Managed to Survive the Drum

Folducker · 04-27-09, 12:50 PM

After my last patrol, 60K tons sunk, I was offered and accepted a Balo. Is the only difference a few feet deeper depth and a few knots of speed?

I recently got in the middle of a convoy by going deep and silent, about half way between the lead escort and the first target, I went to periscope depth and, being surrounded by ships, started shooting. Firing all ten tubes, I bagged four ships and missed with two fish. I then went deep, apparently the escorts are totally incompetent as they never got within a half mile of me. One thing though, when you sink something a little red drawing appears on the map. One of the ships I sunk the drawing was done in regular pencil, not red?

Next question; I am not allowed any more officers. I would like to add some guys that have special skills, but everytime I get a "Too many officers" message. Do I have to kick someone off, if so, is there a down side to doing this?
Thanks

Stealhead · 04-27-09, 01:44 PM

Balaos can dive much deeper than a Gato can depending on what you are running if TMO then the Balao will be able to go over 150ft deeper than a Gato no problem and that is being very conservative.Another adavantage of the Balao was that they had been redesigned somewhat from the Gato so they are able to dive much faster and they also have an improved range. I also find the Balaos lower cut conning tower to be an advantage it has a much lower profile than a Gato does. I like the Gato/Tambor for early war work but I prefer to have a Balao as soon as I can get one. And then in the last few months I will take a Tench class with its load of 28 torps and ST radar.

If you want more men you must open your game save files under SH4 inside you documents and find your subs save file the file names are tricky but click on the UPCInitial folder,activeuserplayerunits(copy and save a version somewhere else) your subs name will be at the top scroll down a bit and you will see: MaxOfficers=X MaxPettyOfficers=X change the numbers to something higher then save it. Do this when you are in the office if you want to add crew right away.Then go back to folder screen there should also be an activeuserplayerunits file under the UPCInitial folder back this one up as well and then make the same crew changes as you did before and save. Now you will be able to add the type of crew you so desire.

Armistead · 04-27-09, 03:22 PM

If you get a ship they is not red, but gray, one of two things happened. Either you sunk it without seeing it, such as in a storm or it crashed. Not sure with all mods, but some give you credit for sinking it even if you don't see it, some don't. I often will shoot ships by sonar in a storm that I never see using torps or the deckgun. I will get a gray sunk icon, but do get credit for them.

Once in awhile you may see a plane fly over land and crash and appear as a sunken gray ship icon....pilot ran into a mountain and that's the way the game shows sunken things on land.

Folducker · 04-27-09, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armistead

If you get a ship they is not red, but gray, one of two things happened. Either you sunk it without seeing it, such as in a storm or it crashed. Not sure with all mods, but some give you credit for sinking it even if you don't see it, some don't. I often will shoot ships by sonar in a storm that I never see using torps or the deckgun. I will get a gray sunk icon, but do get credit for them.

Once in awhile you may see a plane fly over land and crash and appear as a sunken gray ship icon....pilot ran into a mountain and that's the way the game shows sunken things on land.

That makes sense. I have found that once I pop up in the middle of the convoy even on the blackest of the nights, I am spotted almost immediately, especially if I have the periscope raised. I have to get doors opened and make sure that the position keeper on the TDC is not turned on as I only have seconds to set up and shoot. (Previously, I set up a beautiful attack on two huge passenger liners doing 17 knots that were being escorted by 4 destroyers. I got up to periscope depth at the perfect time, 1000 yards away. Took the rear ship first, locked on with the position keeper and fired three fish. Switched targets to the front one, and fired three more. Only problem was, I was still locked on the rear ship. Getting hit with 6 fish really took care of the guy in back, but I had to watch the one in front sail away at 18 knots).

This time, I was giving everything I could see two fish with the hope that I could hang around deep and pick off anything that was damaged but still not sunk. Those two medium freighters both sunk after taking one fish each. I did get cedit for it.

04-27-09, 12:50 PM	#1
Folducker Mate Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 53 Downloads: 13 Uploads: 0	Managed to Survive the Drum After my last patrol, 60K tons sunk, I was offered and accepted a Balo. Is the only difference a few feet deeper depth and a few knots of speed? I recently got in the middle of a convoy by going deep and silent, about half way between the lead escort and the first target, I went to periscope depth and, being surrounded by ships, started shooting. Firing all ten tubes, I bagged four ships and missed with two fish. I then went deep, apparently the escorts are totally incompetent as they never got within a half mile of me. One thing though, when you sink something a little red drawing appears on the map. One of the ships I sunk the drawing was done in regular pencil, not red? Next question; I am not allowed any more officers. I would like to add some guys that have special skills, but everytime I get a "Too many officers" message. Do I have to kick someone off, if so, is there a down side to doing this? Thanks

04-27-09, 01:44 PM	#2
Stealhead Navy Seal Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Kentucky Posts: 5,421 Downloads: 85 Uploads: 0	Balaos can dive much deeper than a Gato can depending on what you are running if TMO then the Balao will be able to go over 150ft deeper than a Gato no problem and that is being very conservative.Another adavantage of the Balao was that they had been redesigned somewhat from the Gato so they are able to dive much faster and they also have an improved range. I also find the Balaos lower cut conning tower to be an advantage it has a much lower profile than a Gato does. I like the Gato/Tambor for early war work but I prefer to have a Balao as soon as I can get one. And then in the last few months I will take a Tench class with its load of 28 torps and ST radar.If you want more men you must open your game save files under SH4 inside you documents and find your subs save file the file names are tricky but click on the UPCInitial folder,activeuserplayerunits(copy and save a version somewhere else) your subs name will be at the top scroll down a bit and you will see: MaxOfficers=X MaxPettyOfficers=X change the numbers to something higher then save it. Do this when you are in the office if you want to add crew right away.Then go back to folder screen there should also be an activeuserplayerunits file under the UPCInitial folder back this one up as well and then make the same crew changes as you did before and save. Now you will be able to add the type of crew you so desire. Last edited by Stealhead; 04-27-09 at 01:55 PM.

04-27-09, 03:22 PM	#3
Armistead Rear Admiral Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: on the Dan Posts: 10,880 Downloads: 364 Uploads: 0	If you get a ship they is not red, but gray, one of two things happened. Either you sunk it without seeing it, such as in a storm or it crashed. Not sure with all mods, but some give you credit for sinking it even if you don't see it, some don't. I often will shoot ships by sonar in a storm that I never see using torps or the deckgun. I will get a gray sunk icon, but do get credit for them. Once in awhile you may see a plane fly over land and crash and appear as a sunken gray ship icon....pilot ran into a mountain and that's the way the game shows sunken things on land.