Firing ammo type display bug?

[flyingtoaster]

I just started a new 1.14 game, and have my Bs set to fire HE at pretty much everything at all ranges. A few times when right clicking the ships I noticed they claimed to be firing AP. Then, examining the logs of enemy ships after the battle, all the hits were made with HE, at about the same time.
Did I just happen to click when they were taking a random chance with AP, or is the display slightly bugged?

[akosjaccik]

Quite frankly, you are the one who has the data to look into it. What exactly do you mean by "pretty much" and how did you reflect this in the ammunition loadout?
I am uncertain how RtW handles shell type selection, meaning how the doctrine translates into practice on the battle screen, but I believe the maximum range gets divided by three, gaining short/med/long ranges and acting accordingly. All in all, I do think that with so much info one can only say that "can't tell". It might work just as intended.

[flyingtoaster]

Large caliber guns were set to always use HE (except against DDs and CLs at short range), and I gave them 80% HE in the loadout. My Bs were firing at Bs at close range when it was stating AP as the firing ammo type.

[director]

I don't understand that decision: the best target for HE is lightly or un-armored ships like DDs and CLs, especially at short ranges.

I have not tried an 'all-HE' loadout, but I see the attraction of setting enemy capital ships on fire. If there is a difference of data, I would trust the ship's log.

[aeson]

Also, your guns will be loaded with whatever is available if the preferred ammunition type has already been expended.

[victormagnus]

Jan 14, 2020 8:21:50 GMT -6 director said:

I don't understand that decision: the best target for HE is lightly or un-armored ships like DDs and CLs, especially at short ranges.

I have not tried an 'all-HE' loadout, but I see the attraction of setting enemy capital ships on fire. If there is a difference of data, I would trust the ship's
log.

Well, for much of the 'B' era (pre-BB), your 11"-12" guns are flatly *never* going to pen enemy main belt armor, and will struggle to get through BE at anything other than grapeshot-and-rifles range. So I've seen it often done (and find it useful myself) to set one's ships to only ever bother firing HE at enemy capital ships until such time as the AP shell technology lets your late-Bs and early-BBs pen enemy main belt at beyond ~1000yd. I've seen many battles where my half-dozen Bs weather dozens of point-blank 12" hits with only light damage, but burn twice their number of enemy Bs to death.

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More to the topic of this thread, though, I've definitely noticed a few times where ships reported firing the 'wrong' shell type, although I don't have any screencaps of that. Does the checkbox for 'Automatic Ammo Type Selection' or whatever it was called in the Doctrine screen have any effect on this?

[aeson]

Jan 14, 2020 15:20:08 GMT -6 victormagnus said:

Well, for much of the 'B' era (pre-BB), your 11"-12" guns are flatly *never* going to pen enemy main belt armor, and will struggle to get through BE at anything other than grapeshot-and-rifles range. So I've seen it often done (and find it useful myself) to set one's ships to only ever bother firing HE at enemy capital ships until such time as the AP shell technology lets your late-Bs and early-BBs pen enemy main belt at beyond ~1000yd. I've seen many battles where my half-dozen Bs weather dozens of point-blank 12" hits with only light damage, but burn twice their number of enemy Bs to death.

I rather suspect that the part that isn't understood is the use of heavy AP against DDs at short range, not the use of HE against heavy ships.

[director]

victormagnus - I understand using an all HE loadout, especially for capital ships. What I don't understand is the "Large caliber guns were set to always use HE (except against DDs and CLs at short range)".

That implies that large caliber guns fire AP at DDs and CLs at close range, which seems flatly opposite to me.