SH4 FOTRSU convoy routes?

[irfanahmed1979]

I'm playing the Asiatic fleet campaign. It's '42 and my boat is now based in Soerabaya (Dutch East Indies). I was given the objective to reach a certain grid near Luzon. After reaching the assigned location the new objective was to sink any enemy shipping. So far I've managed to sink only a sampan (or whatever it's called =200 tons). I need to find some big convoys. The japs are already marching towards Singapore.

[XenonSurf]

You should receive contact reports in regular intervals from the HQ, which will also mark them in red on your map, so watch your radio messages received, they also appear in the Message box. Then draw the approximate route with the ruler and see if you can intercept the convoy or the task force. Once intercepeted, you can send a contact report yourself (it's the ship icon in your objective log), this will work once you are on the surface and have 3 ships in sight, in this case sending this report *can* make the HQ send you air support if friendly ariplanes are in range, and it should also move friendly units towards your position.

Other than received contact reports, you need to find ships for yourself. For doing it there are different strategies, I would not move much with my sub because it depletes my fuel, I would position on 'logical' routes which are routes between ports, important straits where ships must pass etc. Later in the war your radar and sonar ranges will increase, and so you get more contacts, but early in the war this is more difficult like it was in real life for submariners. You have the big advantage that you know about the 'historical' routes that you can follow and which most likely will yield interesting encounters; real skippers only seldom had this information.

You don't need to stay in your operation area delimited by the mission icon on the map, you can go further away, but generally the probability of finding contacts near the mission marker is increased. It's all about tonnage, so sink merchands everywhere you find them. Once your mission is 'Completed', sending a status report will give you new orders with a new operation area.



I hope this helps.
Greetings,
:Kaleun_Salute:XS

[Col7777]

All great info from my mate XS above.

I have made the mistake of not finding anything and moved further away then when I got many miles from my original location there was a convoy in that area.

You could stay put and use the time excel instead of travelling around and see if it generates new traffic, then head for that location.

There was a theory in SH2 that if a Sampan spotted you in passed your location on and before you knew it there was a Destroyer or aircraft looking for you, not sure if that trigger works in SH4 though.

Col.

[XenonSurf]

Generally, when you get near your mission operation area (the mission marker on the map), you will receive additional orders. I recently got "Sink all merchands in xxx' where xxx is the marker's region. This gives you an indirect clue about what is somewhere nearby in your operation area. I didn't find merchands, so I moved 200 miles more North, then after sinking some merchands I got 'mission completed' anyway. So staying in your area is not always necessary.


I still have to find out whether you will actually see historical battles happening if you are at the right place at the right time, e.g. Battle of Midway, Battle of Coral Sea, The Truk Island depart of huge Japonese battleships and carriers towards the Salomon Islands in mid 1942 etc. That would be cool, but I don't know if these historical traffics (also friendly units) are included in the SH4 stock campaign or in mods like TMO or FORTSU etc.



XS

[irfanahmed1979]

Thanks guys

[KaleunMarco]

There was a theory in SH2 that if a Sampan spotted you in passed your location on and before you knew it there was a Destroyer or aircraft looking for you, not sure if that trigger works in SH4 though.

Col.

this is not a theory...it is a truth.
any time you are spotted by any enemy craft, you should expect to bevisited by a patrol craft either by sea or air.

now, having said that, there may not be an asset nearby to show up and ruin your whole day. but you should expect it.

best advice: stay away from sampans, fishing boats, crab boats, whatever.
also, should probably mention this: some of them will shoot at you, if they close on your position, which is another good reason to steer clear of them. good luck.
:Kaleun_Salute:

[KaleunMarco]

I'm playing the Asiatic fleet campaign. It's '42 and my boat is now based in Soerabaya (Dutch East Indies). I was given the objective to reach a certain grid near Luzon. After reaching the assigned location the new objective was to sink any enemy shipping. So far I've managed to sink only a sampan (or whatever it's called =200 tons). I need to find some big convoys. The japs are already marching towards Singapore.

think about using the Mission Editor to look at the convoy routes during the various phases of the war. in early 42, you can use the 41b and 42a convoys files. check it out.
good luck.
:Kaleun_Salute:

[XenonSurf]

think about using the Mission Editor to look at the convoy routes during the various phases of the war. in early 42, you can use the 41b and 42a convoys files. check it out.
good luck.
:Kaleun_Salute:


I have tried to launch the mission editor which is located in my main game directory, it launches, but when I chose to open a FOTRSU single mission it crashes. Same if I launch it as Admin.

[irfanahmed1979]

Thanks Marco!

[KaleunMarco]

I have tried to launch the mission editor which is located in my main game directory, it launches, but when I chose to open a FOTRSU single mission it crashes. Same if I launch it as Admin.

that shouldnt happen.

[XenonSurf]

that shouldnt happen.


Problem solved.

I found out it happens when you try to open a *.mis file which is not in the default location, or if you didn't create a mis file before in a folder that gets tracked by the editor. (I went into the MODS folder to open the mis file, this didn't work.)
Opening the mis file directly in Data\SingleMissions\... works fine.




XS

[propbeanie]

The ME "reads" the Roster and associated Air, Land, Sea and Submarine folders, and anything that is not "defined" there is an "error" as far as the ME is concerned, and will crash it, or at the very least, lock it up tighter than a drum... whatever "tighter than a drum" is... :roll: - but your ME, whatever folder you open it in, has to match the file you are opening. :salute: