[rel] Sleeping Giant

[peabody]

Originally Posted by Nisgeis

Hi Peabody, I tried this mission and i have to say I was thoroughly confused about where I should be and I was a complete failure. The orders said return to Pearl harbour, so I thought OK, I'm at Pearl now, so I'll sail to the mission objective. This ended the mission. So that was obviously the wrong thing to do (I did notice it said turn right at the end, and this didn't sound quite right).

So the next time out, I assumed I should be sailing out with the task force, so i did that, then got a message about the hostilities not starting yet, so no shooting. Then i got a message saying the Japanese had invaded Manilla... Then another message saying the US and Japan were not at war, which I realise is a campaign layer thing.

I then sailed to the marked star, and saw Japanese planes that attacked me, then I got a message about the task force not being found and they were expected to attack shortly. At this point, it wasn't clear whether I should return to Pearl harbour, or to remain on station at the rendezvous point. So I decided to sail back to Pearl, with my amazing foresight, I suspected Pearl might be attacked.

So I return to Pearl, being attacked by Japanese planes all the way back and arrived at the mouth of Pearl, to be told that the task force was to the north of me, near Opana, but I have no idea where Opana is, so wasn't sure if I was in the right place. I couldn't find the task force at all.

Were there planes actually attacking Pearl at the time the said they were? I wasn't close enough to see - about 40 miles out and by the time I got there, no one was home.

Could the orders be direct? Ie RETURN TO PEARL IMMEDIATELY. STAY ON STATION. Also, when the message about Opana being the suspected position of the task force, how about a map contact update?

Wow, that was a mess. Sorry about that. The biggest problem is the game doesn't give you a message right away, so if you had stayed docked a message would come up expecting an attack blah blah, task force and subs leave pearl immediately, open sealed order after underway, blah blah.
Then as you follow the BBs out of the harbor you get a message to go NW to your station (star). The not at war was my message because to make it realistic I had to have the Japanese attack first.
The Manila thing was generated by the game not my mission.

Should have made it clear to remain at station. Was just attempting to give updates. The planes were not put in by me either, but there are 6 carriers headed your way so the game probably did that. On testing I didn't get planes till after the attack was over.
Then you get a message about mini sub sunk outside harbor, which did happen IRL.
Then a message they haven't found them yet.
Then a message they are found and large formation of planes picked up on Radar.

Opana Point is where the radar picked up the jap planes, but it was ignored because they thought it was the B17s coming from the mainland (happened IRL) and the message read that they picked up a large formation of planes not ships so I didn't think that would create a confusing issue, but it did. Basically what I was saying but didn't say very well is that the invasion force had launched their planes so the intelligence we got was right and they were coming from the Northwest right where you were, so be on the lookout for the ships. But I didn't give enough info and like you commented if you didn't know where Opana was you wouldn't understand the message. But in writing it I didn't put where Opana was because you weren't suppose to go there anyway.

Then a message that you could attack because the planes had started to attack Pearl Harbor. And that Task Force 7 was on it's way to help. So the planes had already been launched and the invasion force had to stick around until the planes returned which is when you step in and sink them all. I allowed time for you to sink some ships and then the task force arrives to help because you don't have enough fish to sink everything (2BB and 6 Carriers plus escorts) and you can continue to sink ships while they are attacking. Actually it takes the DDs off your back too.
I was hoping it would also make you have to make a choice. The BBs can be a problem for the US task force but the Carriers need to be sunk, so it's a choice thing.

The part about ending the mission I had a hard time with. I set a zone for you to enter to end the mission but it couldn't be in the channel leading into the harbor because you would trip it on the way out. That was the reason for the enter channel and turn right to trip the "end game".

Now, I can see where you would be confused especially when the game waits so long to give you the message to leave port, and the objective message wasn't very good now that I read it over. I wanted the message to leave port to appear immediately, so you wouldn't sit there wondering what to do, but the game doesn't work that way. I set the time but it gives the message quite a bit later.

I will definately have to rework this one, because you were basically suppose to stay on station and you would be notified if and where we found the invasion force. I have read the messages again and I can see where you would be confused because you were not specifically told to stay on station.

Thanks for giving it a try, I will have to change it and make the messages more specific. But, it's probably too late, anyone that downloaded it probably won't download again, but I'll give it a try.

Thanks again for trying it out. The input helps a lot so I won't make the same mistakes again. I definately have to change the Objective in the opening screen and come up with a better solution to end the game. I first tried the sink tonnage but then the stupid window pops up while you're in the middle of the fight, and any trigger zones would get tripped while you are leaving, maybe I can set it so the zone isn't there until after you leave.

Anyway that is the explaination so at least you know what was suppose to happen, if you had stayed on station the Japanese Invasion force would come by. The messages on the planes was just to give you info that happened IRL to make it more "historical" instead it made it more confusing.

One thing you didn't notice or at least didn't mention, you had a Gar sub which wasn't even available at that time. I put in a Gato but ended up with a Gar, don't understand that one.

All of your confusion makes perfect sense, I just didn't see it because I wrote the mission and I knew what was going on.

Once aging, thank you for trying it out!!!

Peabody