completed patrols help please

[moose67]

hey all

i just bought the game and am kicking myself for not buying it years ago.

i have 1 query if someone could help me plz......


i have completed 3 patrols (made a kill on each one) but each time i get back to base and go to the awards screen and hover over the Promotions or Medals section it says "you must complete a patrol"

i am a little confused :)

thx in advance....

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD! :sunny:

When you say you completed the patrols, did you hit Esc and click "Dock At..."?

[moose67]

hi

yes i did........

awaiting your bad news........ :DL


thx

[Brag]

:salute: Welcome aboard, please explain how toy return and end patrol

[moose67]

hi

for the first 2 patrols i acomplished the missions and then pressed return to base

for the third patrol i salied all the way back to base and parked in the uboat pen but i just sat there was no end mission sequence... so i pressed return to base again.

can someone please tell me the correct procedure

thx

[Brag]

OK, Moose.

Return to base, go to the dock where the crowd is and orchestra is playing

Press Escape

You will see the folling choices: continue patrol or

Dock at (name of base)

Click on dock at

You can test it by just sailing out of the harbor

[moose67]

thank you !!

i thought that after i had completd the patrol pressing return to base would just cut out the home journey.. sadly i was wrong....

i have restarted my third patrol from just after where a sank a destroyer and am now sailing home.

this game is awesome. i'm getting more and more sucked in each hour i play. i already lost 1 nights sleep to it ... :D

so glad i jumped on board

thanks you both for the speedy replies.

Ahoy shipmates

[Brag]

Return to base will get you back immediately but you still need to chose the continue patrol or dock at

[Gerald]

:salute: When you return to base, do not forget to drink, Brag's cozy-tea :O:

[frau kaleun]

for the third patrol i salied all the way back to base and parked in the uboat pen but i just sat there was no end mission sequence...

Been there, done that. :damn:

I even backed the boat in so it ended up just like it started. Okay, game, I'm done... here I am, back in the pen... yooooo-hooooo, anybody home? Time for you to end my mission...

*taps mic*

Hello? Is this thing on? :O:

Happens to the best of us. :yep:

[moose67]

still scratching my head...i've tried to end it 4 times now


if i press return to base i am taken straight to the awards screen. i cant see this end mission option anywhere.

do i have to manually sail the boat all the way back to the docks after the mission?

[Brag]

Moose,
Are you on a career?

[frau kaleun]

Are you loading the Single Missions, or playing in Career mode?

If you are in a single mission, the only thing you do is complete the assignment (or not) and then return to base. You haven't created a particular commander "profile" whose career you can play out over a series of patrols in order to get awards and stuff.

In Career mode, you start a career in one of the available flotillas, are given a particular boat and crew, and depart from the flotilla's base with orders to patrol a particular area of the map. When you hit Esc during a career patrol you are given the option to Continue or Dock. Choosing the latter should dock you back in base and end the patrol, after which you will be able to review your patrol logs and manage your crew and see what awards you received if any.

When you play a single mission you are not running a career that will extend over several patrols and get you renown and awards. When you "return to base" from a single mission, it just tells the game you're done playing that mission for now. It's not the same as ending a career patrol, at which time you'd receive whatever renown or awards you had coming and then be set up to start your next patrol.

[moose67]

ok i have found the dock option and have pressed it. i then go to the awards screen and hover over the Promotions and Medals tabs and still it says " You must complete a patrol first"

i have completed the patrol and dock correctly but it still shows this msg in the awards screen??

somebody please explain before my head explodes ;(

[postalbyke]

Re: flak qual
yeppers, having an officer and a petty officer both qualified flak will definitely improve your ability to man that flak gun and kill stuff :D

[Brag]

The word mission was what gave you away during our interrogation. On a career one goes on patrol :yep:

Happy hunting, enjoy your tea and thank Frau Kaleun for her clear explanation of da thing. :rock:

[moose67]

thank you to everyone for replying to me :up:

i will try my upmost to use the correct termonology from now on. :)

i am at point of understanding now as far as the patrols docking and awards + promotions work.

i am still playing on nub mode right now and have the navigator plotting my solutions for me....

