RSRDC_TMO_V502 career question

[p.jakub88]

Hello everyone,

i just started my Pacific career using the RSRDC_TMO_V502 mod, i am currently on my 3rd patrol.

However, i received an objective that i don't fully understand:

"Deploy to position 2830N 1273E by 150 nm (130 nm NNW of Okinawa) for 96 hours. Conduct anti-shipping operations in the East China Sea shipping lines. Make reports to higher authority as necessary".

I reached the position 2830N 1273E and i sunk 3 fishing boats (600 tons total) using deck gun in the area named East China Sea. Does this mean that i need to patrol/wait 96 hours within 150 nm of my current position?

I am running out of fuel and i don't want to stay in enemy waters longer than absolutely necessary. The nearest allied port is Darwin in Australia (i started patrol at Midway), so maybe i will manage to reach it at 1/3 speed.

English is not my native language (i am living in Poland), but those objectives are unclear for me. Could anyone explain it to me? Thank You in advance for reply and sorry for such dumb question.


Jakub

[propbeanie]

Stay within the boundary set (150nm) for 96 hours straight, which is four days. You can draw yourself a circle with the compass on your Nav Map to help out with that. I do not recall off the top of my head what the most fuel efficient speed in RSRDC is, but usually somewhere between Ahead 2/3 and Ahead Standard...

[p.jakub88]

Stay within the boundary set for 96 hours straight, which is four days. I do not recall off the top of my head what the most fuel efficient speed in RSRDC is, but usually somewhere between Ahead 2/3 and Ahead Standard...

Hello,

Thank You for the Quick answer. Meantime i figured it out - they should write objectives more clearly (like within x nm).

I am using Ahead Standard in friendly Waters or when chasing lone merchant ships.

I am using Ahead 2/3 on enemy Waters or when low on fuel.

So far it fitted well for the gameplay. There are some enormous distances in the Pacific Ocean ;)

[propbeanie]

Look at lurker's ReadMe files in the mod, and see if he mentions anything about "efficient speed" or anything of that nature. Else, be bound by what ducimus has in the TMO ReadMe files...

When lurker says things like that "... position 2830N 1273E by 150 nm ...", he is defining the size for the patrol area, with the position being the center of a circle that is 150nm in size.

[Bubblehead1980]

Hello everyone,

i just started my Pacific career using the RSRDC_TMO_V502 mod, i am currently on my 3rd patrol.

However, i received an objective that i don't fully understand:

"Deploy to position 2830N 1273E by 150 nm (130 nm NNW of Okinawa) for 96 hours. Conduct anti-shipping operations in the East China Sea shipping lines. Make reports to higher authority as necessary".

I reached the position 2830N 1273E and i sunk 3 fishing boats (600 tons total) using deck gun in the area named East China Sea. Does this mean that i need to patrol/wait 96 hours within 150 nm of my current position?

I am running out of fuel and i don't want to stay in enemy waters longer than absolutely necessary. The nearest allied port is Darwin in Australia (i started patrol at Midway), so maybe i will manage to reach it at 1/3 speed.

English is not my native language (i am living in Poland), but those objectives are unclear for me. Could anyone explain it to me? Thank You in advance for reply and sorry for such dumb question.


Jakub



Draw a circle circle 150 NM around the "star" on the map, stay within that circle for 96 hours, the star should change to colors to black/light gray and your lob will say objective complete. Also, must sink shipping and the tonnage requirement is usually that of one mid sized freighter. Few fishing boats wont get it.

Youre running TMO also, so ahead 2/3 will get you the most range. Use bridge tool bar which has "range to end" "max range at speed" use this at various speeds and youll get your best range.


Sometime I patrol different areas than RSRD assigned because I've learned for whatever reason you are often assigned to dead areas, esp in later war. Assigned to some areas, will look in the traffic files and seebarely any traffic. I am working on an upgrade and its one of the things I plan to change.


Also, not sure if are aware but you can't end patrol at Darwin, only get fuel, then will have to travel all way back to homeport(Midway or Pearl?)

May be worth it to just head home, end patrol and begin a new one.

[p.jakub88]

Hello Bubblehead1980 and propbeanie,

first of all thank You for Your replies, those info provided was very helpful!


I read both readmes (from TMO and RSRDC) few times to learn about mods features, changes, etc.

OK, so i fulfilled the previous objective on East China See (beside 3 fishing boats i sunk also 1 merchant ship of almost 4000 tons - so in total 4600 tons).

