Did the US 'Name' Their Boats?
 

One of the things that really got you into the game in SH3 was the random generated U-Boat numbers; it just made the atmosphere more real. Did the US have numerical designations for their subs, or did they name them? If they did name them, how will this be incorporated, if at all, into the new sim?

Named after fish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gato_class_submarine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balao_class_submarine

Well, of course some of the older ones like the S-Boats were numbered. But they won't be in the game anyway.:nope:

And some of the "V" boats started off with numbers and acquired names later.

s-boats
 

Are they not going to be included? They did contribute in the early days of the war. I have not read what classes are included. I must dig around.:arrgh!: arrrrrrgggg

Randomly generated names, I assume. I hope, however, that the player will be able to name his own boat himself, even if sub commanders didn't in reality.

:lurk:USS Hedda, prowler of the seas, terror of the Japanese and of whoever drive boats and ships that at night-time look Japanese to my n00b eyez!!111:p

No S-Class submarines, apparently. I guess patches or modders will have to add them manually.

No S- or V- classes I believe.

I think they should take the cue from SHIII Commander and have a historical list of boat names by type/year from which a boat's name would randomly be drawn.

Note on the Gato and Balao lists that all U.S. boats were numbered as well as named. USS Gato, for instance, was SS-212.

I'm betting that they use the historical name/number combinations. After all, SHI did.

Thanks for the links! They were very informative and helpful!

Well, all US warships have designations such as those. SS was the abbreviation for submarine, CL for light cruiser, CA for heavy cruiser, CV for fleet carrier, CVL for light carrier, CVE for escort carrier, BB for battleship, DD for destroyers, DE for destroyer escorts (or frigates) and so on. I don't think the hull number will really be important in SHIV, but if it is there, it wouldn't be randomly generated.

Both actualy.

US Sub Names
 

Yes, US subs were both named and numbered. Each ship was named according to a strict set of rules such as:
Battleships--US States
Cruisers--Cities of the US
Carriers--Famous Battles or famous early warships
Submarines--Fish or other sea life such as Trout, Shark, Finback, Gato, etc.
in addition each warship had a hull number such as USS Gato (SS-212) the hull numbers were generally assigned in numerical order for the ships in each class. The letter part ID'd the ship type (SS=submarine, DD=destroyer, CV=aircraft carrier, etc. Don't know how this will be incorporated into SH 4 though. Might do it like Pacific Aces where the sub names correspond to the class type and seem to be generated with each new campaign. Rick Martin

I'd say you are right.

HB