Breakdown Mod

[YellowFin]

Are there any?

I'm reading religiously the war patrol reports, see WWII Pacific Submarine Warfare Reality.

Most crews on patrol had not only the enemy to worry about, but also the readiness and accuracy of their own equipment.

Examples:

• One boat had only one destillator for most of a patrol. The crew was noticeably less prepared and stress resistant due to limited fresh water supply.
• The amazing story of USS S-27, court martial protocols included, shows that magnetic compasses could be extremely unreliable for most of the time
• Many patrol reports indicate extended periods where one or more diesel engines weren't avaliable. Reasons include poor production quality, using equipment at its limits, etc.
• Salt water would frequently enter the boat through the conning tower on smaller boats in certain circumstances (namely weather from astern). This would almost always result in TDC, scopes, radio equipment or in-boat communications breakdowns
• One boat was unable to use the high power scope as soon as it left the base, as water entered the periscope and "fogged" one of the optic systems.

As we can see many of these breakdowns can occur even without enemy interaction. I don't believe the game models that. Other than after being depth charged or fired upon our boats are always in pristine condition.

I have no modding experience to speak of so I wonder is there a way to cause breakdowns of equipment, which is modeled as individual components of a boat fairly detailed? Could, say the damaging of bow planes, through a leak in one of the hydraulic systems or a short on one of the electric systems be triggered through a random process?

In theory a "disciplined" gamer can simulate some of the equipment failures without an actual mod:

All we need are breakdowns that we can simulate using in-game mechanics. Let's take the breakdown of the high power attack scope. We can simply not zoom in to pretend it isn't working. In order to determine whether it broke down we can roll dice, or use a program like R to simulate random events with a given probability.

In either case we need a list of breakdowns we can simulate in-game as well as associated probabilities. Some breakdowns should be determined daily, others can be determined on leaving base and a daily repair success can be simulated.

I believe breakdowns of machinery within a a few days from base usually meant returning to base, i.e. to the submarine tender, without actually ending the patrol.

Here is a list of break downs we can simulate as a player:

• No or limited use of scopes, and radar. Sonar breakdown can't be simulated by player action. Radio breakdown can only be simulated for emission, not for reception.
• Limited speed, surfaced and submerged
• Limited charging capability
• Limited diving ability (e.g. a leak whose repair won't withstand a certain water pressure)

In certain areas which commonly proved to be problematic (e.g. fuel loss, shorts, hydraulic fluid loss or contamination, contamination of fresh water with fuel, injuries to crew and officers outside of enemy action) we are not able to simulate anything. I am also unsure as to what probabilities (daily, weekly, for the patrol) should be assigned to these breakdowns and what probabilities should be assigned to their correction.

Some problems with engines occurred frequently, like worn out parts, parts not receiving lubrication, etc. and were equally frequently and speedily fixed with onboard means and thus may not need simulation.