out of fuel

[Sea wolf 7]

I know this is probably a common problem with newby's, but here's the situation.

Task : sink shipping off Honshu Island.

1. Left Pearl; topped off tanks at midway; ran surface standard at night; submerged by day. Kept checking fuel level (lower right indicators) posting 100% to almost halfway between Pearl and destination. Suddenly I get a message saying there is less than 25% fuel. What gives, and has anyone ever made Honshu on the fuel given? If so, how?,

2. Radar did not work. Did the boat not have radar in 1941?

Thanks,

Sea Wolf 7

[Armistead]

Here is the "SHIV Guide".

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6421019045/m/4351073726/p/1

They're are several post in the thread and I would advise you read them all. Look for the post by Dgrayson on fuel about several post down on the first page. He explains fuel usage on detail with SS's.

Radar may not be available to all boats early war depending on mods, ect.
Still, when it's available some mods require you buy it. Can't remember stock, but regardless you have add it to your boat when it becomes available.

[Armistead]

I pasted the fuel by Dgrayson here for ya. Most of it applies to stock basics and some is just advise.


FUEL and BATTERIES

FUEL
There is nothing worse than running out of fuel before you reach your home port. Your career is in effect finished if you run out of diesel while out at sea. There are no tugs, you can't radio for help, there is no way to get home, period. US Fleet boats do not have oars or sails.

There are many factors affect fuel range. Each class of submarine has it's own set of built in range factors with the S Class having the shortest range. The following conditions affect the range of all classes. Some MODs make changes to the stock values, but the factors listed below are true for stock and most MODs.

1. Speed
a. The best fuel economy is found between 8 and 11 knots. In the stock game the ideal speed for maximum range is 10.95 knots. Mods alter this slightly so experiment a bit. Speeds above or below this speed increase fuel consumption.
b. Flank speed will result in the highest fuel consumption, so use it sparingly.
c. Slow speeds, below 8 knots, will also decrease your range. If you are low on fuel, heading home at 5 knots will use more fuel than 8 to 11 knots.
d. It is easier to set your speed with the knotmeter rather than the 1/3, 2/3 etc. Engine Telegraph. Click on the stem of the Engine Telegraph and it will change to the Knotmeter. See Picture below:
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z107/davegrayson/Telegraph.jpg http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z107/davegrayson/Knotmeter.jpg

2. Battery Charging
a. When you are charging your batteries, you are running one of your engines at Flank speed to charge them. (You do not really have four engines in the game, you only have two.) During this time your fuel economy drops dramatically. To conserve fuel do not travel using batteries unless you have to. Just submerge and sit there until it is safe to travel on the surface.
b. Battery charging is automatic and unless you manually turn off battery charging, every time you surface ( see picture below) the crew will run the charger until the batteries are charged to 100%.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z107/davegrayson/BatteryCharger.jpg
c. Damaged batteries will decrease your range by 2/3. See section 3. b.

3. Damage
a. Leaks. If your fuel tanks are damaged, head for home. Even if the crew "repairs"� the damage you will still lose some fuel and only a return to base will completely repair your boat. A refit will NOT fix a leaky fuel tank.
b. Battery Damage. Your crew can not completely repair damage to your batteries and they will stop accepting a charge at something less than 100%. If this happens and your batteries will not charge to 100%, but your crew will not turn off the battery charger without your intervention. Battery charging is automatic and unless you manually turn it off, every time you surface, it will continue to use diesel at a very fast rate. Do this if your batteries are not charging to 100% or you will never get back to your home port.

BATTERIES

As with diesel fuel, you range with your batteries is affected by speed. Use the knotmeter to set your underwater speed rather than the Engine Telegraph. Different boat classes have different underwater ranges and different lengths of time to recharge, but in general the following rules apply to all classes. The slower you go, the longer your batteries will last.
At 1 knot or less you will probably run out of air before your batteries completely discharge.
At 2 knots you will easily make it from sunrise to sunset and in some classes 24 hours.
At 3 knots, generally less than 12 hours.
At 4 knots 6 to 8 hours depending on your boat class.
Above 4 knots the batteries discharge fairly quickly.

[mike_espo]

Anybody have problems with fuel leaks after a DC attack? After an attack by 2 tin cans, I lost more than half of my fuel, no chance to reach a base..:down:

[Akula4745]

Thanks for sharing that info, Armistead... I did not know I would use more fuel at 5 knots than 8 to 11 knots. Makes me wonder why? Especially with diesel engines...

Akula4745

[Rockin Robbins]

It's because gallons per hour and miles per gallon are different. You're thinking in gallons per hour mode here.

There are two ways to get more miles per gallon, covering more miles for the same gallons or reducing the fuel consumption at the same speed.

Starting at the high end of the RPM range, your fuel consumption falls off greatly until you find the consumption curve flattening out toward the lower end. You don't change gallons per hour much when you change from 2/3 to 1/3 throttle. But you do cut the speed in half. You're burning a little fewer gallons per mile but traveling a lot less miles per hour. That makes your range on a certain amount of fuel go down after you pass the most efficient speed.

If your speed falls quicker than your fuel consumption you lose range. If you gain a lot of speed for a little more fuel consumption you extend your range.

[Armistead]

Anybody have problems with fuel leaks after a DC attack? After an attack by 2 tin cans, I lost more than half of my fuel, no chance to reach a base..:down:

If the fuel is actually gone then you're out of luck. I take it you got a message stating percentage of fuel lost down to whatever level.

Are you using any mods that have the fuel check icons? If so you can check and see if you can make it to any near port. If you have 1/4 tank, cut battery charging off, you might make it.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

I had no idea that 8-11 knots was better than 4-5.

Well thats a whole lotta wasted hours waiting to get from Pearl to..

Well, anywhere. :dead:

[SteamWake]

Ive been led to believe that for nearl all but the S boats best range is acheived at 9.5 knots.

About the fuel leak I believe it does happen, however most reports of this have come after loading a saved game.

Out of fuel? Out of luck! :salute:

[Akula4745]

It's because gallons per hour and miles per gallon are different. You're thinking in gallons per hour mode here.

There are two ways to get more miles per gallon, covering more miles for the same gallons or reducing the fuel consumption at the same speed.

Starting at the high end of the RPM range, your fuel consumption falls off greatly until you find the consumption curve flattening out toward the lower end. You don't change gallons per hour much when you change from 2/3 to 1/3 throttle. But you do cut the speed in half. You're burning a little fewer gallons per mile but traveling a lot less miles per hour. That makes your range on a certain amount of fuel go down after you pass the most efficient speed.

If your speed falls quicker than your fuel consumption you lose range. If you gain a lot of speed for a little more fuel consumption you extend your range.

Thanks for the explanation, RR. Makes perfect sense to me now! I got it... from now on we are cruising at 10 knots. Will certainly make for a quicker trip!

Akula4745

[mike_espo]

Ive been led to believe that for nearl all but the S boats best range is acheived at 9.5 knots.

About the fuel leak I believe it does happen, however most reports of this have come after loading a saved game.

Out of fuel? Out of luck! :salute:

I am using TMO 1.7. Is there a way to edit damage done to fuel tanks so a DC attack don't wipe out half my fuel?. :hmmm:

[SteamWake]

I am using TMO 1.7. Is there a way to edit damage done to fuel tanks so a DC attack don't wipe out half my fuel?. :hmmm:

Probably however as usual Im clueless as to how. Maybe ask in the modding section.

[swmicros]

It is easier to set your speed with the knotmeter rather than the 1/3, 2/3 etc. Engine Telegraph. Click on the stem of the Engine Telegraph and it will change to the Knotmeter. See Picture below:
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z107/davegrayson/Telegraph.jpg http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z107/davegrayson/Knotmeter.jpg


Thanks for the tip on the knotmeter, I kept reading about folks cruising at 1 knot and could never figure out how they were doing that. Ahead 1/3 is always faster.:woot:

[PortsmouthProwler]

There might be one more consideration - RR's clarification suggested this to me.

* When you select a specific speed, e. g., 10.5 kts, there is a very good possibility you are telling the crew/game/program to mainatain that speed no matter what, i. e., regardless of conditions or sea state. Thus you could be consuming more fuel than you need to at an undesirable rate, if you're plowing through heavy seas. At high time compressions, you could do this for days and never even notice it.

* Using the Telegraph, however, I would hazard, in effect sets your RPMs. When you encounter heavy seas at 2/3, you might be reduced to 4 or 5 kts, for example, where, correspondingly, you run at 8 kts with a smooth sea.

I almost always use the Telegraph on the surface when cruising and usually (99%) cruise at 2/3. I regard it as more authentic, but that's me.

[Fincuan]

No worries, sea state is taken into account no matter which method one uses to set the speed. It seems like your crew just sets an RPM that would keep the speed in perfect conditions, despite the actual conditions.

I'm actually a bit surprised we have no "OMG Why doesn't it keep the speed I set wtfpwn=?!??!"-type posts :haha:

[PortsmouthProwler]

As stated, I'm mostly Telegraph. Your observation would seem to imply that the Tele is almost unnecessary - set the knots and forget it.

Well, geez, it oughta be the way I was hypothesizing.

Hey, wait one - if you tell the crew 10 kts, then, if you encounter rough seas, it drops to 7 kts? I haven't used the Speed dial enough for any observations. AFAIK, using the Tele does exhibit this - your speed will drop in rough seas for a given Tele setting.

[swmicros]

Now that I know about the knotmeter I have been using it instead of the telegraph when on the final line up before shooting. In trying to keep the sub moving (sitting all lined up was not really the MO for sub skippers) I find it very helpful. Prior it was a bit more difficult as the sub was moving at around 4 knots and made calculating the intercept point and shoot location a bit more difficult. Using the knotmeter gives me more control over the approach speed and make hitting the intercept point much easier.

[Akula4745]

Using the knotmeter and a speed of 9.5-10.5 has certainly proven worthwhile for me... gives me a lot more fuel to run around with on station.

[Highbury]

Use one of the mods that adds the "Max range at current speed" button to your HUD. Then no matter what mod or boat you are driving, you can adjust the knotmeter and ask your crew how far you can go at that speed. Makes it easy to find the sweet spot for any specific mod/boat combo.