Questions about TMO 2.0

[Armistead]

Duc, you off your meds again..

I swore when I played stock I could watch charges just go poof when at a certain depth, but it would've been much shallower than 300 meters.

I never see them go poof anymore, just blow up around me. Not sure what gives, been a long time, but I never see them poof anymore.

They do seem to have a predetermined depth, whatever you sub is at.
I always wondered when and how charges blow. Is there a time the enemy of AI reads sub is at certain depth and that's the depth they blow.

When a escort makes a run and charges hit the water, I assume somehow they're set to blow in footage ranges near your sub, some blow under, some above, but within a range. I often try to switch depths to fool them, but the only way I can do it fast enough is to blow tanks. If I do that, they almost always blow way under. Course I thought blowing tanks would surface you, but you can easily stop it and head back down. I usually only do this fighting Type ABS in 400 ft of water or less, works great, but seems unrealistic blowing tanks doesn't send you to the surface.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by Armistead

I always wondered when and how charges blow. Is there a time the enemy of AI reads sub is at certain depth and that's the depth they blow.

The japanese DCs in question had a baffle - a sort of hallow compartment.

this hallow compartment would flood as the DC sank. (think of a toilet tank)

when the baffle flooded, the depth charge would explode. This explosion took place between about 97-105 feet (this accepted standard is 100 feet)

if the submarine was suspected to be at a deeper depth, ther was a portion of the baffle that could be opened to make the baffle space large and allow it to take in more water. So... when the now enlarged baffle flooded the DC would explode. When the baffle was enlarged before launching the DC - the new explosive depth ranged anywhere from 195-205 feet (this accepted standard was 200 feet)

thus... the Japanese depth charges for the first half of the war only had 2 depth settings. approx 100 feet and approx 200 feet with perhaps a 5-10 foot margin of error.

This depth charge type was in use for about 20 years prior to the outbreak of world war two and had been unchanged by the Japanese until the end of June 1943 when a third setting was added to DCs

this setting allowed the DC to explode at about 300 feet.

by the end of the war - japanese depth charges were about on par with the DCs of other major powers capable of reaching up to approximately 480 feet.

**note: When using the 100 foot setting, the depth charge had a sort of small drift anchor (parachute) attached to it - this was required to slow the sink rate of the DC to keep the attacking DD from blowing itself up.

unfortunately for the Japanese - it also allowed plenty of time for the submarine to escape attack as well.

it is a major oversight on the part of Ubisoft to not at least simulate this on some level within SH4

[Armistead]

I've read some of how they work historically, but as you said not in the game. Never heard of the chute though for shallower charges..

Still, we have hindsight and it's a game. We lack so many factors making the game realistic, knowing that the charges would always blow at two depths would be easy to defeat the already easy AI. The shallower sub depths in RFB may work better for your needs, but seems the charges will work the same.