TMO Questions

[Lionfish298]

Hello all.

None of you know me. I lurk on the boards and quietly read what you lot are saying, I suppose in true submariner fashion. But if I am a submariner, I am a frustrated submariner. I recently installed Trigger Maru overhauled with the patch and the lovely 3D interiors. I was flabbergasted immediately at the sheer amount of, well, awesomeness, that this mod created.

However, I am experiencing something rather frustrated. The Destroyer patrols outside of harbors (my favorite stalking grounds) have gone from being almost mentally handicapped in the stock version of the game to being psychic and omnipresent.

I recently was given command of the USS Wahoo, one of my favorite WW2 boats to read about. I was ordered out to the Mariana Islands to patrol in "Parlor" and saw absolutely nothing except for patrol aircraft. So, I decide to sneak down to Guam. The water is fairly deep until you get in close, and it's always been enjoyable for me to prowl up to the harbor, pump the parked freighters full of fish, and then get the hell out of there before the Destroyers can find me. I have been quite unable to do this with Trigger Maru. I do understand that the developers have beefed up the AI, am I correct in this? I must be, judging from their behavior.

About 4 miles out from the island, with radar bearings on the lone destroyer patrolling, I submerged to a nice comfortable 200 feet or so, rigged for silent running, and called for battle stations. I start creeping into the harbor -- first at 2/3 and then down to 1/3 -- and what does my sonar discover? That Mr Destroyer is charging in on me full blast, dropping ash cans exactly at my depth, without me ever going over 2/3 and above a thermal layer. Now, I have read a whole hell of a lot of literature on WW2 submarine warfare, but this sounds a little bit fantastic to me. The water was still deep enough, so I ducked down beneath test depth down to 500 feet. Still, Destroyer-san continues to bracket me with depth charges even though I ought to have become a ghost by this point. Finally, I'm at All Stop and pretty much laying on the bottom and he finally starts nosing around elsewhere. I start creeping forward at 1/3 and start following the contours of the ocean bottom. About this time, I got paranoid and saved the game, having a premonition of having a repeat of my original discovery. To prevent this, I stop the submarine again and ever so gingerly start creeping toward the surface. When I hit 150 feet, I switched to the external camera just to see what's going on, and the fracking Destroyer is barreling back down on me full tilt, spewing depth charges in his wake. Mind you, he's not even actively pinging (which surprised me), he's just charging madly at me. Needless to say, my career ended with a fate similar to that of Mush, but far less illustrious.

Now, I want to know, how did the Japanese navy secure demigods as the captains of the destroyers? And how the hell am I supposed to sneak past them?

Thanks guys, the TMO mod is amazing, still, I'm just frustrated by these destroyers.

[I'm goin' down]

I too play TMO. Ducimus programmed destroyers to kill, plain and simple. Coincidentally with a depth charge attack, my computer motherboard was destroyed. Of course I know that a TMO destroyer was responsible. I submitted an insurance claim, which the insurer invesitaged and denied. The grounds for denial of indemnity was that a loss caused by an Act of
War is not covered -- i.e. it is excluded from coverage. So, I bought a new computer, and have sent Ducimus the bill!

Anyway, here is a view of what it looked like in the last moments of my previous life.The screens shots are compliments of scudhawk, and they pretty much show the what the end lookede like.

When you see this, say GOODBYE.


Originally Posted by scudhawk


Depth charge compliments of TMO1.9.

[I'm goin' down]

Destroyers wreaking havoc in TMO1.9? It is pretty simple, really. Ducimus programed TMO destroyers to kill. That's it in plain English. To paraphrase Pecos Bill, when a young man said he was planning to ride Widowmaker, Pecos' horse, "You try to ride Widowmanke and he'll kill you."

Coincidentally, my boat was destroyed by a depth charge launched during an attack run by a destroyer during a TMO1.9 mission at the precise moment that my computer motherboard crashed permanently, suffering the Blue Screen of Death. Convinced that TMO1,9 was responsible (collateral damage?), I filed a claim under my homeowner's property insurance policy for purposes of recovering the replacement cost of my computer which was rendered useless by the dastardly attack. My insurer denied the claim, stating that a loss incurred as a result of a depth charge is not covered on the ground that it falls squarely under the exclusion to coverage for losses incurred during and attributable to Acts of War. @#$!!

Below I present images of what it looked like from a periscope view of the SS Barbarinna in her last moment. The screen shots are borrowed from scudhawk, in what has to be one of the greatest screen shots ever posted in the silent hunter forums.

When you see this, say GOODBYE.

Originally Posted by scudhawk

Take a deep breath and hold it, for it will be your last!

[Wilcke]

In the readme there are a couple of notes on detuning the tin cans and also how to make the thermal layer into kevlar.

Happy Hunting!

[Lionfish298]

Well, I mean, I don't want to just play the game like a wimp. My surprise was just at how all-knowing the Tin Cans were and that it didn't seem very realistic. Am I incorrect in my estimation of the Japanese? Have you tuned them up to make their hunting skills as they were during the war, or did you tune them up beyond that just to increase the difficulty?

Also, you mention turning the "thermal layer into kevlar". How realistic is the modeling of the thermal layer in TMO?

[I'm goin' down]

Ducimus posted a link to a tutorial on avoiding dds radar. I am not going to look for it, but a link is posted in Rockin Robbins sticky in the main forum for sH4 under the Skipper's bag of tricks. If you are looking for what he did and why, Ducimus has it explained it in the TMO thread or will have to weigh in. But I assume that he used the information in the link. Enemy radar capability increased in quality, range and depth according to the information in the link.

[Lionfish298]

Right, so I read the article that you pointed me towards. It is rather helpful, but I have a few questions. He says:

The obvious solution early war is to dive to around 230 meters or so and stay quiet as a mouse. Pretty simple no?

And

Again, the obvious answer to late war sonar is,
"yes, Deeper still!"

230 meters is over 700 feet, yes? I was not aware early war submarines could dive that deep. I lost the USS Flying Fish after some heavy flooding caused us to go below crush depth and she cracked around 650-700 feet. If late war sonar goes even deeper, than I'm thinking it sounds rather impossible to dive "under" his sonar cone. Is this correct? Or does he mean "feet" in that FAQ and not meters?