ISP 2.0 is READY!

[HertogJan]

Originally Posted by TorpX

Ok, for the surface ranges, the ISP values are based on Norman Friedman's work, US SUBMARINES THROUGH 1945. He lists the Porpoise as having 6,000 nm range. Later 'P' class boats had a longer range, but I decided to go with the lower figures, as it didn't make sense to have 2 'P' classes. Then I took the 6,000 nm figure multiplied it by 1.3, because the Navy was said to incorporate a 30% fuel margin for battery charging. Then I added a small 'flat-earth bonus' to account for the map distortion in the game. About 5%, iirc.

Players tend to like mods that give then more range, firepower, etc., but I wanted this to be a high realism mod. Subs did run short of fuel, and have to cut short patrols. It was a operational fact of life. That's the biggest reason why the USN set up forward bases, when the opportunity came. If anything, I think the fuel/range figures are a bit generous.

Thank you for your input, I'll give your settings a go when you released the tuned version of ISP. I'm Not much for 'over the top stuff' myself.. but like to keep thing playable.
I can always set it higher in the .sim file if I keep running out of fuel (which will probably happen the first couple careers ) as a sort of a upgrade to a new P class

Originally Posted by TorpX

The submerged ranges are arbitrary, and cannot be compared to any reference figures, because of the way the game battery performance is totally broken. Many who wanted to mod the game have found this out. You cannot get sensible submerged ranges just by putting the numbers in the *.sim files. It won't work!

The figures in the mod will give you approximately historical submerged ranges, but not exactly. I had to compromise, because there was no way to make all the numbers come out right for all the classes of boats. The S-class have somewhat less range than the references state, and the fleetboats somewhat more. Nevertheless, performance is much closer to real-life than before.

Regarding the submerged range, if you got subs to go the range shown in the .sim file that would be a major improvement, Co2 will come into play more.

Originally Posted by TorpX

About the draft ht. and mast ht. I didn't change any mast height figures for obvious reasons. As far as the actual drafts of the ships, I made changes here and there as required for their stability. These changes were mostly small ones. There may be slight differences in your stadimeter readings for this reason, but I would not be unduly concerned.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm glad it works in conjunction with your Mod, but I see a couple of posts where OTC is installed over your Mod and while I was typing former post about ranges I wondered and started thinking about it.
Loading OTC over your Mod will nullify the tweaks you made.

Originally Posted by TorpX

There is no way any skipper could know the exact draft of any ship, except his own. They varied according to the load carried.

Indeed, the only way you could see the difference and I'm guessing you'd need a lot of experience as a skipper to guesstimate the load (full or empty) of a vessel correctly.
They would have needed to know how how high a ship lays in the water when empty, for all ships.

[pdiddy]

Concerning drafts, seems we often go for the keel shot which is fun and the way the game is set up is conducive to it.

Reading "Clear the Bridge" right now, and seems O'Kane always set the torps to run as shallow as possible only setting them deeper when he feared the torps might skip through heavier waves possibly triggering premature detonation.

One less thing to worry about I suppose. He also had no qualms about pumping 4 torpedos into a merchant to ensure sinking (even though 3 might do the job) and didn't view the deck gun as a viable weapon vs a surface target.

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by HertogJan

Regarding the submerged range, if you got subs to go the range shown in the .sim file that would be a major improvement, Co2 will come into play more.

Yes, it does. This is a big improvement, if you patrol submerged much. Before, I might submerge (in a S-class) for 12 hrs. at 1.5 or 2 knots, and still barely be able to recharge the batteries that night. Now, I can run submerged at 3 or 3.5 kn. and easily recharge the batteries in a few hours. It is much better.

Originally Posted by pdiddy

Concerning drafts, seems we often go for the keel shot which is fun and the way the game is set up is conducive to it.

Not sure about that. I don't think the merchants in RFB have defined keel zones that can be hit; meaning keel shots would be a waste of time. It has always struck me as being unrealistic anyway.
Most of the time, 1 or 2 torps will sink a merchant. Maybe it is different with TMO and other mods.

It's good that you're reading O'Kane; very worthwhile "training".

I've started reading Blair's history of the Atlantic U-boat campaign. It seems the Germans had as much trouble with their torpedoes as the USN had. Very interesting.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by TorpX

It seems the Germans had as much trouble with their torpedoes as the USN had. Very interesting.

We've discussed that more than once over the years. The best article I've found so far is this:
http://digitalcommons.georgiasouther...99&context=etd

[TorpX]

Yes, I read that (last year?). Maybe that is why Blair's book has a familiar ring to it.

Something else that seems remarkable; I'm up to Sep. '40, and Donitz still has fewer boats than he did at war start. For the size of his force, losses were pretty high.