Empty Ocean?

[ejbeadles]

Thanks to the excellent advice I got from this forum, I'm getting pretty deadly to just about everything I come across. The problem is I cannot find any targets! I tried patrollimg the areas suggested in the assigned missions, freelanced around where I know the enemy is supposed to be. Tried open ocean, tried costal. I sailes submerged into Tokyo harbour and surfaced to find only 1 airplane and one little costal patrol vessel that I had a pitched gun battle with. While fun, I don't think thats how its supposed to work.

Am I doing something wrong here? If someone can kind of give me ideas here I would be grateful.

I'm running:
TMO 2.5
RSRDC
RSRDC V5xx patch
SCAF for SH 1.5
MaxOptics3 for SCAF 1.5
Bigger Better Protractors
TMOKeys

Thanks!

[Dive! Dive! Dive!]

That is pretty wierd. A dangerous tactic to try is go around surfaced and when you detect something Dive! Dive! Dive! (). If pulled off then you have a much larger detection range and you can find more targets.

[Littica Marek]

Did that a few times, forgot i was in shallows and crash dived... didnt end well

[Rockin Robbins]

If you're early in the war, RSRD can leave you with not much to shoot at unless you happen to be where the action is. Being based out of Subic Bay helps. It gets better as the war progresses.

[Hernan_Cortes]

Originally Posted by Dive! Dive! Dive!

That is pretty wierd. A dangerous tactic to try is go around surfaced and when you detect something Dive! Dive! Dive! (). If pulled off then you have a much larger detection range and you can find more targets.

Not in all cases. I had some problems with a merchant ship (it was very weird ship): every time, when my torpedoes was near him, he manouvered too fast for the just poor merchant, and all times avoided my torpedoes So it was better solution to go the surface and punch that bandit with deck gun

[Armistead]

RSRD is historical. As stated, early war better to start from Manila. Historically most action is there and for the next several months moves south to Borneo and Java.. In fact many large invasion fleets will invade the Philippines the first month of the war. If you start at Manila, you should get a patrol star for one, but easy to go sit in Lingayen Gulf and you'll get ran over by several invasion fleets.

In Jan 42, lot's of action near the ports of Borneo. The big action takes place near Java in late Feb, seems the 25th...Just patrol a lil WNW-NW of Surabaya Feb 25th-29th...One invasion group contains over 50 ships.

In 42, you'll want to study and find the historic battles, but most the action is near the Solomons. They're several large historic battles that take place, such as Coral Sea, Santa Cruz, Eastern Solomons, etc.. In Oct-Nov of 42 if you hang around Savo you'll run into so many TF the only decision you'll have to make is which one to attack.

1943 is a lil tricky, near Truk is good, Bismark or historic shipping lanes. The best lanes are Formosa and about 30 NM's off the west coast of Borneo, just sit about 30 NM's away from Brunei Bay.

The best lanes in 44 are the same as above,

1945, hang near the Korea Straits.

Obvious many battles take place elsewhere that you can get involved in if you study up.

Every action or battle listed in the following link is included in RSRD.

http://combinedfleet.com/battles/

Two good maps for early war, pick a date and an ambush point
May have to save them to "My Pictures" and magnify them for better viewing





If you start out of Pearl at the start of the war, hang south of Wake, but you want action..Manila is better.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Dive! Dive! Dive!

That is pretty wierd. A dangerous tactic to try is go around surfaced and when you detect something Dive! Dive! Dive! (). If pulled off then you have a much larger detection range and you can find more targets.

Smart skippers stay on the suface as much as possible...If you detect something usually you stay on the surface to plot an attack position, sonar works just as well surfaced as submerged, cept for S boats sonar only works submerged.

You get no further range in game submerged...Most use the lag trick, you notice your PC slowing, means something is nearby, go check sonar yourself, you can hear much better than the subs AI.

Patrolling dived is a poor tactic, diving simply because you detect a target is even worse, unless it's a plane, then dive.

[ejbeadles]

Thanks for the awesome advice folks. I will put it to use right away. One thing I was doing was submerging during the day and sufacing at night to avoid aircraft. I will try it your way and see what happens!

Thanks!!

[Hernan_Cortes]

Originally Posted by ejbeadles

Thanks for the awesome advice folks. I will put it to use right away. One thing I was doing was submerging during the day and sufacing at night to avoid aircraft. I will try it your way and see what happens!

Thanks!!

That was historically right strategy, but in 1941-1944 the nights on the Pacific were very dangerous too. The Japanese night attacks caused a lot of damage to the allied forces.

Wish you a good hunting!

[I'm goin' down]

Empty ocean you say? You have to be kidding. Mine is full of sea water all the time.

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by Dive! Dive! Dive!

