Quote:
Originally Posted by propbeanie
Another thing you could try, if you can get into the Captain's Office, is change your onboard equipment again. I am not near my computer, so I can't look at the files and dates, but maybe something got mixed-up in there between your onboard and your crew. Make sure you are fully crewed also... Be sure your Save and mods are the same as before though...
Edit: To help us try to chase this down though, do you remember your travels through the game? I'm guessing you started in Manila December 8, 1941 in an S Boat, and followed the Flotilla to Surabaya, then Fremantle, then Brisbane? Or had you transferred yourself to Brisbane in another boat? You were upgraded in boats somewhere along the line, and was assigned the Balao in December 1942, and the game transferred you to Pearl to get it, but your Home Port stayed in Pearl after that. You transferred yourself to Midway, and then to Fremantle. Once in Fremantle, you've done five patrols, and are trying to go out for a sixth, and that's where the hang is. When you are on the map with the orders displaying as the screen scrolls and zooms a bit to show you your assigned area, is it like just off of Mindoro, barely in the Sulu Sea, or is it further South, down between Palawan and Panay? As the mission attempts to load, you're getting to about the 3/4th's mark on the "progress bar", do you see the "No mission too difficult..." at all, or do you just go to black and it hangs there? Or do you end up out at the desktop? Had you been assigned this same mission before in the Balao? Right now, I'm building a TestMission, and I'll try to get the game to assign me those two Sink missions in the Sulu Sea, and I'll let you know how that goes...  |
Not sure how I did it, but after spending a half hour on a response I managed to blow the message off! So I'll try this again:
First: I did try to change equipment. Before the first blow up I added the twin 40mm AA guns, and upgraded the stern deck gun to 5.25", then saved the game. After that one blew up, I changed them back to the original single 40mm AA guns and the 4.5" deck gun, saved that configuration, and tried it again. No joy. Oh, and all the crew slots are filled.
Second: Here are my travels through the game, as captured from the Captain's Logs:
1. Started from Cavite/Manila on 12/08/41 in Seadragon (Sargo Class);
2. Conducted two patrols from there;
3. Base changed to Surabaya in mid-patrol 2 on 12/24/41;
4. Arrived Surabaya 01/19/42;
5. On next patrol, base changed to Perth-Fremantle on 02/28/42;
6. Arrived at Perth-Fremantle on 03/05/42;
7. Received a new boat, USS Gudgeon (GAR Class) on 03/06/42;
8. During 1st patrol out of Perth-Fremantle, game transferred me to Brisbane on 05/05/42;
9. Ran 3 patrols out of Brisbane before game awarded me the Balao and transferred me to Pearl Harbor on 12/03/42;
10. After 3 patrols out of Pearl Harbor, requested and was granted a transfer to Midway on 04/09/43;
11. Ran 2 patrols out of Midway, then requested a transfer to the Asiatic Fleet on 07/15/43;
12. Ran five patrols out of Perth-Fremantle before blowing up on the sixth on 6/13/44.
Third: when I get the assignment to Area F1 on the screen with the map, the Star appears to be at the NNE end of the Sulu Sea, off Mindoro and just below the Mindoro Strait southern entrance, if that makes sense.
Fourth: I never get to the "No Mission Too Difficult" display; after hitting Start on the "select departure point" screen (I always choose "outside the harbor"), the background goes to black, the progress bar moves only 1/4 across (not the 3/4 progress you thought), and then I get the "Silent Hunter IV has stopped running" message, followed by a feeble Windows attempt to figure out why, and when I cancel that it goes direct to the desktop.
Fifth: My game settings on initial career setup is always "Realistic", except that I use Auto-Targeting, allow contacts on the map, and use the external cameras. This produces a realism of 75%, which works for me!
Sixth: I don't recall ever having this assignment before, except perhaps in the early days out of Cavite/Manila, but I can't swear to that or prove it either way.
Hope all this helps, Prop. Good luck!