.....really looking forward to doing it manually when i have got a better grip on the rest of the game. this game is awesome and it seems as if there is a really good community feel here = win win

will be back real soon no doubt with more stupid questions. :DL


a big THANKS to all

[Brag]

Good hunting, Kaleun Moose :DL

[frau kaleun]

thank you to everyone for replying to me :up:

i will try my upmost to use the correct termonology from now on. :)

i am at point of understanding now as far as the patrols docking and awards + promotions work.

i am still playing on nub mode right now and have the navigator plotting my solutions for me....

.....really looking forward to doing it manually when i have got a better grip on the rest of the game. this game is awesome and it seems as if there is a really good community feel here = win win

will be back real soon no doubt with more stupid questions. :DL


a big THANKS to all

:yeah:

There are no stupid questions, and whatever you do somebody else here has probably already done it nine times over and got all :damn: when they figured out what they were doing wrong. Plus the "manual" that comes with the game is not the most helpful source of info in the known universe (that would be Subsim, lol).

Gute Jagd und fette Beute, Herr Kaleun!

[moose67]

back again...

.........after succesfully completing a patrol is there any kind of penalty or forfeit for using the return to base option instead of manually sailing back to base and then using the dock option ?

cheers :)

[frau kaleun]

back again...

.........after succesfully completing a patrol is there any kind of penalty or forfeit for using the return to base option instead of manually sailing back to base and then using the dock option ?

cheers :)

Not really. There was supposed to be a renown reward for returning all the way to base, in fact it's still listed there in the basic.cfg file, but it doesn't work and never has. So you can hit Esc and teleport back to base any time you like without taking a hit or losing something that you might have gotten otherwise.

Be aware though that if you ever ramp up the Realism to 100%, you will lose that "teleport" option and will not have the option to dock until you have sailed all the way back to base... or within a reasonable distance of it, I think 20-30 km or something like that.

Eventually you may find that sailing all the way back to base each time contributes to immersion and realism, or that you really just enjoy the trip. Some of us do it even though we don't have to, and don't get any special reward for it. When you've been out in the open ocean for several weeks straight, there's a certain euphoria that comes from hearing that first seagull's "caw" or spotting the lighthouse at the harbor entrance and realizing home isn't that far away.

[Snestorm]

I've never seen a "Return To Base" option.
I've never done a "Single Mission".

Are you sure you're in career mode?

If so, don't hover with the mouse.
Left click on something.

Example:
Left Click on Awards.
Left Click a specific Medal.
Those eligle, if any, will be highlighted.
Left click on a highlighted figure.
He will now be shown in the lower center box.
Drag the medal to him, and release.
SH3 will ask "Are you sure?".
Left Click "Yes".

Helpful?

[FIREWALL]

back again...

.........after succesfully completing a patrol is there any kind of penalty or forfeit for using the return to base option instead of manually sailing back to base and then using the dock option ?

cheers :)

Not that I know of moose. And hi and welcome aboard. :salute:

[f4wildweasel]

There are three awards (u-boat badge, U-boat front clasp, and German Cross in Gold) which will only be awarded after going all the way back to your port (You could sink the entire royal navy, but if you teleport back, don't expect these awards). The other medals (iron cross, knights cross etc.) do not have this requirement. I remember looking at my medals book in frustration, wondering why everyone on my boat had the front clasp and the badge, while I, with a knights cross at my throat, still lacked these elementary badges.
Of course, sailing back to port isn't the ONLY requirement for these, you still have to send down some allied tonnage.

[moose67]

thanks everyone for the input :up:

it's a little confusing sometimes with no game manual, especially a game this big. Google normally gets me out of trouble, but sometimes i just can't find a specific answer to my need.

what got me confused was hovering over the promotions and medals tabs and seeing the "You must complete a patrol" msg after i had just returned from one. It made me think that by using the return to base option my patrols were not being registered but really it was just highlighting the fact for information :oops:

@ weasel

thanks for that... to add some weight to what you say ... on my fourth patrol i sailed home and used the dock option and was presented with a front clasp on my return.

i guess i shall have to sail home manually from now on.. :D

setting off on my fifth patrol now...back to Scarpaflow again.. i got mauled last time i was there and they send me back again :cry:


thx again everyone

[moose67]

hey all

just a quickie....

i wanted to understand how the hydrophones worked and downloaded raduz's tutorial....( thx raduz)

after i unpacked it i was presented with the massive wall of test explaining how to use it all.

so now i'm thinking there is way to do the sonar man job manually and i haven't realised yet.

is this correct and if so what key do i need to make it happen please?

cheers all

[Snestorm]

H for Hydrophone.

