(Bug) Crush depth way too deep

[Steven]

After being sunk three time now I can confirm the crush depth is off the charts. Below what the depth gauge can read every time

[BRRRT]

can you tell me the depth for you?

[Steven]

All three times "Below what the depth gauge can read" below 260m unless I am not understanding the mechanic? But the defeat screen will only popup way after the gauge has hit bottom, hope that helps

[BRRRT]

is there any leaks and things breaking in the uboat?

[funnyml]

In the book ('Das Boot' that is), the sub went down to 280m. It had leaks, but they survived. Doesn't seem to be that far off in the game, I would say.

[El Rushbo]

Well, being crushed won't be instantaneous. There's no telling how deep a U-boat can go while compartments still retain structural integrity. It may be possible for a boat to go down to 500+ meters and still have some compartments holding together (albeit not for long) Unfortunately such circumstances are not survivable and thus there are no eyewitnesses to confirm or deny that. In any sense it would not be a pleasant way to die. May be instant when it happens, but waiting for it to happen must have been a nightmare.

[Steven]

Yes leaks in the hull, 2 the last time lots of things breaking. I think I understand what you guys are saying funnyml, El Rushbo, my fear is knowing the boat will dive that deep each game why not just dive past 180+m each time a escort is depth charging me. I think in order for the crush depth to be realistic in any way it would need to be a random depth below 165 or 175m. Or maybe it is and I just don't understand the game mechanic?, I always imagined a hole or several holes filling the sub with water very fast a few seconds game over. El Rushbo you may have explained it perfectly, and that is what the game is going for sorry if this was just a wild goose chase

[wolf310ii]

Originally posted by Steven:

After being sunk three time now I can confirm the crush depth is off the charts. Below what the depth gauge can read every time

An u-boat dont watch the depth gauge, 240, 245, 249.5, 250 now i crush.
250m was a carefully calculated crush depth in WW2, today calculations shows it was 280m.
But thats only calculations, so in real a boat may could go even below 280m and survive

[kenberg]

For the Type VIIC its maximum operating depth is 230 meters and collapse depth is 250–295 meters,

But some Type VIIC's have after takeing heavy damage from depth charges have involutarily dived or sunk to 300-340 meters deep and managed to come back up with some uboat's makeing it back home to germany,

For german uboat's from the late 1930s to 1943 each and every uboat was a handcrafted over engineered masterpiece made by highly skilled german yard workers,

And plans were in the works in 1943 for a Type VIIC/42 with a maximum operating depth of 325 meters and a collapse depth of 500 meters.

[Galactipod]

Originally posted by El Rushbo:

Well, being crushed won't be instantaneous. There's no telling how deep a U-boat can go while compartments still retain structural integrity. It may be possible for a boat to go down to 500+ meters and still have some compartments holding together (albeit not for long) Unfortunately such circumstances are not survivable and thus there are no eyewitnesses to confirm or deny that. In any sense it would not be a pleasant way to die. May be instant when it happens, but waiting for it to happen must have been a nightmare.

It's instantaneous on a human scale. It happens so instantly that, the moment the hull implodes, the brains of everyone aboard become pulp long before their nerves can report any pain. While the internal bulkheads can withstand complete flooding of a compartment, they cannot withstand sudden implosion at extreme depths; they just don't have anywhere near the capacity the pressure hull itself has. Some compartments might have delayed implosions... by half a second, maybe.

[athenian]

I don't recall the source but in one of the books I've read by a former U-boat crewman they went down to approximately 410 m. After the 250 m on the gauge, they kept track by adding depth by rate of descend. Incredible professionalism in my opinion when you're expecting to get crushed at any moment. But they were also nauseated so who really knows.

[Nukealope]

German subs were known to go far below their "recommended" crush depth limit. Some went deeper than 1000 feet when facing intense depth charge attacks. British and American destroyer crews also knew the crush depth of German subs, and set their depth charges to explode at those depth and higher, often missing the subs completely. They quickly learned the U-Boats were diving below their depth charges, and began to set them deeper. Of course, this game doesn't really model that. The depth charges are always at your depth, or near it.

[nihilcat]

Originally posted by Nukealope:

Of course, this game doesn't really model that. The depth charges are always at your depth, or near it.

It's modelled, assuming everything works as intended 😉

What you refer to was mostly a consequence of detonator limits. There are no depth charges in the game that can reach your U-boat at 300 meters or more. In the early war, this depth is even much lower than that.

[wolf310ii]

Originally posted by athenian:

I don't recall the source but in one of the books I've read by a former U-boat crewman they went down to approximately 410 m. After the 250 m on the gauge, they kept track by adding depth by rate of descend. Incredible professionalism in my opinion when you're expecting to get crushed at any moment. But they were also nauseated so who really knows.

410m is far streched and u-boats didnt had an instrument to meassure the rate of descent.

Wolfgang Hirschfeld described an situation in the book "Feindfahrten" where the helmsman closed a wrong vent when he switched from the station in the conning tower down to the control room, so the main depth gauge keept indicating 250m, and only when the crew in the bow or aft noticed on the secondary depth gauge that they at 310m they realised the error in the controll room.

Originally posted by Nukealope:

British and American destroyer crews also knew the crush depth of German subs, and set their depth charges to explode at those depth and higher, often missing the subs completely. They quickly learned the U-Boats were diving below their depth charges, and began to set them deeper.

They knew that only after they captured an german u-boat with all the technical documents on board. Befor that they didnt knew how the u-boats could dive and the ASDIC of that time also couldnt meassure the depth of a contact, only the direction.
The depth charges early in the war could only be set to max 150m, from the allies point of view more than enough, because their submarines could barely go much deeper than periscope depth, with crush depths of around 100m.

[Nukealope]

Originally posted by nihilcat:

Originally posted by Nukealope:

Of course, this game doesn't really model that. The depth charges are always at your depth, or near it.

It's modelled, assuming everything works as intended 😉

What you refer to was mostly a consequence of detonator limits. There are no depth charges in the game that can reach your U-boat at 300 meters or more. In the early war, this depth is even much lower than that.

Well, that's an eye opener for sure. Played lots of hours in this game and never knew that. Thanks. An additional tactic to explore.