How do I end a patrol out of port?

I am 300 NM west of Midway and I am out of gas. How do I exit the patrol?

[Effigy]

I think you're out of luck. No return to base like in SHIII that I recall. Can't remember how close you have to be to refit, so I'm not sure if trying to get there submerged on battery power would be feesible. Worth a shot though. Other than that, hitting esc and ending that way is likely your only option. I haven't played SHIV as much as I do SHIII so I may be overlooking something entirely here.

No options when I hit ESC. Is the best way to make fuel go further just to use all battery and only surface long enough to recharge?

[Effigy]

I used a combination of electric and diesel to get me where I needed to go. Mainly submerging during the day to avoid the large amount of enemy aircraft. So it saved a bit of fuel and also had the added bonus of allowing me to avoid almost all the japanese aircraft. So, yes, that would probably help you a bit.

I've also read somewhere (?) that running your diesel at around (correct me, anyone) 10kts is the ideal and most fuel efficent way to get anywhere. Too fast and you'll burn more diesel; too slow and you'll burn more as well.

[Orion2012]

You are at maximum range when you run at 10kts. Whenever you begin to recharge you run at flank fuel. I don't mean you need to run at flanks speed when recharging, but simply that the diesel engines run the generators, meaning when you are recharging batteries even if you run at 10kts, you use the same amount of fuel you would use if you ran at flank that way the batteries charge as fast as possible. Not such a huge problem in the stock game as the batteries charge back to full fairly quickly, but if your running a mod such as TMO it can take 12-14 hours for a full recharge. Also, on a side note, TMO has the ahead standard bell set to 10kts. But in stock SH4 you'll have to set your speed manually to 10 kts to get maximum efficiency from your fuel supply.

If your going to try it on batteries optimum range for them is 3-4 knots. Going ahead at 2 kts will make your charge last longer, but you will not cover more ground. If your only 3kts from Midway and you play the stock game you MIGHT make it.

You could also do this..

Open you SH4 folder in My documents, find the save you need to modify (I don't remember how to do that though exactly) and edit the "gamplaysettings" CFG file and change the line that says LimitedBatteried=true to limitedbatteries=false.
I've read that doing the same to the fuel setting will not correct the problem, but I've never tried it.

Ok, someone answered what my problem was. I was losing massive fuel and my battery was damaged and only went to 77/100. I figured there was a bug that made me still "charge" the battery even though it was full at its damaged state. I'm a SH3 veteran so I didn't blaze around at flank and blow my fuel. I loaded up a save and just went mostly on battery only surfaced to recharge and I got back to Midway. I'm loading up torpedos now.

[peabody]

Originally Posted by Flamingboat

No options when I hit ESC. Is the best way to make fuel go further just to use all battery and only surface long enough to recharge?

Hit ESC and Exit to Windows. Just kidding. There are several posts in here about best speed/range combo. There is a post somewhere to cheat and open the game file set unlimited fuel, finish the mission and go from there. I think you just take your lumps, there is no way to get "rescued" so you career is over. And from the info I have seen on sub ranges, you are looking at about 100 miles or kilometers (?) at 2 knots so that still isn't enough. But if you have any battery left, give it a try, you don't have anything to lose.

And also have read that submerging as much as possible is not the way. Recharging takes fuel, so a proper speed is the key. And if you take damage to the batteries they will continue to use fuel to charge even when fully charged.
Could be worse, I have been working on a Japanese Campaign and I just sank two Iowa BBs, two ships and over 100,000 tons, forgot to save it. Engaged a flattop and got DCed and destroyed my Dive Planes which for some reason causes loss of steering on the Sen Toku, so I just headed straight and hoped. I missed Wake by a lot less than 300miles. I could have swam ashore. I even went forward and backward hoping I might inch close enough.

Peabody