Good points Red Devil, as there is little doubt that outmoded pre-war doctrine hamstrung the submarine force. There was little in the way of innovative thinking, and what there was mostly due to increasingly younger skippers.

But in the command structure, the men who were trained in the inter-war period were entirely too cautious and rigid in their thinking. As is well known, peacetime exercises put the most emphasis on remaining undetected. Actually putting torpedoes on target was not as important.

In the war, the inertia resulting from this thinking took a long time to overcome. But once it was, and the torpedoes made right, effectiveness improved in spades. It's interesting to wonder how the war in the Pacific might have gone if the sub force, tactics and weapons that were employed in '44 had instead been available from the start.

How long might the war have lasted had boats been sent to the right areas with proper weaponry?

Well of course that is down to the player isn't it? I could complete my objective, then go sit outside Truk for the rest of the patrol. But I don't. It's all a matter of choice in my opinion. There is no reason a player could not remain on station, or request a new objective and get shunted around at the whim of SH4ComSubPac. It is down to mindset of the player and what he is looking to do, or how he chooses to play.

Point is, if you're playing RSRD, numerous times something nice is coming through your patrol star, just remember traffic is on it's on time, not that of the star. If you're gonna do your patrol zone, try to get there early and hang around a few days after the star goes gray, you might get lucky.

Myself, I don't do patrol zones unless they're close by where I want to go or happen to be on the way. Too much single traffic and I long ago stopped sinking singles unless a tanker or such.

I long ago edited RSRD, probably added 100 more convoys with more randomness just to confuse myself. The special missions are absent or fubar in RSRD, so I added about 10 for the bases I like. I made Truk the fortress it was. Have one special mission for a photo recon, cept mine is a lil different in that subnets basically protect the ships. Forget going in on the surface, got elite shoreguns, radar, coast watchers, searchlights, etc. Placed several minefields as well. But what gets me is having elite subkiller groups patrolling in and outside. I know the map well, but never was able to get in and out alive. I once did get in on the surface during a storm, but couldn't take pictures, so had to wait til weather cleared, but died trying to get out.

If I find that the mission did not take consideration of fuel usage, I ignore instructions and go to where I want. I nevr get my hand smacked!!

I remember once in stock, I docked in Manila after a quick patrol before the base fell. When I loaded for next patrol, my mission was a photo recon in....Manila. The date was such the Japs took Manilla loading the game. Thankfully I chose the option to spawn outside and not by the dock....Stock was so FUBAR

Us liberty ships leaving Manila long after japs had control!!