I was so very very close...

[CaptainMattJ.]

After ficing my mods problem, i installed RFB 2.0 and a few other things. i started a new career in Manila with a Sargo. i put as many skippers on board as i can get and head off. i started heading towards the western part of luzon when sure enough i get contacts. it was one warship extreme range. one then turned into 4. i assumed it was a destroyer and a few gunboats and a subchaser. i TCed and ended up abruptly stopping 20 minutes later when i recieved around 15 contacts. this was no doubt a task force. This early, it HAD to be something big. i used external cam and shot foward12 KM and sure enough, there were 3 battleships, 2 Heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, 8 destroyers and strangely enough a Merchant was in there too. it was anything big, just a lowly small tanker. i believe the battlehisp were......fuso maybe? it was a little odd looking to me. ive seen mostly all of the japanese battleships and i could quite put my giner on these ones.

I immedately abandoned my ourse and turned to an estimated intercept course and dived.

The really rotten part of this story so far? the destroyers saw me already. they sent 2 at first, and i didnt even notice. i tced and was stopped a few minutes later (game time) by me getting shelled by destroyers trying to hit me underwater. They had sent FOUR destroyers. i had NO intention of abandoning this opportunity. they had already pinged me, and since they already knew where i was i pushed to flank and turned hard right. one destroyer was around 400 meters. and my stern tube was a perfect 180 bearing, so i fired. it ran for a few seconds and bounced off them like if it hit a giant rubber band. a dud . there was a destroyer moving perpendicular and right behind the one i just shot at, giving me another good shot. i fired, but it was mocing too fast. my torpedo fired and had to take a wide turn , and AGAIN bounced off the same destroyer i had just fired at. thats now 0 for 2. i turn hard over, but the destroyer tracked me and ran over me. My scope bashed against it, Hard. It didnt do a dam thing to it, but it killed about 12 men on the bridge, and injured everyone else. however, it didnt drop anything (odd)? i turned and fired another shot at that same destryoer, and it tore it to shreds instantly. Vengence!

i turned again and hit another destroyer, it did nothing instant except make a giant gaping hole. they came around for another run, but STILL didnt drop anything. i turned for another shot and it also only left a gaping hole, no instant effects however. i tced and turned towards their fleet. when i stopped, i looked around and only one destroyer mulled about. it didnt try anything so i set up for another attack. This time however, they sent the other destroyers at me. they tried again, but still diddnt DC me. By then i realized that this was a glitch, so i took advantage of it. i tced again and 1 minute later i get stopped and get reports of taking damage. it started out as one warning, then turned into multiple system hits. i heard Scraping noises of metal on metal, and i look in external and theres NOTHING near me. im not anywhere near shallow water, and no ship was near me. i just took a massive beating from "phantom" damage, which has been happening ALOT lately.

Nothing serious though i again i try to intercept. THe battleships were still 3000 M away and zigging, which meant id have very little chance to attack. i end up catching up to the back, near a Takao HC. i try to go to periscope station, and BOTH scopes are busted. i cant even go into persciope view, much less steup an attack.i fired a few shots based on the last attack i carried out that still stuck in the TDC. They all of course missed. Both scopes were WAAAAY below 1% damage, and yet they couldnt be fixed. terribad damage rep in this game.

The ONLY consolation prize i got was the 3 destroyers i nailed all sank. i cant believe because of this phantom damage i lose 3 battleshisp and a bunch of heavy cruisers . heres some screenies of it.


One of the Battleships


some of the task force in their neat rows



That dam POS destroyer that killed 12 men, 6 of which were officers getting Justifiedly pulverized..




One of the destroyers that took a hit but didnt burst into flames instantly.


That same destroyer a little later.

[Thrair]

Sounds like ya had a bit of fun, even if the game was acting wierd.



Side note:

This is just a guess (as while I am a history buff in general, my knowledge of WWII naval warfare is limited to general information), but I'd say the reason a tanker was there would be for carrying fuel for the rest of the task force. For the sake of realism.

Not saying they refueled with it while on the ocean, ofc, but it might be to carry the supply of fuel with them to be used when the task force docked at port.

Again, this is just a guess. Someone else on the forums could probably tell you for sure one way or the other.

[Panser]

Originally Posted by CaptainMattJ.

