How do I stop my Uboat from sinking after a a leak?

[DeviousXP]

Hi all, more nooby questions, so everytime I take a leak after beaing hit, I sink to dangerous depths and everyone drowns. Last time it was from a depth charge, all I had was one leak, and one of the mechanics fixed it quickly, the water was about knee height, and causing -7% boyancy, all in all iv seen people on youtube easily recover from situations worse, but I have no idea how to after the leak is fixed, I just keep sinking uncontrollably, how do I efficiently get rid of the water, or stabalise the ship while the pumps do their thing?

thanks, oh, and bonus question, I always leave spare parts in my mechanics bag, is this an ok idea?

[CloudPiercer]

Turn on the pumps in the control room and tell your crew to scoop out the water

[DeviousXP]

Originally posted by CaptFromHTX:

Turn on the pumps in the control room and tell your crew to scoop out the water

is it a case of caommanding them with the TAB button options, or do I need to manually control them with a bucket and first person mode?

[Jabrwock]

In section view (3rd person) in the bottom left of each compartment there's 3 icons, click the water drop one and crew will prioritize transferring water from that compartment to the Control Room.

[EmptyK]

Also, if the situation allows it—if there are no escort ships above you for example—increase speed and try to get closer to the surface. That way you can use the depth steers to provide lift. But like I said above, make sure there's nothing waiting for you on the surface. That's not always the case, since there's usually something that caused the leak. But if it's the choice of being crushed to death for certain or maybe being spotted, I know which choice I'd pick—though use your best judgement.

[Shubashi]

Dealing with severe damage is the most exciting part of the game to me. There is no single strategy that fits all situations. And sometimes there is just nothing you can do.

Here are a couple of ideas that may help in some situations:

• Have engineers equipped with rebreathers at all times
  
• Immediately evacuate compartments with leaks
  
• Prioritize repairs manually. It may be advisable to set your engineers to no role to prevent them prioritizing repairs on their own.
  
• Use idle officers (non-engineers) to reduce water intake. (Hand symbol at leaks)
  
• When damaged by airplanes it is often better to engage them at the surface than dealing with many leaks under water.
  
• Try to hold your depth with speed. You need the electric engines and depth rudder station working for that. Depending on the situation it may be worth to put an engineer to the engine station to get higher speed instead of doing repairs.
  
• Avoid sinking below the depth were the pumps are working at all costs. (The pumps show their effectiveness for the current depth on mouseover) Blow out the tanks even if that means you are surfacing in a dangerous situation. Immediately dive again if necessary. You can try to flood them again below the surface. It buys some time.

[tr0mp]

Mmmm I do not see the solution... Although Shubashi provides good tips, but misses one very important aspect. And it is so simple.

Blocking a leak blocks 90% of the inflow of water.
When you have 3 leaks and 5 officers, three officers are blocking leaks, while 2 mechanics repair.

When you have four leaks, 4 officers blocking is prefered over 3 officers, the difference is between 4/40 inflow of water or 13/40 inflow of water.

Blocking is more important then repairing.

I think all of the above solutions are going to get you killed over and over...

When taking water in deep sea at periscope depth, open valves quickly, sinking below 30 meters will not fully empty the watertanks anymore because of pressure and your pump is soon useless after 50 meters or so.

Act quickly, prevent water comming in.

More then 4 leaks at once and at perscope depth in deep sea? evacuate the compartment with the most leaks and prepare to die... You can stay afloat with one compartment full of water, more means sinking...

Try not to get hit when seabed is > 250 meters deep.

[Jackrabbit_V6/ RSProduxx]

Originally posted by tr0mp:

Try not to get hit when seabed is > 250 meters deep.

probably the best advice :)

[CloudPiercer]

Originally posted by DeviousXP:

Originally posted by CaptFromHTX:

Turn on the pumps in the control room and tell your crew to scoop out the water

is it a case of caommanding them with the TAB button options, or do I need to manually control them with a bucket and first person mode?

What you wanna do is click on an officer, assign 2 crew members to assist, then click on the water drop icon in the flooded compartment and they will all start to grab buckets

[DeviousXP]

Originally posted by EmptyK:

Also, if the situation allows it—if there are no escort ships above you for example—increase speed and try to get closer to the surface. That way you can use the depth steers to provide lift. But like I said above, make sure there's nothing waiting for you on the surface. That's not always the case, since there's usually something that caused the leak. But if it's the choice of being crushed to death for certain or maybe being spotted, I know which choice I'd pick—though use your best judgement.

should I always put somone on depth steer when there is flooding?

