Is Attacking Ships in Port Too Easy?

[Windward]

I have come back to Silent Hunter after an eight year absence in which I’ve forgotten everything I learned the first time, so I’m essentially a newbie. Proof of that is how long it has taken me to understand how the TDC and PK work.

I’m playing on medium difficulty with Webster’s GFO mod. On my second career mission I was ordered to insert someone near Qingdao. After doing that, I looked into Qingdao harbor and then sank three or four freighters and a subchaser with little challenge. I sank over 39,000 tons for the mission. For this I was awarded a Bronze Star and enough renown for a number of benefits, including SD radar.

I’m now on my third mission. Orders were to patrol near Hakkaido Island. I did that and then headed for the strait between Hakkaido and Honshu. I sank three freighters there and then decided to look into Aomori harbor. There were six freighters and two gunboats docked there. Having learned at Qingdao that gunboat fire is rarely accurate, I decided to attack with my deck gun. I sank four freighters and then used a torpedo to dispose of one pesky gunboat that manage to hit me, racking up a total of 18,400 tons in the harbor, to go with the 19,000 tons I had sunk in the strait. Then sonar picked up a convoy of six merchants and two warships approaching from the north at long range, so I left the harbor and headed north. There are still many hours of night and I have half of my torpedoes left (seven fore and one aft), so I expect to sink substantially more tonnage.

This success bothers me though. Harbors seem way too easy. In other computer games, I’ve always declined to exploit “gliches” that allow players to exploit programming oversight in order to rack up unearned benefits like experience and money. I’m starting to feel like attacking harbors is in this category. I’m not sure I want to succeed in this way.

So, I’m interested in what others think. I’d love to hear your opinions. Also, does this issue go away with some of the mega mods like Trigger Maru? I guess I’m seeking a balance between challenge and difficulty while I work my way up to higher difficulty levels and greater challenges.

[p.jakub88]

Originally Posted by Windward

I have come back to Silent Hunter after an eight year absence in which I’ve forgotten everything I learned the first time, so I’m essentially a newbie. Proof of that is how long it has taken me to understand how the TDC and PK work.

I’m playing on medium difficulty with Webster’s GFO mod. On my second career mission I was ordered to insert someone near Qingdao. After doing that, I looked into Qingdao harbor and then sank three or four freighters and a subchaser with little challenge. I sank over 39,000 tons for the mission. For this I was awarded a Bronze Star and enough renown for a number of benefits, including SD radar.

I’m now on my third mission. Orders were to patrol near Hakkaido Island. I did that and then headed for the strait between Hakkaido and Honshu. I sank three freighters there and then decided to look into Aomori harbor. There were six freighters and two gunboats docked there. Having learned at Qingdao that gunboat fire is rarely accurate, I decided to attack with my deck gun. I sank four freighters and then used a torpedo to dispose of one pesky gunboat that manage to hit me, racking up a total of 18,400 tons in the harbor, to go with the 19,000 tons I had sunk in the strait. Then sonar picked up a convoy of six merchants and two warships approaching from the north at long range, so I left the harbor and headed north. There are still many hours of night and I have half of my torpedoes left (seven fore and one aft), so I expect to sink substantially more tonnage.

This success bothers me though. Harbors seem way too easy. In other computer games, I’ve always declined to exploit “gliches” that allow players to exploit programming oversight in order to rack up unearned benefits like experience and money. I’m starting to feel like attacking harbors is in this category. I’m not sure I want to succeed in this way.

So, I’m interested in what others think. I’d love to hear your opinions. Also, does this issue go away with some of the mega mods like Trigger Maru? I guess I’m seeking a balance between challenge and difficulty while I work my way up to higher difficulty levels and greater challenges.

Hello Windward,

in the Traveller v2.6 TMO You will have more coastal guns securing the entries to some harbors (like in Iwo Jima), so trying to approach them on surface is a really bad idea. Moreover, previously unguarded harbors will have a warship assigned to patrolling it.

I don't know if You have the "Dud torpedoes" option enabled in SH4, but in the TMO 2.5 there is almost impossible to sank a stationary ship in harbor due to the depth keeping problems of MK 14 torpedoes in the early war. All my torpedoes went under the ship.

I always tried to avoid engaging enemy ships in shallow waters, especially convoys.

[Red Devil]

its not necessarily 'too easy' because that depends on 1. how good the harbour patrols are and 2. how deep the water is. If a person has the setting on easy, then maybe it is. Mine are set on 'normal' and it can be hard.

[james_nix]

At first I would go into harbours because of the easy kills, but now I avoid them because no challenge.

[Windward]

Thanks all. I'm going to follow james nix's approach and leave harbors alone. Now I'm off to attack that convoy approaching the harbor in the shallow waters of the bay (maybe).

[Red Devil]

I occasionally go into harbours but only when bored, no targets etc.

[Rockin Robbins]

Harbor raiding comes with a lot of negatives. First, they're easy in-easy out IF you don't encounter aircraft. Those guys can ruin your day in about five seconds. Second, ships which do no sink completely, but rest on the bottom with anything remaining above the water don't count as sunk. Third, if you're early in the war your torpedoes can run as much as 20' deeper than you set them. You can't sink a planet.

Then, the ports are much too lightly guarded. Sub nets are broken in SH4 so you won't see many of them. If someone adds them they're more trouble than they are worth.

Adding Traveller's Mod means you have to abandon GFO, load TMO 2.5 and RSRDC before adding Traveller's Mod. Traveller's Mod is full of really significant bugs that you'll not like at all. TMO is a great experience. I'm not hepped up on RSRDC, which removes the dynamic element from the game and substitutes history in a straitjacket.

That can be gamed a lot more than poorly guarded ports. If a town sent out a freighter a day for the entire war, you can sit outside that harbor and knock 'em down like ducks because they'll never change their war behavior, which was based on no sub outside the harbor entrance.

RSRDC becomes a silly farce when you think about their definition of "historical accuracy." In order for RSRDC's tape recording of history not to be laughable, YOU would also have to be a tape recording of the Allies, doing precisely what they did in the war with the exact same results. SH4 wouldn't be a game at that point, it would be a movie. You would not be a gamer, you would be a spectator.

The score is GFO:spectacular. TMO: spectacular. RSRDC:very flawed. Traveller's Mod:fatally flawed

[Windward]

Thanks for the valuable insights, RR. I'll definitely go with TMO 2.5 once I get a little more experience.