Where the heck is the Shokaku?

[woodenboat]

So, I'm trying to learn about the manual targeting of my torpedoes. I have read many of your posts here, Thank you Majestik, TorpX, SailerSteve and others. Great input for learning strategy and techniques. I've also watched a number of YouTube tutorials on manual targeting. Invariably, I get hammered by destroyers and gunboats while I'm still trying to line up on a juicier target. It's a lot to think about in the heat of battle. I'm sure that, given enough time, I will look back and wonder why in the world this was even a struggle. Haha.

I have actually two problems right here and right now. So I'll put them both in the same thread because I have noticed that all the active members here seem to read EVERY thread anyway. So I see no need to double post. (I've seen members of other forums double, triple and quadruple post just to run their numbers up. To me, that's just pure ego and that's not really me.)

Ok, First problem: I am running the mission to find the Shokaku and sink her at all costs. Leaving out of Fremantle, I had absolutely no clue where to look. So, I paused the game and did some research. And MAYBE, just MAYBE I'm way overthinking things here seeing as how this is a HISTORICALLY based sim but by nature, it needs to exercise some artistic license. The date of my departure from Fremantle is June 4, 1942. On that date, the REAL Shokaku was getting repairs in Kure. If you don't know where this is, it was one of Japan's major shipyards and was what we would call a suburb of Hiroshima. I'm sure it was one of the reasons that Hiroshima was chosen for the first atomic bomb drop. Truman and the Navy higher-ups wanted to put a hurt on Japanese ship building. Knowing that I wouldn't get nuked for two more years, I headed for Hiroshima to find Shokaku.

NAW, she wasn't there but there sure was a huge mess of other enemies all wanting a piece of me.

I don't know what you other Silent Hunting shark experts do but I always read my radio traffic when I'm crossing large expanses of ocean and I don't have anything better to do. It's fun and the developers did quite a lot of research to add to the realism of the sim. I sort of feel like I'm a real captain in my cabin reading stuff on that clipboard. So, en route to Kure, it came over the wire that the battle of Midway was underway. Then, when I arrived at Hiroshima to learn that the Shokaku was nowhere to be found, I thought that maybe I should have headed for Midway. But the Shokaku, in real life, did not participate in the Midway battle. Therefore, my question is:

Where do I found this darned ship??

Ok, now for my second problem:

As I stated before, I'm trying to hone my manual targeting skills. I assume that I need to plug my figures into the TDC on the periscope screen. For whatever reason, I am not able to dial in the speed of the target. I can input the other numbers but the speed dial will not respond. It just stays at zero.

Is there another screen where I can input info into the TDC? Me and my fat fingers have to be real careful not to touch anything there that shouldn't be touched. I always have to make sure that the torpedo firing panel is closed and hidden. Otherwise I will shoot off some precious and expensive fish somehow and someway and I'll do it EVERYTIME. I'm just really talented like that. So, what am i doing wrong? Or is there a bug in the game?

Remember, I still have only had this game for a very few days. And I have so much to do in real life that I'm only getting to play about one mission per day or maybe two.

[Captain Jeff]

Not sure where the Shokaku is. It might be in different areas depending on what mods you use. At any rate, if you were ordered to sink her then she would probably be somewhere near your mission star. You should have been given some area to proceed toward.

Your speed settings for the TDC should work. You should be able to have your crew estimate speed and course or you should be able to set in manually. Not sure why they don't work. Again, it would help to see your mod list, if any, to help with the problem. Could be a problem with your mod soup or maybe a bad install if you play stock.

Sorry I can't be of more help. Hope you get all this worked out.

[woodenboat]

I'm sure it's stock with no mods. I bought it on Amazon and downloaded it from online from the seller. As it is now, the speed input on TDC isn't accepting data so I'll just keep searching for the time being. I'm sure that I am missing something probably REALLY obvious.

I got the Shokaku assignment from the War Patrol option in the menu. After clicking on War Patrol, the first choice was The Hunt for Wounded Bear. I chose that and it assigned me to find the Shokaku. But there was no mission star. I'll just delete my save and try again.

It's likely time I started figuring out how to put some mods in this game.

[mikesn9]

"I got the Shokaku assignment from the War Patrol option in the menu. After clicking on War Patrol, the first choice was The Hunt for Wounded Bear. I chose that and it assigned me to find the Shokaku. But there was no mission star. I'll just delete my save and try again."

On the Quick Mission page, Wounded Bear IS the job of finding the Shokaku. On the right side of the mission, scroll the map down. It says where the Shokaku starts, and where it is headed. Not the best, but a place to start.

[woodenboat]

Ok, that makes sense.

Thank you for that.

[woodenboat]

Ok, I finally found the Shokaku. It was not really where anyone led me to believe and, in fact, it was just pretty much a coincidence that I stumbled upon her.

Should I say where she was? ...or is this a closely guarded secret so as not to provide any plot spoilers for new players?