Then i sailed to Darwin where i re-fueled and re-armed my submarine.


Suddenly i received another objective to sail to Molucca Sea:

"Deploy to the Molucca Sea..." (i completed this part of the objective - i got a confirmation message)


However, i don't understand the second part of the message:

"...and conduct anti-shipping operations within 50 nm of 01S 1126E for 36 hrs".

The problem is that in this location (0'1S and 112'6E) is located BORNEO.

I must understand it wrongly or there is some typing errors in that order.


EDIT:

OK, i figured it out. The location coordinates are as follows: 1S 126E (so there was a typing error).
As suggested by Bubblehead1980 i sunk 1 ship (tonnage ~4200 tons) and i completed the objective :).

Then i received another objective to go to 0130N 11930E, that means 1'30 N 1930E and perform anti-shipping patrol within 80 nm during 72 hrs.

I wonder, why those map coordinates given in objectives messages were written in such confusing manner?

I wonder also, if those new objectives ever finished, so i could finally return to my home base at Midway?

Thank You in advance for reply!

[propbeanie]

Especially in RSRDC, but also most other mods, and the stock game, when you radio a Status Report or Contact Report, there's a little "chance" routine that the game runs. it checks to see where you are located and if there are any Dynamic Campaign missions nearby, and what their "probability" percentage is set at. So if a mission has "within 2000km" for a parameter, and you're within 1500km, and the percentage chance says 50%, you stand a one in two chance of being assigned another mission. Some of those missions are set to 100%, some to 10%, and all the numbers between, so if you don't want to get another assignment, don't make radio contact. Either that, or just go home. I don't know of any mods that penalize you for skipping these "extra" missions.

You will find typos in the stock game, as well as all the mods. It's human nature to make mistakes. I wouldn't doubt if there weren't some erroneous assignments give with bad co-ordinates it real life also... :o Follow the stars, and hope for the best :salute:

[p.jakub88]

Hello propbeanie,

thank You for the detailed and comprehensive answer i will keep this info in mind for future when playing career in Sh 4.

If i could i would give You and Bubblehead1980 +REP, both of You were very helpful to me.

This is so far the best sim game that i played with excellent mods like TMO and RDRSC :).


During my Pacific career i had some funny engagements with enemy merchant ships: for example when i failed to sink a 4000 tons merchant ship with 6 torpedoes (all of them missed the ship by few meters; i know i am a terrible gunner ;)) i engaged him with my deck gun and fired into him dozen of armor piercing and HE shells slowing him down and converting into Swiss cheese :). Finally the poor bastard was sunk by a single torpedo, while the other was a dud.

I also cut another merchant ship in half by an underwater torpedo explosion under his keel, that was quite a sight to see ;). However, i am still in 1942 year in my career (i started in June 1942 after Midway battle), so the torpedoes are highly unreliable. To be honest, i scored most of my kills so far using deck gun, lol :). I watched a video on Youtube about the "Torpedo Scandal" in US Navy during the Pacific war and i was shocked about all those facts. Earlier i thought, that the torpedoes malfunction rate represented in SH4 mods are too high, now i know that it is historically accurate.

[propbeanie]

ducimus did a lot of research for TMO. lurker probably even more for RSRDC. However, as has been mentioned by many SubSimmers, TMO is more of a "difficulty" mod, making the game more challenging. RSRDC tried to model the merchant traffic of the time period, based on historical data. Bubblehead1980 is trying to add his own flavor to the TMO / RSRDC mix, so watch for him to have his idea of the "perfect mix" shortly, and Bleiente has already released his idea of such in "Ralles RealModPack for TMO_RSRDC_OTC (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2394280&postcount=1)". This is the great thing about SubSim: If you don't quite like a given mod, and don't feel you have the skill to mod, wait a while and someone will come along with a change for you... :subsim:

I'm going to have to do some digging to find them again, but if you like the Quick Mission idea in the game, cdrsubron7 has a set of them for TMO/RSRDC in the download section. Excellent stuff. I have a tendency to lose track of time in them... That was easy enough: tambor198's TMO+RSRDC missions pack (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1425)...

[p.jakub88]

This is the actual mod list enabled in my SH4 (see attached picture).

Those mods work well together in the career mode as far as i played and i am satisfied of them.

TMO makes the game more challenging by i.e increasing torpedoes malfunction and ship sinking times.

