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.