Patrol Orders

[atleiker]

I'm fairly new to SH3 and using the GWX 3.0.

I'm wondering if I'm supposed to follow my patrol orders and immediately return to base or not.

So if it tells me to patrol AN49 for 24 hours and I do and I don't spot anything and still have my torps and fuel to use do I just go home? Or do I now have permission to freelance and patrol until I'm either out of ammo, fuel, or the men are too tired to continue.

What is common practice here and in the real world if anyone knows?

Thanks,

Ted

[A Very Super Market]

You don't really want to return home unless you run out of fuel or torpedoes. Historically, they wouldn't simply patrol for a day, and BdU would inundate them with new missions.

In the end, it is still your decision, and you could go on a pleasure cruise for all we know.

As for gameplay, the renown bonus is taken away, so there is no penalty or bonus for doing your mission

Oh, and welcome!

[Henry Wood]

After completing your 24 hr patrol I think freelancing ("be more aggressive!":DL) is the order of the day. If in a type II I carry on by either very slowly cruising about near the patrol area in the hopes of some unfortunate passing by and I do this until I've used my last eel or my fuel is running down to the limits of being able to get home. In a type VII I patrol much further afield in the hunt for tonnage.

The "stay until the last torpedo is used" cost me dear the other day. I was in a type II off Hartlepool with 2 torpedoes left and one night sent a large cargo ship to the bottom. I should really have slowly moved out of the area but Hartlepool is usually a good place to hunt so I stayed. A few hours later there were three warships after me and eventually they got me, I had no chance to use my last eel on any of them.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome aboard atleiker http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/welcome.gif

It is really up to you which way you play out your game.....whether it be based on histirical accuracy or immersion.

What is most important though is that you enjoy http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif

[Sailor Steve]

I'm wondering if I'm supposed to follow my patrol orders and immediately return to base or not.
No. The game gives you extra renown for reaching your patrol grid and more extra for staying there the 24 hours. GWX removes that renown bonus on the principle that you don't recieve rewards or fame for just following orders, so with GWX you don't really need to go to your assigned grid at all. Actually in the stock game that was also true, because you'd probably rack up more renown by going where you knew the targets were.

Personally I think that if they wanted you to patrol the grid that badly they should have had a penalty for not doing it.

So if it tells me to patrol AN49 for 24 hours and I do and I don't spot anything and still have my torps and fuel to use do I just go home? Or do I now have permission to freelance and patrol until I'm either out of ammo, fuel, or the men are too tired to continue.
You can pretty much do what you like.

What is common practice here and in the real world if anyone knows?
Here? I think you'll find that most just go freelance. In fact the boards are full of threads advising the best places to go to get the best tonnage.

Real world? I think it was a mix, but I'm not sure. BdU, like all command structures, liked for their orders to be obeyed, but they also like captains who got results. So, in the words of the famous teenager's dictum, "It's easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission."

I'm the proverbial odd-man-out. I try to get historical (meaning low) tonnages by going to my assigned grid and staying there, no matter how good or bad it turns out to be. Usually after half my fuel is gone I'll expand that by going into an adjacent grid for awhile, and of course if I get a radio message about a big convoy nearby I'll go chase it. But that's just me.

[PaulH513]

After I complete my assigned patrol I always radio BdU (send report) and see what thier return message has to say. It might say join Comsubspac.com...oops did I say that out loud?

[Jimbuna]

After I complete my assigned patrol I always radio BdU (send report) and see what thier return message has to say. It might say join Comsubspac.com...oops did I say that out loud?

Yes you did!! :DL

My response is always "BE MORE AGGRESSIVE" :hmmm:

[Threesixtyci]

Renown is a bit messed up in the game, anyway it's looked at.

I mean... using it solely as cash to outfit your boat and recruit crew, seems more of a tacted on feature than that of immersion, to me. I feel pretty much the same way about the micro management system of the crew, too. Good ideas on paper, but not so much, when you actually have to do them.

I mean... I think I'd enjoy a type of setup of being awarded a better ship or better equipment and crew, based on my performance; but not really have control of what I get.

As for the crew efficency.... I don't really know.... I probably, would have liked it better, if it was based on the sub's compartments or something. Like maybe, something simular like Bethesda's "Pirates of the Caribbean" (aka: Sea Dogs 2), game; were a crew leader represented a whole job section. Or if you could set timetables for them to just follow without you really having to manually point and click them to positions. Something....

Oh well, No Fatigue is what I always use, now. Which pretty much breaks the crew award system.... but... yeah, sucks.

---------
Anyway, what I did was after installing GWX3.0, was dig into the SH3's .cfg file (main.cfg?, I don't really remember the name), and added the renoun for the patrols, back in. I did that mainly because I use the SH3 commander option of limited patrol careers, and it was pretty hard moving up from a type II. When running out of fuel and not sinking anything. Especially with a career ending after 6 patrols.

I wanted to work my way up from the type II. And currently playing as if the sub was the character and not so much the captain. It's cool that with SH3Commander you have the option of doing this. I'm ending up with a lot of SH3 Commander type End-story reports, playing like this. When the sub dies.... I plan on start over from 1939, again; and probably from Fotilla 1 for the Type II's, again.

The way I see it is that renown isn't much of a factor once you get a type VII or higher with all their bigger load outs. But, moving up from that Type II, isn't easy with that renown patrol stuff disabled. Besides that once you start patroling those newer GWX regions.... renown usage will balanced out, due to being able to sink a lot more tuns per patrol with the better subs.

[Jimbuna]

The main factor regarding renown in the mid to latter stages of a career is.....how much do you have to upgrade your equipment.