It's odd to be asking this after three years of SH4 play, but I can't recall if damaged equipment actually becomes inoperative within the game or at what level of damage it becomes so. I play so cautiously that I'm very rarely damaged in RFB, and it's either very light or inevitable fatal.

Last night I actually had all four stern tubes get between 50and 70% damage, but I never checked if that made them unavailable ingame. Does it? Or do they actually have to be destroyed? If so, can this be tweaked at all? I would think it wouldn't take much damage at all to make periscopes (for example) essentially useless until repaired.

BTW, Ed Beach's Submarine! has an entertaining chapter about the machinations required to keep Trigger's ice-cream machine running at all times.

Jolo
 

second patrol, after having scouted two areas, i'm free in the Celebes sea.

cruising next to the coastline near Jolo, spotted a minesweeper, followed it at flank speed on the surface to try and gun her down...

and stumbled across this :

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1277/jolow.jpg

:o

she was rejoining a convoy !

as it was heading away from me at 9 knots, I could only cry...

Looks like it's already after 3pm... shadow them till nightfall, then either do an end-run and ambush them submerged, or execute a surface attack from behind. In the dark it works.

I have the crew composition in order for the Narwhal. I hope you guys like having a large crew. :o It'll look like half the Navy is on your boat.

can't wait, I'll offer to beta test!

EDIT:
also, I couldn't get any AA guns on the boat. radars weren't showing anything so on, are those going to be tweaked too?

Everything is going to be tweaked so that it works like it should.

Just one question - will we have to donate for the Narwhal RFB patch in order to get it?

No, it'll be a part of the regular RFB patch.

I don't think so. You donate to subsim.com in order to get the Narwhal, and then you simply apply the opitional patch that allows that model to be used with RFB. If you don't have the Narwhal, you just don't use that specific patch and instead go along with RFB's stock Narwhal (The one created by Ducimus long ago)

Come to think of it, we could consider making the new deck guns separately available to be included always with RFB, TM and RSRD in the old Narwhal, and thus make it unnecessary to have specific compatibility patches. If you have subsim's Narwhal, you would simply overwrite the existing 3D model in the game, and that's all :hmmm:

Hi! I'm new to Subsim, not to SH (played since SHII)

First of all... great mod :up:

But i have some issues and questions:

JSGME:
RFB 2
RFB 2 patch 6Mar2010
RSRDC RFB v575
RSRDC v5.xx Patch1
Hydrophone Lines for RFB 2.0
3000y Bearing Plotter
TMOPlot Final
Sub Watch Sensors + Scene 1.0

Campaign: May '42


1. Deaf sonarman
It's driving me crazy! Doesn't report contacts over 3000y range and even sometimes below. Tryed at perisicope depth and even deeper. In every weather condition. During patrols manning every time the sonar is... :wah:. He could at least say "Captain... hum... I pulled the lever and... hem... when the small arrow is between 200 and 210 a green light turns on" :D My compartiment efficency (horizontal green bar) is full end every watch is almost 100% (80%-90%)

2. Air Radar
I've installed the SD Air Search radar. Radarman reports contacts, but the commands Stop, Normal Sweep, Single Sweep are grey (not usable) even if my antenna is full rised and i'm surfaced (clear weather). In the radar station I can't turn the radar on (tryed both red and green one even if i think it's the red one :DL)

3. Special Skill and Ratings
3 crew members today have gained a special skill(Machinist in engine room >> Sonarman, Machinist in control room >> Radarman and a Sonarman in the cunning tower >> Watchman:o). Does they spawn random on crew?
I haven't seen the rating Lookout ( I think is the rating, the blue symbol, "stock" yellow specialization) as stated in the manual of RFB 1.52. It's not implemented in the mod or I'm unlucky?
Reading the manual and game experience I see that i can't "spacialize" (blue symbol) a crew member. It's correct?

Sorry if I missed some already answered question (SearchedInThisForum/Thread alot btw :DL)

Thanks again for the mod and for every answer you would give me.

Correction: the RFB version of the Narwhal will be a separate download for donation, as the "regular" version of the Narwhal is right now.

Problems with the sonarman should be fixed in the next patch.

SD radar is for aircraft contacts and is controlled by the AI only. The radar stations you are trying to man are for the SJ radar.

Yeah, special skills aren't implemented very well in the game. They indeed can be gained by any crewman regardless of his ability. Hence why radar and sonar operators can suddenly gain the Watchman ability. I'm thinking about pulling out all the special skills for this next patch.

Didn't most enlisted ranks (till you made PO3) in WW2 'Strike' for rate? You reported aboard and found out what divisions need personnel or if a position came open you could 'strike' for it? Tired of shoving torps in a tube? Hear there's an cushy sonar spot open?

Since the game does not require you to rotate crews (ideally between patrols the Navy wanted to rotate out up to 1/3 of the crew to new boats) I ditch the surplus special skills and fill with new crewmen. I also only allow 1 LT. on board (for XO) at a time (I ditch them, assuming them to be off to be XO on new boats) and pick up new Ensigns to replace them.

Could it be that , as per the 'Special Abilities' UPC file that:
[SpecialAbility 8]
ID=Ability-Expert-Sonarman
NameDisplayable=Ability-Expert-Sonarman-Name
Description=Ability-Expert-Sonarman-Description
AbilityType=SonarRange
AbilityValue= 15
AbylityActsIn= SensorsRoom
SkillRequiredLeadership= 0
SkillRequiredMechanical= 0.5
SkillRequiredElectrics= 0.7
SkillRequiredGuns= 0
SkillRequiredWatchman= 0

[SpecialAbility 9]
ID=Ability-Expert-Radarman
NameDisplayable=Ability-Expert-Radarman-Name
Description=Ability-Expert-Radarman-Description
AbilityType=RadarRange
AbilityValue= 15
AbylityActsIn= SensorsRoom
SkillRequiredLeadership= 0
SkillRequiredMechanical= 0.5
SkillRequiredElectrics= 0.7
SkillRequiredGuns= 0
SkillRequiredWatchman= 0

Sonar and Radar expert have a 0.5 threshold (which is pretty low compared to the other expert skills and that mechanical and Electrical are the two skills that gain experience in more compartments and positions than the others?

Expert Engines needs:
[SpecialAbility 6]
ID=Ability-Engines-Expert
NameDisplayable=Ability-Engines-Expert-Name
Description=Ability-Engines-Expert-Description
AbilityType= DiveSpeed
AbilityValue= 10
AbylityActsIn= CommandRoom
SkillRequiredLeadership= 0
SkillRequiredMechanical= 0.7
SkillRequiredElectrics= 0
SkillRequiredGuns= 0
SkillRequiredWatchman= 0

But once a crewman has over 0.5 mechanical as soon as they hit 0.7 in Electrical they pick up Sonar or Radar expert. Only if they reach 0.7 in Mechanical and are under 0.7 in Electrical would they get Expert engines and alot of the crew spots seem to advance Elec/Mech at the same time.

Note: Medic and Theoretician were the lowest with all zeros in the required skills lines but I think current RFB does not use them.

For the most part, yes. On WWII subs, Seamen were detailed typically as lookouts, helmsmen, ammunition passers, and torpedo loaders. Firemen were also junior enlisted ranks, but they were striking for a engineering rating, such as Machinist's Mate or Motor Machinist's Mate. As such they would be in the diesel compartments or in the control room (at the trim manifold or xmas tree).

Thanks LukeFF :DL

Looking forward to the release date :up:

And what about the Lookout rating? Is it implemented? I haven't seen a single one yet? (If is not, I could "grow up" my crew differently maybe :hmmm:)