fuel problem

[I'm goin' down]

SH4 (stock)/RSRDC/OTC.

What is the best speed to get maximum range. My boats are doing 16 kts and regular speed and 12 kts and 2/3 speed. I have been short of fuel at the beginning of the war, and have trouble completing a round trip to Japan from Midway.

Is there a mod fix for this? Does anyone know how to reset fuel ranges or fuel consumption?

[WernherVonTrapp]

Depending on the specific class of boat, I usually get the best fuel economy somewhere in the 9 to 9.5 knot range. S-Boats (for me) are usually in the 8 to 8.5 knot range. I usually experiment when I first leave home port with a new boat. I'm using TMO so I just have the navigator call out the max range for several different speed settings before choosing the one with best mileage.

[Rockin Robbins]

Ditto. TMO ahead standard is 9 knots or so--best fuel economy in a fleet boat. The S-Boat is slower. I still run it ahead standard and never have fuel problems. The low speed is too depressing to look at, though, so I don't know what it is! The sugar boat is wonderful submerged so the lousy surfaced speeds are all worth it.

[Armistead]

With TMO 2.2, he set ahead standard to a higher speed, maybe around 16kts so we can travel faster with the same fuel rates, if you use 9kts you can travel around the world several times, fuel is basically a mute issue unless you fly around at flank speed all the time.

[GreyBeard]

I'm using TMO 2.2, currently in an S-Boat. I find the best fuel mileage at ahead 2/3. 3000/4000 miles greater distance than ahead standard, maybe more. When I'm charging batteries I use ahead standard and immediately switch to 2/3 when the charge is completed. I find if I charge the batteries in an S-Boat at ahead 2/3 it really sucks up the fuel. I'll bet it cuts mileage in half.

[I'm goin' down]

I am running stock, not TMO, so I can take advantage of what you are missing--Admiral Scurvy's epic OTC mod.

[Sailor Steve]

Best fuel speed settings should be 2/3, which should be around 10 knots (in real life anyway).

To set them yourself go to Data/Submarine/Cfg for each boat. Stock settings are correct, and look like this:

[EngineProperties]
AllStop=0.00
AheadSlow=0.40
AheadOneThird=0.57
AheadStandard=0.80
AheadFull=0.94
AheadFlank=1.00
BackSlow=-0.26
BackStandard=-0.40
BackFull=-0.53
BackEmergency=-0.66

One weirdness of SH4 is that they didn't change the labels, so 'Ahead Slow' is in reality Ahead 1/3 and 'Ahead 1/3' is in reality Ahead 2/3, and that's still what the voices say. I fixed it for the German side but never got around to changing the American version, partly because I need my copy of Destroyer Command to do a thorough job, and it's still in storage.

[I'm goin' down]

thanks for the info, I do not know how to fix the voices so it matches the correct stock speed, so I will live with it. I is a minor problem.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Armistead

With TMO 2.2, he set ahead standard to a higher speed, maybe around 16kts so we can travel faster with the same fuel rates, if you use 9kts you can travel around the world several times, fuel is basically a mute issue unless you fly around at flank speed all the time.

Some boats are up to 15 kts, but not all of them. I did this change because all the reading ive done indicated that fleet boats cruised at about 3 engine speed going to and from their patrol areas.

Now, as for fuel rates, i can't alter the consumption ratio's, and i've decided that it's not up to me if someone wants to cheat or not. I intended cruising too and from at ahead standard, but if someone wants to cruise at 2/3r'ds, tahts on them. I've given up on making the game "cheat proof". Hell, i've pretty much given up on that game, period.

edit: Oh BTW, while on the subject of fuel and distance, the distance from point A to point B in game, is acutally longer then it is in real life. I don't remember the exact number but i think the flat map in the game makes distances 30% longer then they are in real life. If you plot a course from San francisco to Tokyo in game, and then do the same on Google Earth, you will find your travelling for much farther distances in game then in real life. I know this was an influence to me while deciding on hard numbers for fuel, but i dont remember in what way it influenced me.

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

edit: Oh BTW, while on the subject of fuel and distance, the distance from point A to point B in game, is acutally longer then it is in real life. I don't remember the exact number but i think the flat map in the game makes distances 30% longer then they are in real life. If you plot a course from San francisco to Tokyo in game, and then do the same on Google Earth, you will find your travelling for much farther distances in game then in real life. I know this was an influence to me while deciding on hard numbers for fuel, but i dont remember in what way it influenced me.

This is true. The amount of the difference depends on the route you travel. In RL the length of a degree of longitude, is dependent on the latitude you are at, but not so in the game. A degree is always 60 nm no matter where you are. In other words, the Silent Hunter world is flat.

I still think the concerns about fuel consumption are overblown. Eventhough the distances will be somewhat greater than in RL, our game boats are hardly affected by the weather. I have never lost more than 2 knots, no matter how "stormy" the seas. The S-boats were said to have very poor sea-keeping characteristics, but in this game, they cut through the waves with ease.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by TorpX

This is true. The amount of the difference depends on the route you travel. In RL the length of a degree of longitude, is dependent on the latitude you are at, but not so in the game. A degree is always 60 nm no matter where you are. In other words, the Silent Hunter world is flat.

