Best way to escape torpedoes? And other questions...

[FPSchazly]

Hello! There's a difference between evading torpedoes that are heading towards you and torpedoes that are locked on to you. For torpedoes that are locked on to you, I agree with dannavy85. Do a lot of full rudders, full rise/dives, and flank speed to evade torpedoes. Drop a lot of counter measures and the torpedoes can get stuck in your counter measure field while you get away.

Here's my advice for avoiding torpedo acquisitions in the first place. For inbound torpedoes that have not locked on yet and that are straight running torpedoes (i.e., enemy sub/surface ship shot a torpedo at you, not air dropped), you want to run at an angle that is about +/- 45 degrees from the torpedo's course. So if the torpedo is coming at you with a course of 90 (your bearing to the torpedo would be 270), you ideally want to run at a course of 45 or 135. This maximizes the distance you put between you and the torpedo while minimizing your active sonar cross-section to the torpedo's seeker (assuming it's an active and not a passive torpedo). Think of this technique like a train on the tracks. The best way to avoid the train is not to run from the train straight away down the tracks but to simply step off the tracks (avoid the torpedo in the first place).

If you're stalking an opponent and you get the first shot off like with a baffles shot or are otherwise undetected, I like to immediately transition to "smart evasion". This is just like avoiding a torpedo in the previous example by running at an angle but at a slower speed like 15 knots or so. If and when return fire comes your way, they'll likely shoot their torpedoes down the angle of your torpedoes so by having evaded smartly, you will already be away from the launch point and thus avoided their incoming. Now, once the enemy fires, and based on the angles, ranges, and other environmental factors, you can then judge whether the example 15 knots is a good evasion speed or whether you should increase speed (mostly based on range to the target). If you're within a few thousand yards, it's almost always best to go flank at this point, especially if the enemy has very good torpedoes.

Hope this helps and good hunting!