Torpedoes too deep. Help?

[jerm138]

Ok... here's the situation:

I'm perfectly set up to launch an attack on a lone minesweeper. 1000 yards away, 90 degrees off the bow, almost 0 degree gyro angle. (obviously it's not THIS exact, but pretty close)

Here's the problem:
No matter what I do, the torpedoes slide right under the ship.
According to the ship recognition guide, the draft is 9 feet. I saved the scenario so that I could try it many times, and nothing seems to work.

I've tried different torpedo depths. It will only go down to a little under 5, and I've tried up to 9, and a couple places in between. I've tried both slow and fast torpedoes. I've tried both impact and influence switches.

My aim is just about dead on. I switch to external camera and follow the fish. They pass a several feet under the ship every time and keep right on going.

I'm using V1.5 with TMO 1.9 and RSRD.

This is starting to annoy me. Any tips would be appreciated.

It also brings up another question: What factors do you consider when deciding on fast or slow torpedo, and impact or influence switches?

[Steiger]

Early war torpedoes run deep. The US Torpedo scandal was HUGE. Look it up on wikipedia or something. They usually run about 10 feet deep, so if the target has a 9' keel, you have an almost 0 chance of hitting her.

[jerm138]

I had heard a little about the torpedo scandal before. I thought it was more about the switches/detonators.

I didn't know the game was modeled to that level of detail to make the torpedoes change with time.

So... I won't bother with anything that has <10 ft draft for a couple years, I guess.

Kinda bummed... I've been on patrol for over a month and this was the first real target (besides 2 destroyers that spotted me and harassed me all night), and it looked like an easy kill. I got 8 sampan kills so far though!

And I learned an important lesson: Just because a ship is going 5 kts when you launch, doesn't mean it'll keep going that slow once the fish are in the water. Note to self: lead slow-moving ships a little if they can go faster...

[G2B]

When attacking Destroyers minesweepers and such shallow draft ships I get in as close as possible and use the fast setting with influence. Usually influance setting gets triggered by rough seas but not always once in a while they just go off.

Keep in mind if you have a Destroyer running down on you fire between 600 and 1000 yards any closer than 550 yards and torps won't arm. Oh one other thing if at all possible fire down her keel gives the fish more time to go off

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by jerm138

I had heard a little about the torpedo scandal before. I thought it was more about the switches/detonators.

Nah, it was about the captains being bad shots. Then they figured out that every single one couldn't be a bad shot. The some of the captains had their torpedo guys disable the magnetic detonators, with the idea that when they were set very shallow they would pre-det, and when they weren't they wouldn't go off at all. Y'know, if they're running too deep...

Then they figured out that the mags really weren't reliable and started to fix them. Then they figured out that the contact pistols were having problems too. Then the mags still had problems, so the new gun in town, Lockwood, decided to do some tests, using nets to catch them.

And sure enough, the magnetic pistols needed fixing, the contact pistols needed fixing, the depth mechanisms needed fixing, and even when they were all fixed the Australia-based boats continued to have problems. Seems the man in charge there, Christie, was responsible for the development of some of that stuff, and of course it couldn't be his fault, so he refused to use the 'fixed' fish.

And so it goes...

[Fish40]

Read all about it here: http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu7Rgi0...6_exploder.htm

[jerm138]

I looked through the ship recognition guide and saw that there are a LOT of ships with drafts in the 9-10 foot range.

I'm all for historical accuracy, but I don't want to have to bypass half the targets because my torpedoes will go too deep.

Is there any way to turn this "feature" off? I'm all for realism and historical accuracy, but this I'd like to at least get to TRY to shoot at a target. In real life they had to deal with not showering for days but I don't intend to skip those in the interest of historical accuracy either.

[Sailor Steve]

Set 'em as shallow as the game will let you. That's all I can think of.

I'm one of the ones who complained way back in SH1 that there were way to many targets and the torpedoes were way to good, so I won't be much more help than that.

[sergei]

Attacking shallow draft targets with early war Mark 14s is an exercise in frustration.
I have had some success using the magnetic pistol, but only in good conditions.
If the weather is good (windspeed of 3ms of below) then I will use the magnetic pistol. In these conditions the chance of a premature is slim.
If your torpedo runs under the target there is still a good chance of it detonating.
In heavy seas I'll send 3 torpedoes set for the shallowest setting on contact pistol, and cross my fingers.
Your torps have a strong chance of running between 1 and 12 feet deep. So you'll probably still get a hit.
Keep your fingers crossed that the contact pistol works!

[jerm138]

I'm one of the ones who complained way back in SH1 that there were way to many targets and the torpedoes were way to good, so I won't be much more help than that.

Yeah... That's the other end of the spectrum, I guess.

I don't want super-torps or anything. But I also don't want to spend my afternoon playing a game that is programmed to not let me hit the target under any circumstances, regardless of how good I am.

The realism nazis may tell me I'm wrong for thinking that way... but time compression isn't very realistic either and I bet most everyone uses that.

Oh well... I guess I'll just live with it and bypass the shallow draft ships.

[MoN]

I´m not quite sure, but shouldn´t disabling duds disable other types of malfunctions too?

[SteamWake]

Torpedoes running deep is not a malfunction rather it is the results of erronious test data.

This on the other hand would be a malfunction

http://www.viddler.com/explore/failb...os/383/22.756/

They work better when set shallow anyhow

set for contact fuses and always use minimum depth setting and you'll be ok

keel shots are a waste of time early in the war because of the above mentioned issues. once the torpedo issues are fixed then you can use keel shots but not before or your just playing the lottery

[MoN]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Torpedoes running deep is not a malfunction rather it is the results of erronious test data.

This on the other hand would be a malfunction

http://www.viddler.com/explore/failb...os/383/22.756/

They work better when set shallow anyhow

a) I´m just trying to help.

b) I´m the wrong guy to argue semantics with.
Malfunction comes from male fungor (lat.) which directly translates to (to) work badly. A torpedo running deep works badly so it´s a malfunction, no matter what the reason is.

c) If you want to contribute load up TMO and see if the MK14s won´t run deep 99% of the time when you disable duds in the realism settings.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by jerm138

I don't want super-torps or anything. But I also don't want to spend my afternoon playing a game that is programmed to not let me hit the target under any circumstances, regardless of how good I am.

A perfectly good point. It should be an option in the game. Wait, isn't there a 'Dud Torpedoes' setting in the main 'Options' page?

The realism nazis may tell me I'm wrong for thinking that way... but time compression isn't very realistic either and I bet most everyone uses that.

Not this one. Of course I can't talk too much about true realism because I don't use manual targeting. I'm more of a 'realistic immersion' freak than a true realism nut, but never a nazi because I won't tell anyone else how they 'should' play, only how I play myself.