UBOAT
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Improved Ballast Control
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29 Nov, 2020 @ 2:46pm
11 Feb, 2021 @ 12:29pm
6 Change Notes ( view )

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Improved Ballast Control

Description
Improved Ballast Control mod is already for long time part of the Iron Coffins mod. All functionality from the IBC is integrated in IC mod and most of the things are improved and slightly different in IC. Having both mods enabled at the same time will certainly lead into issues. My plan is to discontinue the IBC mod completely after customizable realism options will be fully implemented in the IC.

My great thanks go to to ждун, who helped me a lot during my crash dive into C# programming and also the TDC mod team which showcased the huge modding potential of UBOAT!
Additional thanks to all closed BETA testers and McDewgle for the Deck awash icon.

Compatibility:
►B128 and B129, not updated for the latest game version.
►It should be possible to unsubscribe as you wish, without any harm to your career progress.
►This mod requires the Custom Actions mod to work properly, please make sure you are subscribed to it and it is enabled in the launcher.
►Mod is not compatible with Iron Coffins mod.

Features:
Unlocked ballast controls:
► All options, blow ballast, adjust ballast and flood tanks are available at all times, unless the valves are damaged, or boat is docked.
► Most importantly, the ballast adjustment is possible to be done repeatedly to compensate for water pumped out, flooded in, or change in depth.
► There is no flooding / negative buoyancy requirement for the adjust ballast action, it can be done at any time.
►► Performance of the adjust ballast action was improved for situations where you have to compensate for excess of positive buoyancy. Tanks are now flooded faster.
►► New adjust ballast for deck awash action, which sets the ballast to 40%. Activate this or the button next to the depth control to go deck awash.

Expanded buoyancy notification:
► Buoyancy is now displayed in 1 percent increments.
► Ranges in which the icon changes to yellow (warning) and red (danger) have been reworked.
► The up and down arrow had multiple meanings in original game based on situation, this is now changed to simple: up - buoyancy increases, down - buoyancy decreases.
► Tooltip of the buoyancy icon now contains detailed report about ballast tanks and flooding of the boat.

Regular sailors can also block leaks:
To help with the flooding control, the regular sailors are also able to block the leaks, to assign sailor to block the leak, just interact with the leak with no officer selected. You can unassign sailor from leak blocking by right clicking on the action queue in the lower left corner of the screen.

Bilge pump is not automatically turned off when leaks are still present:
►► This feature is now reworked and actually checks if there any leaks in the hull. If yes, the pump will be kept running, of not, the pump will be disabled after 30 seconds, when compartments are dry.
►► Power consumption of the pump was reduced by about 60%, to bring it more to the realistic level and allow the possibility to run it nonstop also on slow diesel speeds. I recommend using the Device Energy Consumption mod to bring it completely to the realistic level.

Sailors do not abandon important stations unless the flooding is really serious:
►► Water tolerance for the depth steers station was increased significantly and sailors will only leave when the water level actually reaches the depth controls.
►► Electrical engine will be also operated as long as the water level is below the electrical switchboards above them.
►► Those two changes increase the survival chances dramatically in cases where stern of the boat was damaged, as running engine on max speed plus fully manned depth steers with officer can compensate for 15-20% of negative buoyancy.

Compartment pressure overhaul:
► Equipment in the compartments gets damage from the pressure in the vanilla game, but the pressure is not calculated correctly and it always reflects the actual depth of the submarine. That is for both cases, when there is leak in the compartment and also when it is not. It is simply enough to have certain level of water in the compartment and when the submarine reaches depth of say 100m, there will be 11atm of pressure in the compartment, even when there was no leak anymore. This is also not correct with existing leak, because it takes time till the compartment floods thru the relatively small leak hole and the pressure outside of the boat equalizes with the pressure of the air that is in the compartment.
►► This behavior is now corrected and the compartment pressure is now correctly calculated.
►► All hatches now display pressure on both of their sides.
►► Hatches will only get damaged when pressure difference across them is over their rated pressure. Open hatches will therefore not take damage from the pressure.
►► Air actually flows between the compartments and pressure is getting equalized.
►► Air is exchanged (pressure equalized) thru conning tower hatch to the control room and thru diesel intake and snorkel into the diesel engine room.
►► Diesel engine and compressors actually consume air, but the amount is scaled down for gameplay purposes and the values are far from realistic, especially for the compressors. You needed about 4000m3 of air at 1atm to completely fill the compressed air flasks and VIIC internal volume is about 600m3. You could not run the compressor underwater in reality, the crew would be killed before you pump any significant amount into the flasks.
I will then later make a realistic pressure mod which will bring stuff to real values, but this is too hardcore to include in this mod.
►► When running with snorkel and the snorkel head undercuts the water surface, there is temporary underpressure created.
►► There are at this moment no penalties from underpressure, but I will implement something in the future. Your feedback is welcome.
►► There is as at this moment no link between the compartment pressure and the "oxygen" resource.
►► Time before the crew will suffocate (from lack of O2 or extreme compartment over or underpressure) or drown in too deep water is now generally extended. You have more time to evacuate them from the danger. There is however random number in this choking vanilla mechanic, so there will be still some earlier casualties.
►► Main purpose of the pressure overhaul is at this moment to correct the pressure dependent damage on devices within compartments, but the features will be further expanded.

