Confusion over Patrol missions and red map contact icons

Seefer · 05-16-10, 07:13 PM

Greetings Captains.

I'm trying to do the first Patrol mission of the campaign and have chosen the British Coastal Waters area on the eastern coast of Britain.

Noob question ahoy:

1. Is it like SH4 where you can just sit within range of the patrol mission marker icon for so many hours? Just how close do you have to be to the area marker and how many hours does it take?

2. Do you have to do the patrol missions first before attempting to complete your specified tonnage target for sinking ships?

3. If I spot a contact some ways off the patrol area, should I try to engage it or would this reset the patrol mission progression because I moved some crticial distance from the patrol area marker?

4. How are some of these map contacts being detected? I just had a contact icon for a merchant show up about 26 km from my patrol point and there's no radio contact event listed for that lat/lon position. How was this detected? My sonarman announced nothing.

5. I'm assuming the red contacts showing on the map many miles away from my current position related to the Radio Contact Events listed in the Captains log screen? If so there sometimes seem to be more contact icons than there are events listed in the log.

6. It seems contact icons are vanishing at closer zoom levels. I usually put a marker point down using the pencil on all contacts so I can build up potential shipping route information (if indeed these are modelled in the game). When I zoom in at closer zoom levels, the pencil marker still shows but the red contact icon vanishes. Is this normal?

7. What is the point of the Send Status Report button in the Captains Log screen?

Needless to say all these questions should have been answered in even the most rudimentary manual, not the half-assed, cheap, lazy effort we got. I fear the SH series is turning into a low priority cash-cow project for Ubisoft and is nearing it's death if such a low-budget attitude like this is being taken

Thanks for any help.

kylania · 05-16-10, 07:22 PM

1. It's 70km around the east coast of England, it's 250km in the open Atlantic later on.

2. Nope. The patrol objectives are just for renown.

3. Nope, engage at will! In some cases it might even complete the patrol objective.

4. Single merchant contacts just appear, they don't list a time or anything. Radio contacts appear as well, but you get a message box message for them. TheDarkWraith has managed to time stamp ALL contacts, even the single merchant ones in his UI mod. Otherwise you have no way of telling when they appeared, so therefore where they are "now".

5. Yup, the "extras" are probably single merchants.

6. Yup, the radio report was just a "in this area" type report, so not a specific location.

Seefer · 05-16-10, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kylania

1. It's 70km around the east coast of England, it's 250km in the open Atlantic later on.

2. Nope. The patrol objectives are just for renown.

3. Nope, engage at will! In some cases it might even complete the patrol objective.

4. Single merchant contacts just appear, they don't list a time or anything. Radio contacts appear as well, but you get a message box message for them. TheDarkWraith has managed to time stamp ALL contacts, even the single merchant ones in his UI mod. Otherwise you have no way of telling when they appeared, so therefore where they are "now".

5. Yup, the "extras" are probably single merchants.

6. Yup, the radio report was just a "in this area" type report, so not a specific location.

Thanks for the clarifications. I'm tempted to install the TheDarkWraith mod but I'm concerned it will introduce more confusion for a noob like me due to complexity and bugs. I'm wondering if I should wait till I get used to stock gameplay as well wait for later versions of the mod to weed out bugs? Or Am I being too wary?

THE_MASK · 05-16-10, 07:46 PM

Install it now .

Seefer · 05-16-10, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sober

Install it now .

Okay, it's downloaded and making its way to my MODS folder for installation.

Stand Back!....I'm going in

THE_MASK · 05-16-10, 08:05 PM

Make sure you only install the correct folder and then merge which ever dials combo you want then enable with jsgme .

kylania · 05-16-10, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seefer

Okay, it's downloaded and making its way to my MODS folder for installation.

Stand Back!....I'm going in

If you have trouble installing, I've made a helpful video that explains it all!

05-16-10, 07:13 PM	#1
Seefer Loader Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 84 Downloads: 28 Uploads: 0	Confusion over Patrol missions and red map contact icons Greetings Captains. I'm trying to do the first Patrol mission of the campaign and have chosen the British Coastal Waters area on the eastern coast of Britain. Noob question ahoy: 1. Is it like SH4 where you can just sit within range of the patrol mission marker icon for so many hours? Just how close do you have to be to the area marker and how many hours does it take? 2. Do you have to do the patrol missions first before attempting to complete your specified tonnage target for sinking ships? 3. If I spot a contact some ways off the patrol area, should I try to engage it or would this reset the patrol mission progression because I moved some crticial distance from the patrol area marker? 4. How are some of these map contacts being detected? I just had a contact icon for a merchant show up about 26 km from my patrol point and there's no radio contact event listed for that lat/lon position. How was this detected? My sonarman announced nothing. 5. I'm assuming the red contacts showing on the map many miles away from my current position related to the Radio Contact Events listed in the Captains log screen? If so there sometimes seem to be more contact icons than there are events listed in the log. 6. It seems contact icons are vanishing at closer zoom levels. I usually put a marker point down using the pencil on all contacts so I can build up potential shipping route information (if indeed these are modelled in the game). When I zoom in at closer zoom levels, the pencil marker still shows but the red contact icon vanishes. Is this normal? 7. What is the point of the Send Status Report button in the Captains Log screen? Needless to say all these questions should have been answered in even the most rudimentary manual, not the half-assed, cheap, lazy effort we got. I fear the SH series is turning into a low priority cash-cow project for Ubisoft and is nearing it's death if such a low-budget attitude like this is being taken Thanks for any help. Last edited by Seefer; 05-16-10 at 07:25 PM.

05-16-10, 07:22 PM	#2
kylania Silent Hunter Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 3,528 Downloads: 118 Uploads: 0	1. It's 70km around the east coast of England, it's 250km in the open Atlantic later on. 2. Nope. The patrol objectives are just for renown. 3. Nope, engage at will! In some cases it might even complete the patrol objective. 4. Single merchant contacts just appear, they don't list a time or anything. Radio contacts appear as well, but you get a message box message for them. TheDarkWraith has managed to time stamp ALL contacts, even the single merchant ones in his UI mod. Otherwise you have no way of telling when they appeared, so therefore where they are "now". 5. Yup, the "extras" are probably single merchants. 6. Yup, the radio report was just a "in this area" type report, so not a specific location. __________________

05-16-10, 07:46 PM	#4
THE_MASK Ace of the deep . Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 9,226 Downloads: 901 Uploads: 73	Install it now .

05-16-10, 08:05 PM	#6
THE_MASK Ace of the deep . Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 9,226 Downloads: 901 Uploads: 73	Make sure you only install the correct folder and then merge which ever dials combo you want then enable with jsgme .