I still think the concerns about fuel consumption are overblown. Eventhough the distances will be somewhat greater than in RL, our game boats are hardly affected by the weather. I have never lost more than 2 knots, no matter how "stormy" the seas. The S-boats were said to have very poor sea-keeping characteristics, but in this game, they cut through the waves with ease.

Yep, just a hard coded game flaw, wouldn't it be nice to see some real rough water, winds 90mph, boat pitching up and down waves...

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Armistead

Yep, just a hard coded game flaw, wouldn't it be nice to see some real rough water, winds 90mph, boat pitching up and down waves...

I would settle for 50 knot winds and properly modeled effects. Even this would add a lot to the game. SHCE had only three sea states, and were visually very simple, but had a real effect on your operations.

About the matter of the game distances being wrong; I wonder if one might be able mod the game to use multiple charts to make the distances come out right. Instead of sailing from San Francisco to Tokyo on a single map, one would go from one map to another. But I suppose this would be more trouble than it's worth.

[aanker]

In my opinion this speed / distance fix for the fleetboats and Anvarts SD antenna are two of the best "small" mods that add so much to SH4.

I wish we could include specific big local weather events with extreme wind and heavy seas like Typhoon Cobra that struck east of Leyte Gulf in Dec 1944.

Among others, Samuel Eliot Morison writes about it in "History of US Naval Operations in World War II"

Admiral Halsey had hoped, after completing the strikes of 16 December, to pull off his long-desired raid into the South China Sea, where survivors of the Japanese fleet from the Battle for Leyte Gulf had been reported. But Admirals King and Nimitz, feeling that our land-based air at Leyte was not yet sufficiently strong or reliable to risk moving the carriers from positions to cover Luzon, withheld their consent. And before Task Force 38 could do anything else, it encountered the worst storm of the year in the Philippine Sea.

This typhoon was comparatively small; but, owing to the fact that a number of deballasted destroyers ran smack into it, more damage was inflicted on the Navy than by any other storm since the famous hurricane at Apia, Samoa, in March 1889. Three destroyers capsized and six or seven other ships were seriously damaged, with the loss of almost 800 officers and men. As Admiral Nimitz said, this was the greatest uncompensated loss that the Navy had taken since the Battle of Savo Island.

[I'm goin' down]

Originally Posted by aanker

In my opinion this speed / distance fix for the fleetboats and Anvarts SD antenna are two of the best "small" mods that add so much to SH4.

Aaargh! Where can I find those mods. I could really use them.

[aanker]

Can you run S3D a little bit? Anvart's mod in the files section was made for 1.4 but with some editing to the other "text files" in 1.5, using the information from his 1.4 files, it works great in 1.5.

With S3D you can edit the fix into sensors_sub_US.sim for 1.5 yourself (bottom link).
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=185307
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=143914
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...5&postcount=45

Regarding the Ranges and Speeds using S3D you can edit the NSS_boat class sim's under Submarine for the various classes and edit the relative text files.

The easy way to get the Propulsion Specialist and Engines Expert unfortunately is to hand edit your Saved Game ActiveUserPlayerUnits.upc to put him/them in the engines compartment SpecialAbility= line.
For example:
SpecialAbilities=Ability-Propulsion-Specialist

Then the edits to the Boat class upc's, Boat class cfg's, and the SpecialAbilites.upc:

[SpecialAbility 6]
ID=Ability-Engines-Expert
NameDisplayable=Ability-Engines-Expert-Name
Description=Ability-Engines-Expert-Description
AbilityType= DiveSpeed; SurfaceSpeed, SubmergedSpeed
AbilityValue= 60; 5, 5, 35, 35
AbylityActsIn= PropulsionRoom
SkillRequiredLeadership= 0
SkillRequiredMechanical= 0.7
SkillRequiredElectrics= 0.7
SkillRequiredGuns= 0
SkillRequiredWatchman= 0

[SpecialAbility 7]
ID=Ability-Propulsion-Specialist
NameDisplayable=Ability-Propulsion-Specialist-Name
Description=Ability-Propulsion-Specialist-Description
AbilityType=BatteryConsume; FuelConsume
AbilityValue= -41; -5
AbylityActsIn= PropulsionRoom
SkillRequiredLeadership= 0
SkillRequiredMechanical= 0.7
SkillRequiredElectrics= 0.7
SkillRequiredGuns= 0
SkillRequiredWatchman= 0

I tried to automate this process of getting the Specialist's but it was too much for me and conflicted with other things I had and this one time edit to the saved game is relatively easy. The game remembers as you move into other commands throughout the War.

We could make a tutorial thread with screenshots and everything on how to do these.

Must keep in mind that Ducimus, Anvart, and many other people worked their tails off coming up with these ideas. It wouldn't be right to make a mod based on their work but I would think it would be ok to describe what to do and how to do it - right?