My torpedoes sinks before reaching target

[Ragerin]

Hello all! :-)

I recently bought this game and I found out how to do manual targeting. I've been killing a lot of ships, but sometimes I encounter a problem!

First time, I was targeting a moving merchant ship. The range was approx. 6km. I made a firing solution and fired, but when the torpedo reached 1400m, it just sank to the bottom of the ocean. Every torpedo I fired, acted like that.
Just before that, using the same method of creating fire solutions, it worked at a target 4km away.

This happens to me sometimes. Sometimes my torpedoes hit spot on from great ranges. Sometimes they just sink. And not just once, even if I try to redo the solution, they just sink.
The ships have torpedo jammer??!?! :-(


I hope someone can give me a heads up on this.

[quink99]

Ragerin,

The range that a given torpedo will travel depends on two factors; the type of torpedo and the speed selected when firing it.

For example; The type T1 (GTa) impact torpedo has three possible speed selections. These are 30 (SLOW), 40 (MEDIUM), and 44 (FAST). This is what you select on the Torpedo Panel with the red triangle in your GUI at the attack periscope. Another example would be the T3 (GTe) magnetic torpedo. It only has one speed; 30.

The faster the speed selected for a given torpedo the less distance or range it will travel. Here, for example are the ranges for the early war torpedos;

T1 GTa - 30 (SLOW) - 14,000 m
40 (MED.) - 8,000 m
44 (FAST) - 6,000 m

T2 and T3 GTe - 30 (only available speed) - 5,000 m
'
Remember, the farther your target, the slower the speed you should select and keep in mind each torpedo type's maximum range.

[Ragerin]

Ahh, that makes a lot of sense. But can it be true, that my torpedo, when set on fast, sinks after 1400m? My target was around 8000m away. So what I can learn from your post, the torpedo should stop and sink at 6000m...? Or am I wrong here?

for accuracy you need to be at 3000m or less if you can because anything over that is blind luck to hit a ship IMO

[quink99]

Originally Posted by Webster

for accuracy you need to be at 3000m or less if you can because anything over that is blind luck to hit a ship IMO

Ragerin, Webster, as he usually is, is absolutely right. The closer your are to your target, all other things being equal, the more likely you are to hit it. That being said the speeds and ranges I quoted in the post below are from Uboat.net and may be found at the following link...........

http://uboat.net/technical/torpedoes.htm

This, by the way is a great site for all things "U-boat" in case you haven't already found it.

[Ragerin]

I'm not sure, that I explain myself correctly... I apologize; English is not my mother-language.

I don't think the accuracy is the problem. I am succesfully hitting targets very far away. And knowing the max range of the different torpedoes definitely helped me yesterday. :-)

My problem is, that sometimes my torpedoes SINK. They have a perfect course to get a hit. They continue, and then suddenly they stop. My crew will call out a miss. When I use the external view to follow the torpedoes, I can see they suddenly stops and sinks to the bottom of the ocean-floor. This happens at different ranges. And not always. And seeing the range-table quink99 posted, it doesn't seem that RANGE or SPEED is the problem.
For example, I tried to fire a torpedo at a ship at around 4000m. When the torpedo reached ~1400m, it stopped and sank. I followed it with my external view and marked the position on the map. I repatedly fired torpedoes on different speeds, all sinking in the same spot.

This is how I can best explain. I hope I am understandable.

[Dogfish40]

Originally Posted by Ragerin

I'm not sure, that I explain myself correctly... I apologize; English is not my mother-language.

I don't think the accuracy is the problem. I am succesfully hitting targets very far away. And knowing the max range of the different torpedoes definitely helped me yesterday. :-)

My problem is, that sometimes my torpedoes SINK. They have a perfect course to get a hit. They continue, and then suddenly they stop. My crew will call out a miss. When I use the external view to follow the torpedoes, I can see they suddenly stops and sinks to the bottom of the ocean-floor. This happens at different ranges. And not always. And seeing the range-table quink99 posted, it doesn't seem that RANGE or SPEED is the problem.
For example, I tried to fire a torpedo at a ship at around 4000m. When the torpedo reached ~1400m, it stopped and sank. I followed it with my external view and marked the position on the map. I repatedly fired torpedoes on different speeds, all sinking in the same spot.

