First time to play this game.

[SgtPotato]

Hi guys, I'm SgtPotato and I'm deaf. Yes, I've been playing a lot of games, in range from FPS to RPG. I joined this forum and bought SH4 with U-Boat addon. I had to say that I'm starting to like it because it is my first time to play a submarine simulation game. :arrgh!: I learned pretty much of the basic of it like, movements, guns, torpedos, and other stuffs.

So, I decided to try my first career in 1941 with my Tambor class, this time as 0% realism. (I know and I'm a noob, so what?) Anyway, I got my first mission to transport the american spy to japan from Pearl Harbor. I left Pearl Harbor in December, 9 1941. So, I arrived at japan in 4 days. I spotted the coastal batteries on land and I had to sneak at nighttime. :stare: I reached the objective and dropped off the spy. (it was amusing that he flipped over his raft.) I carefully sneaked back away from the batteries and made it out of their sights. I felt like I want to sink some ships around the area where I am. So, I checked up the map and I noticed there was a harbor near the former objective. I went there at 60fts depth slowly. I spotted no more than 7 ships docked on the harbor. I scanned them and spotted one good prize, a japanese Modern tanker there. I fired three torpedoes and the tanker sunk. A 10,000 tons kill, now that's sweet. :up: I sank three more ships, two Small Engine Aft ships and a Medium Gunboat. All 4 ships sank and I got 13,998 tons in total. :D I decided that it is enough and headed back to Pearl Harbor. I ended my first patrol at Janaury 1st, 1942.

On Janaury 2nd, I checked up for the second mission and it is the same agent insertion at japan again, this time a different location. :damn::damn:

Anyway, it is nice to meet you all in this forum and I hope that I will learn faster to try out full realism mode or not.

[Torplexed]

Welcome aboard!:sunny:

You left Pearl on December 9th and were off the Japanese coast four days later? The benefits of 0% realism I guess, although even at flank speed it seems that still wouldn't be possible. Usually it's a good three week trip if you are trying to conserve fuel to get back.

Yeah..the spy usually flips his raft over. The hope is whatever stupidity malady he's infected with will be transmitted to the Japanese.:D

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome to SUBSIM :yep::up:

[Akula4745]

Good job cleaning up the harbor before you departed the area, Sgt. - and welcome to the forums!

[Rockin Robbins]

Interesting that the first observation you make is that you are deaf. Then (for some kind of weird justice) the game gives you the mission where when you drop off the rubber raft, it makes a grinding, shrieking, tearing sound of metal colliding with metal, so loud and irritating that EVERYONE so far has commented on it! We've found our first person ever who isn't bothered by it! See? Ubi was right.:D

Welcome aboard. Don't worry about your difficulty factor, as that's not important right now. You have to learn to run the boat first, and aiming torpedoes would be a nasty distraction right now. You're doing it exactly right. Take your time and enjoy Silent Hunter 4. We're glad you're here!:salute:

[Armistead]

Welcome aboard mate. It's a great game and sounds like you had a great pratrol.

[SgtPotato]

lol, Robbins. :haha: Honestly I'm wearing my Plantronics Gamecom Open-set headphone and I'm using my cochlear implant on the back of my left ear. I don't need to explain more details about why I'm using it, lol. :cool:

Right now, I'm heading to Tsurusaki, Japan to drop off a second agent. A 11 days journey. I just left Pearl Harbor two days ago, like in January 22nd, 1942, and I'm heading closer to Midway.

edit: By the way, How come I don't have the captain's bed in my Tambor Class sub?

[AVGWarhawk]

Welcome aboard. There are no capt quarters in any of the sub models.

[Stealhead]

Yep they dont model in the rest of the sub only the control room,con tower and bridge.

[Akula4745]

Yeah... they didn't model a head either. Be prepared to hold it for the entire patrol!

LOL

[AVGWarhawk]

Yeah... they didn't model a head either. Be prepared to hold it for the entire patrol!

LOL


Just go top side and hang it over the saddle tank :D:03:

[SgtPotato]

Figure... :-? I guess the u-boats in the addon only have captain's bed. Germans knew how to have the luxury for the captains and Americans don't. :O:

Anyway, On February 1st, two days before I reach my second Agent insertion objective, I spotted a lone Large Old Split Freighter near me and I approached toward it slowly. I fired three torpedoes and all three hit. It sunk and I got 8,202 tons. So, I reached my first objective in nighttime, dropped off the agent (again, he flipped himself over after he bumped my sub :nope: ), and I got a new objective! :o

My second objective is to patrol on East China Sea and I set my waypoints to this objective. On February 3rd, 1942, My sonar caught a Small Old Split Freighter on my left, near the coast of japan. I went after it slowly and I found a good position 700 yards away from the left side of the freighter. I fired a torpedo to it. It got hit but very stubborn to keep afloat. :stare: So, I surfaced and finished the freighter off with the 4 50 cal Deck Gun (Stern mounting). 1,546 tons going down to the bottom of the sea.

I have a question before I'm heading to my second objective. How do I know when I'm done the objective of the patrol in East China Sea?