[moose67]

hi

thanks a lot

i did try that but for some reason it didn't work last night...

...most probable cause was the beer and severe lack of sleep due to this game .....did find it eventually around 4 am time ....:haha:


thx again

[FIREWALL]

There are three awards (u-boat badge, U-boat front clasp, and German Cross in Gold) which will only be awarded after going all the way back to your port (You could sink the entire royal navy, but if you teleport back, don't expect these awards). The other medals (iron cross, knights cross etc.) do not have this requirement. I remember looking at my medals book in frustration, wondering why everyone on my boat had the front clasp and the badge, while I, with a knights cross at my throat, still lacked these elementary badges.
Of course, sailing back to port isn't the ONLY requirement for these, you still have to send down some allied tonnage.

WRONG !!! I teleport back most of the time"99%" when all torps are spent and radio in. I get a return to base message and tele back.

I have all the medals. Dude be sure what your posting is accurate.

[f4wildweasel]

WRONG !!! I teleport back most of the time"99%" when all torps are spent and radio in. I get a return to base message and tele back.

I have all the medals. Dude be sure what your posting is accurate.

Funny. I remember having a career starting in '39, and by mid '43 I was missing all three of those. (had knights cross all the way up, but no badge or clasp). I looked around online and came across the theory that not teleporting would award you those. Sure enough, when I did the long haul back to base, I had a badge awaiting me, then a clasp for my next patrol, then the German cross. Perhaps a change in GWX?

[moose67]

Funny. I remember having a career starting in '39, and by mid '43 I was missing all three of those. (had knights cross all the way up, but no badge or clasp). I looked around online and came across the theory that not teleporting would award you those. Sure enough, when I did the long haul back to base, I had a badge awaiting me, then a clasp for my next patrol, then the German cross. Perhaps a change in GWX?

it is misleading because i had the same experiances as you trying to understand how everything works in the begining...

i used return to base option on my first 3 patrols.....at the awards screen i received no medals and when i hovered over the tabs it shows a box msg saying "you must complete a patrol"

on my fourth patrol i sailed all the way back to base and used the dock option, this time on the award screen i had 2 medals..

so that made me think that i had to sail home manually and use dock to get the awards aswell..

easy enough mistake to make :)

[FIREWALL]

First I apologize for comeing on harsh.

I have been playing SH3 since release and up to and includeing today a minimum of 4 hrs per day.

Use GWX and for a time was a beta tester.

Last night just finished career spanning a career from begining 39 to end of war 45. I scuttled and surrendered.

Played thru out at 100% realism minus external cam for screenshots.

I proud to say I know this game inside out. :D

Thru the whole war a realistic 120,000 tns.

And I have all medals. :yep: And as stated tele'd back to port when out of torps.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Now I am going to install the Encore ver of SH3 pre patched to 1.4 and " NO FREAKIN STARFORCE " and you don't need disc in dvd tray to play. :woot:

With GWX and h.sie's Fantastic realism mod SH3 will now go to a whole new level for the players that want to be a Kptlt. :D

Good Sailing and SINK EM ALL :arrgh!:

[f4wildweasel]

I found the forum post that I looked up oh so many years ago when I was having trouble getting those medals: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/857101043/m/3531032333

idk... maybe they changed it in a patch or a mod and now you can get it even when returning? Maybe it's just a bug that only affects some people?
All I remember was looking at my Knights cross with gold oak leaves swords diamonds, but still no u-boat badge and thinking "this doesn't seem right.."

Anyways, just wanted to get some proof showing that I wasn't just pulling that theory out of thin air.

OR... now that I think about it.. you mentioned you do full realism save external camera. Maybe once you pass a certain realism level the "return to base" requirement for those badges goes away... Idk just a hypothesis.

