Having a hard time with the campaign map

[vespernz]

Hi all~
Just a quick rundown.
Running NSM4,PE, RFB, and RSRDC installed in that order, all working fine.
Game is great, immersion is great with mods, however im getting fed up with the campaign map and just trying to find ships in general.
Start the American campaign (year makes no difference) and ill do an entire patrol finding one merchant if im lucky, doing proper patrols of the areas im allocated.

What the heck am I doing wrong ? does anyone have a mod for a shipping lanes map that can be used in game alongside the mods I have ?
I tried a pull down map mod from an earlier version (1.2) but it does not work properly.

In summation, just having an incredibly hard time effectively finding ships to sink, please post any tutorials or tips you may have.

[SteamWake]

Well... you wanted realisim :p you got it.

Read the other thread "Tonnage so far" :hmm:

[DS]

Ships are harder to find when you use realism mods. Still, I can usually bag 3-5 singletons in a patrol. Generally, I stay in waters between major ports, or in waters about 30km outside of major ports (less than 20km away will interfere with ships spawning from that port I understand). I conserve fuel to boost my at sea time.

Also, read the ULTRA messages. Even if you are not near the locations they identify, plot them on your map. Eventually, you will see a pattern to where ships are being seen (Formosa, Luzon, Celebes, and the Peliu to Rabaul run for starters).

Also, remember that shipping patterns shange throughout the war.

In the end, remember that there were virtually no 80,000 ton patrols. Coming back with 15,000 - 20,000 tons was considered an excellent patrol, and would net you major decorations. Many boats came back empty handed for lack of sightings. Thus, I usually keep a good submarine book by the computer for reading in my state room until I'm called to the conn for a fresh radar contact.

[Quillan]

The areas you're assigned are not necessarily high traffic areas. You're using RSRD, which is good. As I understand it, the creators (who must have been completely off their rockers) went through all the wartime Japanese naval logs and manually plotted every Japanese convoy/naval movement/lone freighter they could find information about. I have honestly had no problems at all finding targets using RSRDC (though I use TMO instead of RFB). It's all in going where the ships are. Some good areas from my experience:

The eastern side of the Japanese Home Islands, within about 200 nm of the coast.
Both sides of the archipelago that contains Okinawa, leading down to Formosa.
The East China Sea.
The Sea of Japan.
Both sides of the Marianas Islands.

[banjo]

There is a map available that RSRDC is based upon. I don't recall the website I went to to get it, but if you search this site you should find a reference.

[Seminole]

Running NSM4,PE, RFB, and RSRDC installed in that order, all working fine.
Game is great, immersion is great with mods, however im getting fed up with the campaign map and just trying to find ships in general.


.....:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: ....


Pricless..precious and priceless....

[vespernz]

Eh I felt it was a valid question, don't see the need to hassle me about it, yes it was a slightly contradictory.

Moving on, with a follow up question.
Will shipping tend to stay in deeper waters, or stay close to land in most cases?
Example, say i'm patrolling the straight (I forget the name) between Okinawa and China (or Taiwan and China), will shipping tend to stay in shallow waters, or down the middle of the straight.

I think what im lacking is just a basic understanding of tactics.

[Seminole]

Nobody is hasseling you..it is your innocence in not connecting the dots..blaming the campaign map for empty oceans ... that is whats so funny.


..and me thinks you still don't really get it...

[Zero Niner]

Initially the ships will be sailing in deep ocean.
In the last few months of the war the submarine menace was so great they hugged the coast.
RSRDC should replicate this behaviour.

[vespernz]

Just to confirm, is there any tutorial on how to plot a course on a patrol, when I say that I mean a general course between objectives or patrolling areas, or just how to play the career in general. (not intercepting ships in visual range, there are plenty on that)

[Mush Martin]

Choke Points.

[SteamWake]

Just to confirm, is there any tutorial on how to plot a course on a patrol, when I say that I mean a general course between objectives or patrolling areas, or just how to play the career in general. (not intercepting ships in visual range, there are plenty on that)

Hrm I dont know if there is any general gameplay guides out there...

Plotting a course is pretty straight foward. Open your map grab the plotting tool and point and click. Unless you want to do it the complicated way.

How to play the campaign? Uhhh choose a campaign, year, boat. Enter your office, set the difficulty settings, click on the map, get your orders, follow those orders.

Thats about all there is to it.

[vespernz]

Just to confirm, is there any tutorial on how to plot a course on a patrol, when I say that I mean a general course between objectives or patrolling areas, or just how to play the career in general. (not intercepting ships in visual range, there are plenty on that)
Hrm I dont know if there is any general gameplay guides out there...

Plotting a course is pretty straight foward. Open your map grab the plotting tool and point and click. Unless you want to do it the complicated way.

How to play the campaign? Uhhh choose a campaign, year, boat. Enter your office, set the difficulty settings, click on the map, get your orders, follow those orders.

Thats about all there is to it.

Not quite what I was after, im not new to the silent hunter series, I understand the basic gameplay concepts and how the campaign works. However ive not seen plotting courses in order to find ships within a given patrol area.
EG. does everyone just use the predefined search pattern in a given area ?

[swuboo]

Ah; I see what you mean.

I don't use the predefined search waypoint, no. What I do, (and what I suspect most people around here do) is cruise about in places where it seems likely that shipping might happen by. Every now and then, I submerge, stop the boat, and take a manual hydrophone check.

I repeat this process until I'm low on fuel, torpedoes, or patience.

I tend to try to cruise <i>along</i> likely sea routes, on the notion that I'm more likely to encounter shipping that way. Others may have other ideas on that score.

The automated search pattern would just send me back and forth through parts of the ocean where I have no personal reason to think shipping is likely.

[SteamWake]

Here is a historical map of the theater complete with timeline.

http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/ww2%20pacific/ww2%20pacific%20%20maps/ww2-asia-overview.gif

But remember this map reflects (more or less) fact. What you find in the game will vary somewhat but will give you some rough ideas.

[AVGWarhawk]

RSRD will frustrate you sometimes because the waters are just void of vessels. Next thing you know you have the convoys of all convoys headed your way. Once I was in the slot north of Java. I was busy with a fat tanker, next thing I know, there is another fat tanker coming across my stern out of the fog. Someone was smiling on me. Unfortnate I lost the second tanker in the soup. Do as the others have posted and you will find your vessels.

[Drakken]

Could it also because you go over 256x TC? IIRC, contacts are missed beyond this setting.

Or am I wrong? :dead:

[SteamWake]

Could it also because you go over 256x TC? IIRC, contacts are missed beyond this setting.

Or am I wrong? :dead:

Ermmm maybe.. but typically I get knocked back to 8x tc regarless of setting or contact friend or foe.

[Drakken]

Could it also because you go over 256x TC? IIRC, contacts are missed beyond this setting.

Or am I wrong? :dead:

Ermmm maybe.. but typically I get knocked back to 8x tc regarless of setting or contact friend or foe.

But if a enemy ship is barely entering or going through the visibility range, could being over 256x skip this contact?

[swuboo]

I know that in SHIII, high TC factors reduced contacts.

At a guess, the game probably only updated the positions of the contacts every so often. At a high enough TC, that interval would be high enough that a contact heading straight for you might be calculated 30nm to your North, and then 40nm to your South in the next tick---so even though it was on a collision course for you, as far as the game was concerned, it was never actually within visual range.

So SteamWake would still get knocked down to 8x every time he saw a ship, but he might not see half the ships he would have on 256x.

By the same token, I'm fairly sure my impatience resulted in a lot of contacts appearing right on top of me---like a destroyer 1200 meters away in crystal clear weather and calm seas at high noon.

It's possible I'm incorrectly interpreting the reason for the phenomenon---but I know contacts got really dodgy at high TC in SHIII.

As for whether the same thing applies in IV, I don't know.

[Diopos]

...
Not quite what I was after, im not new to the silent hunter series, I understand the basic gameplay concepts and how the campaign works. However ive not seen plotting courses in order to find ships within a given patrol area.
EG. does everyone just use the predefined search pattern in a given area ?


...
Not quite what I was after, im not new to the silent hunter series, I understand the basic gameplay concepts and how the campaign works. However ive not seen plotting courses in order to find ships within a given patrol area.
EG. does everyone just use the predefined search pattern in a given area ?

1. You must have an indication of the general direction of "shiping traffic" in your selected patrol area. This would be a "ships move along a NW-SE axis" thing. How do you find that?
a] Using maps that show the typical shiping lanes of the era (there is one posted in this thread and there is one included with the game CD).
b] You follow the radio contacts on enemy ships/convoys/TFs sightings and focus on the reports near your selected patrol area and specificaly their direction.

2. When arriving in your patrol area you can start a search pattern. I use a "square tooth" pattern (as the "predefined" search pattern) but I align is so as the "longer legs" of the pattern are perpendicular to the "general shipping traffic axis" of the previous paragraph.

3. Reasoning: Imagine that shiping lanes are a rectangular arena with many parallel racing tracks. Some tracks are vacant, others are occupied by one or more runners. Runners maybe fast or slow. Your goal is to maximize the probability of coming close to the runners. You increase your chances by changing ("sampling") more tracks rather then remaining in one and wait for a runner to pass by. Revisiting ("resampling") a track increases your chances of contacting a slow or a second runner etc. Moving repeatedly and perpendicularly to the "general shipping traffic axis" is equivalent to the "sampling" and "resampling" of the racing tracks.
Also you have an increased propabilityof spotting a ship from its broadside. Which means:
a] You get a visual earlier rather then later.
b] It's harder for the ship to get a visual on you
c] Increased possibility of acquiring data on the target easily and from a greater distance(type speed etc)
d] Increased possibility of having a good starting position for your attack maneuver.

4. Problem: With this kind of simple pattern you spend more time patrolling the "edges of the teeth" rather the midsection of the pattern.

Hope this helps as a starting point.
Excuse me for not using the correct navy lingo :cry: but English is not my native language...