average mission length?

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

I just started a career, my first, after I installed TMO 1.7. My first mission takes me from Midway to a harbor in Japan, to take pictures.

So, how long is the average mission, in hours and distance? So far I've spent a couple of hours a night, a couple of nights in a row, watching from the bridge, at 32X time compression, to get 1/3 of the way to my objective. Is this normal or average?

Don't get me wrong, I expect a mission to take some time, and I know travel time is part of the game. I'm just wondering what I should expect. I'm looking forward to this, but I'd like to get a few missions done by Christmas.

[SgtSabre]

Go to the navigation map. You can go to over 8000x time compression there.

[Torplexed]

Assuming standard speed, a trip from Midway to Japan is somewhere in the neighborhood of two weeks in the game. When Gudgeon made the first patrol of the war from Pearl, she left on Dec. 11th 1941, four days after the attack. She arrived off Japan on Jan 2nd. 1942, twenty-one days later. However in an excess of caution she had run submerged during the day when within 500 miles of any Japanese air base. A practice which proved to be unnecessary.

[Enguss]

A war patrol usually last one month or one and a half month according to real ww2 subs. I always just fast forward to like 4096x to skip all the boring parts. Unless you are seeking for a real "role play" experience

[Armistead]

I run 10knts with tmo using about 3500 time compression. It takes about 4 minutes to get near Japan from Midway. Once near the enemy I slow it down to around 2000, get near my objective, obvious slow it way down.

To complete the pictures, use the camera and take pictures of different ships until you get a mission complete.

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

Thanks guys. Never having done a career before, I wasn't aware of the other time compression settings.

[Armistead]

I prefer the + & -key on the numpad, but you can see the icons on the bottom right for time compression.

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

Originally Posted by Armistead

I prefer the + & -key on the numpad, but you can see the icons on the bottom right for time compression.

Using those two keys, the best I get is 32X. Am I doing something wrong?

[karamazovnew]

To get past 32X you need to be in the Navigational Map view, either by pressing the buttons on the keyboard, or by clicking the TC buttons on the interface.

[MTLSAT]

The higest time compression you will find is 32x, unless your in the map view. In which case the time compression goes up into the 8000 range.

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

I'll try it in a night or two. I just got back from a reasonably successful weekend of drag racing, so I have to catch up on my other stuff.

[Highbury]

Just a friendly warning if you are just learning about time compression on the nav map. Don't set it too high in your patrol area, it will reduce the ability of your PC to keep up with sighting reports and bringing you out of TC in a timely fashion, you will miss enemies and worse, not see unavoidable ones until you are too close. I think all of us who have played the SH series for a long time have a few stories of being impatient, putting TC too high and coming out of it right in the middle of a whole lotta hurt. (or smashed into home port.... )

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

My plan is to limit my use of "serious" time compression to the area outside Japanese air coverage and shipping lanes. Once I get where I could encounter Japanese air or naval assets, I'll cut way back on time compression use, in how much I compress time, how long, and how often.

And I'll still probably get hammered.

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford

My plan is to limit my use of "serious" time compression to the area outside Japanese air coverage and shipping lanes. Once I get where I could encounter Japanese air or naval assets, I'll cut way back on time compression use, in how much I compress time, how long, and how often.

And I'll still probably get hammered.

Japanese air cover in TMO is pretty scanty as it was historically. However, they can sometimes spot you even when well underwater.

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

Japanese air cover in TMO is pretty scanty as it was historically. However, they can sometimes spot you even when well underwater.

My plan there is to split my surface time up in daylight, go to 150-200 feet or deeper when submerged, and run on the surface as much as possible from dusk to dawn. I also have a minefield to negotiate to get to the harbor, at least according to the map that rolls out with the radio.

For whatever reason, my radar doesn't work. I have an antenna, and the ability to raise and lower it. But it doesn't work. I think I've got a Gar class boat, I got my orders and departed Midway 12/8/41. So I do have to worry about planes catching me on the surface. But I don't plan on staying submerged all day, at least not until I get fairly close to Japan.

I haven't decided how to time my entry into the harbor, or at least my entry to the area where I can take the required pictures. I'm thinking my best shot is to slip in as dusk falls, getting there when there is just enough light to take the pictures, so I can slip out in the dark. My concern there though is the minefield in the dark. But I'm thinking that if I come in at dawn, when it is just light enough to get the pictures, I end up trying to get out in broad daylight and relatively shallow waters, where I can be more easily spotted and tracked, and have less depth to work with.