I am enjoying my RSRDC career as well - being currently on my 3rd patrol.

[p.jakub88]

I finally returned from my 3rd patrol in my career. It was a very long one: i leaved Midway on 23 August 1942 and returned back on 18 October 1942 sinking 30000 tons of enemy merchant shipping. Of course i re-fueled and re-armed my submarine few times. I fulfilled 1 main objective and 3 others received from high command. For my achievements i received the Navy Cross. :salute:

However, i received only about 2000 renown points - is that normal in RSRDC? :hmmm:
I am playing on 100% difficulty level. I am asking, because i want to recruit new crew member with special ability which costs 3000 renown. Is there possible to accumulate renown points through various patrols or this won't sum up?
How can i check the ratings of my finished patrols? To be promoted, the player need to finish certain numbers of patrols on certain ratings (i.e Good).

I noticed also, that some enemy merchant ships were armed, so engaging them on surface was dangerous - does this feature comes with RSRDC mod or is already present in stock game?

Thank You in advance for response.

[propbeanie]

There is always an element of "danger" in surface engagements, that gets worse as the war progresses, including stock. It is advisable to avoid surface engagements...

Most of the primary mission will earn 150-300 points, and ships sunk earn similar. The game sometimes mis-counts though... You can check the record in the office at the end of the patrol.

[Bubblehead1980]

There is always an element of "danger" in surface engagements, that gets worse as the war progresses, including stock. It is advisable to avoid surface engagements...

Most of the primary mission will earn 150-300 points, and ships sunk earn similar. The game sometimes mis-counts though... You can check the record in the office at the end of the patrol.


Something I am adjusting at some point(already have on some important targets such as tankers), renown awarded is pretty low.

[p.jakub88]

Most of the primary mission will earn 150-300 points, and ships sunk earn similar. The game sometimes mis-counts though... You can check the record in the office at the end of the patrol.

I am just before starting my 4th war patrol in my career.

However, i wasn't able to find the ratings of my finished patrols - maybe i looked in wrong places? I checked the Career History (Captain's Log) which shows all the ships that i sunk with details (tonnage, length, etc), but nothing about the patrol ratings (no words like "Good", etc.).

Does the renown points accumulates through career or it is not transferable to the next patrol?

How to lock the target (ship) for the crew of the deck gun? Is there any key shortcut for it?
The game refers to "binoculars" to use for locking the target for the deck gun crew - does it mean TBT?

Quote: "LOCKS THE SELECTED TARGET FOR THE DECK GUN CREW IN THE BINOCULAR VIEW. IF CREWED, THE GUNNERS WILL BEGIN TO ENGAGE THE TARGET WITH THE PROPER WEAPON".
I have always "SET AS TARGET FOR DECK GUN OR AA CREW" button grey (inactive) even when looking directly at enemy ship through TBT.

Sorry for the numbers of questions, but i wasn't able to find my answer in the game's manual or TMO and RSRDC readmes.

Thank You in advance for the response!

[propbeanie]

Generally, use your mouse scroll wheel while on the bridge in a normal view mode, or hit the tab key while there, and you'll get the binoculars. You'll see a little crosshair in it. Point that at the target by either moving around with the mouse or the arrow keys, and press your space bar while "on target" and it has turned red. This is also part of the technique you will use to "pick-up" downed pilots in the Life Guard missions. Be careful what you're pointing at when you hit that space bar... You do it while looking at the Mighty Mo and you're liable to instigate a friendly fire incident...

The renown points are supposed to stay with you for your entire career. I'm not sure if the Captain's Log Book in the base office has anything other than a running total of your total tonnage sunk, along with the ship names divided by patrol... it's been a while since I paid much attention to those details...

[p.jakub88]

Generally, use your mouse scroll wheel while on the bridge in a normal view mode, or hit the tab key while there, and you'll get the binoculars. You'll see a little crosshair in it. Point that at the target by either moving around with the mouse or the arrow keys, and press your space bar while "on target" and it has turned red. This is also part of the technique you will use to "pick-up" downed pilots in the Life Guard missions. Be careful what you're pointing at when you hit that space bar... You do it while looking at the Mighty Mo and you're liable to instigate a friendly fire incident...

The renown points are supposed to stay with you for your entire career. I'm not sure if the Captain's Log Book in the base office has anything other than a running total of your total tonnage sunk, along with the ship names divided by patrol... it's been a while since I paid much attention to those details...


Thank You for the quick response! :up:

I succesfully ordered my deck gun crew to attack a ship that i selected in binocular view. In my opinion, the info how to do that should be written in the TMO manual since there is no such feature in the stock game. So far i never attacked a friendly ship - it reminds me of an army core training film that i saw on Youtube, about how to identify the Mitsubishi Zero fighter and the differences between the Zero and P40 :).

I noticed, that the accuracy of the deck gun crew depends on their skills. Actually i prefer to operate the deck gun myself - unless i will have better trained deck gun crewmen available, but when i order my men to use it instead of me i could shift to another job (i.e. setting the submarine course on the naval map).

The Captain's Log Book in the base office consists of the list of completed patrols with details about ships sunk, departure and return date from patrol (month + year + hour). However, there is no info provided about the "patrol rating".

I wonder also, why i hardly ever encountered any enemy ships in my RSRDC career so far?
In example i sailed through a narrow strait passing Rabaul, a strong Japanese base at that time in New Britain, but i saw only enemy planes above me no ships at all. Isn't enemy suppose to resupply such important strategic place? I heard, that during the war in the Pacific Japanese put a huge effort to build and resupply that base which was only attacked by air. Does this mean, that in the RSRDC the spawning of enemy ships is random rather than historical? Maybe i passed them by only by few miles.

Thank You in advance for response to my question!

[p.jakub88]

Hello everyone,

according to the TMO manual, the mod made some changes of the submarine's deck gun.

For which part of the enemy merchant ship i need to aim to sunk it or at least slow it down?

Which ammo to choose: HE or Armor piercing?

When i tried to recruit new crewman to my submarine (being in base before beginning my next patrol), the game says - that there are to many officers already.
What is the max number of officers, that i could have on my submarine? I am currently have a Balao class submarine type (upgraded Gato).

Thank You in advance for response! :)

[propbeanie]

For the most part, you'd want to use Armor Piercing, but you don't have a lot of that. "Aiming" for a particular location is an exercise in futility from most distances. If you're close enough, the waterline. TMO tuned the deck guns effectiveness down, on purpose, so that a player wouldn't be so tempted to use it, except as a last resort. TMO is a difficulty mod. Another thing to remember about a deck and the Merchants is that if you can hit them, they can hit you... Their "platform" is more stable than yours, just due to the size of the vessel. The best way to "slow down" a surface vessel that is "out in front of you", is to "track it". Figure out what its base course is, then do an end-around on the surface and get in front of it. Plan the attack, and put a torpedo or two into it.

As for the officers on board, that was changed a bit in TMO, but is still not quite correct, but there is a mod out there that lets you choose, but it's probably not compatible with TMO / RSRDC. Editing it to fit shouldn't be real difficult, you just have to watch the differences in the crew slots...

Crew Rank Fix (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=1685433#post1685433)

read the whole thread.

[p.jakub88]

For the most part, you'd want to use Armor Piercing, but you don't have a lot of that. "Aiming" for a particular location is an exercise in futility from most distances. If you're close enough, the waterline. TMO tuned the deck guns effectiveness down, on purpose, so that a player wouldn't be so tempted to use it, except as a last resort. TMO is a difficulty mod. Another thing to remember about a deck and the Merchants is that if you can hit them, they can hit you... Their "platform" is more stable than yours, just due to the size of the vessel. The best way to "slow down" a surface vessel that is "out in front of you", is to "track it". Figure out what its base course is, then do an end-around on the surface and get in front of it. Plan the attack, and put a torpedo or two into it.

As for the officers on board, that was changed a bit in TMO, but is still not quite correct, but there is a mod out there that lets you choose, but it's probably not compatible with TMO / RSRDC. Editing it to fit shouldn't be real difficult, you just have to watch the differences in the crew slots...

Crew Rank Fix (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=1685433#post1685433)

read the whole thread.


Hello,

thank You for the very quick reply and provided link!

According to the thread, it seems, that the Crew Rank Fix mod is not compatible with TMO, only with RSRDC alone.

Maybe i will try to edit some lines using Notepad as suggested in the thread, to make a realistic max number of officers on board my submarine according to the numbers found in the Crew Rank Fix mod.