[Akula4745]

The star icon with the binoculars will turn gray instead of orange... then you know you are done. You might also want to check out the "How to complete missions guide"

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=111509&highlight=Beery%27s

[Stealhead]

In reality American subs where far more cozy than any other nations they had air condtioning and refrigration allowing them to carry much better chow than a German U-boat could and they also had a movie projector which they would use in either the enlisted mess or the fore or aft torpedo rooms these things allowed american subs to be livable much longer and made the men suffer from fatiuge less allowing them to patrol longer and perform better. They also had 2 toliets though you could always use the "poop" deck.If I was going to be in any Navy on any ship during WWII I would choose to serve on a US Navy sub of the Salmon class or higher.

Torpedo attack wise you will always find it useful to fire at least 2 at a single target and if it is a large maru or any warship good idea to send em 4 fish.A good idea to learn to frie salvoes they are done manualy in US subs but they are a vital attack method as you can not always use the deckgun.

[AVGWarhawk]

Figure... :-? I guess the u-boats in the addon only have captain's bed. Germans knew how to have the luxury for the captains and Americans don't. :O:



Well, the fleets did have ice cream machines and air conditioning. :D

[Torplexed]

Well, the fleets did have ice cream machines and air conditioning. :D

And hot showers twice a week. Plus, the marvel of refrigeration. Also you had a mess room you could sit in without standing up to let every Tom, Dick, and Franz go by. :D

[SgtPotato]

And hot showers twice a week. Plus, the marvel of refrigeration. Also you had a mess room you could sit in without standing up to let every Tom, Dick, and Franz go by. :D

lol

[Stealhead]

Yeah we had it pretty good though our military has always put an effort not to make the enlistedman feel like dirt unlike the Japanese military in WWII who treated them slightly better than a POW oft times. In fact I read of a few cases where captured Japanese POWs did not want to leave the submarine that had been there temporay home. hell if I recall in Silent Running he mentions one IJN sailor they picked up he was a torpedoman by trade and he helped them load and fire them a few times even! And in Thunder Below "Kito" the POW from one of the ships they had just sunk was the guest of honor for thier cake cutting he was more than happy to indulge and also gave very useful intel as to the location of sea mines after just a little M1911 .45 inticement his reward surving the war and free cake and all the crap jobs to give the low ranking sailors some company. I figure a fleet boat was alot like basic training in a lack of privacy manner but think of all the fun you will have when you do get some time away from the boat Its gonna be like Andrew W.K.(You you work all night.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuw7tcftAoU&feature=related)

[SgtPotato]

Man. I completed the second objective and received a new and last objective. That objective is to hunt down the merchant convoy. I went there and reached the location by nightfall on Febuary 11, 1942. I spotted a small convoy; about 8 freighters and three destoryers. Somehow I let hell loose everywhere! :o Sunk a modern tanker and dodged the depth charges from the destoryers. I managed to escaped their wrath, but however, they damaged my AA gun and deck gun. :nope: I was enraged :mad: and fired 5 torpedoes on three destoryers. One miss and 4 hits. All three destoryers sank. I tried to line up next to Medium Old Split Freighter and fired the last front torpedo. Of course, I missed the shot and I was like, "f**k it!" I surfaced and my deck gun finally repaired. I became Nero from Star Trek and yelled at my deck gun crew, "FIRE EVERYTHING!!" (yes, I yelled like him at my monitor and Star Trek was awesome :rock:.) That medium old split freighter took a lot of shells from my deck gun and it sank. So, I decided to call it off and start heading back to Pearl Harbor before the reinforcement arrives. I earned 18,047 tons from that convoy and got 32,785 tons in total (plus three planes that I shot down.)

[Stealhead]

Ha ha sounds like you are having fun wait until you start taking away all the help and adding realism it will kick your ass at first but you will enjoy the game more though. By the way you say that you are missing alot a few qestions
1.Are you opening tube doors before firing? if not press Q over each tube you want to use that will open and flood the tube cutting about eight seconds off your fire time makes all the diffrence.
2. do the ships seem to be evading your fish? If they are it may be because they are spotting your scope only have it above water for short peeks even at night.Also make sure that you are silent running and going slow 2 knots or less when you are within a few thousand yards of the convoy other wise they may hear you on hydrophones and merchants can also carry hydrophones.And if you have unlimited fuel/batteries this can make the game harder a certain points beacuse you might want to run at falnk speed under water and give your self away. I think way back when i first played SH3 a while back that was one of the first things i learned.
Also are you using the contact or the contact influence(mag det) Id go with the contact det and set the fish no more than 10 feet deep you could be having deep runners and have a perfct shot but the fish be going 10 or 15 below the ship.

[SgtPotato]

Well, I won a Silver Star. :DL

Stealhead, you're right about flooding the tubes before firing. I just tested it out on the training mission. there are the difference between firing it now and flood tubes before fire the torpedoes.

[Stealhead]

Yeah that was another thing I figured out in SH4.Everyone who has played a while knows to it they just dont always think of telling a new person about it so much of setting up an attack becomes muscle memory after a while just like a marksman. If you play the U-boat part one thing that I hate is that the U-boats have a salvo switch but what I hate is that it picks all the given tubes and when you hit Q it only opens the lowest number tube in the set and leaves the others closed.

[SgtPotato]

I noticed a graphic bug during the nighttime. The transparent clouds or something stretched or pulled farther everytime I look around on the bridge or free look.