[frau kaleun]

OR... now that I think about it.. you mentioned you do full realism save external camera. Maybe once you pass a certain realism level the "return to base" requirement for those badges goes away... Idk just a hypothesis.

I was gonna say, I've tweaked things to where I'm always playing at 99% realism, and I've never had any trouble getting the U-boat badge and whatnot in addition to the IC series of medals. Even if I'm not racking up tonnage that gets me started on the Iron Cross track.

In fact I've been tweaking the basic.cfg to make it harder to get the badge, because I was always getting it after the first combat patrol and I prefer to award it to myself and the rest of the crew by using Commander and/or tinkering with my career files at a more historically appropriate time.

If I'm not mistaken the IC medals are awarded based on how high your cumulative "score" is when you return to base after a patrol, whereas getting the badge requires that your renown has increased by a certain amount during a single patrol. I believe that is definitely the case for the rest of the crew. There does seem to be a different way of keeping score when it comes to those awards as opposed to the different levels of the IC.

[moose67]

back again :)

diverting somewhat from where this thread is right now....

..... i have a query with my propellers

i was trying to sail full steam and the boat didnt seem to be as fast as it should. i looked in external cam and noticed only my port side propeller is spinning, i went to take a look inside the helm and both engine telegraphs are showing full speed ??

awaiting instructions.... :hmmm:

thx

[Fish In The Water]

i was trying to sail full steam and the boat didnt seem to be as fast as it should. i looked in external cam and noticed only my port side propeller is spinning...

Press F7 and click on the diesel engine room to check for damage. It sounds as though one of your props may be on the injured list. :damn:

[frau kaleun]

Had you been submerged prior to this?

When you are submerged, you run on batteries which have to be recharged after you surface. As was done in real life, when you surface one of your diesels is uncoupled from your props and altho it's running at whatever setting you ordered all the energy it generates is being used to recharge your batteries and not to turn a prop. Thus you will not get the full speed possible from that setting until your batteries have been recharged.

You can order the chief to put you back on standard propulsion if you absolutely need to make the max speed, but your batteries won't get recharged in that case. This would be bad if you find yourself in a situation where you need to dive and stay down for an extended period of time.

[FIREWALL]

Had you been submerged prior to this?

When you are submerged, you run on batteries which have to be recharged after you surface. As was done in real life, when you surface one of your diesels is uncoupled from your props and altho it's running at whatever setting you ordered all the energy it generates is being used to recharge your batteries and not to turn a prop. Thus you will not get the full speed possible from that setting until your batteries have been recharged.

You can order the chief to put you back on standard propulsion if you absolutely need to make the max speed, but your batteries won't get recharged in that case. This would be bad if you find yourself in a situation where you need to dive and stay down for an extended period of time.


My dollar is bet here. :yep:...:DL

[moose67]

should have bet more dollar.... Frau K is correct..

it all adds up now thankyou :up:

this just gets better and better....

are there any detrements (apart from it being pointless) to being in silent running mode, especially when on the surface using diesel motors.

I am kind of wondering why if a sub can run silent why they don't run in this mode all the time. :hmmm:

thx all

[frau kaleun]

My dollar is bet here. :yep:...:DL

Well when I reread it after posting I saw he said that he looked and only one prop was turning.

I wasn't sure if that's how it worked when recharging, if you had one diesel turning only one prop, or one diesel powering something that should be turning both props only making less speed due to the decrease in power. I've never actually looked (or looked it up), I just always assumed that each diesel only turned the one prop on the same side of the boat cuz that's what made sense to me.

[Fish In The Water]

should have bet more dollar.... Frau K is correct..

Very good, glad your prop wasn't damaged! :yep:

[frau kaleun]

should have bet more dollar.... Frau K is correct..

it all adds up now thankyou :up:

this just gets better and better....

are there any detrements (apart from it being pointless) to being in silent running mode, especially when on the surface using diesel motors.

I am kind of wondering why if a sub can run silent why they don't run in this mode all the time. :hmmm:

thx all

I'm pretty sure that starting up the diesels pretty much takes the "silent" out of "silent running." You might go slower than normal when trying not to be detected on the surface, but that would have more to do with not leaving so much of a wake in a relatively calm sea.

