The M1

There was a good documentary on BBC2 last Thursday on the fate of the M1, one of a series of 3 M Class subs the Admiralty thought fit to equip with 12" battleship guns and - in the case of the M2 - a mini aircraft hanger.

The M1 was hit by a freighter in the English channel in 1925. Its thought they lost it in a dive (due to the unbalancing effect of the huge weight of the gun), blew all ballast & came up under her - 12" guns ain't meant to be fitted to subs!

Divers went down to the wreck and found that the impact had knocked gun off= mountings, thereby opening up the forrad compartments. However, some unlucky sods survived in the rear compartments, a la the Kursk.

The crew they had no escape equipment, but a hatch was open so they obviously tried to get out. The sub was at 70 metres, quite shallow...'cept if you're human. No bodies were ever recovered.

Apparently they had been issued with suicide pills in case of that kind of event, never heard of that before.

After piloting a big fat LFN sub to a watery grave last night I couldn't help but reflect on this!

/bux

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/archaeology/marine_wreck6.shtml

http://www.submariners.co.uk/Dits/Articles/m1.htm

Makes me wonder if the death scenario of your ship or sub could be a little more involved or drawn out.. the way the game is now, you hear the gurgle sound and the camera spins on the outside of your sub while it appears to calmly sink..

What plans (if any) are there to spice up the damage model, secondary explosions, subs/ship breaking in different places or holes opening up with shredded metal sound effects?

Is it worth it? You bet, and I'd wager more people want more effects to sink in that fear of death which is so hard to attain properly when playing a sim. Without taking it beyond the limits of the ratings for teenagers or whatever.. what can be done given current time and budget for the forseeable future or when?

I hope there are resources for perfecting the physices of the weapons, damage and ship handling. I'd like those to be as realistic as possible.

If the game sells well there will be money to improve the game.

Charlie

i thought you was talking about the M1 Motorway to start with

Interesting thing I came across. Only one man survived the sinking of the M1. He was ill the day she sailed and did not embark.