Photo recon mission in Tokyo Bay/Nothing there to photograph

[marrocco]

I inched my way to Tokyo at one knot through mostly shallow waters, dodging submarine chasers, gunboats, and destroyers. I crept up to the star and raised my scope. It took me three days of real time to get there. The only two boats in port were a small oil tanker and a medium composite freighter. Neither activated my camera icon. I even went around and through the two inner harbors (scraping bottom), but nothing activated my camera.

I checked the forums. I went to a nearby port, but no result. I turned my scope to ships approaching me when I first raised it. Nothing.

Is there a way to pull from the save game files the id and location of the target ship? Or perhaps there's a mod that turns the target ships fluorescent pink with a blue Obi-Wan Kenobi aura and puts "PHOTOGRAPH THIS!" onto the side of the hull?

K.

[Bando]

I have to ask.........
You did lock the small tanker and the other one????

[Fearless]

As Bando said, you'll need to lock the targets for the Camera to work.

[STEED]

Did you see the pink elephant? :roll: :lol:

[Bando]

Did you see the pink elephant? :roll: :lol:


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[d@rk51d3]

Did you see the pink elephant? :roll: :lol:

That's no elephant. It's Bernard in his birthday suit.;)

[STEED]

Did you see the pink elephant? :roll: :lol:

That's no elephant. It's Bernard in his birthday suit.;)

FECK :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[marrocco]

One would think that after having had the exact same photo mission of the exact same aircraft carriers five times in a row in the South Pacific that remembering to lock would not be an issue. One would be wrong.

I've now taken thirty pictures each of every vessel in visual range. The mission won't complete. I'm going to go back through the inner harbor again and look for the Big Pink Boat and see if pictures of it will finish the mission. If not, I'm really tempted to dock at one of the available slips and see how the DD's react.

Thanks for the brain jog.

K.

I have to ask.........
You did lock the small tanker and the other one????

[tater]

The ship photo missions need to be expunged. They are silly. What possible value would they provide since by the time anyone in naval intel saw the images they'd be weeks old. Knowing where ships were weeks ago is utterly useless, particularly given our good signint and ULTRA.

tater

[Bando]

I had something simular. I could only see two ships in the harbour, mission would not finish after photogrfing those two. I had mapupdates on at that moment, and with scope up i looked at the map and saw a third contact. It was hidden behind piers and cranes and what not, anyway, it was a lot of trouble just getting in position to photoshoot the bast*rd.
Mission complete, I went home.

Dunno, maybe there still is something to photoshoot, that you've overlooked.

Hope it helps

I agree with Tater about the usefulnes of these pictures.

[XanderF]

Oh, I dunno, it's an abstraction.

The idea is that you are not photographing one specific ship (although that's what you actually DO), but, rather, gather intel on the port.

Which, I think we can all agree, is important information. Amount of traffic at the port, types of ships docked there, defenses, etc - this is very important information for massive follow-up raids (such as carrier group air strikes or bomber raids).

It'd be more realistic if the mission orders allowed for requirements like 'loiter outside the port for a minimum of 14 days' or 'photograph ships entering and leaving the port at least at least twice a day for 7 days' or something like that.

[switch.dota]

I had something simular. I could only see two ships in the harbour, mission would not finish after photogrfing those two. I had mapupdates on at that moment, and with scope up i looked at the map and saw a third contact. It was hidden behind piers and cranes and what not, anyway, it was a lot of trouble just getting in position to photoshoot the bast*rd.
Mission complete, I went home.

Dunno, maybe there still is something to photoshoot, that you've overlooked.

Hope it helps

I agree with Tater about the usefulnes of these pictures.
I've been given a Photograph Carrier Group mission that I could never finish. Annoyed, I saved, went to radar depth and only found 12 contacts in range. Of them, 4 were docked DDs, one was a carrier and another was a tender. The nearby port housed the remaining 6 vessels: 3 docked, 2 DDs on patrol and a gunship loitering around the harbour entrance. I took photographs of each of these vessles, at least twice, to no avail. I ended up sinking the TF outside the harbour then playing catch with the last remaining DD.

I never was able to finish the mission, even tho I tried several times by reloading from a previous save. Same docked TF, same ships, same harbour defences. I learnt the area by heart actually and got really nice angles on those ships, including a sunrise just off a carrier's bow, with my periscope about 5m from the ship's hull. Still no way to complete the mission :(

[maerean_m]

The ship photo missions need to be expunged. They are silly. What possible value would they provide since by the time anyone in naval intel saw the images they'd be weeks old. Knowing where ships were weeks ago is utterly useless, particularly given our good signint and ULTRA.

Man, are you hard to satisfy?

If the game offered you only "patrol area" objectives, you would say 'the game is boring'.

When the game tries to entertain you, you say it's 'silly' and 'useless'.

Make up your mind :)

[joea]

The ship photo missions need to be expunged. They are silly. What possible value would they provide since by the time anyone in naval intel saw the images they'd be weeks old. Knowing where ships were weeks ago is utterly useless, particularly given our good signint and ULTRA.
Man, are you hard to satisfy?

If the game offered you only "patrol area" objectives, you would say 'the game is boring'.

When the game tries to entertain you, you say it's 'silly' and 'useless'.

Make up your mind :)

Well, we got the pilot rescue missions and agent dropoffs, but yea I see both your points.

[Steel_Tomb]

I like the agent drop off and pilot rescue missions etc but the photorecon missions are lame, I mean the intel would be weeks old so the ships could be sailing in the oposite end of the pacific lol. Anything of value is usually sitting on the bottom of the harbour before I leave though! :arrgh!:

[STEED]

The answer is if you don't like it go hunt ships instead, simple. ;)

[tater]

US subs didn't go inside jap ports, and if they did, they'd likely as not never come out.

I didn't say I'd eliminate photo missions, but rather eliminate the ones in the stock game. In RL, subs photographed things like the beach defences at Tarawa.

All we need to do this is a new "ship." The ship would be nothing. No model, no texture. You place it in front of the beach areas where guns are almost on land—CLOSE. Then you make the mission to photo beach defenses, and you aim towards the guns, and it will "lock" because of the invisible ship. Alternately the "ship" could be some kind of obstacle in the surf.

Other acceptable special missions are dropping off coastwatchers. I can see the suppply, etc, missions for places like the Philipines with active guerrilla forces. Even China.

BTW, maerean_m, while hard to please, my solution is to actually DO IT. I just haven't grokked all the patrol related stufff and triggers yet. Give me time. When I'm done with the ports in my campaign, you could try the missions, but it'll be rather hard ;) . The Palau ones are still there in my campaign layers, but given that I have added reefs to Palau, getting in to take pictures will be rather harder than the stock game (and I eliminated the NE port altogether putting everything in the anchorage).

Anyone want to make a beach obstacle for me (I don't do 3D)? If you do, make it a SHIP since the camera will only lock on ships. :D

tater

[stuntcow]

I just finished a photo recon mission of Tokyo harbor. Had to target the ship("L" key) and the icon became active. I had to take two or three snaps of different ships and the mission was complete. As I headed out, I found a Yamato sitting still waiting for me to leave. She went down and out I went. Good luck to you.