Ahoy! New to the forums, thanks, and a short patrol story...

[Marcel]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post, although i've been lurking ever since I played SH3 the first time a year or so ago.

First, thanks to all of you guys here who help out in such magnificent ways...mods, advice, stories...you truly make the game that much more exciting and a couple pieces of key info kept me interested enough to truly fall in love with subsims...thanks!

I just got SH4 for a song and i'm on my first patrol...loving it so far. I started in '41 out of Manila (having read that the most of the early war action takes place in this area) with a Sargo class boat.

Hello! not 150nm out of Manila when my sonarman detects a Task Force (must have been an invasion force set for Borneo) as it had around 5 DD's, 2-3 Light Cruisers and 4 troop transports.

I wasn't expecting that much opposition, but I was hungry and wanted to let off a few torps to get started so I set course intercept and went after them. I managed to sink one of the troop carriers (for a measley 1700 tons...would've thought that sinking troop carriers on the way to an invasion would be considered a high-value target), and put one torp into a DD.

Here's my initial questions for those willing to answer:

1) I went deep and silent after my shots to avoid those pesky DD's all coming at me at once.....got confirmation of the troop transport sinking before i went down, but not the DD. Later, on the nav map, it showed as a sunk ship, but I didn't get credit for it in the Captain's Log....is that normal? Do you have to actually stay up near the surface and watch a ship sink to get credit?

2) Once, later in the patrol, I was closing in on 2 un-escorted merchants when all my engine crew went to sleep at the same time...left me dead in the water....I called Battle Stations and that got us running again, but how do i call off Battle Stations now that i've left that engagement? Or do they just figure it out after awhile? I'm playing stock SH4 (no mods yet...trying to get the hang of survival first...hehe).

3) Right after the first task force, I ran smack into another (at the time, no notice from COMSUBPAC) and managed to sink 2 DD's (timed my intercept wrong and was out of range for the cruisers). These both must have been headed for Borneo since I got a message saying that Borneo was under imminant invasion about a day after my attacks...which would have put them arriving at Borneo at about that time....I find that realism so cool. I tried to radio in my contact reports while on the surface actively tracking them, but it didn't work....at least my log didn't show any sent messages...(wouldn't command want to know there were 2 task forces out there?) any thoughts?

Again, thanks for all the tutorials, videos and sense of community...without it, I doubt i'd still consider captaining a boat! As for now...I can't wait til i get off work and back on patrol...I've got a few torps left, so you know i'm still hunting....

[McHibbins]

Welcome aboard mate

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Cheers Marcel.

[G2B]

Welcome Aboard Marcel

As far as General Quarters hit the same Icon to relieve the crew, if not they tend to get over fatigued and then they leave you dead in the water. Good Hunting


To radio in a TF theres a ship icon on the Captains clipboard if it's "torn" no way to radio in if it's not "torn" you can radio them in then wait for a response, they may order you to attack

[peabody]

Originally Posted by Marcel

Hello everyone,

This is my first post, although i've been lurking ever since I played SH3 the first time a year or so ago.

First, thanks to all of you guys here who help out in such magnificent ways...mods, advice, stories...you truly make the game that much more exciting and a couple pieces of key info kept me interested enough to truly fall in love with subsims...thanks!

I just got SH4 for a song and i'm on my first patrol...loving it so far. I started in '41 out of Manila (having read that the most of the early war action takes place in this area) with a Sargo class boat.

Hello! not 150nm out of Manila when my sonarman detects a Task Force (must have been an invasion force set for Borneo) as it had around 5 DD's, 2-3 Light Cruisers and 4 troop transports.

I wasn't expecting that much opposition, but I was hungry and wanted to let off a few torps to get started so I set course intercept and went after them. I managed to sink one of the troop carriers (for a measley 1700 tons...would've thought that sinking troop carriers on the way to an invasion would be considered a high-value target), and put one torp into a DD.