[propbeanie]

Man, I hate blowing up a post... had most of a reply done, and did something and ended up back at the site's menu, and no amount of "Back" did anything to get my post back... ouch... heavily edited version follows: :lol:

When doing edits along these lines, it's best to make a JSGME compatible mod that can be easily removed if some screws up. Make yourself a working directory, and I'll say that you name it "MyModExperiments". Below that, make another folder, and we'll call it "MyCrewFixMod". Below that folder, make a "Data" folder. Below it, make a "Submarine" folder. Go over into the mod you downloaded, and copy all the submarine folders under the Submarine folder there, and then paste those into your Submarine folder. Opening a 2nd Explorer window is the easiest. Each of those submarine folders has a like-named UPC file in them. The files in the folders that you just created are the ones you'll do the editing to. That way, your game files stay the same, and the mod files stay the same... If you really get into it, check out the files in the "Game Folder \ Data \ UPCData \ UPCCrewData" at some of those files... Just be sure that you back everything up!...

When you get finished with your edits, put the "MyCrewFixMod" folder into the MODS folder of your game, and use JSGME to enable it. See how you did. Something blows up on you? Exit and use JSGME to disable the mod, and then try to find your mistake(s). You can use WinMerge to help you with reconciling the downloaded mod's Sub UPC files with the TMO / RSRDC versions...

[p.jakub88]

Following the suggestions found in the Crew Fix mod thread i made changes in my TMO mod folder in each submarine *.upc file and everything works fine - no more error messages about too many officers on board. :)

However i have another question, which i asked lurker_hlb3 via PM about RSRDC:

I wonder, why i hardly ever encountered any enemy ships in my RSRDC career so far? In example i sailed through a narrow strait passing Rabaul, a strong Japanese base at that time in New Britain, but i saw only enemy planes above me no ships at all. Isn't enemy suppose to resupply such important strategic place? I heard, that during the war in the Pacific Japanese put a huge effort to build and resupply that base which was only attacked by air. Does this mean, that in the RSRDC the spawning of enemy ships is random rather than historical? Maybe i passed them by only by few miles.

Beside that one, during one of my career patrols i sunk 4 ships (ca. 6000 tons total) using deck gun and i received only 500 renown. Does it mean, that by sinking enemy ships using torpedoes the player receives more renown?

I will also probably download and enable over TMO the "Webster's Upgraded Deck Gun for v1.5", because the TMO deck gun seems to be too weak - i needed dozens of HE and AP shells to sink a small 80 tons wooden sampan from a point-blank range. In real life, the ship would be blown up into smithereens. Maybe that was a camouflaged Yamato battleship? ;).

During this particular patrol i even crashed into an enemy merchant ship during storm (dense fog, high waves, overcast and wind 15 m/s, visibility for about 100 m), but my submarine's hull wasn't damaged at all (i even heard the sound of metal crushing). We sailed side by side for quite a long time. I don't think, that this is realistic at all.

Thank You in advance for reply!

[propbeanie]

lurker will come visit every now and then, but isn't very active. He is mostly retired.

TMO is a difficulty mod, the idea being to make it to where a sub skipper wouldn't arbitrarily do surface attacks, and the IJN is more determined to find your submarine. Hence the weak deck gun, and a penchant for the DD to find you easier at times. RSRDC is lurkers attempt at an historical approach to traffic. He put a lot of research into his effort, but there just isn't any way to get every fly on the wall in its proper place, plus the fact that the stock game has too much traffic in several areas, and completely ignores others. I haven't compared stock to RSRDC to Real Life, because it's all just an illusion anyway. He was left with a decision of "good enough", or put more time and effort into it. He did not model every ship at every location, much less every convoy. I don't think he concentrated much on harbor traffic, spending most time on the inter-harbor traffic. It was very seldom that a US skipper would take his boat and crew into a harbor area anyway, where they could be trapped rather easily...

As for bumping hulls with the Merchant, there are issues with the game's "collision detection" at certain angles. We've seen ships back into each other and actually appearing to "merge" their vessels into one, while not incurring any damage. As soon as one of them attempts to go forward though, explosions, smoke and fire shortly follow. Your boat's hull integrity might be changed by both mods, I don't know, but if the hull integrity was turned up, it was probably to counter a strengthening of the depth charges, either in their destructive force, or their zone of damage, or maybe both. That way, your sub gets shaken more by depth charges, but not as easily destroyed. Since the intention is for you to not do surface engagements... :salute: - For clues, read through the ReadMe files in TMO and RSRDC. Both ducimus and lurker freely discussed their approaches to the game.

