ORIGINAL: JWE
Perhaps one of the reasons you don’t see hedgehogs or mousetraps in the stock game, is their peculiar characteristics, and the inability of the game code to adequately account for them.
The general hedgehog fired maybe 20 projectiles, each with about 65 lbs of torpex. This is compared to a Mk-6 DC with 300 lbs of explosive charge, or a Mk-7 with 600 lbs. The issue is how to portray this in terms of the game code.
The present editor ‘effect’ values do indeed show the Mk-7 DC with ‘effect’ of 600 (and the Mk-6 with ‘effect’ of 300), but the various hedgehogs are shown with ‘effect’ of 35. This should likely be adjusted to 65, in accord with IRL. But this still doesn’t help in determining patterning.
The code looks at ‘salvos’, so if you have a single hedgehog launcher, with ammo of 20 or 25, you will get a single attack, with a “chance to kill” based on an ‘effect’ of 35 or 65. Since ammo is 20 or 25. You ‘could’ get 20 to 25 ‘salvos’, but the game code doesn’t go that long, so your hedgehog is “practically” ineffective; you might get 6 or 7 shots (out of 20 or 25) at a kill numeric of 35 or 65 for each shot.
There are a couple ways (lots actually) that modders can accommodate these seemingly disparate elements. The one I found most effective is to have 1 hedgehog device with “Num” of 20; maybe ammo of 2 or more if you have reloads on your mind. This gives you 1 ‘salvo’ of 20 ‘rounds’, with 20 “chances to hit”, each with a ‘chance to kill’ based on the device ‘effect’ of 35 (or 65). This takes up lots of time if you have ‘combat screens’ turned on, but – what the hey – it’s your nickel.
Editor values and detailed support are available upon request. Ciao.
John
But the problem is while Mousetrap and Hedgehog had relativelive small warheads, they were direct contact weapons as opposed to the area of effect DC's. So while out of a salvo of 20 only one weapon "hit", that hit was often more devastating than a the larger warhead of a DC that exploded nearby. They were essentially shells that hit the sub. So if an ahead thrown weapon hit damage was assumed. One or two hits was considered enough to sink most subs. The USN went from a 6% kill rate initially up to 10% by war's end. That means 10% of all shots by these weapons killed their targets.
