Mid-1943, no targets
 

I'm playing 1.5/FOTRU, American campaign, Mid-1943, based at Midway, 75% realism to get some skills. In the last few patrols I'm not seeing very many, if any surface targets. Is that normal? I think shipping was still plentiful at that time. I'm searching along the sea lanes shown on the map.

Am I doing something wrong?

I think the software throws up items randomly. I can be inundated with tankers, then nothing for weeks. Jap Destroyers suddenly popped up by Midway, (not in June 42 either) first time ever I have seen them there. Went through whole careers without seeing a task force, then they all come at once!!! And I wont mention planes !!!! Battle of Midway and a carrier was in port!!! no they weren't. I am convinced that any similarity between SH4 and WW2 is purely coincidental. Fishing boats, I dont think the Japs had THAT many that the game throws in.

I'm having the same problem early in the war where I departed from Pearl Harbor towards the Marshall Islands. I have found a single corvette patrolling on a totally illogical route, first I thought that it was protecting a much bigger convoy, so I let it go and headed towards the opposite route, but I found nothing.
At the moment my impression is: you could find traffic everywhere by chance or not at all, but the chances should (in theory) be increased on historical routes that you are not supposed to know! You can know about routes if you launch the Radio which comes with a giant map listing all important convoy routes in the war and even enemy air coverage.


FORTSU is said to have much increased traffic compared to TMO, that must be true but I have yet to see that.


XS

I think the busiest route for jap ships is down the east coast heading towards Okinawa or into the E China Sea, but again, its up to the software.

I mentioned in an other thread about triggers.

I'm not sure if SH4 has this or not, but I seem to remember in SH2 if you did time excel it triggered an aircraft which in turn triggered a warship.

Sometimes it triggered more ships using the time excel, I guess it isn't implemented in SH4, be good it it was.

Having said that I also mentioned the annoying thing when you are patrolling a certain area and get a radio message of a large convoy hundreds of miles away.

Col.

Well, at some point seeing no traffic after 30 days where my mission didn't show completed, out of frustration I stopped my boat at a logical point where the traffic should come from Japan, and I raised the time compression to maximum x4096. My fast computer allows this. If it's good for the game I doubt, but this didn't spawn more traffic for me. In 30 days in my patrol area all I found in the Marshall Islands were 1 misery single destroyer (I wondered what he was doing here heading in the open ocean...) and 1 corvette. I cannot even complain, because it reflects reality. Problem is you cannot move very much because leaving your patrol area will not complete your mission objective, that's the real drawback.


XS

That all sounds fair enough. I expect the random factor, but just haven't ever had a whole patrol with no substantial surface targets, and then I get 4 patrols in a row like that.

Thanks for the replies!

leaving an area does not cause penalties. I have done it loads of times, and uncompleted very regularly. As long as I go home with a few ships sunk nobody says anything. And if I get a mission I consider impossible like taking pics of Osaka, I dont even bother ............

That's good to know, Red Devil, thank you for the info!


Cheers,
XS