and dissappeared like quicksand.

very arcade like but its early and im sure the modders can improve it, also i havent seen any player videos that show the real environments mod type looking water so i think that the water in the UBI videos was just for show.

[sergei]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

In the next few days I will be working on both ship and torpedo hitpoint values so that there is a bit more uncertainty when you hit a ship.

This sounds interesting.
Looking forward to it.
I think we also to need to take a look at dud chances.
I have fired about 30 torpedoes and had not one dud or premature.
They seem a bit too reliable at the moment.

[mookiemookie]

Horrendous - I put 2 torps, one bow and one stern, into a Hog Island freighter (a ~4000 ton ship). It sailed on flaming like a Viking funeral pyre at top speed and I believe I heard laughing and saw raised middle fingers from the decks.

Originally Posted by sergei

This sounds interesting.
Looking forward to it.
I think we also to need to take a look at dud chances.
I have fired about 30 torpedoes and had not one dud or premature.
They seem a bit too reliable at the moment.

hmm ... i thought neal said his preview copy had lots of duds, they must have turned it down too much in the final version

[Queensryche]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Man, 4 years lurking. Welcome, Queensryche

Haha yeah, started lurking here around the time SH3 came out. I won't post a whole lot but want to say thanks to all the modders who make these games playable!

[boshunter]

a more realistic damage mod would be amazing, looking forward to it, thx

[Nafod81]

Originally Posted by sergei

This sounds interesting.
Looking forward to it.
I think we also to need to take a look at dud chances.
I have fired about 30 torpedoes and had not one dud or premature.
They seem a bit too reliable at the moment.

I've had 3 duds in 1.5 patrols. Fired 15 torps 20% dud rate.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Any good depth charging stories? or are the escorts weak sisters like in SH 4 stock or tough?

I hear the escorts either had a frontal lobotomy, or have a "bottle in front of me". Fixing that will probably be my only contribution mod wise to Sh5. Unless someone is already on it, or thinks they can do better, then ill gladly drop the idea, as im not too enthusiastic about the idea of reliving SH4's early days again. Gonna play, not mod this time around.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Gonna play, not mod this time around.

Hah! Give it 10 minutes of play time and you'll start getting the mod itch as there's so much that needs to be done. I just wish I knew anything about it

[malkuth74]

Yeah the boats always catch fire no matter what. Seems odd. Then when the hitpoints are gone they go boom boom. I like SHIV version better.

The actual graphics are better now, the holes in the ship when a torp hits are very nice done... Look inside and you can see wreck compartments and metal jagged all over the place.

Also they did a step backwards with the crew on ships.. Ship on fire? Oh well the crew are still just walking around like nothing is happening and they even manage to walk right through burning wreakage.

No life boats... I don't think they had time to finish this part... They did the same thing in SHIV remember? We had to wait for like the 2nd patch before they were added in.

The boat damage system sucks though.. You would of thunk with all the Natural ship sinking mods for SHIII and SHIV they would of got the clue that we want compartment sinking, slow sinking ships and not a hit point system were if it has 1 hit point left it won't sink.

Silly devs.