"Crash Dive" vs. "Dive"

[BillCar]

Does anyone know if there's a speed advantage in ordering a crash dive as opposed to ordering a regular dive while at flank speed?

I ask because I find that ordering a crash dive makes it so that I have to wait for the boat to level off at 70m before I can then order it to dive the rest of the way, otherwise I sink quite rapidly if not moving at standard (I believe this is a stock bug), and sometimes I also don't necessarily want to go to 70m (or can't, owing to shallow water).

[ryanglavin]

Crash dive would put the bow planes down as far as possible, regular dive wouldn't. You can dive in the middle of a crash dive. (as in if you went down to 30 meters in a crash dive, you can just hit D and regular dive as far as you want.

[Sailor Steve]

Part of the problem is that when diving normally in real life the ballast tanks aren't fully flooded. The idea is to get the boat underwater, but not so deep that you can't return to periscope depth immediately.

A crash dive is the only dive that involves getting the boat underwater as rapidly as possible, so it's the only one that involves fully flooding the tanks, running water to the forward trim tank and full down on the planes.

So a normal dive shouldn't get you under as quickly as an emergency dive.

[Obltn Strand]

Crash dive is also possible in water shallower than 70 m.
Hit E (blowballast) then (D) dive and finally (A) to set current depth. Usually repeat once or twice. I have managed to crash dive in 32 m depth without hitting the bottom but not always.

[BillCar]

I see. Is it possible to perhaps alter the crash dive depth? Is there any particular reason it defaults to 70m?

I'd like to set it either shallower or deeper – usually if I am being attacked by planes, I'll go to about 30m depth. If attacked by escorts – I tend to go straight down to about 205 - 210m.

[Leandros]

Originally Posted by BillCar

I see. Is it possible to perhaps alter the crash dive depth? Is there any particular reason it defaults to 70m?

I'd like to set it either shallower or deeper – usually if I am being attacked by planes, I'll go to about 30m depth. If attacked by escorts – I tend to go straight down to about 205 - 210m.

You can always hit "A" while on your way down. The boat would then level off and go to the depth at that time. Problem with crash dive is that when you reach your assigned depth you won't be able to hold the boat at that depth when you stop engines. You'd often need to use the engines to compensate for the overly filled ballast tanks. That can be critical if somebody is hunting you on the surface.

For that matter you can push "P" when you are submerged. It would then go up to PD. My experience is that there is very little time difference between crash dive and ordering PD. The crux is to hit full speed first, then PD.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by BillCar

Is there any particular reason it defaults to 70m?

Yes. As I said, with fully flooded tanks that's about where you end up after pumping them out again and resetting the trim.

Yes, there are ways to cheat the system, but that's exactly what players who do that are doing. It's also possible to alter the game so your sub can do 50 knots submerged, but it's not real either.

[BillCar]

70m it is, then! Thanks for the help.

[ryanglavin]

But if your wondering, bill, how to change the crash dive depth, you can change a CFG file... I don't know where or how but in an old thread from a couple of years ago I saw someone doing just that.

[Sailor Steve]

I think you have to go into Data/submarine/'each boat' and change the cfg file there. It actually says 'CrashDepth'.

[BillCar]

Nah, I don't need to know anymore. I thought it was some arbitrary game thing, but if that's how it was actually done, then 70m is what I'll stick to. I don't want to cheat any more than I can avoid.

Thanks, though!