Silent running really refers to making as little noise as possible while submerged to lessen the probability that you will be heard by enemy ships equipped with passive sonar (like your hydrophones). Props turning slowly make less of a disturbance in the water than props turning quickly, and water also conducts the sounds of torpedoes being loaded, tools clanging on equipment. And if the movies are to be believed, human voices.

Does the game even let you rig for silent running on the surface? I guess it might leave you in that mode and prevent repairs being made or tubes being reloaded. But tactically in terms of evading detection, I don't know that it would make any difference. If you're detected on the surface it's going to be visually, at least that's always been my assumption.

Edit: in addition, one of your most valuable assets on the surface is speed. U-boats could outrun most merchants on the surface in order to overtake them and get into firing position (and get away quickly if necessary), and for a while at the beginning of the war they could also outrun a fair number of the armed escorts. If you wanted to rig for anything like "silent running" on the surface you'd be giving up that advantage.

Submerged, lack of speed was one of the biggest disadvantages. It only became an advantage temporarily when going very slowly on purpose to minimize the noise you made caused a much faster and more maneuverable (at the moment) surface vessel to lose track of your position and course.

[moose67]

Very good, glad your prop wasn't damaged! :yep:

haha yes... plenty of time for those things to happen i'm sure.

thx to Frau K again, great explaination.

when my mum asks we what i want for my b/day this year.. a book on Uboats will come the reply :DL

i have always been very very interested ww2 and is pretty much my main hobby in life, but i have over looked the Uboat war until now. i must say i am totally hooked now!

thx all.:salute:

[Fish In The Water]

haha yes... plenty of time for those things to happen i'm sure.

Well if it doesn't happen sooner or later, you're simply not trying hard enough! :03:

[moose67]

Well if it doesn't happen sooner or later, you're simply not trying hard enough! :03:

it happened last night on grand scale....had to crash dive... set the depth to 30 meters and a few seconds later....CRUNCH....i forgot to check the depth :oops:

lesson learned.... no more attacks in shallow water!

could some one tell me briefly what happens if i apply for a transfer to another flotilla please ....

it seems to me that being in flottilla 1 is limiting me to only 1 day patrols.... do i need to join another flotilla to be given longer patrols? also what happens to my boat and crew if i do transfer?

thx in advance :salute:

[frau kaleun]

it seems to me that being in flottilla 1 is limiting me to only 1 day patrols

How? You should be able to stay out as long as you like in career mode. Provided you have the fuel and ammo to make it possible and worthwhile.

If you're talking about the orders to patrol a grid for 24 hours, that doesn't mean you patrol for 24 hours and go home. The Mission Orders part of the game was probably set up that way because in stock you get a renown reward for spending 24 hours on patrol in your assigned grid, but you can do the 24 hours there (or not) and then stay there until your fuel/ammo runs out or go somewhere else if you like.

GWX actually removes the renown reward involved so in that case there's no reason to follow the orders anyway, unless you do it for realism's sake.

[moose67]

hi

I have been staying out longer than just the 24 hours and understand how it all works.... thx :salute:

I had just imagined that the patrols would be more indepth than just "patrol this grid for 24 hours"

I have been out on 13 patrols and was expecting the game to spice things up a bit as the game developed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this system at all. I guess i was just expecting more detailed missions and instructions because thats what i'm used to when i buy a pc game :)

As for transfering to another flotilla what happens when i do this?

i'm guessing it will send me to different parts of the world to patrol (i could be wrong) but i am wondering what would happen to my boat and crew, do i lose or keep them etc etc ?

thanks again

[frau kaleun]

hi

I have been staying out longer than just the 24 hours and understand how it all works.... thx :salute:

I had just imagined that the patrols would be more indepth than just "patrol this grid for 24 hours"

I have been out on 13 patrols and was expecting the game to spice things up a bit as the game developed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this system at all. I guess i was just expecting more detailed missions and instructions because thats what i'm used to when i buy a pc game :)

As for transfering to another flotilla what happens when i do this?

i'm guessing it will send me to different parts of the world to patrol (i could be wrong) but i am wondering what would happen to my boat and crew, do i lose or keep them etc etc ?

thanks again

For more detailed orders and objectives you would have to play the single missions. In career mode you may be assigned a different grid each time out but it's not going to vary from the standard "patrol grid for 24 hours." It may be boring but it is realistic, except for the 24 hours part, in RL a typical patrol might mean weeks of cruising around the same general area.

