How many torpedoes does it take to sink freighter!?

[Dwail Hicks]

I attacked a freighter, saving the game before firing. I have fired four torpedoes. In the first three attempts they have hit two, as a result the ship has caught fire, to turn off quickly and continue on its way as if nothing had happened. Only on the fourth attempt have three torpedoes hit it, destroying its bow and it has caught fire until it sank. It seems very unrealistic to me that two torpedoes do not manage to do anything, the ship catches fire, goes out and continues its course without problems. Has something similar happened to you? Is the damage system well implemented?

[Lord Eddard Stark]

What type of ship? Size? What speed? What weather? Where was it hit? All of these things matter. Two hits should sink most ships, at least normally, but it's possible they could survive depending on local conditions and the exact nature of the target.

[sandrastarling]

I've been getting quite a few patches lately. Maybe a bug not yet squashed?

[Dwail Hicks]

What type of ship? Empire Explorer.
Size? 123 m.
Speed? 7 kn.
Weather? Cloud and Raining.
Hit? First torpedo exactly in middle and second middle/stern.
Torpedos? G7 T1 Impact fuze.
Angle on Bow? 90 grades aprox.
Distance? 737 m.

* It has also happened to me without it raining

[Dwail Hicks]

I just made a fifth attempt: three hits. First in the middle, second middle/stern, third stern. Three torpedoes and no damage, keep sailing as if nothing !!!!.

[KevDawg]

What depth did you select? 1-2m will be less damage compared to something deeper. Once you research reliable magnetic fuses you can sink in 1 to 2 torps much more easily by having it blow up underneath the ship.

[Jambalaia]

I recently entered a neutral freighter thought they were smuggeling and told my pioneer to blow that thing up but it only went to around 10% left and stopped there. No idea which ship it was though. Had to shoot this thing to the bottom with my AA since I had nothing left but torps.

[Dwail Hicks]

Originally posted by KevDawg:

What depth did you select? 1-2m will be less damage compared to something deeper. Once you research reliable magnetic fuses you can sink in 1 to 2 torps much more easily by having it blow up underneath the ship.

Depth? 1.5 m. But!!!... if three damn torpedoes hitting the ship directly can't sink the freighter or at least force it to stop or slow down, then the damage system is bad and horrible.

[Dwail Hicks]

Originally posted by Johnny2000:

Originally posted by Jambalaia:

I recently entered a neutral freighter thought they were smuggeling and told my pioneer to blow that thing up but it only went to around 10% left and stopped there. No idea which ship it was though. Had to shoot this thing to the bottom with my AA since I had nothing left but torps.

Ha ha this happened to me too :-D Engineer blew up but the damn C3 stayed afloat with about 10% buoyancy. Before I could man the canon a destroyer returned so I had to escape.
After escaping I ran into a small convoy of ships where I used up all my remaining shells and torpedoes. So when I returned I couldn't send anyone onboard the C3 (option was no longer there) so I had to use the AA gun to sink it.

You mentioned that the damaged ship was left standing there and then you came back to finish it off. In my experience when you damage a ship, even with three torpedoes, if it doesn't sink it continues as if nothing happened at the same speed. In your experience: Did it stop because you had boarded it before or do ships really slow down when they are damaged?

[Dwail Hicks]

Originally posted by Johnny2000:

Sometimes, when only lightly damaged, they will continue as nothing has happened, but if you damage it so the green bar (which according to McDewgle doesn't represent a ships hit points, but buoyancy) falls to maybe 40% or less, the crew will abandon ship, which you can see by both looking at the information about the target and by life boats next to it. If it's abandoned, it will become stationary and a very easy target to finish of, either by using a sapper to blow it up or by using the deck gun.

I'm not sure if they slow down if their green bar is 50-60% I might be thinking of the SH series. There ships would slow down and fall out of a convoy and become easy pickings.

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't see any green bars on the boats. Could it be because I have all the realism settings at maximum and maximum difficulty? I also have the real navigation mod that removes the contacts on the map. By the way, I was also thinking about Silent Hunter V about ships slowing down when damaged. If that doesn't work like that in UBOOT, I hope they implement it. I'll keep doing tests to check everything.

[Dwail Hicks]

[img] https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198002496521/screenshots/ [/img]

Johnny2000, Are you referring to the green bar that says HP, which I have marked in the image? If it is that bar, in the photo three torpedoes have just hit that ship and the bar is still full. Bug?

[Moyocoya]

You should set torpedoe depth = 60% draught. For an empire explorer one torpedoe should be enough. I launch always two in case one is dud or misses.

[Dwail Hicks]

Originally posted by Moyocoya:

You should set torpedoe depth = 60% draught. For an empire explorer one torpedoe should be enough. I launch always two in case one is dud or misses.

Thank you Moyocoya, your advice has worked. I have fired at the ship at 5 m. deep and I have been able to sink it with a single impact.

Then I have continued shooting at the ship in successive attempts (I have the game saved) at a depth of 1.5 meters and, most of the time, two or three torpedoes were enough to sink it. It is very rare that it does not sink with three torpedoes. Most of the time I probably didn't let it run long enough for it to sink.
On the other hand, the green bar under the name of the ship and the flag that says HP, I have never seen it at half or in another value, it is only full or empty if I have sunk a ship, it has to be a bug, right?

Many thanks to this community for their constant support to answer questions.

[Moyocoya]

Happy it works. The reason is that torpedoes do much more damage when exploding somewhat close to the keel, rather that close to sea level. Water invades the ship much faster this way.

Concerning the bar, what I have observed so far is :
- the bar is empty with one shot if the torpedoe has done overwhelming damage ;
- the bar goes gradually empty if the shot has done enough damage, but if it takes time for the ship to sink ;
- the bar goes gradually empty but stops emptying if the ship has not been enough damaged.
... If I remember well :-)

[Dwail Hicks]

I correct myself. I just fired a torpedo and I did see the ship's green (HP) bar go down a bit. I'll keep testing to make sure it works. It would be nice if ships slowed down when hit.

[Moyocoya]

Ships may slow down or even stop. They may break in two parts as well :-)