Carribean hunting grounds?
 

Hey guys it's October 41' and i was just given my very own IXC fully kitted with the latest and greatest. I can't think of better way to break her in then a trip to the Carribean.

Any suggestions on on where to go and what to see? I haven't ruled out Newfoundland yet either, weather might be a bit cold for me though.

Any suggestions?

Stix

Wait until after december '41 then you can sink the American ships and keep historicaly correct!

Actually scrap that thought, once i worked out the distances and range the IXC doesn't quiet have the legs for it, it will get there and back but only just!. My Carribean holiday will have to wait :(

no milk cows yet?

I've never used them. It's late 41, GWX, should there be? How do they work?

Thanks in advance

Stix

:roll:



If you think you might be short on fuel , submerge at daybreak, and surface at 0 hour to recharge bats. Run your diesals as little as possible. Usually i'll do this to clear biscay bay. Atlantic crossing is done on the surface (only sane way really), once you get into the carribean, you'll spend most of your time underwater, and about 4/5 hours a day on the surface.

oh dear....this is the 3rd time I have answerd this question in 24 hours.....

Requirements for Resupply points (milk cows):
SH3Commander
A mod with milk cows/resupply ports (i.e. GWx)
Finding Supply Points (GWx)
Press F1 in game to find a list of supply points and dates they are available
They will appear as a friendly port on the map
Using Supply Points
1) Get in range of the supply point
2) Press Esc and dock at the supply point as if it where a port
3) Exit the game and load SH3Commander
4) In SH3Commander click on the blue text next to "status" until it changes to "in other base" make sure your patrol grid hasn't changed. If it has; set it back.
5) Start the game and load your career as you normally would from the last save in the list. You will get the office screen. Click on the board to start the mission as usual. You should start at the supply point of milk cow. One day will have passed and you will be resupplied.

Milk cows? Bah, i dont use em! :smug:

Running on batteries does not save fuel!
It takes up much more fuel to recharge the battrys!

It does prevent air attacks, but does not save fuel at all!

Do you keep your engines on recharge mode for this? I have done that before in my VIIB to increase range but seeing as you lose speed while "recharging" and you are theoritically still doing the same RPM i.e. same fuel burn i thought the benfits might not be all that great. I haven't done the maths on it, i might do it now in my IXC actually.

Stix

Acutally it does. Assuming you have the NASA battery fix in place (which most mods do) The reality is it takes about 3 hours of running on the surface to fully recharge your bats. Trust me, ive done this countless times.

The only time time running on batteries wont save on fuel is if your using the stock battery settings that never drained, lasted for days, and took about as long to recharge.

The RPM is the same, but charging the batteries puts more load on the diesels so you need more throttle to maintain the same speed. More throttle = more fuel burn.
There is efficiency loss in charging the batteries and in transferring the battery power to the E-Motors. These efficiency losses are not present when running direct from the diesels. This means that running electric motors uses more fuel.

I have to agree with Ducimus here.. he is after all the king of the long range voyage!:yep:

To the OP - mate, i've gone the distance to the carib. and back in a IXC several times without refueling! Stick your speed to 9 knots and you'll get around 33000km range, which is more than enough to get there and back again!

Heres the scenario.

It takes about 3 hours to recharge bats. Fuel and battery consumption is based on how many RPMs your turnining. Less RPMS, less engery used, more RPMs, more energy being used. Hydrodynamics is not modleed so thats all we need to know. So again, 3 hours of recharging.

Thats 3 hours of

A.) sitting stationary with one engine at 500 RPMs (flank).

something which i'd rarely do unless in a good chokepoint of a grid, or

B.) running at one engine at 500 RPMs and another engine at 100 to 200 RPMs, for a grand total of 600 to 700 RPMs.


vs

12 to 24 hours of both engines running for a combined total of 200 to 400 RPMs during that time.


