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Old 10-23-22, 02:11 PM   #1
fullmetaledges
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Default Damage control tips?

I’ve been playing U-boat since its release and I’m currently pretty happy where the game is currently, but I’m horrible at damage control. It would seem that the current issues that I have are knowing when to abandon a non critical space before it’s too late as well as managing the crew ai to not use up all of my spare parts on non critical issues. Right now the ai crewman will not prioritize leaks over other issues. Does anybody have any tips?
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Old 10-26-22, 12:24 AM   #2
GoldenRivet
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When you take damage, your best friend is "pause"

especially if there is a lot of damage.

Press the space bar, pause the game, and take a moment to take stock of your situation, you can use this time to assign officers to prioritize certain repairs over others while paused and they will address the repairs you directed them to when you unpause.

When they finish said repair, if you want to transition the officer to another high priority repair, pause it again, assign him to it and unpause the game. rinse, wash repeat.

another recommendation i have is to set the damage difficulty to medium, not hard. The game tooltip text even suggests doing this with the disclaimer that damage difficulty is subjective because simple things like a leaking toilet have sunk a boat, while others seem to return to port with impossibly horrific battle damage. so, to find a happy medium, they suggest setting damage difficulty to just that. on the hardest setting, torpedo hatches, tubes, escape hatches etc will all randomly take water when you are over 160m depth... while this adds to the challenge, on "hard" it happens with disturbing frequency, it consumes spare parts, it contributes too much to flooding the boat and its just being a jerk for the sake of you asking it to be a jerk... set this to medium and do yourself a favor. these hatches will still randomly leak and require repair when you're deep, but with much less frequency.

In Uboat... damage control is the name of the game. In the current version, during an alarm, officers that are not otherwise assigned to other duties will be on damage control from the command room by default. If you assign that officer one sailor, that sailor will roam the boat, clip board in hand and inspect the boat for any existing damage and be on the alert for new damage. If you assign the officer two sailors, they will cover multiple compartments. It is best to at least have two officers assigned to damage control, with two sailors each during an alarm - this will substantially increase the reaction time to damage.

Be prepared for damage. Every officer aboard that is an engineer or mechanic should have two things on him at all times, (1) a rebreather (2) not less than 5 spare parts. This way he *immediately* can access damaged areas and start repairs... *without* having to run to aft storage for spare parts, then run to forward storage for a rebreather, then to the damaged compartment to start working... save the time and the running around and equip each officer with this stuff before you leave port. (do the same with your medical officers and medkits. be sure they have them "in their pocket" this will prevent them having to go get it in the event someone is injured and they can start healing them right away)

the best offense is a good defense... unlike SH3 where damage control was just an almost arbitrary magic thing that happened when you clicked the damaged compartment and water pumped out at any depth without you having to think about it - Uboat is more demanding and takes into account atmospheres at depth rendering the pump less and less functional the deeper you go, eventually the pump cannot push water out against the sea pressure so for this reason i say the best offense is a good defense - meaning - do whatever you can to avoid putting yourself in a position to be damaged. fight conservatively, engage at longer ranges, avoid long cruises on the surface in the day time in areas that are patrolled by air, have plenty of alert watch officers / sailors while surface cruising, never push a bad position

if you find yourself in water much deeper than about 190 meters, and the flooding demands a compartment must be evacuated - its over. No strategizing your damage control efforts is going to raise that boat, you might manage to get the water out once the flooding stops while sittting on the sea floor at 180-190m but the pump will only be working at 10% or less capacity and it will take many hours to impact buoyancy and float her.

For that reason, if you are sitting on the sea floor with the flooding stopped but waist deep water is in each compartment, you have to prioritize the diesel engine room so the air purification can work and and you can ventillate the boat when the time comes. as long as no new water is coming in, keeping the air breatheable is your highest priority. Suffocated crew cant fix the boat.

sadly there have been times that i have played and lost where each compartment was flooded chest deep, we were sitting on the sea floor at 220 meters, and it was just time to wait for death. at least somehow miraculously the lights were still on though IRL theres no way they would be as the batteries would surely all be cooked

its truly horrifying to wonder how many of these guys found themselves in these boats in real life in just that situation. Perfect darkness, cold, chest deep in water sealed off in the bow compartment with the only breatheable air and knowing it would be hours before they would simply pass out. Knowing that only 640 feet above them the sun was shining and cool, fresh air was an abundant commodity. Knowing that in time, you would be a distant memory to the woman you loved long after she had moved onto other things in life. Thats a power uboat has that previous subsims didnt in my opinion... i never really thought too much about that until i played this title.
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Old 10-26-22, 01:06 AM   #3
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Great post, GoldenRivet!~
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Old 10-26-22, 07:07 AM   #4
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Man, that's so good it made it as a front page post and a BOSS nom, way to go, John!
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Old 10-27-22, 01:12 AM   #5
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