Depth Charge Drop Speed

[Gustav Schiebert]

I'm not a massive tech-y guy when it comes to going through config files, so I hope someone will be able to tell me where to look for this.

What speed do DCs drop at? IRL I believe U-boats worked of 4 m/s, and timed from splash to detonation to determine how deep the escorts believed they were. I just tried this (sunk a Southampton and brought down three destroyers on myself). All the DCs dropped for 10 secs, so this formula would suggest that was 40m. It ties in, since I was of course at about 180m and barely rattled.

Anyone know if this is reflected in GWX 3?

DepthCharges.sim

fall_speed = 2.4
detonate_depth = 25.0
depth_precision = 15.0

[Vince82]

A faster setting will improve gameplay is my experience. 4 m/s maybe 5 m/s is better. As the war progressed speed was increased to 6 m/s or even 7 m/s.

I use 6 m/s and it's still very well possible to survive getting depthcharged.

[Gustav Schiebert]

Guess that solves it - thanks for the tip!

Vince - yeah, that was a big development that must have confused the hell out of some boats, hydrodynamic charges. Suppose you could just adjust them manually every so often as you progress through the war?

[MantiBrutalis]

So now it is set to 2.4 m/s, which is not real? Or is it in knots in the file?

If it isn't real, I will probably google out what was the proper setting for each year and set my config file accordingly...

From the GWX 3 Manual.................
(lots of answers in there if you bother reading it)

• Reduced the rate of descent for Mk 6 "ashcan" depth charges to historical values

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by privateer

From the GWX 3 Manual.................
(lots of answers in there if you bother reading it)

• Reduced the rate of descent for Mk 6 "ashcan" depth charges to historical values

Tempts me to put up the RTFM GIF

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Tempts me to put up the RTFM GIF

You'd just get asked where it can be downloaded from, Jim.

Not like we'd INCLUDE it in the documents folder or anything.

[Vince82]

Originally Posted by privateer

From the GWX 3 Manual.................
(lots of answers in there if you bother reading it)

• Reduced the rate of descent for Mk 6 "ashcan" depth charges to historical values

Suppose you could just adjust them manually every so often as you progress through the war?

As far as I know there is only one setting which has to represent all types of charges (except for hedgehogs, they are set to 7). The MK 6 is an early type of charge. So 2.4 might be realistic for 1939 to late 1940 after that 5 is probably 'best'.

Commander will allow the settings to change by year.
Not sure if it's included as I'm not a Commander expert so I'll expect others to answer that.

[Gustav Schiebert]

Originally Posted by privateer

From the GWX 3 Manual.................
(lots of answers in there if you bother reading it)

• Reduced the rate of descent for Mk 6 "ashcan" depth charges to historical values

Did of course search the manual but searching 'depth charge' came back with zero hits, same for the quote above ... which worries me. Am I looking in the wrong manual? http://www.mediafire.com/view/?47o39s3idaaiej9

If you have GWX 3 installed?
The manual is in the documents folder.
It's a standard pdf file that can be searched.
Never looked at the one that removes images.
Why would I?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by privateer

If you have GWX 3 installed?
The manual is in the documents folder.
It's a standard pdf file that can be searched.
Never looked at the one that removes images.
Why would I?

There is also the one made by Danlisa but all that removed was the wolf watermark to cut down on the file size.

@ Gustav Schiebert,

If you open the pdf in your link with out downloading it?
You'll probably find nothing.

Download it and then search it. I did and found 67 hits for depth charge.

[zygoma]

Originally Posted by Vince82

As far as I know there is only one setting which has to represent all types of charges (except for hedgehogs, they are set to 7). The MK 6 is an early type of charge. So 2.4 might be realistic for 1939 to late 1940 after that 5 is probably 'best'.

My older brother followed in our uncle's footsteps by attending the US Coast Guard Academy, after he got to accompany Uncle Jim as a supernumerary on a cruise from New Jersey to Bermuda when he (my brother Jim) was 14 years old. After my brother graduated in 1967 (valedictorian -- perpetual overachiever) one of his first postings as a junior officer was aboard a US Navy destroyer that was primarily tasked with "air-sea rescue", largely picking up pilots who'd had to punch out over water. My brother also rotated through several departments, including as an ASW fire director (or whatever it was called), typically recommending action to the "real" Weps guy, who'd approve or change the order, then allow Jim to give the order. They also spent a little time shelling the North's coastline with their li'l 5-incher.
Turns out that the North Vietnamese had *very few* subs (D'oh!) so they just burned up a few salvos as training.
Their ship had hedgehogs, which I'd never heard of at the time. He described their function, and also that their shape was more nearly teardrop than barrel-like, which kept their downward path more "true" and also allowed them to drop faster. He said the idea was to be able to drop them in a pattern very close to where a suspected submarine lay (or was moving) to increase their chance that one or more would directly impact the target.
I, like the OP in this thread, had often wondered what the rate of descent was for regular ash cans and hedgehogs, and I see from this quoted post that the latter are given a greater speed. It's neat to see the level of detail in this sim; every day I find something else that's new (to me, anyway) and way cool.
BTW, sorry I've been gone so long. It took me awhile to rebuild my main PC that could run GWX with a frame rate greater than 0.2 FPS....
73,
-- Zygoma --