Aircraft Q&A Thread

[mello85]

I have a few questions regarding aircraft in SH4, so I figured I'd start a thread devoted to just that.

I have been playing around with the Webster's Better Air Patrols (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=473) mod today and I'm still finding the aircraft in this game to be too numerous. To be honest, the only difference I see is that the aircraft are now more accurate when commencing their bombing runs.

I've also noticed that if an aircraft spots me, he will call all of his buddies from Kyushu to Hokkaido to come investigate the area. Is it even possible to get away from aircraft that are patrolling my last known position? I was patrolling off the southernmost bit of Honshu (right around Tanabe) around 3:00AM when out of nowhere my newly acquired Expert Watchman spots a Hyriu flat top...alone, no escort. As I headed to intercept I got a radar contact of two unidentified aircraft bearing directly toward me. The flat top was moving away from me as I chased, so I knew that if i dived I would surely lose him. I decided to risk it and kept going after the carrier. Biggest mistake ever. I ended up sinking the carrier with 4 torpedoes to the stern, and the previously unidentified Zero's missed their payload.

Now I said all that to say this: I've been on the run from those damn planes for the past 4 game days. Diving and making painfully slow 1/3 progress during the day and surfacing at dusk to recharge my batteries. To my knowledge I have done everything I should have to shake them, but every time I stick up my periscope for a peek they are like frenzied hornets. From the southernmost coast of Honshu, I have been meticulously hunted to my current position near Urakawa off the southcentral coast of Hokkaido. That's over 800 nautical miles folks, probably more if you consider that I've been changing course every so often to try and shake my pursuers.

I am completely out of ideas, so if any of you more experienced skippers have any advice please let me know! I'd really hate to load an earlier save, that would cost me about 8 hours of play time :nope: Unfortunately that seems to be a very tempting course of action at the moment.

In case you are wondering, I am running only 2 mods: EasyAOB and Webster's Better Air Patrols 1.5.

Does it matter whether the air patrols mod is first or last in the enabled mod list? Maybe I just didn't activate it properly... :hmmm:
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/6958/84827741.jpg

(to be continued)

[Falkirion]

I'd figure it wont matter where it sits on that mod list. To lose them I'd go even deeper than you are now. If you've got 200+ feet to play with go as deep as you can. The deeper you are, the harder it is to spot your sub.

But if I was you I'd enable it in port, if you enable it while at sea it might mess up your game.

[mello85]

I got a lucky break with the weather after a huge storm hit soon after I entered the Sea of Japan. The weather must have grounded those persistent little bastards. :yeah:

Anyways, yeah I did install the air patrols mod while in port.

I had no idea that the airplanes in the stock game can spot you when you are submerged. I thought that was only the case in some of the supermods like TMO. I'll try running deep whenever I find myself in a situation like this next time.

Also, I've been looking at some of the screenshots in the screenshots thread and I noticed some people posting images of submarines equipped with more than one AA and deck gun. Is that a mod or some kind of upgrade you recieve in-game? Does it actually let you fire both at the same time?

Thanks for the fast reply!

[WarlordATF]

The more you play the more you will learn the "Routes" that the aircraft use. Also anywhere near a Japanese coastline expect the planes to show up pretty quickly after you surface. I'm not sure on this, but i believe the Japs are using land based radar to guide the aircraft to you if you are near a enemy coast or island. To deal with the aircraft just dive and within 30 mins to an hour and resurface and continue on your way until the next one shows up.

If you can't dive for some reason the tactic i use is to let the plane approach, as it gets about 2 nm away order all ahead full or flank. Then when the plane is about a half mile away apply full rudder towards the aircraft and circle at full/flank while the AA Gunners unload on the aircraft. It can take a little practice to get the timing right, but once you do aircraft will be much less of a concern. In a highspeed turn the aircraft have a much harder time setting up an attack run and there bombs will usually miss.

As for the multiple guns, the stock game will allow 1 deckgun and 2 AA Guns once your given the late war conning tower. 2 deckguns are possible in mods, but you will only be able to control one of them and the AI will control the other. With a good gun crew its worth it, but with a less than average crew its just a waste of ammo.

[Armistead]

I play TMO1.9 with RSRD..Planes are seldom a problem, unless you get in a campaign area. The airbases will show up as black boxes and you can see the traffic go from base to base, so I can steer clear if I want. Overall, I've gone a patrol and seen a few planes, to a battle area and faced the hornest nest. Been chasing the JP large TF during the battle of the philippines for two days. Finally they launched mass planes at me, all most funny, proably 60 all together making one long run at me.

I think TMO RSRD doe's a better job...and like they said...don't let them spot you.

[sergei]

I don't think Websters better air patrols has been enabled properly. I have a feeling you have too many folders in the mod folder. This means JSGME wil not enable the mod properly.
Open up 'Webster's Better Air Patrols for v1.4 and v1.5' folder. Inside that you will see a folder called 'Webster's Better Air Patrols'. THAT is the folder that needs to go into the Mods folder and be enabled.
If the mod is enabled correctly you should only be seeing aircraft every 2 or 3 days (in my experience anyway).

[sergei]

Here's a few screenshots so you can see what I am trying to say.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/4677/air1a.jpg

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1198/air2m.jpg

[Rockin Robbins]

Now if you think about it, as long as you are in range of aircraft, and are dumb enough to get yourself spotted (the judgment of "dumb" is strictly the product of 20-20 hindsight and armchair quarterbacking: admirals' favorite sports http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/RockinRobbins13/smileys/winky.gif), it shouldn't be possible to avoid the aircraft.

All they have to do is draw a couple of circles around the sub's last reported position, one showing max range for surfaced and one for max range submerged in the time for the next plane to show up. It searches in that circle and bam! You're tagged. If you're submerged, you might not be, but they know the max time you can be submerged and have that range plotted as well, so they can cover that area with planes until you pop back up and guess what? Bam! You're still tagged.

In fact, this was the strategy of Admiral Daniel Gallery's Atlantic hunter killer groups, who spelled the end for the U-Boats in their little sashay. Once a U-Boat was spotted it was almost always game over. There was no escape unless bad weather grounded the planes.

[Hydra]

Just curious, why don't planes close by show up in the "next unit" camera view?