That is pretty wierd. A dangerous tactic to try is go around surfaced and when you detect something Dive! Dive! Dive! (). If pulled off then you have a much larger detection range and you can find more targets.

I don't find that to be all that dangerous of a tactic. After all, your detection range is much greater, especially if you use the lag trick. The lag trick is easiest at higher TC rates, I never have trouble getting under the surface before I'm in visual range when I detect targets with that. I estimate it's detection range to be approximately 10 nm, plenty of room to maneuver. Right now, it's early war and my sonarman's ears are as good as my eyes (I can see smoke in the TBT when he can hear screws), so it's a little hairy to rely on him, but even so, I can see smoke out to 13,000 yards in good conditions, giving me 3,000 yards of closure before they're inside that magic 5nm circle, more than enough time to submerge unless it's a 30 knot TF bearing straight for me. Even then, a crash dive will get you far enough under they can't see you when they cross the line.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by ejbeadles

Thanks for the awesome advice folks. I will put it to use right away. One thing I was doing was submerging during the day and sufacing at night to avoid aircraft. I will try it your way and see what happens!

Originally Posted by ejbeadles

Thanks!!

It's not that it's a bad tactic per say, historically it was often done, moreso early war, but patrolling on the surface as much as possible is the better option. A sub is basically a surface craft afterall, that can submerge when attacked. You'll also get better fuel vs milage range patrolling of the surface.

The game basically has a contact zone around your sub that reaches to the limits of your best equipment, say 30nms. This zone exist from the start of the war, if any group comes within it your PC will lag out a lil. Even though this zone reaches to the limits of your best equipment, your subs crew/equipment AI will work within it's limits or equiment values/skill. Say early war your sonar AI may only pick up ships at 6000 yards, but since a group is in the contact zone, you yourself can hear it on sonar to the best range. So if patrolling, keep the stop watch up, if you see it lag out, check sonar yourself, you can easily locate a group 20-30nms away depending on mods, you're not limited by the AI.

Even with RSRD in some areas the planes are too much and I'll stay dived most the day. The other issue is time limits and contact ranges, if a plane spots you it can vector other units to hunt you, some other mods really change this up, you get spotted, planes and ships come a looking. Also depends on your playing style and how hard of an AI you go against, TMO has a fairly difficult AI, but even it becomes easy once you learn how to respond to it, so many really tweak the AI to be much harder.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by I'm goin' down

Empty ocean you say? You have to be kidding. Mine is full of sea water all the time.

always the funny one....

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by Armistead

It's not that it's a bad tactic per say, historically it was often done, moreso early war, but patrolling on the surface as much as possible is the better option. A sub is basically a surface craft afterall, that can submerge when attacked. You'll also get better fuel vs milage range patrolling of the surface.

The game basically has a contact zone around your sub that reaches to the limits of your best equipment, say 30nms. This zone exist from the start of the war, if any group comes within it your PC will lag out a lil. Even though this zone reaches to the limits of your best equipment, your subs crew/equipment AI will work within it's limits or equiment values/skill. Say early war your sonar AI may only pick up ships at 6000 yards, but since a group is in the contact zone, you yourself can hear it on sonar to the best range. So if patrolling, keep the stop watch up, if you see it lag out, check sonar yourself, you can easily locate a group 20-30nms away depending on mods, you're not limited by the AI.

Even with RSRD in some areas the planes are too much and I'll stay dived most the day. The other issue is time limits and contact ranges, if a plane spots you it can vector other units to hunt you, some other mods really change this up, you get spotted, planes and ships come a looking. Also depends on your playing style and how hard of an AI you go against, TMO has a fairly difficult AI, but even it becomes easy once you learn how to respond to it, so many really tweak the AI to be much harder.

Wow, it's 20-30 nm!? I thought the contact zone was based on your actual equipment, not the "war's best" equipment... I'm gonna have to revise those contact lines I'm drawing....

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by doulos05

Wow, it's 20-30 nm!? I thought the contact zone was based on your actual equipment, not the "war's best" equipment... I'm gonna have to revise those contact lines I'm drawing....

With sonar, again, the best contact zone is always around your sub, mods can change it up, but the AI can only take advantage of it as they gain better skill and equipment. Early war the sonar AI will hear less, as equipment improves he will pick up ships much further, near the wars end they can pick up almost to the contact limits. You will always be able to hear or pick up ships as far as the contact limit if you take over sonar.
Obvious no one has been able to correct by placing seperate zones for each piece of equipment, so it's often referred to as the lag trick or cheat.

Next time you notice lag, but no AI contact, ping the sonar bearing ASAP, that should give you an idea how far the zone is for your setup, maybe add a mile or so for the time spent lagging.

Other factors do effect sonar, weather, your depth, thermal layers, etc...
Don't trust those enemy sonar lines, you can be below the thermal and they may be much closer than the line shows.