I actually sank her on my first try. I was amazed. I gave her a spread of all six forward torpedoes and then tried to high tail it. I have no idea how many fish hit her and how many misses I had because things got SO chaotic in just an instant! It proved to be a kamikaze mission on my part because Shokaku's destroyer screen plastered my tail as soon as I set my fish loose. I guess you could say that I killed the Shokaku posthumously. It seems as though, UNLIKE merchant convoys, ALL the ships in the task force were pinging me. Did ALL IJN military ships have sonar during the war? By the time I poked my periscope up for a quick little peekyboo, all task force members had already gone into a pre-ordained game plan to hand me my a..se.

Of course, I had done a game save just when I discovered the sonar contact that turned out to be the Shokaku's task force. I have gotten to where I game save every time I get a sonar contact. It seems like a lot of trouble but it has sure saved my bacon many times. So, I went and played it all again so that this time I could kill her and then ACTUALLY ESCAPE!! Nope, it wasn't to be. It was almost as though the entire task force was telling me:

"What? You want to play this over again? Well, we'll just see about that!"

I had ships blowing me up, shooting at me and even ramming me if I got in the way. I had one big cruiser just chase me down and when I thought I had gotten out of her way, she turned hard to port and completely tore off my conning tower. So that mission is also on eternal patrol. I think I got killed another six times before I figured out a plan that worked.

Finally, I learned how to kill the big flattop and live to tell it. But this brings up another question. The only way that I have found to survive in such a lopsided shootout is to follow this protocol:

#1. Get ahead of the task force and wait in ambush.
#2. Get below the thermocline, go to battle stations and rig for silent.
#3. Carefully map the sonar contacts - ALL the sonar contacts. It does no good to fixate on one or two. The fastest ones will obviously be the DDs.
#4. Wait for the fastest sonar contacts to pass overhead and continue. If they circle back, I might as just well reload the game and play anew. There is absolutely no way to shoot a DD off of my tail because they're coming in from several directions at once. And JEEEZE they're fast! I play this with absolutely zero time compression and I still can't react fast enough. So, I've learned that if they pass overhead and then circle back, I came up from below my thermocline too soon. (Yes, it's always MY FAULT!)
$5. Once the fastest sonar contacts have passed overhead and continue on their way, I have to watch the other nine contacts coming down the throat three abreast and then guess which one is Shokaku. I have only mere seconds to line up the shot and take it.
#6. Come to periscope depth, watch the depth gauge to open all tubes before the sub reaches periscope depth because there isn't going to be time after I go to the periscope to open those doors. But, as all of you already know, I can't open them when the sub is still too deep.
#7. Line up Shokaku and let her have all six forward tubes. Or all four stern tubes if pointed the opposite way. I don't know how many fish it takes to sink her but I just want to stack at least SOME of the odds in my favor. I give her all I can just in case some of my fish run stupid or I just plain miss. And there won't be any time to shoot anything else anyway. So, I see no point in taking torpedoes back to Fremantle.
#8. Make like Pink Floyd and Run Like Hell.

So the question is: If I find myself behind the task force, what are the options? During one game, I actually set about beating a path around the shorter side of Borneo in an effort to get ahead again. Once I got to where I just KNEW the task force would be, I patrolled for a week and then told myself to just forget it. This game is GREAT but it is not so sophisticated that I can use some sort of genuine three-dimensional tactics such as trying to outsmart a task force half-way across the Asian theater. Apparently task forces pop up and then they later vaporize into thin air.

[Sniper297]

If you're in water deep enough to get under the layer, simplest way;

1. Line up your shot, fire all tubes.
2. Hit J to kick out a decoy.
3. Head for 300 feet or deeper.
4. When torpedoes impact go to flank speed, kick out another decoy.
5. When you hear "passing thermal layer" slow to 1/3 and turn to a heading opposite the direction the task force was heading.
6. Note the depth when you hear "passing thermal layer", since the BT is on the keel (same place as the depth sensor) you need to get the whole sub under the layer, so go at least 60 feet deeper than the layer - if you stop 25 feet deeper than the layer your conning tower and periscope sheers are still above the layer and can be detected.

You can also click on silent running, but I've found that leaving a couple of decoys above the layer, running at flank speed until 60 feet under the layer, and slowing to 1/3rd speed is usually enough. After that I use the compass to draw a 5 mile circle around my current position, when I'm outside that circle I can come back up to periscope depth.

[woodenboat]

WOW! That is AWESOME STUFF! I'm going to try this right now!

Thank you for all of this.

[Sniper297]

Never really played the patrols and missions, I get my jollies with the whole war career/campaign thing, using my own GONE ASIATIC mod;

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=4358

Which adds supply bases and the main home port closer to the action for an Asiatic fleet career, among other crazy stuff.