...and strangely enough a Merchant was in there too. it was anything big, just a lowly small tanker.

Originally Posted by Thrair

I'd say the reason a tanker was there would be for carrying fuel for the rest of the task force. For the sake of realism.

Although I know little of the specifics of SH4 (yet), I think this is a safe bet on what was being represented in the game. Oilers often sailed with allied task forces and, I believe, occasionally with some convoys too. I guess it would only be natural for the axis to do the same.

[Armistead]

Should we count the things you did wrong...

If you had 12 men killed, sounds like you left men on the DG, AA guns, ect.
You can't leave them there dived as the game still sees them on those stations and a charge will kill them. Place them in the alley or damage crew, but never load your sub with so many men you can't move them from the topside gun stations. If not on the DG, you were just too shallow and they scored a direct hit.

Early war you probably didn't have surface radar and your men have poorer skills. If you have a contact, don't use TC until you have everything figured out. They can hit you with a dozen shells before you get slowed down. Often you can see them, but your men can't.

Instead of fighting escorts at scope depth, I would've dived deep and evaded and saved my torps for the TF if a end around was possible. I'm sure they slowed when you were spotted. Very dangerous fighting multiple escorts, you set up on one the other blast you with a good run.

You didn't get phantom damage. No doubt while using some TC a escort made a run. Even 8% TC under battle you can die and the escort be long gone before you slow down. So with TC you got attacked and the DD had made his pass before you slowed down. It's also possible a plane made an attack on you, happens all the time.

Not sure how many skippers you had, I would think RFB limits officers and you would be very limited anyway at the start of the war.

That was a Kongo.......

[CaptainMattJ.]

Originally Posted by Armistead

Should we count the things you did wrong...

If you had 12 men killed, sounds like you left men on the DG, AA guns, ect.
You can't leave them there dived as the game still sees them on those stations and a charge will kill them. Place them in the alley or damage crew, but never load your sub with so many men you can't move them from the topside gun stations. If not on the DG, you were just too shallow and they scored a direct hit.

Early war you probably didn't have surface radar and your men have poorer skills. If you have a contact, don't use TC until you have everything figured out. They can hit you with a dozen shells before you get slowed down. Often you can see them, but your men can't.

Instead of fighting escorts at scope depth, I would've dived deep and evaded and saved my torps for the TF if a end around was possible. I'm sure they slowed when you were spotted. Very dangerous fighting multiple escorts, you set up on one the other blast you with a good run.

You didn't get phantom damage. No doubt while using some TC a escort made a run. Even 8% TC under battle you can die and the escort be long gone before you slow down. So with TC you got attacked and the DD had made his pass before you slowed down. It's also possible a plane made an attack on you, happens all the time.

Not sure how many skippers you had, I would think RFB limits officers and you would be very limited anyway at the start of the war.

That was a Kongo.......

1: i read that the game auto placed them in the alley. and FYI, i didnt get DCed. my periscope bashed agains their ship, which still somehow kiled 12 men nd injured everybody else

2: they didnt attack me while on the surface. they tried shelling me at periscope depth.

3: i was planning to dive if it got way too rough. since they never DCed, i didnt dive.

4: this wasnt a run.if you had read more carefully, youdve seen that i said NO destroyers were even close. and besides i got 1 TC the second it started happening though. again, if you had actually read more carefully, you wouldve seen that instead of getting all the damage all at once likke you would in TC, this was gradual over 10 seconds. i heard SCRAPING sound, not any booms or dongs, like youd expect if i hit the ocean floor or get DCed, and again there werent any destroyers nearby. and since it was scraping, it meant that i was scarping against Metal. a look on the external cam showed NOTHING. therefore, this was phantom damage.

And to top it off, the dds never made a run on me.

4: i originally thought it was a kongo, but got it confused with the Fuso so that the ithought the kongo had 6 Dual main batteries instead of 4, therfor i ruled out the kongo.

but whats the other class of battleship? theres 2 jap battleship classes with 6 main batteries. It was the Fuso class and the...what?

[Armistead]

What confused me is you said

"i tced again and 1 minute later i get stopped and get reports of taking damage. it started out as one warning, then turned into multiple system hits. i heard Scraping noises of metal on metal, and i look in external and theres NOTHING near me. im not anywhere near shallow water, and no ship was near me. i just took a massive beating from "phantom" damage, which has been happening ALOT lately."

