Deck gun damage.

[Reece]

I have been doing gun tests here & next thing, no ammo, I have reinstalled the second time, now all ok, I think it had something to do with the zones.cfg file?
The shipping I was referring to is the traffic, in 4 days a coastal tanker is all I had come across!

[Reece]

What is going on (in GWX), when going to Accademy - Artillery, then place 3 men to the deck gun, man them manually, there is no ammo, If I set the men to fire automaically they have the magic touch & fire away, then if I man the guns manually the ammo is there!! This has to be a fault!
Could someone else do a test please, I don't want to keep searching for a problem that I created if it is a fault with GWX!
Thanks.

Edit: What I was origionally testing for, damage caused by deck gun, is still there, shell zon has no effect, I fired 60 shells into a coastal merchant & still couldn't destroy it! Gave up on trying to sink it with deck gun!!! If anyone can offer some advise hear I would appreciate it.

[Reece]

Summing up, I have edited the following:
Shells.zon
zones.cfg
guns.zon
GUNS_SUB.zon
None of these seem to have any effect on the damage to a ship, a coastal tanker will still take around 60 shots to sink and a C2 around 100 shells!! Most frustrating!!

[Jimbuna]

If your installation is faultless there should be absolutely no problem with sinking merchants......in fact some people might say it's quite easy. I would suggest you aim below the waterline along the length of the hull to simulate flooding in as many compartments as possible

[danlisa]

Originally Posted by Reece

Summing up, I have edited the following:
Shells.zon
zones.cfg
guns.zon
GUNS_SUB.zon
None of these seem to have any effect on the damage to a ship, a coastal tanker will still take around 60 shots to sink and a C2 around 100 shells!! Most frustrating!!

Hi Reece, IIRC there is a .zon file for EVERY vessel. So you need to find the .zon file for the coastal tanker and the C2 and edit those. Basically you are looking to reduce the hit points on the zones of each vessel.

Oh, shoot, did you remember to remove the backup copy that mini-tweaker makes each time you edit a file. The changes will not work with the backup in the same folder.

[Reece]

Jim, I have actually installed 3 times now & all are the same, & I always aim just below waterline, so that you see an explosion as well as sea spray.
Dan, Since I have tried everything else It is probably the ship zon file, the testing I did was to use JSGME testing with various stock SH3 1.4b files, but I didn't know about a backup in the same folder will cause the new edited version not to work, so even though it's a different name the game will still go for the old one? - Crazy!!
Do you know how I can edit the zon file, in particular the hit points?
Thanks again for the help guys!

[danlisa]

Originally Posted by Reece

Dan, Since I have tried everything else It is probably the ship zon file, the testing I did was to use JSGME testing with various stock SH3 1.4b files, but I didn't know about a backup in the same folder will cause the new edited version not to work, so even though it's a different name the game will still go for the old one? - Crazy!!

I'm afraid so, the only way to make your changes stick is to remove the backup.

Originally Posted by Reece

Do you know how I can edit the zon file, in particular the hit points?
Thanks again for the help guys!

Ok, there should be .zon files supplied with Mini-Tweaker for each vessel. The tricky part is that they may or may not be GWX compatible. I'm not that sure so I will have to defer to someone else. Maybe VonHelsching as he reworked all the GWX damage files.

[Reece]

Ah .... so VonHelsching is to blame for all my frustrations! You are probably right cheapskate (gee I'd change this name if I were you), due to dd's around at the time I couldn't wait! I had to leave, so no renown! Dan, I didn't think minitweaker had the zon files for any of the ships, only those found in the Library folder, trying to dig up standard zon files for each new ship would be quite a job, but what of the other files, sim etc!! Hmmm may be not doable! Boo Hoo!!

[Morts]

Originally Posted by Reece

Summing up, I have edited the following:
Shells.zon
zones.cfg
guns.zon
GUNS_SUB.zon
None of these seem to have any effect on the damage to a ship, a coastal tanker will still take around 60 shots to sink and a C2 around 100 shells!! Most frustrating!!

coastel tanker 60 shells? fire 5-20 shells below the waterline and it will sink
C2 100 shells ?
fire 10-30 shells below the water line and it will sink

[Cheapskate]

Realised after several abortive and frustrating attempts at the Naval Artillery mission that my mistake was firing until I got the " she's going down" message.

With the new damage model in GWX, the target has often taken critical damage much earlier...maybe after as few as 5 or 6 waterline hits... and will sink if given enough time.

Have given up trying to fire the gun myself, now delegate this to 1WO and the gun crew. I just concentrate on observing the results and steering the vessel into a reasonable range - 1000/1500 metres seems OK. If the target shows any signs of slowing, listing, or settling down at bow or stern, I instruct WO to cease fire. Then change to another target (if one is in range) or go after it if isn't.

This works just fine and I never fail to sink all 5 targets...sometimes with as many as 40 (or more), shells left in the magazine,

[Mush Martin]

Originally Posted by Cheapskate

Realised after several abortive and frustrating attempts at the Naval Artillery mission that my mistake was firing until I got the " she's going down" message.

With the new damage model in GWX, the target has often taken critical damage much earlier...maybe after as few as 5 or 6 waterline hits... and will sink if given enough time.

Have given up trying to fire the gun myself, now delegate this to 1WO and the gun crew. I just concentrate on observing the results and steering the vessel into a reasonable range - 1000/1500 metres seems OK. If the target shows any signs of slowing, listing, or settling down at bow or stern, I instruct WO to cease fire. Then change to another target (if one is in range) or go after it if isn't.

This works just fine and I never fail to sink all 5 targets...sometimes with as many as 40 (or more), shells left in the magazine,

Reece I think from the symptoms your doing everything right
it just seems like you havent clicked on the ammo icon like they said.
you should be working

[Cheapskate]

Yes MM, I reckon you're right there

Seem to remember that I had to click on the shell to get any ammo.. but that was a while ago. I only tried using the gun myself about twice before realising that the gun crew got better results than I did. They did miss more but seemed to get more decent waterline shots in.

The "wait and see what happens" technique works in exactly the same way with torpedos.... although I do still fire them myself.

If you can get about 6 telling shots home with the gun, or a torpedo hit or two, chances are something favourable is going to happen. The target will almost definitely slow down and become a straggler. Maybe it'll stop or, if you're really lucky, sink.

Anyhow, Reece why the devil were you doing surface gunnery with DDs in the offing?? Wouldn't catch me doing that :rotfl:

[Mush Martin]

Thats the other thing reece back as long ago as Silent service on 8 bit nintendo I would put in a single fish to soften the target and finish with
guns as a major technique of ammo extension I just never think about
it anymore.

[Reece]

Unless it's rough seas then 2 fish! Had to say that MM!:rotfl:
About the ammo, right through SilentHunterIII, on a campaign, I have never had to click on ammo before, it always worked, maybe this is only in Artillery tutorial.
Cheapskate, I don't have the gods eye on and although I knew there were DD's in the area after four days & this being the only contact, I was going to sink this mother!
Dan, I probably would have grabbed the wrong thing again!
Thanks all!