Fuel and range issues!

[Sailor Steve]

Yep. In real life all ranges are given at 10 knots. Once in your patrol zone it's best to cruise at the lowest setting.

[drakkhen20]

thanks guys, defintly helping out. im still on my first patrol, had 4 patrol areas already and still have alittle over 50% of my deisel.

[messageboy101]

i tested it and the guys above are right, 10 knots are lower is best
are you could still use the gar and dont sail from pearl but from an other port

[drakkhen20]

did some research and found these numbers. as stated before these are all at 10 knots surface speed:
nm / knots
S-Class: 5000/ 10
Salmon:10000/ 10
Sargo:10000/ 10
Tambor:12000/ 10
Gar:12000/ 10
Gato:11800/ 10
Balao:11800/ 10
Tench:12000/ 10
P-Class( Porpoise):12000/ 10
Narwhal:18000/ 10

im going to try to impliment these numbers into TMO to best reflect the actual Range and authinticity. the only other thing i probably need help with is compinsating for the flat world range.

[drakkhen20]

ok so in S3D the knots is what the miles are based off of? so i would put 10000 miles at 10 knots to be correct minus the flat world stuff? just an example. so it would look like this:

miles = 10000
knots = 10.00

???

[Ducimus]

You combine:
- Several mentions in patrol reports of traveling at "3 engine speed". (fleet boats had 4 engines)
- Flat map projection making distances about 20% longer then in real life
- Ballast fuel tank modifications during the war

and you may find, pin pointing the range in actual practice, hard to imitate in game.

[drakkhen20]

ok so how long did you spend tracking all that? and did you base the ranges off the stock SH4 ranges or off of historical values? and as you stated i take it this is not as easy as just changing numbers?

[Ducimus]

Your asking me specifics for something I haven't put any thought into for a couple of years i'm guessing. off the top of my head, (cause its been too long to remember specifics):

- Actual cruising speed of fleet boats. This was an exrtrapolation based upon reading patrol reports, first hand accounts, and looking at specifics such as how many gallons of fuel oil was actually carried, and doing the math of that against listed statistical range, and how much fuel captains reported as having left over after a patrol. Lots of extrapolation here based on what data I was able to find. One key issue is this: Fleet boats were expected to arrive at their patrol stations by such and such time. They were expected to leave their assigned areas at such and such time. They often traveled to their patrol areas at such a speed as to arrive at their assigned station at their appointed time. At which point, they would cruise at 10 knots or whatever to conserve fuel.

Side note: one problem with online sources is they all plagiarize each other.

- Flat map projection is easy to identify. Go download the google earth application. Then go into SH4, and draw a straight ruler line between two known points. Say, from San Franciso to Tokyo for example. Write the number you get in game down. Then go to google earth app, and do the same again. You'll notice the ingame range is longer. Take the google earth (more like actual) range, multiply it by 0.25 or somewhere there abouts, and add the result to the original range given by google earth. It will come close to the listed range in game.

- Fuel ballast is a bitch. Read around and you'll find two boats of the same class listed at different fuel capacities. Some will be like 94,600 gallons or something like that. Another will be listed at 104,000 gallons or more.