I assure you no mysterious ghost attacked your sub. Here you say you used TC and implies a minute or so into the TC it automatically came back down because of damage reports. You may not see it, but it's obvious you were attacked why using TC by either a ship or plane.



My bet it was a ship. Believe me in this game using TC why dd's are near will get you killed. You say nothing was near, but obvious you were in battle with DD's and they were around somewhere. This was an attack that happened, as damage just doesn't happen. Just because nothing was near after you came out of TC, doesn't mean it wasn't. Just think a DD making a run at just 12 kts, times 8TC, that could equal 96mph, so he could easily long be gone. It's happened to me many times. Usually I think I've escaped the DD and start using TC. THe DD may have been 3000 yards away, and then whamo, massive damage. Take a look around and the DD may then be a mile away.

You said no need to go dive, I assume you mean go deeper because they weren't dc'ing you. How do you know one won't? Don't trust that. 90% of the time they will and at scope depth you're usually a goner. That's testing fate...

You said this was happening to you a lot. Many complain of this mysterious damage, it simply is not, it's an attack by a plane or ship...

Only BB's I see in the SS are Kongo's...

.just trying to help ya...meant no offense and fight on.

[CaptainMattJ.]

Originally Posted by Armistead

What confused me is you said

"i tced again and 1 minute later i get stopped and get reports of taking damage. it started out as one warning, then turned into multiple system hits. i heard Scraping noises of metal on metal, and i look in external and theres NOTHING near me. im not anywhere near shallow water, and no ship was near me. i just took a massive beating from "phantom" damage, which has been happening ALOT lately."

I assure you no mysterious ghost attacked your sub. Here you say you used TC and implies a minute or so into the TC it automatically came back down because of damage reports. You may not see it, but it's obvious you were attacked why using TC by either a ship or plane.



My bet it was a ship. Believe me in this game using TC why dd's are near will get you killed. You say nothing was near, but obvious you were in battle with DD's and they were around somewhere. This was an attack that happened, as damage just doesn't happen. Just because nothing was near after you came out of TC, doesn't mean it wasn't. Just think a DD making a run at just 12 kts, times 8TC, that could equal 96mph, so he could easily long be gone. It's happened to me many times. Usually I think I've escaped the DD and start using TC. THe DD may have been 3000 yards away, and then whamo, massive damage. Take a look around and the DD may then be a mile away.

You said no need to go dive, I assume you mean go deeper because they weren't dc'ing you. How do you know one won't? Don't trust that. 90% of the time they will and at scope depth you're usually a goner. That's testing fate...

You said this was happening to you a lot. Many complain of this mysterious damage, it simply is not, it's an attack by a plane or ship...

Only BB's I see in the SS are Kongo's...

.just trying to help ya...meant no offense and fight on.

im telling you there wasnt any destroyers. i sunk 3 and the last one was around 8000 METERs (not yards, mind you) and traveling in circles. all other dds were staying in formation. also you cant explain the scraping noises i heard AS i recieved the damage. and also why i took the first damage, then there was a 5 second interval between getting more damage WHILE i heard scraping.

[Armistead]

It was either a DD or a ghost or your game files are fubar ? You'll have to decide.


You get all kinds of sounds when damage is taking place during and after. Usually you get damaged and as more things go wrong, you can hear scraping, banging, hissing as your ship takes more damage. How deep were you...could've been a plane, but I don't think RFB has those deadly TMO planes that can hit you deep. Did you see any planes around?

The issue is, people say this happens alot, most newer players loading harder mods. This is a common complaint, but their are no known bugs that cause this. A few facts are always the same, TC was being used and escorts are in the contact zone....Understand a lot of time can pass using even low TC, crank it up to even the 40's and that's enough time for a DD to sink you and be gone. By the time your PC has read all of that and slowed down enough to give you the damage messages a lot of time has gone by. Another factor is your PC specs and how fast your PC can read and process info.

I've run into mines, but you don't hear them scraping in the game, but mines are rare and you said this happens alot.

If you're sure this is phantom damage happening on it's own, then it can only be one thing, you have mod soup or bad files, but I've never heard of this bug, not that it may not be out there.

Good luck..