Whats up with these damn fuel gauges!
 

Okay so I take my Balao out of Midway to the north tip of Japan by the Kurils.
I head there at ahead slow and my fuel usage is 1/4 a tank by my arrival.

I patrol and rack up a killing in the north. With 35% fuel remaining and me being closer to Midway since I headed south around Tokyo I should have fuel to spare right? WRONG!

Again at ahead slow I watch my fuel gauge just sink until 700 miles from home fuel is used up. No damage and no heavy weather It seems to me that much like a car the last half a tank goes much faster than the first half!

:damn::damn::damn:

Don't use "ahead slow". Bad fuel mileage. :nope:

Use "ahead Standard" or 10 knots. Best fuel mileage. :rock:

Magic

Well thats my second and last try. Same situation ahead slow 1/4 tank to get there on the dot. Patrolled my station and killed almost 25 ships although 12 were junks. Mission finally completed and turn for home with exactly 48% fuel left.

Head for home at ahead slow and run 438 miles short of midway!

In the Balao ahead standard gives you 16 knots and eats fuel like no other
ahead slow gives 11 knots and seems the best compromise.

Is it a current im fighting? Strong westernly winds? I dont get how I can put there and use little gas but putting home it burns it like a bonfire!

If you're cruising at 10 knots, then you've sustained fuel tank damage and are leaking it into the Pacific instead of burning it. Fuel tanks are easily damaged and they aren't always easy to detect. Especially if you're taking pot shots at airplanes, the most common damage from those buzzards is fuel tank damage.

That would explain why your fuel economy getting to your station is good but you don't make it back.

Happened to me, too. Plane attack, slight damage, fuel empty.

Being a cartographer...does anyone know if the map that is used in the game is balanced for equal distance or area? And if it is balanced for equal distance, why does the map look like it's for equal area.

So I mapped out your trip, using a map balanced for a sphereoid (globe). Your return leg is what is killing you. Your return distance is actually further west(Tokoyo-Midway) than your detination distance (Midway-Kuriles). So your actually further west than you wanted to be (if your sitting directly off Tokoyo) so couple that with any fuel tank damage and any in game weather effects. That is your fuel difference.

Keep in mind (and I don't know if the game acutally takes these into account, but it seems to) that you can actually use the currents and winds to help you get to your destination. Your trip actually has you fighting the winds and currents both directions. You would be better served going to Tokoyo first and then to the Kuriles following the wind and current patterns.

Please.. the others are trying to tell you that ahead slow is very in-efficint. Its been mentioned twice now.

Best range will be accomplished at ahead standard at or near 10 knots.

It has nothing to do with wind, currents, and or great circle routes since none of this is modeled in SH4's flat world.

Can you say Mercator projection? As in gross distortion toward the poles? Not so bad toward the equator? In effect we have a flat earth here and a straight line is a straight line though. There is no fancy 3D projection, just cheap and dirty 2D warpage! It's good enough for a cheap game and gives room for improvement next time. That's why they probably didn't fix it.:D

Everyone knows that you burn more fuel heading east. It's all uphill! :roll:

True or magnetic :haha:

Ahead standard is 16 knots in my Balao and very inefficient

Ahead slow is 11 knots and very efficient

So whats the problem with my thinking since the most efficient speed is 10.8 knots I read somewhere on this site.

And Robbins your probably right. Its just frustrating as all hell.

Running GFO mod and RSRD.

Ok, that explains it. The confusion here is mods like TMO, and i think RFB too, redid the telegraph engine percentages.

Ahead standard in TMO, is about 10 knots, but NOT in the stock game, or GFO apparently either.

9 to 10 knots is the most fuel efficient. Really its more like 9 to 9.5 with 10 being a little on the gas guzzeling side, but only by a percentage so small as to be negligible. That said 11 is outright too fast.

Also of note there is a bug i think still exists where damage to your battery, will cause your engines to not exit recharging the battery mode. Check to make sure your engines are running normally and your not charging a battery.

Remember back in SH3 where you only had two engines and when recharging your batteries, you had one engine running at flank speed for however long it takes to top off the batteries? Same thing applies here, and it eats a ton of fuel.

edit:
On that note, DO NOT try that old trick in SH3 (that i used to do all the time) where you tried to run on your batts as much as possible to conserve fuel. That does NOT work in SH4.

Indeed overlooked that aspect. I should have clairified. But I did say at or near 10 knots.

GFO is "slightly" slower than stock but you wont notice a speed difference except surfaced at ahead std so he has something else going on there

stock game and GFO has Balao surfaced speeds of:

ahead 1/3= 8kts
ahead 2/3= 11kts
ahead std= 16kts (GFO is 15kts)
ahead full= 18kts
ahead flank= 20kts

stock game and GFO has Balao submerged speeds of:

ahead 1/3= 3kts
ahead 2/3= 5kts
ahead std= 7kts
ahead full= 8kts
ahead flank= 9kts

for stock and GFO i guess you best speed is to manually select 9 kts

i will address this oversight in my next GFO update

Rockin Robbins was right (Again) it was apparently a fuel leak cause I gave it one more go and ducked all aircraft and avoided surface engagements all together and made it back with fuel to spare.

Although Ducimus could be correct as well!

And thanks for the clarification Webster.

You all rock!:rock: