Stalking/hunting questions
 

Hello! This probably comes up quite a bit, but I poked around for it in this forum and didn't see anything, and without a wiki here it goes again :-?

What are some good hunting spots? I finished the objective on my first mission, and went off to poke about just outside Osaka, but only found a bunch of fishing boats and a single medium merchant (around 3k tons I think), I'm not expecting to find a T3 on every patrol, but are there some good areas to catch shipping? I have a map from replacementdocs.com showing this port as having quite a bit of activity, but it didn't seem to be the case.

I'm running stock 1.4 and stationed in Pearl.

Secondly, I've been using the mag/impact combo triggers on my torpedoes, but I generally go for bow shots instead of keel shots. Should I switch to imp triggers, will they cause better damage? The little guys are harder to take down then I expected :doh:

I've been aiming about .5 to 1 meter above the keel hoping for a good hit, but these medium and small ships are taking 2-3 hits to go down, and I'm assuming it's my poor aim (I used to cheat in SH3 and use the ship damage charts to aim, those were great help!)

And I caught my first convoy on my way back, used up a good number of torpedoes trying to take down the 5 merchants while dodging the 3 destroyers, where do I send away for my cookie? :rotfl:

One convoy with 5 merchants hit, fishing boats and a small merchant.....

You have allready done more then many skippers in the WWII did in the first couple of years :arrgh!:


Personaly im studying the month of the war before going out. Aka if my shipment date is 11.nov.1942 im briefing up on sept. october events in 1942. Where did it happen, where were the shipping routes etc. etc.

Then i pick a place of hunting and i stick to that. Usualy a place where more then one shipping rute is passing, or a small strait in the path of a rute.

Anyway with the above pray i would not ask for more in one patrol.

With regards to torpedo depth setting....depending on the patch/mod collection your running. I'd set them to maximum the ship's Draft-11 ft. aka. ships draft 25ft. then set maximum 14 feet. This has minimised my too deep runs.

Well I can't comment on later years as I seem to always be starting a new campaign or dying. But early in the war west of the philipines, and the strait north of the philipines has always led me to success, or demise. Stock SH4 really has an abundance of targets out there. Seek and i'm sure you will find. Also pay attention to the patrol breifing at the begining of your patrol, then set course for where it seems like the action is. ie... theres no point patroling around Hong Kong when the enemy is invading Manila.

Technically, Influence detonaters shot about 3 feet below the Keel of the target should cause the most damage. Typically though I just use impact at a depth of 9-15 feet depending on the target, and send either 2-6 torps at each target depending on size. My philosiphy is "Don't be scared to use up the ammo, you can always get more".

Cookies generally take around 2-3 weeks to cook, and another 2-3 weeks for delivery.:D

Early in my career I got the "deliver agent to Debian" four times before I learned to complete my missions.:yep: I didn't even care about the repeat missions because as soon as I got into the Ryukins, south of Japan's main islands I was in target city! Usually I shot all my torpedoes before I delivered the agent.

It's going to take two hits to sink just about anything larger than a subchaser. These torpedoes were calibrated to be used as magnetically detonated torpedoes. Exploding under the keel, 100% of the explosive force would be brought to bear on the target. Impacting on the target cuts effectiveness by at least 50%.

However, my technique is always the same as yours: set depth a couple of feet above the keel depth, set to magnetic exploder (which will also go off on impact), shoot 2, 1/4 of the way back from the bow and 1/4 of the way forward from the stern. That will sink 90% of my victims. Two torpedoes per target is a good efficiency and looking for better isn't profitable.

The cookies are handled by the RFB and Trigger Maru Crews. They are very busy now trying to make your live miserable in the Indian Ocean if you live long enough to reach it. A precondition to receiving your cookie is to install either Real Fleet Boat or Trigger Maru Overhauled. Sounds like you're ready!:arrgh!:

Ah, I guess I'll come back this way each mission and see if I get lucky find something more then 3k tons. I'm running my settings on metric for some reason, I'm going to have to convert that to setting back so I can make sense of that :D But it sounds like we're doing the same thing, setting up for a hit just above the keel line. (3 feet is around 1 meter)

I guess the days of one hit, 1 kill are left with SH3. I'm still adjusting to the new dials and such, I miss having the torpedo gyro angle be a digitial-type display instead of a dial I can't really decipher.

Sure is pretty though...

That's a long wait for my cookie, must be coming in on some of these ships I can't find :rotfl:

Hopefully this wasn't a fluke, it'd be boring if I jsut roamed around not finding anything, so maybe I found a good spot. With any luck I'll get to see all the ships the game has to offer! Sinking a CV would be cool too :arrgh!:

Do you mean Ryukyu? That's just a ways south of the the two main Islands, right?

I'll check it on my next patrol! I really think this first was a fluke...

I'll try a simultaneous fore/aft shot and see how that goes, one-firing them isn't going so well since I have to reposition for the second shot.

Is there a way to reset the chronometer/event camera for the second torpedo? It's kind of pretty watching it go in for the hit (love the damage modeling by the way, those gaping holes on the hulls look scary)

Plus, on a trial run in Palau islands I went dock raiding and actually missed a stationary target, hitting the dock behind him, it'd be nice to know sooner if it was a hit or a miss (either via the chronometer or the camera)

Try the Ryukins and get that Taiwan/Japan traffic.:up: Sorry about the name error, I'm at work and don't have my map to consult.

The Kraken
 

You got it chief! I'll check it on my next patrol, see if I can spot some recurring traffic. At least if I always have a spot to fall back on random excursions to new places won't feel wasted if I find nothing.

Funny thing about your signature/banner, Kraken is what I named my new computer build :rotfl:

I like the Yellow Sea. I've always found lots of targets there.

"I'm running my settings on metric for some reason, I'm going to have to convert that to setting back so I can make sense of that"

There is a switch in the Gameplay Options to use Imperial or Metric.
-Pv-

Haha!

I remember one time South of Formosa...........

(TMO + RSRD.....)

Within 12 hours 3 convoys crossed tracks in proximity to my position!

I had ZERO torpedoes though!

[quote=Khourieat]

Is there a way to reset the chronometer/event camera for the second torpedo? It's kind of pretty watching it go in for the hit (love the damage modeling by the way, those gaping holes on the hulls look scary)



I don't use the event camera, but if I recall,....After shooting a couple of fish, slide the Position Keeper off to the side and you'll see torpedo like icons. click the different torpedoes and your view and the timing on the chrono will change.

[quote=Soundman]Is that part of a mod? I don't see torpedo icons on my screen (although I'm usually still staring at the periscope, is it somewhere else?)

I haven't had that much time to play, but so far the area between southern Japan and Northern Taiwan seems to do the trick, I can barely reach it without hitting a number of merchants (mostly small ships, but I got an European Liner once! That was great, till I realised what I had done :cry: )