average mission length?

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

I just started a career, my first, after I installed TMO 1.7. My first mission takes me from Midway to a harbor in Japan, to take pictures.

So, how long is the average mission, in hours and distance? So far I've spent a couple of hours a night, a couple of nights in a row, watching from the bridge, at 32X time compression, to get 1/3 of the way to my objective. Is this normal or average?

Don't get me wrong, I expect a mission to take some time, and I know travel time is part of the game. I'm just wondering what I should expect. I'm looking forward to this, but I'd like to get a few missions done by Christmas.

[SgtSabre]

Go to the navigation map. You can go to over 8000x time compression there.

[Torplexed]

Assuming standard speed, a trip from Midway to Japan is somewhere in the neighborhood of two weeks in the game. When Gudgeon made the first patrol of the war from Pearl, she left on Dec. 11th 1941, four days after the attack. She arrived off Japan on Jan 2nd. 1942, twenty-one days later. However in an excess of caution she had run submerged during the day when within 500 miles of any Japanese air base. A practice which proved to be unnecessary.

[Enguss]

A war patrol usually last one month or one and a half month according to real ww2 subs. I always just fast forward to like 4096x to skip all the boring parts. Unless you are seeking for a real "role play" experience :)

[Armistead]

I run 10knts with tmo using about 3500 time compression. It takes about 4 minutes to get near Japan from Midway. Once near the enemy I slow it down to around 2000, get near my objective, obvious slow it way down.

To complete the pictures, use the camera and take pictures of different ships until you get a mission complete.

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

Thanks guys. Never having done a career before, I wasn't aware of the other time compression settings.

[Armistead]

I prefer the + & -key on the numpad, but you can see the icons on the bottom right for time compression.

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

I prefer the + & -key on the numpad, but you can see the icons on the bottom right for time compression.

Using those two keys, the best I get is 32X. Am I doing something wrong?

[karamazovnew]

To get past 32X you need to be in the Navigational Map view, either by pressing the buttons on the keyboard, or by clicking the TC buttons on the interface.

[MTLSAT]

The higest time compression you will find is 32x, unless your in the map view. In which case the time compression goes up into the 8000 range.

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

I'll try it in a night or two. I just got back from a reasonably successful weekend of drag racing, so I have to catch up on my other stuff.

[Highbury]

Just a friendly warning if you are just learning about time compression on the nav map. Don't set it too high in your patrol area, it will reduce the ability of your PC to keep up with sighting reports and bringing you out of TC in a timely fashion, you will miss enemies and worse, not see unavoidable ones until you are too close. I think all of us who have played the SH series for a long time have a few stories of being impatient, putting TC too high and coming out of it right in the middle of a whole lotta hurt. (or smashed into home port.... :damn:)
:ping:

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

My plan is to limit my use of "serious" time compression to the area outside Japanese air coverage and shipping lanes. Once I get where I could encounter Japanese air or naval assets, I'll cut way back on time compression use, in how much I compress time, how long, and how often.

And I'll still probably get hammered.

[Torplexed]

My plan is to limit my use of "serious" time compression to the area outside Japanese air coverage and shipping lanes. Once I get where I could encounter Japanese air or naval assets, I'll cut way back on time compression use, in how much I compress time, how long, and how often.

And I'll still probably get hammered.

Japanese air cover in TMO is pretty scanty as it was historically. However, they can sometimes spot you even when well underwater.

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

Japanese air cover in TMO is pretty scanty as it was historically. However, they can sometimes spot you even when well underwater.

My plan there is to split my surface time up in daylight, go to 150-200 feet or deeper when submerged, and run on the surface as much as possible from dusk to dawn. I also have a minefield to negotiate to get to the harbor, at least according to the map that rolls out with the radio.

For whatever reason, my radar doesn't work. I have an antenna, and the ability to raise and lower it. But it doesn't work. I think I've got a Gar class boat, I got my orders and departed Midway 12/8/41. So I do have to worry about planes catching me on the surface. But I don't plan on staying submerged all day, at least not until I get fairly close to Japan.

