Compressed Air Gauge Broken?

[Submarine]

The compressed air gauge never moves an inch. It just says right at its maximum number, no matter how long I am submerged. I am a bit new to SHIII so it might be a mistake on my part, but when I am submerged for a good period of time it says "Oxygen reserve down to 75%", so I was taking that compressed air is my oxygen supply? I am using the stock game with the latest patch.

[ryanglavin]

Your compressed air is what you use to surface the boat, your oxygen level is the one that has half of it in red.
Compressed air isn't oxygen, its just what submarines use to blow into thier ballast tanks to surface.

[Submarine]

Originally Posted by ryanglavin

Your compressed air is what you use to surface the boat, your oxygen level is the one that has half of it in red.
Compressed air isn't oxygen, its just what submarines use to blow into thier ballast tanks to surface.

Oh ! So the CO2 shows the CO2 to Oxygen ratio, and that is what I should be paying attention too. Thanks a bunch mate

[divingbluefrog]

Well, in fact, if you are cruising for example in an heavily air protected zone like the costs of England in early war and spend all the day submerged, moving at 2 knots for six hours, and only surface for ten minutes just to get fresh air, thus waiting for Oxygen level to reach 100%, you will make a lot of dive/surface moves without waiting the time needed for compressed air to be completed each time, and you will see the compressed air level slowly decreasing.
This said, the jauge shown by cliking on the report icon of the Chief Engineer is realy off. You can only rely on the jauge in the control room, or if you are at ease with manual twiking, you can change in Data/Menu/Cfg/Dials.cfg in [dial42] entry the value of
DialVal=-137,137 ;-150,150

[ryanglavin]

Originally Posted by Submarine

Oh ! So the CO2 shows the CO2 to Oxygen ratio, and that is what I should be paying attention too. Thanks a bunch mate

No problem, I learned that after 2 days of buying the game in '05... I was trying to figure out why my submarine was losing Compressed air while surfacing but not oxygen. And that started my supreme addiction to submarines/

[vergol]

A question related to this topic:

I've noticed that my compressed air reserves diminish after torpedo attacks. Is compressed air used to flood/empty the tubes as well?

[[SJ]nailz]

Originally Posted by vergol

A question related to this topic:

I've noticed that my compressed air reserves diminish after torpedo attacks. Is compressed air used to flood/empty the tubes as well?

I would imagine it must be, and to propel the "fish" out of the tube. however I never noticed SH3 modeling this...

[ryanglavin]

Originally Posted by vergol

A question related to this topic:

I've noticed that my compressed air reserves diminish after torpedo attacks. Is compressed air used to flood/empty the tubes as well?

In american fleet boats, (probably the same for U-boats), they would first flood the tubes, by opening them. When they shot the torpedo, to replace the displaced weight, they shut the tubes immediately, then filled the tubes with compressed air to outset the lost weight from firing the torpedoes. And torpedoes weighed ALOT.

[vergol]

Seems logical. They should put that in the manual. Thanks guys.

[FrankDiver]

Originally Posted by ryanglavin

...then filled the tubes with compressed air to outset the lost weight from firing the torpedoes.

Hmmm... That doesn't make sense to me. Blowing the water out of a torpedo tube would increase the lift of the sub even more, in addition to the same effect caused by the lost torpedo weight.

IMO after firing a torpedo, the only way to keep neutral buoyancy is to partially flood the ballast tanks, which is equivalent to lowering the total volume of the system.

[Sailor Steve]

They didn't fill the tubes with compressed air to offset the weight of the torpedo. Air weighs a lot less than water, so using air to offset the weight wouldn't work. Compressed air from a special tank was used to fire the torpedo. They then shut the outer door and used the compressed air to force the water out of the tube so they could open the inner door to reload it.
http://www.maritime.org/fleetsub/tubes/chap9.htm