[Red Devil]

Originally Posted by Sniper297

Looking at the default PORPOISE class with Silent 3ditor, in the NSS_Porpoise.sim file, max range is 14,300 miles at 10 knots. All ahead 2/3rds rather than Standard gets you 10 knots.

I'm currently working on a couple mods, one to place refueling bases closer to Japan and the Philippines, the other with a forward base on a small island to start the Pearl Harbor career, eliminating that tedious boring dreary slog all the way across the Pacific. I know it's historic but I'm playing a game here, staring at a screen for 20 minutes constantly getting bumped out of time compression for radio messages is not my definition of entertainment.

Doing refueling bases is pretty simple, fire up the mission editor, open US_NavalBases.mis, click the tab for Land, American, NB Naval Base, drag and drop that on the map, give it a name. Get within 10 miles and you can refit, full fuel tanks and torpedoes. You can even drop one in the middle of Tokyo Bay if you want to go crazy. Just remember to click on Mission, Parameters, and check the box for "Ignore player submarines" on so you don't get that silly error when you save it.

As for ridiculous air attacks, that's even easier to mod yourself;

Data\Cfg\AirStrike.cfg can be edited with notepad or any text editor.

Maximum Aircraft Range=2000 ;[>0] in kilometers
Poor Airbase Modifier=0.2 ;[>0] Modifier for poor airbase (carrier) rating
Novice Airbase Modifier=0.35 ;[>0] Modifier for novice airbase (carrier) rating
Competent Airbase Modifier=0.5 ;[>0] Modifier for competent airbase (carrier) rating
Veteran Airbase Modifier=0.7 ;[>0] Modifier for veteran airbase (carrier) rating
Elite Airbase Modifier=1 ;[>0] Modifier for elite airbase (carrier) rating
Night Modifier=0.5 ;[>0] Modifier on strike probability at night
Default Air Strike Probability=10 ;[>0] Default

You can change the modifiers if desired, but a simple hack is to change that
Maximum Aircraft Range=2000
to
Maximum Aircraft Range=200

Which is a more reasonable distance from land to start worrying about air attacks. I suspect the creators were trying to capture the feeling of the U-boats trying to cross the Bay of Biscay in 1944 under constant harassment by Sunderlands,but the result was more aircraft than existed in the history of the world for that kind of coverage.

This is what I do when starting new install. I 'arrange' ranges and modifiers. I still have planes but not in mid pacific, unless I am closing in on a task Force. By the way - the term 'Task Force' should NOT apply to a destroyer patrol of 2 D's and a gunboat. If someone would like to change it, feel free.

I feel that I should point out one sentence in the above narrative - the sentence in bold. The Bay of Biscay was patrolled by Captain Walker RN and his 6 black swan sloops, every u boat he found, he sank. Walker saw more FW Condors than Sunderlands. For the sake of historical fact, the long range Sunderland played a small part in the Bay as they were mostly used over Atlantic. Walkers ships were the Second Support Group, as opposed to Escort Groups and roamed freely hunting U boats. These were the first 'hunter killer' ships. A phrase the Americans like to think they invented. Walkers boss, Admiral Horton, CinC Western Approaches, a former submariner, gave Walker free will to roam. A lot of Walkers tactics were adopted by the Royal Navy, some of which are still in use today. On one single patrol walkers ships got 6 u boats. In WW2 history it became the '6 in one trip' patrol. Incidently, it was Horton in WW1 who invented the flying of the Jolly Roger when he came back from a successful trip. The stiff necks thought it unfair, but Horton wouldn't listen. If you want anything else on this, click on my walker link below.