OTOH the way things are set up in career mode, you do have the freedom to move around at your own discretion, so it's up to the individual player to decide what's more fun and interesting.

There is a mod that will make BdU send you another set of orders at some point in your patrol, mostly they just tell you to patrol a different grid for 24 hours if I'm not mistaken. "Mid-Patrol Mission Orders" I think it's called... someone here will know for sure.

IIRC in GWX the patrol grids you are assigned do vary by flotilla with an accent on historical accuracy, meaning the grids you get with a particular flotilla approximate the kinds of patrol areas real boats from that flotilla were assigned at any given time in the war.

You can also use Commander to select whatever grid you like prior to starting a new patrol.

[moose67]

ok thanks for the info frau K

i realised early on that i had free reign and have stayed out as long as possible on all patrols.

I am just playing through the game on semi realsim at the moment. There is a lot to learn and i am just taking my time to learn the mechanics of the game and more importantly controlling a sub.

I will definitely be looking at the GWX mod i hear you guys talking about so much some time soon.

But for now...1 step at a time...

thanks again

[Sailor Steve]

The "24 hours" thing developed from SH2. In that game (I refuse to call it a sim) they took the First-Person-Shooter approach. The "career" consisted of twenty-one separate missions, each self-contained and each unchanging. In the first you had to go to a certain grid and sink the three escaping Polish destroyers. Then you had to attack a very small convoy. Next you had to sink Royal Oak. In any mission, if you failed you had to do it over. If you died you had to do it over. Only if you fulfilled whatever requirement they made could you go on to the next mission. Some excellent add-ons and replacements were made, most notably Hitman's "Aces Campaign", which added some randomness and of course the excellent "Pacific Aces", which rewrote the game into a very fine US campaign.

When SH3 was still in development in 2004 they announced that the campaign system would be like SH2's except more advanced and variable. The entire community had a conniption fit and swore we wouldn't buy the game. After weeks of unrelenting complaints the devs took a poll and announced they were giving us what we asked for, a career system "like the one in Aces Of The Deep". They also told us the release would be delayed for over six months while they completely stripped out and rewrote the code. The community cheered and announced we would wait for however long was necessary. Apparently a complete rewrite was not totally needed, and the "24-hour requirement" is what was left over from the original system.

Me, I stay at my assigned grid forever, figuring BdU put me there for a reason.

[moose67]

nice little history lesson there ...thx steve :salute:

my tactic has been to sail to the intended grid by the safest (that i think) possibe route, do my 24hr patrol, and then head bak towards any areas where i had seen or killed ship en route. if i had no previous plots i will sail to obvious shipping lanes without straying to far from the route home to base.

seems pretty logical i guess :)


cheers

[moose67]

hey all

a couple of times my RA has recieved a msg about an enemy warship while i have most definitely been at periscope depth.

just wondering how this is happening cus i definitely can't transmit when at periscope depth. is it just a quirk of the game ?

cheers

[Sailor Steve]

I figure that BdU assigned me a grid for a reason. I stay in the grid for two weeks. If I haven't seen an enemy ship I roll a six-sided die. On a 1 I move to an adjacent grid, but no further. After another week I'll move on a 1 or a 2. I might be moved after two weeks, or after eight, all random.

I also send a status report at the same time every day, because that's what they did. Possibility of Allied interception? It happened.

[moose67]

sounds like a good plan steve

i have just started a new patrol and sailed to my grid, i killed a couple of merchants on route (with a bit of a detour) and after spending approx 36 hours in position i got the radio message about an enemy warship.

i decided to sail on a possible intercept course as i feel BdU wants me to have a go at it + i really want to sink a warship :DL

i figured that the course will put me on the way to southern ireland, so if i don't meet my intended target i will head off there where i'm sure to find some targets to sink.