[DeviousXP]

Originally posted by Shubashi:

Dealing with severe damage is the most exciting part of the game to me. There is no single strategy that fits all situations. And sometimes there is just nothing you can do.

Here are a couple of ideas that may help in some situations:

• Have engineers equipped with rebreathers at all times
  
• Immediately evacuate compartments with leaks
  
• Prioritize repairs manually. It may be advisable to set your engineers to no role to prevent them prioritizing repairs on their own.
  
• Use idle officers (non-engineers) to reduce water intake. (Hand symbol at leaks)
  
• When damaged by airplanes it is often better to engage them at the surface than dealing with many leaks under water.
  
• Try to hold your depth with speed. You need the electric engines and depth rudder station working for that. Depending on the situation it may be worth to put an engineer to the engine station to get higher speed instead of doing repairs.
  
• Avoid sinking below the depth were the pumps are working at all costs. (The pumps show their effectiveness for the current depth on mouseover) Blow out the tanks even if that means you are surfacing in a dangerous situation. Immediately dive again if necessary. You can try to flood them again below the surface. It buys some time.

Even when I blow tanks, the boat keeps sinking, how do I stop the sinking while mechanics are repairing?

[tr0mp]

@Devious: Block the leak with one officer, repair with a second. It saves 90% of inflow of water, see my post of 29 december.

And sometimes nothing will save you...

[Harag]

Originally posted by tr0mp:

@Devious: Block the leak with one officer, repair with a second. It saves 90% of inflow of water, see my post of 29 december.

And sometimes nothing will save you...

WOW I'm glad I read this thread, I didn't know you could block the leaks with an officer. that's something new since last time I played - which was a long time ago.

[skc]

Originally posted by Jackrabbit_V6/ RSProduxx:

Originally posted by tr0mp:

Try not to get hit when seabed is > 250 meters deep.

probably the best advice :)

If only someone had told 75% of the uboat waffe!

[urseus]

Originally posted by Harag:

Originally posted by tr0mp:

@Devious: Block the leak with one officer, repair with a second. It saves 90% of inflow of water, see my post of 29 december.

And sometimes nothing will save you...

WOW I'm glad I read this thread, I didn't know you could block the leaks with an officer. that's something new since last time I played - which was a long time ago.

If you subscribe to Iron Coffins mod, you Can block leaks with normal sailors while the officer fixes

[Lipi]

Originally posted by DeviousXP:

Hi all, more nooby questions, so everytime I take a leak after beaing hit, I sink to dangerous depths and everyone drowns. Last time it was from a depth charge, all I had was one leak, and one of the mechanics fixed it quickly, the water was about knee height, and causing -7% boyancy, all in all iv seen people on youtube easily recover from situations worse, but I have no idea how to after the leak is fixed, I just keep sinking uncontrollably, how do I efficiently get rid of the water, or stabalise the ship while the pumps do their thing?

thanks, oh, and bonus question, I always leave spare parts in my mechanics bag, is this an ok idea?

After repairing the leak, start ascending, and select "adjust ballast" from the valve icon (right click). This will flush out same amount of water from ballast tanks as is flooding the interior, to regain zero buoyancy. Do this ONLY AFTER FINISHING REPAIRING THE LEAK.

After that, command ascent to at least 20m above and see if you're going up. Manual steering isn't a big deal, use one of your engineers to control steering if you have to.

Two things to keep in find:

1) Could be bug or something, the game only allows you to do this once per dive, you can't adjust ballast again until you fully surface and dive again.

2) Due to varying water pressure at different depths, after you adjust ballast, you will only maintain depth at around where you adjusted the ballast. If you ascend several meters, you will uncontrollably surface even if you didn't order it, since lowered external water pressure at shallow depth means more air will occupy the ballasts (by expanding). If enemies are nearby, be mindful of this and DON'T try to ascend beyond say 20 meters of your adjusting depth until you think it's safe to do that.

2.5) Using pumps to successfully drain the water inside will have the same effect, since you will now naturally have positive buoyancy.