Departure with band&nurses or in subpen?

[Rubini]

Hi guys,

I read in another thread about historical early war departures with all that party (band, beautiful nurses and applause). But in middle/late war the departure becomes more 'secret", so no more parties and only into subpens. If this is true it's easy to adjust in HT/RUB. What do you think? Somebody here have more info?

Rubini.

[deckard]

great!, i was thinking about removing it in my mod, however my reason was to improve performance. (its not fun to leave port whit a low end computer and the nurses is doing the robot)
but now i got a historical reason to remove them :D

[Letum]

yup - mid to late war departures took place in secret at night and with the electric engines running until port was cleared (electric engines so they didnt trigger acoustic mines)

[jaxa]

Good idea. There were many allied spies in French harbours.
I think that "outcoming" from base should be secret, but "incoming" to base rather not.
Returning uboot, especially after succes patrol, was awaited with band, applause and officers from headquarters.

[Heffalump]

I certainly like the idea. I'm playing in 44 now and it just doesn't feel right to be leaving from the docks with the bands and cheering crowds. A subpen in the middle of the night would be more appropriate.

My feeling is that the change should come around mid or late 43. The atmosphere changed then for the U-boat force -- they weren't the hunters anymore but the prey. Skulking away in the dark without a sendoff reinforces the psychology of the point.

[oRGy]

This could be done with a future version of SH3 commander - just change the locations in the campaign_lnd.mis file for all such ports.

[rulle34]

Is it totally impossible to mod so there is a possibility to choose electric motors when surfaced?

Immersion would be very high if I could sneak out on e-maschinen and turn on diesels after port is far and well behind, as in reality :yep:

[Rubini]

Despite of the good ideas commented here the unique thing possible to do now is work with LND file and set two points for departure in each harbour. One, in a open dock, with all that party and the other in a subpen. It's a shame, but it's not possible to run with eletric engines when surfaced and it's not possible to choose your departure hour in the game. But I guess that is better than nothing.

We have another glitch: some ports don't have subpens like Wilhelmshaven, Flensburg and Toulon.

Heffalump suggest after middle 1943. Is this 'date' ok?
More comments?


Rubini.

[joea]

Sounds good to me. :up:

[oRGy]

It is possible to choose the departure hour. I recall seeing the value in one of the main config files.

[Rubini]

oRGy,

I guess that is not possible. The hour is randomly changed each time you start a patrol (but in increments of ~8hs). I think that is hardcoded. Do you have another info?

Rubini.

[oRGy]

Well, I never tested it so maybe it is randomised, but I recall seeing the hour info in one of the cfgs. Try main.cfg or basic.cfg. These might have an effect.