Captain Haplo has a good point about Japanese ASW skill increasing as the war goes on, I said pretty much the same myself; but as they gained experience and technology their opportunities for training decreased, due to lack of fuel and safe training areas, so it should get better, but no by too much.

Japanes ASW troops actually got some priority once the war started cutting back on fuel reaching the main islands. The Japanese had no choice but to redirect support into ASW. This was a strategic necessity. Late in the war a number of smaller vessels were used more and more as escorts - simple because the high command understood that they HAD to escort their tankers! Remember - we lost alot of boats late in the war. Heck, we lost the Harder to a MINESWEEPER (actually a captured US vessel!). While the fuel situation was critical - the Japanese command structure pulled out all the stops trying to get every escort they could to halt their losses to our subs. This is also why even small patrol craft being used as escorts were at times noted to have radar.

Because of that - I still support escorts in 44 and 45 being a majority of 3 - trained with some combat experience. Not elites - but definetely dangerous! (Note - in 45 - it was rare to find escorts - most had been lost already - so the rare ones would be skilled at the least.)

Just my nickels worth - I never only give 2 cents :arrgh!:

Good Hunting!
Captain Haplo

Thanks for all the info. I'm going to use what people post here and try to find some middle ground to guide me in adjusting the AI crew quality values, so any input is invaluable.

I definitely agree with that statement, way too many contacts reports.

Also, more realistic ship behavior would be welcome. Why don't the enemy convoys (or single ships for that matter) zig-zag? Why doesnt a ship turn away from you and run when you attack it with the deck gun? Why don't convoys speed up and turn away when one of them gets hit with a torpedo? And why don't the escort ships spot the bubble trail from the steam torpedos and follow them to my sub's position? Or at least start pinging furiously?

is there a way to adjust the tonnage requirements for a sucessful patrol to a realistic level, say 15k per patrol or whatever was avg for a fleet boat. If you cut the contact reports which I think is a good idea, I don't want to be penalized by the game because I don't sink 100k a patrol.

I was watching a documentary about the 'USS-Bowfin' on the History Channel yesterday and I was surprised by the tonnage numbers. The Bowfin did 9 patrols and scored ~100K. Great numbers for real life, but in SH4 I can pull off the same numbers in 4 patrols at 100% easily.

I think the easy targets should be removed. I shouldn't be seeing a lone Japanese large freighter less than 300KM off the coast of Jawa with its US sub base active. At first I decided to ignore the target, but when I found out it was a large freighter, I went for it. Easiest kill I made and 7K in the bag.
At one point I even saw a Japanese coastal vessel sailing straight for Jawa harbor.. :o

I think large freighters should only very rarely travel alone. Maybe its because I am still in 1941 and things change later on though..

Oh, and Beery.. I don't know if you checked out the realistic torpedoes mod, but it's definitely worth it.

Yeah, I'm very worried about that too. It needs a lot more testing before I'll be completely content over this issue.

By the way, just an aside, but I visited USS Lionfish (a Balao class boat) at Battleship Cove yesterday. Very informative and I finally got to go through those hatches that we can't go through in SH4 - checked out the torpedo rooms, the radio room, the sleeping quarters for officers, the kitchen, the mess room, the ORs sleeping quarters and the engine room. The boat even had a shower! If only SH4 had modelled all the rooms in detail (sigh).

Anyway, I found that the game is very attentive to detail - I recognised most of the stuff from the game in the command room and the conning tower. The only thing the game really doesn't get across is the lack of space.

So true! But guess that's a bit unavoidable:-? The only time I have felt that lack of space has been in the conning tower at battlestations, when there is a position (Can't remember now if it's sonar, radar or what) where you have the back of a guy on your left, covering nearly half the screen, and the wall to the right, and you really really feel oppressed:yep:

I visited Lionfish two years ago, the ice cream machine impressed me! Going to see U 505 in July.

I dont agree with cutting out all the elites, although their number should be reduced.

I also found a RL example of elite destroyers, from Silent Victory. On feb. 29, 1944, Trout attacked a troop convoy bringing reinforcements to Saipan, sinking one ship and damaging another. It turns out the convoy was being escorted by the three best destroyers in the IJN, they counterattacked and Trout was never heard from again.