This is how I can best explain. I hope I am understandable.

Ragerin,
From what I've read, you are absolutely correct. You fish should not be sinking at 1400m ever. This I might add, is a new one. It would appear that you already know about the fish speeds and that the slower they are set, the longer they swim, but at any speed they should swim longer than 1400m. Could these be 'dud' torpedos? Though it still sounds odd for duds to be sinking like that.
You might try posting your mod selection in order as this sounds like some mods have changed some file settings incorrectly, this maybe because of a mod conflict.
After posting your mods, I would try firing with no mods to see if the problem is still there. Then activate the mods by ones or two's until the problem comes back.
Good Luck
D40

Originally Posted by Dogfish40

Ragerin,
From what I've read, you are absolutely correct. You fish should not be sinking at 1400m ever. This I might add, is a new one. It would appear that you already know about the fish speeds and that the slower they are set, the longer they swim, but at any speed they should swim longer than 1400m. Could these be 'dud' torpedos? Though it still sounds odd for duds to be sinking like that.
You might try posting your mod selection in order as this sounds like some mods have changed some file settings incorrectly, this maybe because of a mod conflict.
After posting your mods, I would try firing with no mods to see if the problem is still there. Then activate the mods by ones or two's until the problem comes back.
Good Luck
D40

not a dud, duds run true and hit the target they just dont explode

i do think he might be mixing up nm, km, and m

from my understanding of what he is saying he isnt close to the targets at all and is trying super long range shots at 4km, 5km, & 6km distances

[Ragerin]

Dogfish40: I do not use any mods.

Webster: Nm, km? When I use the map (with the 'm'-button) and then measure the distance with the ruler-tool, does that give me the distance in natuical miles? Because, that would make sense. I just thought it was in meters. Maybe there's my problem. :-) How do I convert nautical miles to meters?
Also, if the max range on the torpedoes is about 12km on slow speed, how is 4, 5 and 6km long range? Also note, that most of the time I hit perfectly spot on, even at greater ranges than at some of the times where my torpedoes 'sink'.


EDIT: Also, I should state that I recently started over my campaign and haven't had any torpedoes sink yet. :-)

[Ragerin]

Update!

I have played a lot and taken really careful notice of all ranges and calculations, and there have not been any 'sinkers'. I must have been doing something wrong. Thank you all for helping me out. :-D

must have been some corruption in your saved games

glad its working for you now

as to long range, there is a big difference in max range and max effective range. effective range is where the odds of the torpedo reaching its target before the ship deviates from its course and speed or the sea conditions change the torpedos tragectory.

in short the closer the better and anything over 3000m is very long range and 4000m-5000m means you just get lucky since ships dont sail in a straight line and will change course from time to time to avoid being easy targets for subs. the farther away you are the longer it takes the torp to reach the target and the likely hood the ship remains on a straight steady course that whole time is very very low.

now that being said, the game does have flaws/cheats and there are a lot of unrealistic things that can happen in the game so im not saying you cant do it, only that you shouldnt be able to do it with any sort of accuracy or regularly

[RedTerex]

I know this is SH5 thread but please allow me...

In SH4 the longest range I have ever sunk a moving ship was 6700m with a MK14 set at slow ( max 8100m). The ship..a Fubuki DD at 10 knots did not change course even by 1 degree...(stupid captain deserved to lose his boat)

It took ages to get there, so long I even forgot I had fired it off..lol.

Static ships in harbor can also be taken out with zero gyro angle at long ranges with torp set slow. Gyro angles and ships degrees are magnified over long distances so are easy to miss.

In combat I try to get within 1000m before firing at any moving targets. I dont fire on a closing DD (26 kts or faster) until its at at least 650m and closing with zero degree gyro angle ( 0 stern or 180 aft)...for 99% hit ratio.

The same is applicable to SH5....shorter distances = greater hit ratio.

[quink99]

Ragerin.

You asked in an earlier post in this thread, "How do I convert nautical miles to meters?" There are 1,852 meters in one nautical mile. Therefore, for example;

In 6 nm. there are 11,112 mts. (6x1852=11,112mts.)

.....or a little more than 11 kilometers.