[TorpedoMo]

Sounds good, glad to see others enjoy the same playing style.

I have a few questions:

1 - Do you have a template for your patrol log ?

Its a word.doc, the layout is like the original KTBs and is also to be written like that. Another option is to write down in a real book, as I do, and send the book at the end of the patrol to the BdU!
Also we have a template for a short end-patrol report when you are back in harbour. It contains facts like the how many sea days, ammo, sinkings, damages and so on.
The deatailed report is as said the patrol log. Everything including screens is send to BdU after petrol.
If you want I send you the templates, also I would translate it to English (we're all Germans)

2 - Do you post the emails on a website or something for all to view ?

Not at the moment. The plan was to use our consisting Hp, but the script we use sucks and lacks of options, so we dropped that option at the moment. When the new Hp is build we will include the communication there.
As is found out, a forum for that works quiete well. Every Boat has its own forum where to post the radio reports. Also the BdU has one, so all players can read all reports. Top secrets could be send as PM.
I expected the email thing not to be very atmospheric or nice to look but I was wrong. Within time i like the way we communicate via Email and it works great. The reports are always send to all players, so every radio message can be read by all players.
To be practicable, some agreements have to be observed.
First the email subject has to be always in the same layout, so the emails can be sorted easy and the overview is kept (elemental for BdU)
The subject for example looks like that:
U39---8 Dezember---1430

A status report message by a captain to the BdU like that:

U-39 an BdU, 16.12.1939, 08:00Uhr

Standort: AN8257

Bemerkungen:
0103: Aufgeblendeten Schwedischen Frachter gestoppt: Autoreifen und Luftschrauben nach der Türkei. Weiterfahrt

Statusmeldungen

Wetter: Bedeckter Himmel, mittlere Sicht, See 2
Dieselbestand: 112 cbm
Proviant: 35 Tagesrationen
Beschädigungen: 2%

Torpedos: Innen 8, Außen 1
Artilleriemunition: 103
Flakmunition: 995

Kommandant


Hope thats ok in German, if you want to I write a translated one.

3 -Ho do you pull off going from a SP game to a MP game ?? do you play a career or just a single mission and all of you choose the same mission ??

The career only exist "on paper". Before starting a patrol, the captains get the mission send by the BdU via email. All get the same one. They start in SP loading the mission, and the career starts. (Every player for itself but within the synchro restrictions). The captains follow their BdU orders, f.e. do a seachpattern in a specific grid or coast near free hunt. If one player can find a convoy the BdU orders all other boats within range to the convoy led by the datas gathered by the captain who detected the convoy. This also happens in SP. While all have exact same mission data, the other players also find the same convoy if they are lead correctly! When all captains have positioned at the convoy in their SP game, the BdU orders attack and a MP mission is send to all players. In this MP mission the positions of the boats are the one in SP, so have the feeling never interrupting the game. The complete attack is done in a MP session, which can last several hours. After the last boat has finished its attack, MP session is endend and the BdU edits now the SP mission with the boats positions after the attack in MP. The mission is send to all players and the patrol goes on till the next convoy attack.

It took a long long time to edit the layers and files in the mission editor for the SP missions but the work has paid off. We have a very high demand on realism, so we created uboatmissions build on historic facts and many "tools" to create more accuracy, like the food system for the boats, the prisenordung, refueling at sea and so on. Also we created a new way of position finding, which allows to determine the boats position not only to AN23, but to AN2345 for example.
We edited a big printable map with KM-Grids where everys captain can pinpoint the other boats positions. Nice stuff!

Impressing is, how perfect wolve pack lead works with this system.
Now the leading boat has to send with short intervalls reports to all captains about course and speed of the convoy, so they can create an intercept course. Its likely you have to lead the boats even for some days if they are far away before they reach and attack can be started.
The precise you give those reports, the better other boats can navigate to convoy. The more players attack the convoy, the less is the chance that your boat is detected in MP.

This is part of the Bdu to tell which boats operate on convoy and which not, also he gives the permission to attack. And if anything unexpectd happens, tell the BdU and await answer!

Another word to the captains career:
I created fine looking medal documents which are handed to captains who have gained distinction. These documents are send by email to the players.
I did those with ps. Let me know if you want one. Its a ps file containing all pre written textfiles for all different medals and the medals itself.
So you have one file for all documents.
We made a assessment system (point system)which imply all the facts like sea days, tonnage ect. to determine who gets a medal. Its not enough to make a lot tonnage to get awards. If you bring home scrapped boat because you are a redneck captain the BdU won't be amused....and maybe you run out dry

We want to have a long time motivation. So its not that easy to get medals or promotions in short time.

Further you have the possibility to "form" your crew to a specific direction. For example technican focus for more speed (1knot), weapon focus (torpedomaate) or counterdetection focus. That only works over a longer period of time, so you do well bringing your crew fine.

Also to mention is the tonnage adaption we created. Its pritty rediculous you know the exactly tonnage of a sunk ship by the last number. As we know, commanders often over/underestimated their torpedoed ships, and not until reconnaissance like the B-Dienst got hint about the real tonnage the estimated was wrong.
So we have a variation factor that rounds up or down the tonnage of every sunk ship. So now you dont know exactly to amount of tonnage you have sunk. The real number gets determined by the BdU.
This makes the variation of tonnage between the captains and the BdU/Stab possible. And it can be to your advantage or disadvantage. Let you surprise after patrol!

So far by know,
I have still stuff left to tell, more tomorrow.

Hi TorpedoMo Hi TorpedoMo sounds like a really fun setup you are running. Like Sharkley I would love to learn more about the details of running of this. Maybe we could communicate via a PM about some questions I have. Looking forward to discussing this further. sounds like a really fun setup you are running. Like Sharkley I would love to learn more about the details of running of this. Maybe we could communicate via a PM about some questions I have. Looking forward to discussing this further.

@LarryM1953: Apreciate that. Let me know your questions!

If you all have more question, please let me know. I would be glad if many others would give this phantastic system a try!
I gladly share our tools and documents (like the ships documents or the medal document and other) with you if you want.

Greets,

TorpedoMo