[TEC] Depth Charge values examined in S3D

[Ducimus]

ive thought of that in the past as well. Im just not sure how to go about it. I think your off into the happy land of hex editing. I know in the past ive tried very simple things like swapping the hedge hog file and renaming it the depth charge file. Hoping the game would read the dc file, but the projectile function like a hedge hog. Naturally that didnt work, nor did i really expect it to.

[tater]

Anyone know why the AI allows merchants to fire deck guns and AA at your sub, but they will not drop DCs?

In RL, merchants rolled a few DCs when an attack happened---not aimed. They also got DC mortars with a pretty substantial range sometimes. I was interested in at least adding roll racks to a few, but I want them to use them without being forced to act as escorts. The same solution would apply to Cruisers as well, even BBs with DCs. (IJN CAs sometimes had DCs, and Musashi had roll racks added to the fantail as well.

tater

[sergbuto]

Originally Posted by tater

Anyone know why the AI allows merchants to fire deck guns and AA at your sub, but they will not drop DCs?

Only units of Type=0 to 4 are able to drop DCs, at least that's how it was in SH3.

[tater]

Yeah, I know only 0-4 will drop them. I'm wondering if it's the ammo type that determines this, or something else...

I was wondering why because I thought perhaps we could trick them to fire DCs some how.

For example, if you had a gun that fired a DC instead of a shell the AI might think it's shooting a shell, and fire a DC instead.

Even a signal lamp that might actually drop a DC would be cool (very low ROF). That would simulate japanese merchants dumping a couple DCs off the stern when attacked to try and spook a sub... Hmmm.

tater

[sergbuto]

If I remember correctly (extensive testing I did was quite some time ago and for SH3) only an ammunition with the shell.dat, shell.sim structure/definitions/settings can be used for guns with possible lowest speed of about 200 m/s otherwise guns will not fire.

[tater]

Ah, I see. Was worth a shot thinking outside the box.

tater

[sergbuto]

Sure, it is worth. There is always a possibilty that I am wrong.

[Sailor Steve]

I hadn't looked at this thread in a while, and today I noticed this quote:

At the depth charge's minimum depth setting of 30 feet, the boats had to travel top speed to avoid damage from the blast.

It may mean nothing, but to add to that quote Tameichi Hara's book Japanese Destroyer Captain mentions that after taking a last contact reading they would accelerate to flank speed to avoid damage. This was done no matter what the depth setting. I don't know if the game can allow for something like this, but I'm pretty sure it would affect accuracy as well.

[tater]

That quote was from a PT boat. IJN DCs had a most shallow setting of 30m as far as I know (the type 2 DCs might have been ~7.5m, they seem to have had ~25' setting ticks)

There is no way to control the AI in that way, however.

[GerritJ9]

The Hedgehog was a contact weapon, i.e. IRL it had to actually hit something to explode- preferably an enemy sub. I think dr. Ballard wrote in his book about the "Lusitania" that the wreck site was littered with unexploded Hedgehogs, but I'd have to check as it's been some time since I last read the book. Apparently U-Boote used the wreck site as a hiding place when trying to evade Allied attacks.

[tater]

So I've done some testing with a new version of my DC mod with the 162kg versioned upped to nearly double stock DC damage. The min radius tuned to 6m, the max to 16m.

They still don't do damage as I'd expect.

Wonder what's going on.

[I-25]

Originally Posted by mrbeast

I read about the happening somewhere can't remember where though, the crew could hear the DCs rolling down the side of the conning tower! I also recall an instance where a sub or U boat surfaced and had a dud DC caught on the deck casing! How about opening the hatch and seeing that little baby sitting there?!

This happened to the I-176 North of Rabaul in 1943 after dropping off supples and evacuating wounded solders from finchaven. The XO said that one night a B-25 suddenly came out of the sky and they crashed dive under a hail of 50 cal. fire at about 20M down they heard a thump and a small boom like a firecracker. they came back up after a few hours and as they opened the hatch in the tower the first guy out must of freaked out. the charge was laying inside the tower bridge. they say some sort of yellowish substance was around it. the detonator had gone off but it didn't set off the main charge. Lucky Lucky japs!. On that same mission while at finchaven they got bombed by more B-25's while in the bay at night, the Capitan got shot (not mortally). and the XO beached the sub on a reef. after plugging up all the holes over night they waited for high tide to get the sub back off, high tide came and the sub wouldn't budge. then came the order from the bridge "all hands on deck". from atop the tower the XO ordered with a megaphone "Ok now, everybody run from one side of the boat to the other" and by god knows how Japanese ingenuity worked and the boat started rocking and they got it off!

[tater]

I just read Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway - The Great Naval Battles As Seen Through Japanese Eyes.



Anyway, he mentions dropping charges (early in the war) set to 50m. Totally different than the only other info I had from navweaps.

Hmmm.

[DrBeast]

As expected, tater...there's always three sides to every story

[tater]

Good book, BTW.