Quote:
Originally Posted by Steiger
That was fast!
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Yeah... and so was my first career, which began and ended this morning!
I had all realism on except for external camera view and update ship's location. (I only use the external cameras to watch the explosions, and I've read that the continuous updating is still not far from info that real skippers would have had)
My very first mission was to sneak into a harbor in mainland Japan and drop off some spy. I made it there with no major issues (after a stop-off at Midway to refuel). Once I got near Japan, I had to dodge a lot of enemy ships that were coming and going from the harbor and airplanes that I was picking up on the radar (one of them strafed me as I was diving). I timed it so that I was in the harbor overnight. On the way back out, with no contacts in sight or on sonar, I surfaced to get my batteries ready for my next encounter. Bad idea. I immediately started taking hits... I'm guessing from land-based artillery. I managed to slip away with some pretty severe-looking damage.
Then I got orders to join a battle in the South China Sea. I was a little concerned about fuel (about 60%) at this point, but figured I'd have enough as long as I left the party early and didn't go too fast.
On my way there, a convoy was reported in my area. I thought I'd play it safe and hit some tonnage there, then head back for fuel. I set up an O'Kane-style ambush with plenty of time to check and re-check everything, being careful to keep my scope underwater and go mostly off of sonar. It looked like there were 2 escorts and 4 merchants.
I was excited about my first convoy attack that wasn't a training mission. Everything was going as planned. That is, until I raised the scope to identify my targets and saw that the lead escort had already broke from the pack and was very quickly closing on my position, and another was close behind. I have no idea how they knew I was there, but I was in trouble. I dropped the scope, ordered 'silent running' and dove to 200 feet. They were pinging me like crazy. I didn't hear any explosions, but suddenly I began taking massive damage... flooding, fuel gone, air compressors gone.
I blew the tanks, thinking I'd get to the surface and go down in a blaze of glory, taking at least one ship with me. Unfortunately, as soon as I started my ascent, I was informed that I lost the ship and failed the mission.
The writeup about me at the end was almost comical, saying that the Navy erased my record to preserve the honor of the sailors who I killed.
I still had a great time, and learned a little. I'll start another one tonight and be more careful around the convoys.
I've done a lot of target practice with setups I made in the mission editor. I can hit a stern-bow-middle spread nearly every time... I just got to make sure they don't spot me and kill me first next time!
Thanks to everyone who writes tutorials for getting me started so quickly!