2 Gameplay Questions.. (RUB 1.43)..

[Halifax40]

Well I just finished a new first patrol for a new career (started again to utilize SH3 Commander) with the 2nd flotilla, 1939 and the standard VIIB boat. I got hammered in my this recent patrol - not since the dawn of the game for me, have I've ever gotten beaten down this bad by the AI. I had a couple questions along the way, more so just regarding the sonar operator. During the patrol I found one (and only one, explained below) convoy. Juicy fat C3's and C2's and only 3 escorts. Looked like 2 Hunt variants and a Flower Corv. - I didn't bother iding since I wasn't planning on engaging them. With the recommended settings for Rub 1.43, and the fresh crew it was a nightmare. After a failed 1st attempt and against one of the C2's.. I went ahead flank, caught up with it and took another failed attempt at the same C2 in the line (scored not 1.. not 2.. but 3 hits and she kept on truckin') - is when I had a bump with the escorts. These guys weren't allowing me to get away this time.. and in the worst beating I've got since I purchased the game (thank you RUB 1.43), I had ridiculous flooding in almost ALL compartments, and I'm very fortunate that the max depth was 137m at the current location I was at - the E part of the AM grid. And there I sat, on the bottom.. everything off with the crew working to the max fixing everything. Took about 1 hour of real-time (with some compression every now and then) to get everything in control. Went home with a battered crew, both periscopes and the radio antenna were destroyed, and the foward deck gun was destroyed. All in all, most enjoyable patrol I've had yet (went home with only a tug boat, 1200 tonnage count).

In all of this, my sonar operator was tracking targets effeciently, however every single time one of the destroyers or the Flower made an attack run, he never, not once.. called out "depth charges in the water!" like I'm used to. I had to keep jumping on the hydrophone and tracking them all manually to gauge when I should do an evasive manuever and then replot my escape route. It got extremely frustrating, and at one point when I thought I was clear I went Ahead Standard.. and started off for a extension when both destroyers were in my baffles chasing me. I went all stop at the last second to catch them on the hydrophone but it was WAYYY too late. The sonar operator never called out the attack runs and depth charges - and it's not like you can hear them internally.. (only from hydrophone). It must be noted that this sonar operator did not have the "radio" qualification, and neither did the radio operator.. so the sonar compartment was running at almost half effeciency. (can't really get it up to snuff in first patrol). Any thoughts on how come he didn't call out the depth charges? Or is there a certain tracking method that he's limited to in order to call out the depth charges? (track nearest warship, track nearest sound contact.. normal sweep.. etc etc).

My second question is about the distribution of crew throughout the boat. Before a RUB install, using the No_Fatigue mod (doesn't eliminate it, tones it down) I used to only take a crew amount that I could fit into the resting areas. Only 2 cycle crews for the engine rooms (so they would rotate) and whatever else was needed. With the combat stress introduced in RUB, do you find it decent enough to post crews in both engine compartments at all times and have just the machinests and the officer switch back and forth? That way you can fill up on more crew for the stern sleeping area for various torpedo/repair/watch functions?. Having that extra room in the stern sleeping area for various more crew instead of the 2nd engine crew would be a huge advantage for me, instead of limiting it to the sleeping area for one of the engine rotational crews. Could I have your thoughts, and perhaps some of your crew layouts?

In any case, glad to see the AI capitalizing on my mistake. (sorry for the length of my post.. I like and enjoy getting carried away).

[Skweetis]

In response to your second question, I use the Basic1X.cfg file instead for crew fatigue, however I do not play always at 1x. Instead, in the main.cfg (in the My Documents\SH3\ folder) I increased my 3drender from 32 to 1024, so that even at full compression, my crew still fatigues at the 1x rate. The only caution I would use for this method, is to be careful NOT to go above 64x TC in ANY of the 3d screens or periscopes.

It has worked well to my liking and style of play.

James

[Halifax40]

Well I don't always play at 1x either. I usually have it on 1024, or 512 for long traveling.. and 1x for pretty much everything else (tracking, plotting, my routine hydrophone checks)... only sometimes will I use like 4x or something when I've done all proper calculations and I'm just waiting for a ship to cross my 000 gyro angle so I can let loose for my "fast 90" approach - which by the way is the only targeting method I use at the moment. I just find that the crew doesn't fatigue NEARLY as fast (since it's combat stress, instead of fatigue in RUB). Since the resting areas don't benefit combat stress renewal - there's no point in resting say.. an engine crew to get endurance back, it just prevents it. So I could see a slight benefit from rotating crews back and forth to the resting area of for my engine crew ****fting like I used to. Like I said, being able to put more crew in the stern resting compartment for various other tasks would be a HUGE benefit.

Also, I think I might have noticed that the combat stress engine-room wise only increases when the actual engine room compartment is in use. For example, during this patrol I forgot about switching the 1 Petty Officer that doesn't have a machinist qual. So all the sailors and officer and the PO with the qual were switching back and forth but he was not. He remained in the diesel engine room. Now, during all this time of going back and forth and especially during the convoy attack since I was submerged - I noticed he attained combat stress a lot less than did the guys in the electric engine room. I'm wondering if this is actually implemented in RUB.