New guy has lots of questions

[I'm goin' down]

Yes, magic has good practical advice. When you get into mods and manual targeting, the game gets much harder. Some mods are eye candy (i.e. the great white shark mod). Some like TMO 1.9 are challenging and prove really tough when played a full realism.

I am playing a Dick O'Kane single mission where I am constantly dodging airplanes to the point where I have to save the game every five minutes just so I don't have to start over from scratch when my boat is sunk. I finally added a mod to reduce the number of airplanes because I could not take it any longer. After an hour or more, I finally came across a destroyer (dd) and subchaser (de?), and sank one -- kind of like hunting for elk and shooting a squirrel. If I had been playing 1.9, I probably would have been spotted before I got a shot off and would be on the bottom with earplugs stuffed in my ears to lessen the noise.

[mello85]

Thanks for the advice guys

Another question.

7. When attacking convoys, what is the trick to dispatching the escort destroyers when they are zigzaging in a very unpredictable manner? In the screenshot below, as the convoy got within visual range, one of the destroyers was zigzaging almost directly towards where I was positioned, at least 6-7 nautical miles from the rest of the convoy. Is this normal? He did not spot me...I have been at periscope depth since I first made sound contact. What is the protocol for dealing with situations like this?

[I'm goin' down]

If the dd has you on radar, which may be the case at long distance, you should plan on diving under the radar arc. A zig zag pattern may not be on a fixed course, so tracking by TDC to predict the torpedo intercept point man not be feasible. If the dd is ahead of the convoy, follow the dd on radar until it passes your position, proceed to periscope depth after, and go after the convoy which is following it.

In TMO 1.9, remaining at periscope depth when a destroyer is closing can be risky as there is a good chance it will spot you, especially later in the war.

[sergei]

Leave the escort. Your job is to sink merchants.
Fine, if it is a lightly escorted convoy, and the escort is on a steady course, then go for it.
But otherwise ignore the escorts and maneuver into a good firing position to sink some freighters.
Wait for the lead escort to run by you.
Their SOP is to run straight for 20 mins or so, then they will pick a direction left or right of the convoys track and circle it. Do not let this freak you out. They are just fishing.
As long as they are not heading straight for you with a bone between their teeth you can be pretty sure they do not know where you are.
Again - DO NOT PANIC!
Be about two or three of thousand yards off of his track so that if he does start circling towards you he does not run straight over you.
Stay silent and patient!

[sergei]

Ah good point 'I'm goin down'.
I play lots of early war careers so I did not anticipate radar usage!

[Col. Caldwell]

I usually don't target the escorts unless they detect me. I prefer to attack the merchants first, then deal with the escorts later.

[sergei]

Originally Posted by Col. Caldwell

I usually don't target the escorts unless they detect me. I prefer to attack the merchants first, then deal with the escorts later.

Yeah, I usually deal with them by running away praying to God they don't get me this time!

[mello85]

I have been sinking entire convoys up until now, I guess I must have just been getting lucky. Normally when the escort DDs travel in a straight line I can sink them easily, then I surface and clean up the merchant ships with the deck gun. I have never had a destroyer "fish" like the one I encountered just now. Then again I also have never taken on large convoys...just regular ones (3 escort ships max)

I only destroyed 2 out of the 4 destroyers and 1 merchant ship in that particular convoy before they got away. Not a bad day, but I was hoping for more.

Sinking the destroyers is so much more rewarding than destroying the merchant ships :P

[magic452]

When you encounter a zig zaging DD have your sonar man fallow the nearest warship, If he suddenly picks up speed to fast, he's got you pegged dive and get out of there or be prepared to fight. If he's heading at you but at the same speed he's most likely fishing. Don't leave the fallow nearest WS on too long as the sonar won't update the rest of the convoy.

It is rewarding to sink escorts so enjoy it while you can "cause as you go to manual targeting it is much more difficult to do. That's why I suggested you play go slow and enjoy each new thing you add.

Take it easy on the ships and save a few for me.

Magic

[mello85]

Originally Posted by Magic452

Take it easy on the ships and save a few for me.

hehe, oh I'm sure there are plenty

I just sank my first heavy cruiser... that was pretty darn sweet. Placed 4 torpedoes in his starboard, he blew up real good

Note the date at the top of the screenshot...8/05/1942

This is on the same patrol, no other ships were engaged between now and when I sank the cruiser...again note the date...8/12/1942. So it's 7 days after, and my torpedo tubes are still not reloaded...what gives!?

I feel like I should mention I did change some realism settings, realistic reload times is one that I enabled. Surely this isn't making my crew reload so slow is it?


I'm gonna hit the rack and call it quits tonight, again thanks a lot for your continued help folks...

[WarlordATF]

Originally Posted by I'm goin' down

Some mods are eye candy (i.e. the great white shark mod).

Not trying to hijack this thread, but where can i find this mod?

[I'm goin' down]

Originally Posted by WarlordATF

Not trying to hijack this thread, but where can i find this mod?

I could not find the thread. I have seen it twice. I downloaded it once and activated it ,but never saw any fish. I suggest posting in either the main forum of the mod forum.

[magic452]

Realistic reload should not take that long. Make sure that you are not on silent running. No reloading will take place when silent.
# 1 has started in but work stopped so silent running may by why.
If you stay on silent or battle station too long the crew gets fatigued and stop work.

Tip # 1 battle stations will get the torpedoes loaded faster, but remember to turn it off.

Magic

[mello85]

yeah, thats exactly what it was. I turned it on to make a quiet getaway and didn't turn it off.

[Sniper297]

One correction, the outer circle for ships with sonar (which is the only circle for ships without) is the visual range, most Japanese ships didn't have radar even late in the war.



If you're on the surface, given the conditions of ideal visibility (clear weather, calm seas, daylight) and alert lookouts (warships have better lookouts than merchants) they will see you if you're inside that outer circle. Darkness, rain, fog, heavy seas, speed, and other factors reduce the range, if you're moving slowly and flooded down to 25 feet ("decks awash") and facing directly toward or away from the target you can get much closer without being seen. Obviously if you're submerged you can't be seen.

The smaller circle for an escort is the passive sonar, the arc cut out at the back is noise interference from his own propellers - if you're behind him he can't hear your propellers, he can only hear his own. Anywhere else in that yellow area he might or might not hear you depending on how close you are and how much noise you're making, running at high speed and loading torpedoes close to him is considered "bad".

The red half circle is the active sonar, the "pings". Best way to avoid both is to go deep, when you hear "Passing thermal layer!", go down another 50 to 60 feet below that and his pinging will bounce off the layer. Sneak away quietly, I generally use the compass tool to draw a five mile circle from point of last contact, when I'm outside that it's safe to come back to periscope depth and look around.