a damage question

[The Bandit]

I know this has probably been covered before in the forms but I was wondering if there was any way to change how damage would effect a ship, for example, in late 44 with USS Balao I was being attacked by a Kaibokan escort who made a depth charge run on me. once I had him astern I fired off a single mark 27 homing torpedo. It took a while but the torpedo impacted between both of the rear screws. I know the Mk27 had a small torpedo but with all do respect, in the aread where it detonated, it deffinatly would not have sunk the ship but it would have been enough to bend/deform both the screws, pop the shaft seals and possibly bend/break the propeller shafts. Is there any way that ships could be made more sensitive to damage, say in their after third, causing engineering casulties and either stopping or greatly slowing down their movements. I don't know how many times I have gotten a ship with a single fish and watched it run away from me at 8 knots with a big hole in its side.

[u-168]

you think thats bad i shot 4 fish in the side of a merchent and it took of at 8 knots
it should have the hull cracking oe sompthing for a mod when my dad worked on a ship it broke away from it's mooring and sailed down the river and hit another ship and ripped a hole about 10ft in the side of it but it did not sink thank god and it was empty when it hit


u-168

[Kodaita]

I agree that your torp should have messed up the screws. Probably wouldn't snap the shafts, the warhead is pretty dinky and the shafts are extremely sturdy. However it probably would damage the shaft seals and cause some nasty flooding. I would also expect some kind of rudder damage. So even if it doesn't sink, it's done chasing after you. If you do mod the damage, keep in mind that in some warships the engine rooms are actually closer to midships. I served on the USS San Jacinto as an enginemen, and both our main engine rooms as well as both auxilary rooms were almost dead center. We had crew quarters, several different machine shops/dc lockers/tool rooms, the JP5 pump room and after steering all well aft of the machinary spaces.

[The Bandit]

Well I have played a little more and some of the sinkings I have seen are more realistic, I think due to RSM. Sometimes a ship will make a run for it but it will sink from flooding or damage a little later, that I like. Look at HMS Ark Royal, she was sunk by a single torp (albiet in a really good position) and because it took a while to slow down, the hole tore open due to the speed. I have seen a few other damage related things that I have liked. Once I bent the prop on a big frighter and you could see the prop wander a few feet out of true, he slowed right down. Also at least once I had an Mk14 that went too deep actually have the magnetic head work for a change, must have been some sort of fluke, it exploded right underneath this medium european freighter and immobalized it, most likely by totaling the drive train and it was pretty easy to finish off. What I would like to see most of all is some sort of immediate debilitation of a ships , say knock them from 8 knots down to 4 after they take a torpedo.

[mookiemookie]

I remember reading one of the developer's comments that said the guy who worked on the damage system in SH3 was not on the team for SH4 and thus the code had no real "owner" who could have fine tuned it.

I know that doesn't really answer your question, but there's a bit of background on why it's that way.

[Gunner]

Took this pic after a fish exploded between the screws blew a gaping hole in the stern of a freighter and continued on at 8 knots, Notice the shaft is missing, propeller kept spinning regardless.