[p.jakub88]

lurker will come visit every now and then, but isn't very active. He is mostly retired.

TMO is a difficulty mod, the idea being to make it to where a sub skipper wouldn't arbitrarily do surface attacks, and the IJN is more determined to find your submarine. Hence the weak deck gun, and a penchant for the DD to find you easier at times. RSRDC is lurkers attempt at an historical approach to traffic. He put a lot of research into his effort, but there just isn't any way to get every fly on the wall in its proper place, plus the fact that the stock game has too much traffic in several areas, and completely ignores others. I haven't compared stock to RSRDC to Real Life, because it's all just an illusion anyway. He was left with a decision of "good enough", or put more time and effort into it. He did not model every ship at every location, much less every convoy. I don't think he concentrated much on harbor traffic, spending most time on the inter-harbor traffic. It was very seldom that a US skipper would take his boat and crew into a harbor area anyway, where they could be trapped rather easily...

As for bumping hulls with the Merchant, there are issues with the game's "collision detection" at certain angles. We've seen ships back into each other and actually appearing to "merge" their vessels into one, while not incurring any damage. As soon as one of them attempts to go forward though, explosions, smoke and fire shortly follow. Your boat's hull integrity might be changed by both mods, I don't know, but if the hull integrity was turned up, it was probably to counter a strengthening of the depth charges, either in their destructive force, or their zone of damage, or maybe both. That way, your sub gets shaken more by depth charges, but not as easily destroyed. Since the intention is for you to not do surface engagements... :salute: - For clues, read through the ReadMe files in TMO and RSRDC. Both ducimus and lurker freely discussed their approaches to the game.

Hello propbeanie,

thank You for the detailed answer.

I appreciate lurker's work, so i see that his mod is in fact historical at some degree.

In addition i downloaded the "Webster's Upgraded Deck Gun for v1.5" to resolve the problem with too weak deck gun in TMO mod, which was frustrating in my opinion. So far the effects are realistic - still You need many shots to sunk i.e a medium-sized merchant ship, but not so many as earlier. I tested the 50% version of his mod (Webster's Upgraded Deck Gun v2).

[propbeanie]

In the end, it's the player's decision, and if you like it, it's good... :salute:

[p.jakub88]

I recently started a new RSRDC career with some additional mods enabled, beside the ones that i am already using.

I just finished my second war patrol. I sunk as much as 26 ships (!) with total tonnage above 50000 tons :up:. My first objective was to sail to East China Sea and patrol it during 72 hrs - on the way there i sunk a merchant ship. In East China Sea itself i sunk dozen of small fishing boats and one merchant ship.

After i completed this main objective i received another one to sail close to Singapore and patrol for 96 hours. On the way there i sunk another merchant ship plus one in my patrol area. Being low on fuel and torpedoes i decided to sail to Darwin in Australia.
On the way there is sunk another merchant ship. After i re-fueled and re-armed in Darwin i sailed back to my home base at Midway. Passing West New Guinea and all the straits on the way i sunk another merchant ship. The last one i sunk nearby Palau Islands (Peleliu). Unfortunately, i was spotted later by enemy Small Subchaser near entrance to the Wake Island harbor and my submarine was seriously damaged by depth charges - even when i dived to 250 feet and run in Silent Mode. So i needed to load my last save ;).

Finally i returned to Midway after all those weeks on sea.

So, based on my RSRDC career experience (late Summer/Autumn 1942), i must say that most enemy ships could be encountered close to the islands coasts (Borneo, New Guinea, Philippines, etc.), or less frequently in open sea on important shipping lines (i.e. East China Sea). I saw also enemy merchant ships moored in some harbors, but i couldn't attacked them due to the very shallow waters there (when on periscope depth the depth under keel was even only 4 feet).

I hope, that this info will help other users of the RSRDC mod to score more ship kills when on patrol :).

[scar3tactics]

I was having similar feelings about RSRD until I really started using the shipping map to plan my patrols. Before I would just go to the star and stay close to it, now I've learned where the main routes are and that staying closer to shore/islands tends to yield better results. With those changes I just had a mid 1943 patrol where I put 10 merchants on the bottom.