But I took a look at this patrol mission today, and for whatever reason the radio reports in game are no help at all - the only hint you get is in the briefing map before the mission starts.



Comparing that to the ingame map I note it passes through Moro Gulf, then into the Sulu Sea through the northernmost straits, so I plotted a course to that;



Main thing with trying to intercept anything in a big ocean is to find a narrow place they will probably pass through. The task force does indeed show up the afternoon of the 12th if I wait just outside the northern passage (don't want to wait inside the straits, water is too shallow for safety).




This would be an ideal firing position, after finding SHOKAKU I draw a course line and maneuver to be facing the track at a 90 degree angle 1000 yards off the track. Anywhere within 500 to 1500 yards off the track is a good firing range, closer than 500 yards you may get duds and further that 1500 yards the target has time to see the wakes and maneuver to avoid them.

Fly in the ointment here is the wing escort - if you're playing with map contacts on (and as a n00b you should be) the rings around the selected target have meanings - for a destroyer the outer circle is the visual range, inner circle with the wedge cut out of the back is passive sonar (if you make too much noise inside that he might hear you) and the small half circle in front is the active sonar (ping-pong). In this scenario the player sub is in a bad position because that active sonar arc is going to pass over the sub, no way to avoid being detected except going down below the layer. A better way would be to plot the whole formation from a distance, look for gaps in the screen - since that arc only goes out 750 yards it's possible to stay outside the arc until he passes, then start moving in toward the track. You can usually run at 2/3rds within the passive sonar arc, and once the destroyer moves ahead far enough so you're in that cutout wedge behind him (the "baffles" where he can't hear anything because of his own propeller noise) you can go to ahead full if needed to get close enough to the firing point.

When to speed up, slow down, go silent, head for the depth is a matter of experience, but in general you want to stay stealthy until they know you're there - a torpedo impact, ships suddenly speeding up and flashing signal lights when they see the wakes, a destroyer turning toward you and speeding up, any of those are indications they know there's a sub around so you can start running full tilt boogie and kicking out decoys. Also, with a GATO you can fire the forward tubes at the target and fire the aft tubes in a spread toward any destroyer close enough behind you, if you sink one that's one less to drop depth charges. When out of torpedoes Run Silent Run Deep.

[woodenboat]

Sniper, this is not where I found the Shokaku but that's ok. It was several days earlier than the 12th, too.

I'm getting better and better everyday like anyone would that plays the game enough. This past time that I ran the Wounded Bear mission, I went straight to where I knew she would be and I blasted the heck out of her. In fact, I hit her with so many fish that she was gone by the time I dodged her destroyer screen and looked back. Dang it! I wanted to see her go down. At least I heard her powder magazine go up.

Anyway, on this mission, I decided I wanted to see how many of the rest of the task force I could take out. In order to hang in there I had to shoot four destroyers off my tail. I did put two fish into another carrier but she didn't go down. This was on 8 June and I headed to where you said you found the task force on the 12th. I wondered if I could score on that other wounded carrier. On the way, I was taking an inventory of my ordnance. Aw Heck! I had shot every torpedo that I had on board. So I high tailed it back to Fremantle as fast as I could. After the refit, I arrived at your sweet spot on 13 June. Darn it. If I had only thought to check my inventory BEFORE I set sail I might have made Fremantle and then back to catch the task force.

I will try again but for now, I've got some real life responsibilities.

This is just a lot of fun stuff with a little frustration thrown in for good measure. Once again, you've given me some valuable info. I ran the Midway battle with this new understanding of destroyer weaknesses and strengths and i didn't get killed nearly so soon. Yayaya,

[irishsooner]

Played the stock version and hung around the waters at the bottom the peninsular portion of Mindanao and got here there.

Now, if you using mod's like RSRDC then i believe in reality Celebes Sea route was wrong. Tried doing searches on the ship Shokaku and either heard ship headed for Truk or just headed for home waters. Well i placed myself near the Bungo Straits in regard to dates she was to be there. She was alone and plugged her with 1-2 torpedoes.

[Aktungbby]

irishsooner!

[woodenboat]

Originally Posted by irishsooner

Well i placed myself near the Bungo Straits in regard to dates she was to be there. She was alone and plugged her with 1-2 torpedoes.

REALLY? What were the dates? I'd LOVE to catch her in the Bungos ALONE! That would be fun.

Since we're all spoiling the plot anyway, I've been finding her on a westerly course in the Jawa Sea on 7 June.

[Majestik 909]

Woody - very excellent tactics. I will often employ a similar tactic, "flying blind" at around 20 meters and navigating and firing simply by using my attack map. In this way, you do not have to pull a 'Harald Lange' and poke up your scope in the middle of a battle group.

Now, there are things on the SIM I cannot do, like running on one screw, or reversing one engine on a tight turn, but if I had full manual control of ballast and trim, I could pull off some neat attacks....

[Majestik 909]

Sniper297 - Agreed....career is the only way