Please check out my other mods as well on salamander's Workshop.

If you experience problems, please check my When the mods don't work... guide and write in the discussion below the mod if the basic steps from the guide have not helped you.

If you like my work, please consider supporting me on Patreon or through PayPal. Any small contribution will help me to devote more time to the modding and bring you some more cool stuff in the future. I have started to put the work in progress updates to my Patreon page. Check out there, if you want to see what is being prepared for the next release, submit you suggestions or test the non public version (all of this is free, your support is 100% voluntary).
https://www.patreon.com/uboatsalamander
paypal.me/uboatsalamander

Thank you!
Popular Discussions View All (1)
0
1 Dec, 2020 @ 11:12am
Bugs and suggestions thread
salamander
155 Comments
Medikamenten Manfred 17 May, 2021 @ 1:45am 
i cant fire. i am sorry for my bad english :D

all mods runs fine with each other but not when i add youre balast contoroll. i cant float the torps but the fire button isnt active when its fully floated
salamander  [author] 15 May, 2021 @ 11:24am 
Hello, do not understand completely, you can or cannot fire torpedoes?

I do not think its likely the Improved Ballast is influencing the ability to launch torpedoes as it is not really touching that part of the code. You can try to delete the cache and try again.

Please have look at this guide: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2303529052&tscn=1621095560
Medikamenten Manfred 15 May, 2021 @ 9:19am 
hello,

mod has an issue:

Installed Mods

B128living mod improved Ballast deadly skies Kriegsmarine grid Grossdeutscher rundfunk expand crew Soundtrack for uboat saint nazire mod.

Can fire torps after youre mod is added the rest runs fine with each other
LostALife 4 Apr, 2021 @ 4:19am 
Ok thanks that helps a lot! :steamhappy:
salamander  [author] 4 Apr, 2021 @ 2:24am 
No problem mate, adjust ballast action is active until the buoyancy reaches 0%, even when noone is at the valves, then it stops adjusting the ballast. So once the ballast was adjusted to 0% and conditions change again, more/less flooding, or change in depth, you have to send someone there to adjust again. In vanilla you could not send someone there to adjust again unless you set the tanks to flood again which is nonsense. I have also speeded up the reaction of adjustment to neutral when you start to have positive buoyancy. Best practice for changes in depth (to avoid unintended surfacing) with heavily flooded sub is to adjust depth in 10m increments and adjust ballast each time afterwards. I have thinking about someone staying at valves to do this repeatedly, but it can waste lot of compressed air if you do not pay attention to it.
LostALife 3 Apr, 2021 @ 10:01pm 
Ok thanks that makes sense. Also i was curios when you press adjust ballast on the valves will someone constantly compensate for flooding or do i have to manually keep pressing it?
salamander  [author] 3 Apr, 2021 @ 2:47am 
Hello, when you pressed the deck awash button in vanilla it has completely flooded the ballast tanks and set depth to 0.1m. With this setting the conning tower is hardly sticking out of the water and its not really a deck awash as it was used in real.
In the mod there is new preset to flood the tanks only partially to set the buoyancy to 40% instead vanilla 0%. The boat is then quite low, but its still possible to man the bridge and conning tower.
Pressing of the button at depth control and using the deck awash action at the valves is linked together. SO when you press the button someone will go to set the valves and when you make the action at the valves the deck awash preset is selected at the depth control.
LostALife 3 Apr, 2021 @ 2:37am 
Whats the difference between using the F6 menu for flooding and blowing ballast and using decks awash vs clicking inside the boat? I understand that the ballast adjust feature and stuff would be there but since we already have things like decks awash whats the difference?
salamander  [author] 25 Mar, 2021 @ 1:04pm 
Hello which depth setting you have set in meters? Which setting of the ballast you try to apply and which settings it reverts to?
johnrichards1991 24 Mar, 2021 @ 3:10pm 
Whenever I klick on any of the settings, one of the sailors comes and reverses my action