The key is knowing how much fuel is burnt off at any given RPM setting 100 through 500, which, i dont think anyone really knows. But, the proof is in the doing. I proved it to myself doing a patrol to GR89. Clear out by the cape of africa. I did that in an IXC, running submerged the entire time, raising a snorkel only long enough to recharge the batts 3 hours a day. If i did that trip on the surface, i would have ran out of fuel somewhere in the vacinity of Gibralter or spain. Instead i ended up bringing my boat into Lorient, with a few drops to spare, but she was most definatly sucking diesal fumes by that time.

ARGH! You can't be more wrong.
This is very basic physics!

If running on electrics charged by the diesels was more efficient then running on diesels that would mean that if you ran off electrics and charged them at the same time you would have a efficiency gain. That would mean that there is additional energy input apart from the diesels. You can not get energy from nowhere.
In real life it is impossible to get efficiency gains by running off electrics charged by diesel. If a SH3 mod changes this then it is extremely unrealistic.

When your normal cruising mode at ahead slow, both engines are spinning i think like 100 or 200 RPMs each. Lets be generous and say 200 RPMs, each engine.

WHen in recharge mode, one engine is taken off propulsion and put to recharging the batteries. By default it goes to 500 RPMs for as long as it take to recharge your batts. The other engine remains on purpulsion. What this means is if your noramlly doing 8ish kts with no recharge, your now putting about doing say 4 or 5 kts.

Personnaly, i dont increase speed just to stay at a cruising speed of 8 kts on the surface. For 3 hours a day, i'll be moving about at 4 or 5 kts instead.

Totally wrong!

You are forgetting about "load".

Running at 300rpm with out charging the batteries is not the same as running at 300rpm charging the batteries.

This is because charging the batteries puts load on the engine. The higher the load, the more energy is required to maintain the RPM.

Like when you drive a car up hill. The wheels turn at the same speed as they do on flat ground, but you need to give it more throttle because the load is greater. More throttle means more fuel is used.

LOL you dont have to believe me Letum, i have no stake in being believed to be correct or not.

Go search for the "NASA battery fix" by von Helshing to get the info behind it. THe problem is battery moddeling in this game is screwed one way or the other.

By default, stock settings, you rarely saw your battery drained, at least, not very far. Which was highly unrealistc. You could dash about at flank speed for a number of hours longer then you should have been able to. Battery capacity played little or no part in your decision making or the game at all for that matter.

At least with the battery fix in place, battery capacity comes back into play. You can acutally drain the bugger in about a couple hours if you ran at flank speed during that time. You have to watch what you do, particuarlly in heavily patroled areas where being on the surface is.. less then desirable. The downside is it recharges unrealistically fast. If it took 8+ hours to recharge like its supposed to, then i probably woudlnt be sitting here telling you all this ;)

edit:
BTW Letum, im talking about how SH3 works, not real world physics. SH3 doesnt exactly follow all laws of physics.

I don't know how simple I can make this.

You cant get energy out of nowhere.

If a disel motor used 1 unit of energy to go 1 mile that means a electric motor also uses 1 unit of energy to go one mile because it is useing the same screw to move the same boat.

When the diesel motor uses 1 unit of energy it uses 1 unit of fuel.
When the e-motor uses 1 unit of energy it uses 1 unit of battery power.

Then 1 unit of battry power needs to be replaced when the battrys are charged.
If battery chargeing efficany was 100% then it would take 1 unit of energy to charge it.
The disel motor can give the battry 1 unit of energy. We allredy know that When the diesel motor uses 1 unit of energy it uses 1 unit of fuel.
So at 100% battery chargeing efficancy it takes 1 unit of fuel to charge 1 unit of battery power.
However battery chargeing efficany is less than 100% so more than 1 unit of fuel is needed to charge 1 unit of battery power.

Stock SH3 works this way. Any mod that changes it is VERY unrealistic. Exploiting this is also Very unrealistic.

How does this work?

I asked my navigator "Range at current speed" while doing 7kt = 22,000
"Range at current speed" while doing 9kt = 15,000

How are you getting 33,000?

I'm using the first IXC of the block with only the first available upgrades, are you using a latter better upgraded ship?