What I'm noticing now is that I get lots of single merchants but no convoys. I understand that there wasn't much of a convoy system in place before late '43, but looking at old war patrols even before then a lot of the encounters I see mentioned involve at least small (3-4 ship) convoys. I was considering going back to the career that comes with TMO, but looking at those campaign layers, historically active hubs like Palau and Truk seem almost completely devoid of convoys. I like the realism of the RSRD shipping lanes, and definitely want to keep the historic invasion forces. But it would be nice if the small convoys were given the same treatment as lone merchants and occurred with some more frequency and randomness (like the TMO layers)

[Bubblehead1980]

I was having similar feelings about RSRD until I really started using the shipping map to plan my patrols. Before I would just go to the star and stay close to it, now I've learned where the main routes are and that staying closer to shore/islands tends to yield better results. With those changes I just had a mid 1943 patrol where I put 10 merchants on the bottom.

What I'm noticing now is that I get lots of single merchants but no convoys. I understand that there wasn't much of a convoy system in place before late '43, but looking at old war patrols even before then a lot of the encounters I see mentioned involve at least small (3-4 ship) convoys. I was considering going back to the career that comes with TMO, but looking at those campaign layers, historically active hubs like Palau and Truk seem almost completely devoid of convoys. I like the realism of the RSRD shipping lanes, and definitely want to keep the historic invasion forces. But it would be nice if the small convoys were given the same treatment as lone merchants and occurred with some more frequency and randomness (like the TMO layers)


Convoys in RSRD are not randomly generated, they are spawned once on specific dates and times with specific ships. Lurker used historic records to create the convoys, they follow the shipping lanes used, shift with time and phases of the war etc. Convoys are smaller because japanese ran small convoys mostly, ran a few larger ones late in 44 and into 45.

Over time some shipping lanes became untenable due to submarine attack, such as the Bungo Suido-Palau , which is quite active in late 42, throughtout 1943 in the sim but after March or so of 44 convoys quit running that route as they did in real life.Around October November 1944, North South South China Sea/East China Sea traffic shifts close to coast of china.

I'm working as we speak on upgrading RSRD. Adding new ships, missing convoy traffic in some area.Eliminated unescorted ships in late 43- end of war except for occasional small coastal merchant, when they started running convoys. Little ridiculous to see a lone merchant sailing high seas in 1944. Also toning down the rate of spawn among singles before that, Spawn a little too frequently. Various other aspects will be upgraded as well.


RSRD can be a challenge because you do have to work to find targets. Example was a career I started.I went to South China Sea in October 1943 expecting a shooting gallery and after nearly 3 weeks on patrol, only sunk a submarine I encountered and dove to avoid patrol planes.l I decided to patrol 80 miles to east of where I was, boom ran into 3 convoys in about a 6 days. The lane shifts to where I was in 1944 but in 1943 it was different.


Hang in there, it's a lot of fun once figure out where to go.

[scar3tactics]

Convoys in RSRD are not randomly generated, they are spawned once on specific dates and times with specific ships. Lurker used historic records to create the convoys, they follow the shipping lanes used, shift with time and phases of the war etc. Convoys are smaller because japanese ran small convoys mostly, ran a few larger ones late in 44 and into 45.

SNIP

Oh I'm aware of that, and that's part of why I love it, but like you point out there are missing convoys. I know they're there and I think part of it is that it makes the game very dependent on where you get sent at what time, which is clearly realistic, but it would be nice if there was a little more leeway. For instance if I get sent to Palau in late '43 I would expect to hit a convoy, but if I'm a week or so off, then I strike out, even though I'm in a high traffic area at the right time of the war. Again I know that's realistic, but I guess I'm looking for a happier medium between gameplay and realism. TMO's default campaign seems like a good balance, but with no traffic at all around some high volume islands, the routes just feel a little off...

And don't get me wrong I love both of these mods. I think the beautifully accomplish what they set out to do. I'm just voicing my vision of a perfect campaign mod. Since I'm no modder, I'm perfectly happy with what I've got (though I may tweak my campaign orders so that I'm not spending all of 1943 in the Sea of Japan).

[propbeanie]

lurker is a master at the campaign layers. He will (it seems to me anyway) purposefully send you to a "dead" area, and then tempt you with nearby traffic to leave it, prolonging your "Objective's completion". Then, if you call in with an update, you'll be sent somewhere else, and almost always run across something enroute... He's "sneaky" like that... He uses time and distance in the game with aplomb. Read some of the WW2 skippers books, and see how many times that similar happened to them. "You are not to leave your area, since the 'Logger's Wolves' are patrolling just to your South, and the 'Free Bombing' area is just to your North." I just finished Thunder Below again... :lol: