Inconsistent fuel management

[Hmuda]

I use Trigger Maru for 1.4

The thing is that the fuel management at the beggining and at the end of the patrols are inconsistent with each other.

I set sail with full tanks at ahead standard and the "max distance" estimation is always waaay above 10k nm. Somewhere around 18k if I remember correctly. I carefully monitor my consuption during mission and I usually reach the mission area between 60-75% (from Pearl).

I head back home when I'm around 40%-ish and for some reason the fuel is not enough.

I did a little editing and put my fuel back to 100% at the end of the patrol (just to check what I was suspecting) and shockingly, now the max distance came out as 4k nm, while still using ahead standard.

I'm not an expert on subs, so can anyone explain what's the deal here? For some reason the end-patrol consumption is way much higher on the same speed as it was at the beggining.

Oh, BTW, my ship is intact, no system and no hull damage at all.

[A Very Super Market]

Did you go through a storm on the way back?

When you recharge batteries, fuel efficiency drops as well

[Hmuda]

I noticed that the milage is droped considerably during recharge so I only check it when the batteries are fully charged.

As for storms, it's possible. It might have happened once or twice during the uneventful voyages, but when I checked the distance I made sure I wasn't in a storm. Although the waves were a bit high due to the wind. I suspected it might have something to do with it, but do waves really make the milage go down to lower than 1/4?

I also suspected it might had something to do with currents, but it turned out to be the same when I sailed both east and west.

Do waves really are this influential to milage?

[A Very Super Market]

Not sure about anything else.

If you aren't making it back to port, go slower. You said you went on standard right? Try 1/3 or slow speed to increase efficiency

[SteamWake]

9.5 knots best speed for all but a few of the boats.

[Etienne]

If you wait until the boat has accelerated to the requested speed, does that change the estimate?

[Hmuda]

I always wait a few seconds in time compression (500-1000) to be absolutely sure there is no acceleration issue while calculating the speed (in other words, I let it run at a constant 9-10 knots for a while). For a Gato, that's the speed at Standard.

I even tried to use 2/3 or even 1/3 ahead, and the milage droped there as well, compared to standard. Not much, but still a few hundred miles depending on the remaining fuel.

I'll try to make screenshots the next time I encounter this phenomena.

If all things come down to it, I might disable fuel consumption. Not a big sacrafice for the sake of enjoyment. It would still be 75-ish realism.

[Etienne]

IIRC (Haven't played SHIV in ages) there was also an issue about the map not being spherical; this prevented you from using great circle courses and created fuel issues... So disabling fuel might be worth it anyway.

Fuel estimates are, well, estimates. I know in real life, fuel on departure - (Daily consumption x days) doesn't usually equal fuel on arrival...

[Fincuan]

I bet 10€ your batteries were damaged at some point, and now recharging won't turn off automatically. No storm explains that kind of loss in range and currents aren't modelled.

[Hmuda]

I already wrote that my ship is in perfect condition. At least not that I know of.

My first task was to drop a shipment of supplies and then recon a harbor. I was never discovered and none of my kills had any armaments to shoot back with (I killed most of them with the deck gun to conserve torps).

I'm not 100% sure about the battery recharge not turning off, that might have been the issue. It's a possibility, I'll look into it.

EDIT: judging by the numbers I just got, it's 90% sure that the constant recharge was the culprit. Thanks for solving this. I have no idea how it happened as my boat wasn't damaged at all durign that mission. Oh well...thanks again.

[SteamWake]

I'm not 100% sure about the battery recharge not turning off, that might have been the issue. It's a possibility, I'll look into it.

It can be very hard to tell. The damage indicator for the batterys will look 'full' however if you hover the cursor over them you will see like 98%. That 2% is enough to do it.

It is usually noticed when the 'charging' setting does not cut off by itself requiring one to cut it off manually.

As others said this is the most likely scenario.