ORIGINAL: Bradley7735
ORIGINAL: HexHead
There was a skipper who had a fat juicy liner, 30,000 tons in the crosshairs. He got it to slow by a hit on the props, or something - it was literally a sitting duck.
Sixteen fish later, not a freakin'scratch - from point blank range, virtually a sitting target with a firing solution even an ensign could set up. The boat took one fish with them back to the barn for analysis. It took stuff like that to get Bureau of Ordnance to say, "Hmmm."
The game shouldn't use one example from the real war to make coding decisions in the game. This example happened once. And, it's a great example.
The torpedo firing pin was weak. 90 degree hits had a much higher chance of failure, compared to shorter angles. This ship was a sitting duck. The skipper lined up so an ensign could make the shot (90 degrees). unfortunately, that was the worst setup for the bad torpedoes.
If the ship was maneuvering, she would have been sunk with less than 16 torpedos. A couple would have hit at angles and the firing pin would have been less likely to shatter. The majority of the 16 fish actually hit the target. a few did run deep or angled away.
I would argue, as the OP has, that 80% is too high a dud rate. I think it should be around 70% (but, this number is pulled out of my @ss). I would also argue that the capabilities of the US S class are too effective. Historically, they (combined) sank 1 ship per month they were in action. And, quite a few of them were lost operationally.
The US fleet boats are a little less effective in 42 than they were, historically. But, most players make up for some of the deficiency by getting much better use from their S class and the Dutch boats. I guess you end up getting to the same place, but it would be nice to have it perfect.
Perfection is, essentially, chimerical in this imperfect world.
As far as WitP:AE goes - it probably is a matter of taste. As far as the game and WW2 goes - there were three major problems with the 14s, each masking the other. The problem, as a whole, wasn't completely solved until late '43. So when to give the AFB his bullets back, how, and how much, is a matter for design meetings.
