Air support or friendly ship support

[XenonSurf]

In stock game or with whatever mods, will you ever get air support or support from friendly ships after making a contact with a convoy or task force? I assume that this should sometimes happen after you hit that ship icon in the Mission Order's page, I then get ordered to attack immediately or I get some strange replies sometimes - but no support, even after hours.


And maybe you get such support also in other occasions?



If yes, what are your stories?
Thank you,


XS

[Col7777]

Hi XS, Glad you brought this up, I too have that problem, it seems when I send a report nothing indicates it has been sent.

Col.

[propbeanie]

Stock and most mods, you will get "support", so long as an asset is within range. Aircraft carrier with fighters would have to be within roughly 250nm of your location, and it takes roughly 20 minutes for the spawn and then travel time. We did test this with FotRSU back during roughly the beta v0.80 timeframe. Of course, for a ship to respond, they would have to be much closer. AirBase support would also be forthcoming, if within roughly 600nm, for the long-range planes to respond.

As for the Contact Reports, you have to have a "Group" vessel targeted, and the escorts apparently don't count in this regard. In addition, you have to be within sight of 2 other ships, so that could be the escorts. These three ships have to be reported by your crew with the usual "Ship spotted! Bearing..." The reason for the main group ship being targeted of course, is so that the game can identify whether it is a Task Force, or Convoy, to route the report through the correct logic for you to get an appropriate response back. You should get a response back though, if you have executed the Contact Report correctly, even if it is just to tell you to continue with your orders. A Status Report will also result in a "support" response if within range, but will not elicit a response otherwise, other than to result in the player getting a new assignment if the primarty objectives is already fulfilled.

[XenonSurf]

Thanks Propbearnie, yes, I'm actually able to get that ship icon 'active' and send the report, following the instructions like you say, 3 ships detected minimum when on the surface.

I guess that after 2 hours I can send another similar report for the same group. I will have to check if staying near the group for several hours would bring me in range of some friendly airports or carrier planes, but the fact is: I always get a response after sending a report, yes, but the answer never says it will send air support or similar.


XS

[Havan_IronOak]

If I spot three merchants traveling in convoy, and ID the lead one will that count as spotting a convoy? That's provided that I ID the lead ship...


Would it matter if the lead one was the smallest and the only one that's unarmed?



If I do report a convoy, will my radioman be able to confirm that by receiving a convoy sighting report?

[Bubblehead1980]

So lets face it, we're simulating submarines which for most part operated without support, so it is fairly rare in the sim to get support such as air strikes etc. I think maybe twice in the ten years plus have been in SH 4 have I received air support, both were when carriers were nearby. One was back in stock around time of Leyte Gulf I ran into a TF in philippines, sent contact report. I made my attack, then went deep to evade. I used external cam to watch the depth charges and heard buzzing and ships were firing guns, over couple hours several waves of ineffective planes attacked, it was not bad for stock game. Next time was with RSRD mod, ran into the retreating IJN fleet and sent contact report, a swarm of planes came in( aside from those scripted by lurker) and attacked, they took out a lot of ships, was cool) . Wolfpacks(US version of them) occurred later in war and did do some mutual support (which would have made sense of the devs to model, you know, send a friendly sub to assist sinking a convoy or tf, but they chose not to)

Anyways, point is it was not unusual in real life nor in the sim for subs to have zero support unless happen to be nearby.

[XenonSurf]

So lets face it, we're simulating submarines which for most part operated without support, so it is fairly rare in the sim to get support such as air strikes etc. I think maybe twice in the ten years plus have been in SH 4 have I received air support, both were when carriers were nearby. One was back in stock around time of Leyte Gulf I ran into a TF in philippines, sent contact report. I made my attack, then went deep to evade. I used external cam to watch the depth charges and heard buzzing and ships were firing guns, over couple hours several waves of ineffective planes attacked, it was not bad for stock game. Next time was with RSRD mod, ran into the retreating IJN fleet and sent contact report, a swarm of planes came in( aside from those scripted by lurker) and attacked, they took out a lot of ships, was cool) . Wolfpacks(US version of them) occurred later in war and did do some mutual support (which would have made sense of the devs to model, you know, send a friendly sub to assist sinking a convoy or tf, but they chose not to)

Anyways, point is it was not unusual in real life nor in the sim for subs to have zero support unless happen to be nearby.


Thanks Bubblehead, interesting report, so it shows it's possible to receive assistance, but you need to be lucky apparently which I also did expect, although most of the friendly airports are not very far away at career start in 1941-1942 or so (for example if you start from Manilla until its siege it should have friendly planes), and about friendly carriers, well, I'd be very lucky to see one some day, I think I would follow him on this route for a good while :)


Greetings,
:Kaleun_Salute:XS

[Bubblehead1980]

Thanks Bubblehead, interesting report, so it shows it's possible to receive assistance, but you need to be lucky apparently which I also did expect, although most of the friendly airports are not very far away at career start in 1941-1942 or so (for example if you start from Manilla until its siege it should have friendly planes), and about friendly carriers, well, I'd be very lucky to see one some day, I think I would follow him on this route for a good while :)


Greetings,
:Kaleun_Salute:XS


No problem. Friendly airports seems to operate differently than actual carriers. Depends on the state of war, how things are set up in the air.cfg, the skill level assigned, range etc Bottom line, air support is rare, esp if dont have a carrier nearby and early in war, think can forget it. I know it varies so much, many mods script the air traffic in certain situations, such as I mentioned below about RSRD mod. I just added some air traffic in TMO to simulate PBY's discovering a JF task force leaving Rabaul heading for Empress Augusta Bay on afternoon of 11/1/43. Also added a PBY attacking them at 0130(as per history) and it slows down their transit before engaging in battle around 0300 off the bay. In past have scripted the air strikes on IJN carriers off midway etc in case game does not spawn the planes from carriers because happened to be just out of range etc. Later in war like in RSRD, when it scripts TF 38 in South China Sea in January 1945, if was near a carrier and ran into a TF , could sent contact report and good chance would get an air strike, or if in the central phillippines ran into Kurita's Center Force heading for san bernadino strait, will get air support there(I recall someone positing the story while back) but again, some of the attack is already scripted.

US submarines wise, we can't really get them from contacts reports, but with FOTRS having AI torpedo firing subs, including fleet boats, soon as I can get them working in TMO, there will be scripted wolfpacks later in the war. That is the song and dance of SH 4, players modders doing best with what have(which is a lot more than I once realized) to let this sim be as great as possible. I loved this sim but would have lost interest YEARS ago if not for the community.

[KaleunMarco]

So lets face it, we're simulating submarines which for most part operated without support, so it is fairly rare in the sim to get support such as air strikes etc. I think maybe twice in the ten years plus have been in SH 4 have I received air support, both were when carriers were nearby. One was back in stock around time of Leyte Gulf I ran into a TF in philippines, sent contact report. I made my attack, then went deep to evade. I used external cam to watch the depth charges and heard buzzing and ships were firing guns, over couple hours several waves of ineffective planes attacked, it was not bad for stock game. Next time was with RSRD mod, ran into the retreating IJN fleet and sent contact report, a swarm of planes came in( aside from those scripted by lurker) and attacked, they took out a lot of ships, was cool) . Wolfpacks(US version of them) occurred later in war and did do some mutual support (which would have made sense of the devs to model, you know, send a friendly sub to assist sinking a convoy or tf, but they chose not to)

Anyways, point is it was not unusual in real life nor in the sim for subs to have zero support unless happen to be nearby.
i would have to agree with Bubblehead. his recap of submarine operations is correct and his experience mirrors mine: call it in but don't expect air support.
:Kaleun_Salute:

[Havan_IronOak]

Unfortunately, the only "help" I've gotten from friendly air patrols was during the time I was stationed in Surabaya. More than once I've come across a single fat merchant (in the early war years obviously) and begun to line up an ambush only to be warned of a Radar contact.



AFter starting my dive I find that my sonar guy could no longer find my merchant. Using the external camera I found debris on the water.



I'm guessing that the air contact was a "friendly" though I never spotted him.