I haven't decided how to time my entry into the harbor, or at least my entry to the area where I can take the required pictures. I'm thinking my best shot is to slip in as dusk falls, getting there when there is just enough light to take the pictures, so I can slip out in the dark. My concern there though is the minefield in the dark. But I'm thinking that if I come in at dawn, when it is just light enough to get the pictures, I end up trying to get out in broad daylight and relatively shallow waters, where I can be more easily spotted and tracked, and have less depth to work with.

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

The trip to Japan was uneventful, and it worked out much as planned. I was able to reach the harbor and take the pictures under low light conditions, then slip back out through the Bungo Straits into the ocean. I did end up seeing a couple of fishing boats, but seeing how I saw them at night, I could not see them well enough to use the guns, and did not waste a torpedo on them.

Once out in the ocean again, I was sent to the "Abuse" area of the China Sea. I was ordered to that area and told to patrol for four days. But on the first day the "check mark" showing a completed objective appeared, and I was told to seek and destroy shipping in the area. Now, I got a radio message about a convoy that was 500-600 miles north of the area, and steaming NNE at 9 knots. I quickly decided that I could never catch them as they were steaming away from me with a 500+ mile head start at 9 knots.

I'm about 20 hours or so from completing the 4th day. I'm patrolling the area called "Abuse" around the perimeter. All I've seen is hostile aircraft, I've been attacked once (I had just loaded from a save and was taking damage as it loaded) and taken 21 points of hull damage. Since then, if I get a radar warning, I just go ahead and crash dive, then watch the aircraft go back and forth until they leave. I spend as much time as possible on the surface (I only submerge when there's a plane about), running at "ahead standard", or about 10 knots, in 4x time compression (I noticed that above 4x time compression, there's no lookout crew visible on the deck), both day and night. I have 50% fuel left, and only the hull damage.

So, am I running this mission as I should? Should I stay around "Abuse", since I was told to patrol that area for four days (I have about 1 day left of those 4)? Or, since I got the "check" for a completed objective, and was told to seek and destroy enemy shipping, should I be going elsewhere?

I was wrong, I have a Tambor class boat, the Trout. I cannot actually control the radar, I can only raise and lower the antenna. Even standing in front of the radar display, all I can "do" apparently is adjust the "range", which I set to maximum, in order to try to get warnings in time to crash dive before the planes get me (once was enough).

[magic452]

The radar you are looking at is the surface search radar.
The red one is the PPI scope, that gives bearing of a contact (surface ship)
The green one will give you approximate range to the contact.
You can click on the PPI and it will sweep just like the sonar does or use the mouse wheel or "end" and "home" keys
You can toggle between sweep and focus modes as will as change the range.

Air search radar is an automatic thing there isn't even an on/off switch and that is the antenna you can raise, go to periscope depth raise the antenna and look for contacts, if you see one it's a plane.

Sounds like you are running a good patrol so far, stay in the area for the full time.

At 8X TC the look outs are there but just don't show but watch your TC in enemy waters, too fast and they will get you. I go to 128 or 256 X TC and the game will drop it if a contact ( surface or air) is made.
First check what type of contact "Very fast" = aircraft, better be prepared to crash dive.

Those contact reports are helpful but unless they are close and heading your way you have little chance of running one down.

I'm working one now that was about 200 miles away but headed right for me so I found it, a very good one at that, 8 large freighters, all 5000 tons or more, with only 3 escorts. It's down to 4 freighters now and I'm setting up to take out one or two more.

Good luck and Good hunting

Magic

[Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford]

I'm having a ball, when I have time to do it. I may get in another couple of hours this week, at most. It may be 2-3 weeks before I finish this one.

Patience seems to be the toughest aspect to master. Especially since I don't get a lot of time to play.

I did screw this one up once. When I loaded a save in the China Sea for the first time, I instantly took severe damage from an air attack. I had saved on the surface, no enemy anywhere, daylight, and no time compression. But I got nailed the instant the save loaded. I managed to survive, but it killed my diesels, so I was stuck. I had to go back and reload from an earlier save, do the recon part again, and the rest of the patrol is different as well.

Since I had to reload from the earlier save, the aircraft are far worse. I had aircraft on me nearly 1K miles from Japan. And once I got close, I had aircraft all over me constantly. The first time I ran it, I didn't have a single aircraft contact until I got to the China Sea.