please help a new player: lifeguard mission

[Lujan]

Hi all

I got SH4 a few days ago and was pretty overwhelmed by the complexity, I havent played one of these titles before. I thought I was doing ok and getting the hang of it, but today I got my first lifeguard mission, and now Im stumped.

Ive read up on what you are supposed to do, and as far as I know im doing it, but nobody is getting rescued. I go to a blue marker on my map for a downed pilot, I look for red smoke so I know he's allied, I surface, I slow down and stop next to him, but no matter where I point the binoculars, crosshairs on the pilot, on the smoke, above, beyond, below him/it... the crosshairs dont change colour (like I've read they should) and the life preserver button remains greyed out.

Can anyone tell me where im going wrong here? I am enjoying the career mode, I dont want to have to start over every time i get this type of mission :down:

[John Channing]

When you get him (and it has to be an allied pilot) look for one of the icons on the command bar (at the botom) that looks like a Life Presever ring. It will illuminate. Click on it and the litle guy will be rescued.

JCC

[Lafferty]

Yeah that is about the easiest way to explain it.

[Lujan]

Hi guys

Thank you both for the replies, I am still unable to pick up pilots though.

As I said in my original post, thats what Im doing. The life preserver button never lights up, no matter where I put the binoculars... So I guess I have a couple of follow up questions that might help clarify

1. Are there any subtle prerequisites that I might not be following? (I'm wondering if there is an issue like with torpedoes where you dont get tubes reloaded if you are in silent running, or your crew refusing to follow your orders because you forgot to turn off battle stations two weeks ago).

2. Do all pilots have red smoke, or only allied pilots?

3. How close do they need to be from the boat to be rescued? (if they are close enough that they could 'climb on' they are usually too low to be seen in my binoculars.)



Im sorry to trouble you guys with this again, but I'd really like to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

[John Channing]

Been a while (and it was before they got the red smoke) but from memory...

1) You have to be moving slow. 1-2 kts and you have to be within a few hundred feet

2) Not sure but I think so. My last LG mission was with 1.02.

3) See # 1

It is tricky geting the crosshairs right on them and keeping them there long enough to get the go ahead. Keep trying. My first LG mission was the hardest of my 13 Patrols.

JCC

[Lujan]

Alrighty, thanks again, ill go and give it another try

I appreciate the help ;)

[Lujan]

Aha

I have discovered my problem, I didnt know that if you stand on the bridge and scroll forward, you get a pair of binoculars, I thought when people talked about binoculars they were talking about the TBT view

Right, it works now. Sorry for being so foolish!

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome to SUBSIM :up: Lujan


RDP

[John Channing]

Aha

I have discovered my problem, I didnt know that if you stand on the bridge and scroll forward, you get a pair of binoculars, I thought when people talked about binoculars they were talking about the TBT view

Right, it works now. Sorry for being so foolish!

No problem. The "Tab" key works too.

JCC

[SteamWake]

:p Glad you got it working.

That has to be one of the most frustrating 'missions' in the game..

It was even worse prior to 1.3 (no smoke) it was damn near impossible to find the hapless pilots. Belive it or not we used sonar to find them