Post by Enderminion on Feb 2, 2017 10:10:19 GMT -6
I've found my ship pretty much has to be ahead of the enemy before my torpedoes will fire; the fact that the enemy is not moving does not seem to matter much to my captains.
Later in the game the torpedo realizes its potential as a giant-killer weapon, but before (maybe) 1915 it is much, much less useful. I agree with others that the reasons lie in torpedo speed and in the number that can be fired in a salvo. I suspect there may be something in one of the light-force inventions that makes the captains more willing to fire; if not, it's down to speed and number.
Since the AI will typically run from any engagement where the numbers are mostly equal, a stern-mounted tube might make more sense for them.
Here's your triple bow tube ship, and all above water, too. Though not quite what you thought you were ordering:
USS Vesuvius
She carried three compressed-air guns (1000 psi!) that hurled a shell from one to two miles, depending on whether you used 200lbs or 550lbs of dynamite. Not something you'd want to get hit with - and not much chance you would, since you had to pivot the ship to aim.
Dynamite guns were all the rage before the Spanish-American War. Dynamite made up the explosive charge in the shell; the propellant was usually some sort of gas, either compressed air or gas vented from a slow-burning propellant. That method gave the shell a gentler send-off and didn't set off the tempermental dynamite in the shell. Pretty quickly, of course, cordite-type propellants and more stable explosives made the dynamite gun obsolete.
But there it is - your triple-above-water-tube ship, and from 1888 no less.