is it the mod or have I just been lucky before?

[She-Wolf]

hello y'all. The year is 1941 ( christmas) and I am in the Asiatic fleet in charge of a diddy little boat - SS-18. I have left TMO for now ( though will be back as I now understand that my habit of repeatedly saving to the same name was what was causing gremlins) and am trying out RSRDC and RFB, and so far so good - BUT, I have noticed two things that are different.

The first is that I cannot get close enough to a convoy to get a big ship in range ( 3500 yards?) because the escorts pick me up even when I am way out, and the second is that Auxiliary subchasers suddenly seem to have bigger ears than I found to be the case in TMO.

In TMO I would often go up to Yaizu ( plenty of deep water close by) because I could be sure of getting a good haul of merchantmen in that bay, and had a reasonable chance of evading the warships - so I tried it in RFB/RSRDC after I had been set free from my patrol duties, tootled in under cover of darkness, and sat about 5 miles off Yaizu, waiting for dawn. I knew of, and was keeping an eye on a subchaser some two miles plus away, but felt I was safe as the engines were off, I was submerged and it was pitch black. Yet, somehow, he knew I was there - made a beeline for me, and even though I went below a thermal layer and to silent running, I could not shake him off. How did he know I was even there? IN TMO I have had subchasers looking for me round Wake Island and not knowing they had passed within feet, yet this guy seemed to have me pinpointed from over two miles away... I dinna understand it!! ( fun though).

Originally Posted by She-Wolf

Yet, somehow, he knew I was there - made a beeline for me, and even though I went below a thermal layer and to silent running, I could not shake him off. How did he know I was even there?

its just the game itself, it cheats, plain and simple. there will be lots of times a ship will do that too you and if you watch you will see ships change course and try to ram you because they know your exact position speed and course even carriers and BB but especially cruisers and DD. the best part is no matter what you do they rarely ever miss and can ram your conning tower with sniper accuracy lol.

it is a realism buzz kill for sure since the game would be so much more realistic if they put in some sort of less exact homing in on you and say had a built in error factor to knowing you position but sadly they dont although sometimes they do chase false contacts.

[She-Wolf]

aha... well, I got the little beastie. For some reason the boats seem to 'park up' at night, lying still and silent in the water for hours, which means, if you creep up careful and slow, you can get 'em. Only takes one fish with such a small craft. It doesn't add much to the tonnage but he was a pesky nuisance, stopping me from bagging a merchantman. Grr. Thank you Webster.

glad to help

even those who have been around a while see something new (and agrivating) about the game sometimes lol

the AI's cheat factor with the game often makes me say out loud "aww c'mon now!"

[Sniper297]

It does cheat all too often, I can't count how many times I've been working on an end-around where the wing escort, altho he hasn't sighted me, keeps edging further and further away from the convoy or task force forcing me further from the track - oh, it's just a coincidence he decided to make a sweep in my direction that changes from a sweep to an independent voyage?

That said, when they're not cheating there's an art to getting into firing position, the science comes after that. I forget if it was Run Silent Run Deep or the sequel Dust on the Sea, but one character said something like "anyone should be able to hit the target once you get in front of him, the trick is getting in front. A good attack starts with a good approach."



Heading directly toward the target is wrong, find out where he's going and get there first so you can be submerged and moving slowly, only needing a little maneuvering to go where you need to be. Move toward the track, not the target.



Detection circles for a destroyer - the outer ring is visual if you're on the surface and the lookouts are awake. Yellow is passive sonar, when you're inside that ring you need to be quiet. Red is active sonar, no matter how quiet you are you can be detected, so stay out of it. The range is about 750 yards, so active sonar sweeps a path 1500 yards wide. If the escort is holding a steady course the transparent red areas are the danger zones you want to stay out of, since the red active sonar arc will pass over you if you're in those zones when he arrives.



Once he passes ahead you can speed up a little provided the wing escort isn't already so close that he'll hear you, the trick is getting in through any available gap in the screen. In this case I got lucky since the wing escort on this side thought it was a good time to make an outward sweep.



Meat on the table, fire at the furthest first and try to time it so all the targets get hit about the same time. After the fish hit I kick out a decoy and go to flank speed and head for the bottom, going straight ahead under what's left of the convoy to cross under - it complicates the problem for the escorts since they'll initially be looking for you on the side the attack came from and if they figure out that you're crossing under they have to avoid colliding with all the merchants. Once under a layer slow down and go silent.

Odd thing about Sugar boats, I've started careers with Mark 10s and assumed that's all there is since the tubes in the S class were too short for the Mark 14. Not paying attention, I noticed that the second patrol starts with a mix of 10s and 14s, which is all wrong. Realistically the S boat has several problems;
1. Mark 10 torpedoes run slower and have less range, ideally the attack range should be 500 to 1000 yards, any run over 2000 yards is unlikely to hit anything.
2. Surface speed sucks, range sucks, sometimes you just have to let task forces and fast convoys go because you'd run out of fuel and the war would end before you finally got in front of them.
3. I don't know if the actual battery recharge rate for S boats was THAT bad, but in the stock game it takes 2 days to recharge 50%. Best use of an S boat in career is to cruise up and down the east coast of Luzon, where you'll find a lot of slow fat merchants steaming alone or in pairs without escorts. Some have deck guns, so it's best to make a standard approach and examine through the periscope when he gets close - if you see a deck gun shoot the torpedo, no deck gun then surface and sink him with your deck gun.

[She-Wolf]

gosh Sniper... I'm impressed....!