Underwater range and endurance

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Don't forget that S-boats weren't a part of the original program. They were added at the last minute when potential players insisted, and people pointed out then that they weren't completed properly. Whether they can be properly fixed is a question no one has been able to answer yet.

The battery problem seems to go across the board. I couldn't get the Porpoise batteries to proper spec, either.





I was wondering if S3D was somehow malfunctioning (not actually putting in the values we enter), but I guess that is unlikely.

[TG626]

I don't know much about the inner workings of these files, but I do know that as time went by in the world of flight simulator, there were variables that became ineffective. They were vestigal left over a from earlier versions that while they would appear in the config files of later versions, were ignored.

Perhaps that's what is going on here?

[Sniper297]

Hard to tell, SH4 was essentially SH3 version 2 with a few changes for the Pacific war. There's probably a few hundred megs of SH3 u-boat files that aren't used at all but were never removed because the programmers either didn't have time or were unsure which files weren't used.

[Sniper297]

Testing with just the Sargo, I copied my original NSS_Sargo.sim file in to run some tests, original numbers;

Miles=96
Knots=2

I ran the test 10 times because the second run I got a recharge time from 10% to 100% of 5 minutes! (Honest Chief not a drop. Unless you count rum. ) The rest were consistent, about 50 miles range and a 3 hour 15 minute recharge time. So;

Miles=96
Knots=2
Actual distance 50 miles
Recharge time 3:15

On to the hacks;

Miles=100
Knots=9
Actual distance 63 miles
Recharge time 11:30

Miles=6
Knots=50
Actual distance 63 miles
Recharge time 48 hours

Miles=1
Knots=50
Actual distance 63 miles
Recharge time 9 hours

Miles=0.5
Knots=90
Actual distance 63 miles
Recharge time 20 hours

Miles=1
Knots=30
Actual distance 59 miles
Recharge time 2 hours

Dunno what to make of all that, it seems to have some kind of digital effect on the range - it's either 49 to 50 miles or 59 to 63 miles, change either number and the recharge time changes a lot, the range changes between one of two values. I ran that last test three times to confirm it was actually 59 miles rather than 63, and was extra careful with the distance measurement. Not sure if 0.5 is actually accepted, possibly it just reads it as 1, but since the miles and knots appear to be an integrated system it's hard to tell.

[Sniper297]

Miles=1
Knots=45
Actual distance 63 miles
Recharge time 6 hours

That's as close as I can get to reality for the Sargo right now, about 22 hours at 3 knots, about 63 miles range before battery down to 10%. The game apparently doesn't factor in number of engines on charge, because stopped dead for six hours (drifting with all 4 engines on charge) or cruising ahead standard for six hours makes no difference to the recharge time.

I can't remember where I saw what numbers, but it was something like 1 hour charge = 4 hours (or maybe it was six) submerged at slow speed. That may have been for the type VII U-boat, data on the Gato I read indicates 36 hours at 2 1/2 knots rather than 48 hours at 2 knots (IIRC that was the figure for the type VII) but the difference is only six miles, 90 miles for US fleet boat versus 96 miles for Das Boot. Don't really matter since whatever I do I can't get near 90 miles or 36 hours at present.

[TG626]

Since we know what it does with 96 miles and 2 knots, I wonder, what does it do with 2 miles and 96 knots?

[ETR3(SS)]

The problem with the recharge times and endurance has to do with the speed you travel at. I don't recall the exact speed offhand but traveling at less than that speed will drain the batteries faster than if you were traveling faster than speed X. Adjusting the range at speed endurance typically results is longer recharge times. In short, you're chasing a ghost. The problem is in a part of the game that we don't have access to.