[Leif...]

Has anyone any thoughts about the damage modelling of ships? I should really be posting this in the indie forum as I hope to get some ideas for my own sim, but as this currently is the forum of uboat simulator dreams I might as well post my question here. Also the SH3 developers might get some input as well

Anyhow, In my own little project I’ve just begun to look at the torpedo/ship collision detection and naturally the ships should be affected differently depending on where the torpedo hits. But until now I haven’t really thought about what those differences should be.

Thoughts, anyone?

Leif…

[CB..]

the standard approach in combat flight sims is to model the damage for left wing right wing nose tail etc...(and even left wingtip right wingtip and undercarraige so on..hit the hydralics and the undercart comes down)

sadly we're eons behind that standard at the moment ...

but if a ship was modelling with three seperate sections bow/main body/ stern

and the section that recieves the torp hit either slowly breaks of or losses boyancy causing the desire effect as the ship sinks..
perhaps i dunno

[Sailor Steve]

I too would like to see a ship break in half once in a while, or go end-up (or belly-up). Also, sometimes (but not always) ships that have been torpedoed DON'T catch on fire-especially if they break in half.

Someone mentioned in another thread that sometimes ships would just go on and on without sinking, or sink a day later. That would be nice, but it would also be cool if once in a great while an ammunition ship just--blew up!

[AS]

I don´t know about programming, but couldn´t you subdivide your ship models into three or four main sections including front and back? So you could take into account heavy leaks, bow leak, destroyed rudder/engine etc.

By the way, destroyers where hard to hit (unlike in both SH1 and 2, but IF you hit, they often sunk within minutes. This dependend on their speed, too. If they were rather fast and got hit in the bow, they used to actually dive down "like a sub", as some U-Boat sailor once wrote.

Cheers, AS

[Seeadler]

[Leif...]

The ships are already divided into 6 equally large zones, although that number will increase six fold in the near future. I’m not able to detect hits down to polygon level though but that is hardly necessary either.

The main question though is what should the different hits result in? A hit in the engine room or behind it would probably stop the propulsion. But a ship would probably cut the engines anyway if they where hit. A hit in the bow would flood the ship faster, but what else?


Leif…

[NeonSamurai]

All kinds of things could happen, coal burning ships can have coal dust explosions if you hit the coal bunkers. Ships breaking in 2 or more pieces if the keel of the ship is broken (which is generaly what most submariners try to do with torpedoes, hit close to the keel in the center section of the ship and shatter it). also hits to ammo stores can cause massive explosions, then there is flooding, the rudder getting jammed or destroyed. or one or more of the propellers getting blown off or jammed.

In simple terms though flooding is what sinks the ship, get enough flooding in the compartments of the ship and it will go down or break up. The rest can either aid flooding (explosions), make the ship more vulnerable (engines, props, rudder), or secondary effects (fires which trigger more explosions, or force the crew to abandon ship)

On the subject of flooding, how a ship floods and where is the factor on what happens to the ship, hitting the front of the the ship doesnt cause more flooding as far as i know. The factors are the available volume in the breached compartment(s), and if the compartment(s) can be sealed or not. Hits in the bow or stern given enough flooding will cause the other side of the ship to lift out of the water and will eventualy break the keel. hits in the center if the keel remains un damaged will take alot flooding or weight on the keel at that point to break it. and when the ship is flooded enough and looses positive buyancy it sinks.