Here's my initial questions for those willing to answer:

1) I went deep and silent after my shots to avoid those pesky DD's all coming at me at once.....got confirmation of the troop transport sinking before i went down, but not the DD. Later, on the nav map, it showed as a sunk ship, but I didn't get credit for it in the Captain's Log....is that normal? Do you have to actually stay up near the surface and watch a ship sink to get credit?

2) Once, later in the patrol, I was closing in on 2 un-escorted merchants when all my engine crew went to sleep at the same time...left me dead in the water....I called Battle Stations and that got us running again, but how do i call off Battle Stations now that i've left that engagement? Or do they just figure it out after awhile? I'm playing stock SH4 (no mods yet...trying to get the hang of survival first...hehe).

3) Right after the first task force, I ran smack into another (at the time, no notice from COMSUBPAC) and managed to sink 2 DD's (timed my intercept wrong and was out of range for the cruisers). These both must have been headed for Borneo since I got a message saying that Borneo was under imminant invasion about a day after my attacks...which would have put them arriving at Borneo at about that time....I find that realism so cool. I tried to radio in my contact reports while on the surface actively tracking them, but it didn't work....at least my log didn't show any sent messages...(wouldn't command want to know there were 2 task forces out there?) any thoughts?

Again, thanks for all the tutorials, videos and sense of community...without it, I doubt i'd still consider captaining a boat! As for now...I can't wait til i get off work and back on patrol...I've got a few torps left, so you know i'm still hunting....

Welcome aboard:

1. That happens sometimes for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes in zigzagging ships run into each other and one will sink, so you don't get the credit. Sometimes depending on how long it was, you don't get credit. If a US plane came along and put the "final touch" on it, you will not get credit since you were not the one that actually sank it. So it does happen, but not a LOT.

2. Battlestations is turned on and off with the same button, so probably what happened (and you are NOT the first to do it), you probably left them at battlestations from the last encounter and they just got too exhausted to continue. So what you actually did when you hit the button to put them at battle stations you were actually taking them off battle stations, so some of them were able to rest.
An easy way to tell is watch the background on the crew management screen. Only one row will be darker than the normal background, then hit the battlestations button and all the rows will get darker showing that they are at battlestations. One row will still be darker than the others but they will all be darker than the background. Then click battlestations again and you will see the difference.

3. Not positive on that one, but I think you may have to be in "Visual Range" to call in a contact. I forget because I don't do it. I am not giving away my position just to call in a contact in a game that really does nothing about it when you do.

Enjoy

Peabody

[Marcel]

Awesome. Thanks guys, for the welcome....and the answers...that makes sense.

Now that I think about it, I left them at Battle Stations for quite awhile (at least since our prior engagement 200 miles away...no wonder they abandoned their posts....a sailor's gotta eat and sleep at least once or twice during a patrol I suppose....

I didn't even think about giving my position away by using the radio.....yikes!....glad i brought it up here before I started wondering why I had half the Japanese fleet coming down on me...

[peabody]

Originally Posted by Marcel

I didn't even think about giving my position away by using the radio.....yikes!....glad i brought it up here before I started wondering why I had half the Japanese fleet coming down on me...

It isn't so much using the radio that is a problem, you have to be able to see them and be surfaced, which means they can see you.

Peabody

[Marcel]

Yeah...I tried radioing in the contacts when I had them on sonar, but still well outside visual range. On my first patrol in SH4, in a brand new boat, about a year since i've sailed....i wasn't about to fiddle with the radio within visual range of a task force....

[magic452]

One other problem with calling in contact reports is if you do and they tell you to sink a battleship or something like that, if you don't you can't complete the mission and any further orders will just say "complete mission"

Welcome to the boat mate.
And keep up the good work.

Magic

[G2B]

Ooops forgot the enemy can home in on you, where is that expert radio operator when you need him to foul your broadcast and befudle any triangulation attempts.