Returning to Base is tantamount to a true sim
 

Hopefully the software company will see the value in having to get your boat back to base, and giving the operator the incentive to do so. Whether it be with "renown" or some other addendum.

There will be further sense of accomplishment if the Commander can nurse his battered vessel back to port after a harrowing ordeal with escorts.

Wounded crewmen need urgent attention. Would a rendezvous with a Supply Ship afford them a better chance for survival?

Regardless of the success or failure throughout the Patrol, can you run the Gauntlet that Tommy has waiting for you in the Channel or The North Sea? How many times will you be forced to attempt a link-up with a friendly destroyer / mine sweeper / flak boat before you safely sail under Harbour Defenses?

Reverie

I never used the 'teleport' function to return to base in SH3, and in SH4 they didn't have it at all. The bad news is that if you had your rudder destroyed you couldn't use the engines to steer, so your career was over.

You can't have one without the other.

agree point on the jigged rudder, but once torpedo and ammo expended, ye make haste to base no matter what to view my crew attributes and awards, tonnage, beer, woman, mods to sub etc. having said that actually limping slowly into harbour, brings a somewhat degree of pure satisfaction, overwhelming relief (if endured a hard fought and long patrol) and ora of an air of importance, home coming cheers accepted please. :arrgh!:

I dread the period before the french harbors open up. I don't like going around Britain and I just don't trust the Channel. And I love how even after I remain without eels before reaching my patrol area or finishing my patrol time, BdU gets upset if I don't curse and throw my german fist at passing ships for a few days.... But still, going home feels like going home. Once my last tube has emptied I'm already making plans from upgrades and promotions :D. Oh, they should allow you to just Dock at the end of the Kiel Canal. I mean cmon... I usually just go to the 2'd fleet and wait for the french to open up shop... :|\\

I never used the 'teleport' button. Running the air gauntlet to and fro was half the 'fun'. Using it was also inflating your sinkings in that you were home that same day allowing you to rack up unrealistic tonnage since you never had to lose days or weeks time on the journey home with empty tubes.

I would like a better orders system.. when both my scopes are destroyed after an DC attack or whatever I want orders to return home.. or at least be able to tell the homefront I'm returning home due to damages. And make BdU respond to that. tell me to go to a milkcow for repairs, loose my wounded men and get a replacement just like RL.

I've never used teleport other than during testing. I normally have two options, return to base the slow way or perish at the bottom of the sea.

Never used the teleport option. Was only dimly aware that it existed. I can't imagine that the game will force you to use a teleport back to port, even if the option is there.

I always loved going back into the port and playing 'docking my boat' there.
But in really bad weather conditions I also would only sail very close to the port and teleport from there. Because the wave height didn't account for being close to the shore line or a harbour and that made docking in stormy conditions overly difficult.

I am moved by the aplomb of the responses to this post. The Order of the Day appears to be "Thoroughness".

I am by no means rallying for a ban on the Escape Key, but patrols should end at a harbour regardless of which one (imagine a train ride home through Spain after surviving a scuttled boat), or they should end at sea - dead or taken prisoner.

And you are so true, the Orders System should be dependant /reflective of the crew and boat status.

Prien loathed Weather Reporting duty, but was obligated to it when his boats fresh water, food, and fuel reserves were adequate to the task.

How realistic this program will turn out to be is anybody's guess, but operational procedures are as close as the nearest history book or memoir.

Would that you were all programmers and graphic artists. Thank you for your valued and entertaining entries.

Reverie

On trying to exit SH3, even from a save, I was always given 2 options:
1. Continue patrol.
2. Abandon carreer.

Although I always get close enough to see the pier, if I push my luck and get too close, SH3 crashes. That was a painful lesson to learn.

Beyond all that, I like driving my boat home.
Returning to Lorient in bad weather (en. sp.?) can get realy tense.
That definately adds to the realism/immersion.

I used the teleport function once in game, but i don't regret it since it was one of my favourite sh3 experiences.

It was mid 1940 in a type II and was raiding in the firth of forth.

i'd sunk one merchant when i was picked up by a DD resulting in me losing one screw and both rudders while facing due West into scotland.

I managed to evade the DD and had to reverse all the way back to Denmark at about 3 knots max using only dive and surface to evade detection.

Once i reached occupied Denmark, i figured that in reality I'd made it, and a tug boat would be able to haul the boat back while the crew went back to Willys by bus. So I teleported.

a better result than losing a career, a la SH4 when you lose your career because you run out of fuel 50 nm from Midway.

So i think something ought to be done to enable you to bypass these sorts of irritating situation.

Say, a rescue call function when you reach a certain distance from friendly coast - even actually sending a tug boat to get you would be cool

Whilst I understand your point, I don't think the player should get "rewarded" for doing their job. If anything, teleport should be a selectable realism option (ie "Allow teleport"), where if selected, the realism percentage is decreased. As the realism percentage is used in the renown calculation, then using teleport will decrease your renown. Much like when unlimited batteries, unlimited fuel etc options are chosen.

Are you playing at 100%? It's disabled at that level; otherwise it should be there.

I always slow to 5 knots when I enter the inner harbor. When lined up to enter my dock I slow to 1 knot. As the bow passes the edge of the pier I shut the engines down. Usually stop at just the right place.

[QUOTE=Sailor Steve;1209904]Are you playing at 100%? It's disabled at that level; otherwise it should be there.[QUOTE]

Yes, 100%. Plus a-lot of self imposed restrictions.

That's how I tryed it but, as the bow passed the end of the pier . . . SH3 crashed.
It's something I can live with. I use Escape about 10 minutes prior to when the boat would be coming along-side the pier. At that point all the adventure, and tension that go with it, is behind us anyway.