"Arriving on station" status not recognized

MetalMania · 04-29-13, 02:32 PM

I can see maybe it takes the elapsed time for the star icon to change and maybe I never noticed the duration before, but I've always gotten the COMSUBPAC message when I arrived on station but that's not happening in this case. I don't mean any kind of "objective completed" message, it's usually been something like "engage enemy merchant shipping" as soon as I arrive in the vicinity of the patrol location marker.

The weather, I'm not worried about it - it's kind of cool actually - I just mentioned it in case there might be some correlation with weather state and patrol zone arrival recognition. I doubt it but hey you never know in what way a "bug" might manifest itself.

Regarding moving the gun, I'm not sure if whey you say "would like to know if that's a real option" if you mean a real option in the game, or if it was done in real life? In the game, I wanted to upgrade from the standard 3" 50 cal to the 4" 50 cal. So, in the crew management screen accessed from the "office" while in port between patrols, I selected the "gears" icon (normally this brings the damage control screen when at sea). This had optional equipment that could be "purchased" with the renown points. It had options for the 4" deck gun bow or stern. I selected stern, dragged it over to the right side of the screen and it was finished. When I started the patrol my deck gun was indeed upgraded to the 4" and was mounted at the stern, and my original 3" on the bow was gone, but so were my provisions for a deck gun crew in the sub's crew management page. The deck gun still works, but only if I man it myself. I can't have it auto-manned because I can no longer assign any crewmen to it.

I read somewhere after the fact that this is in fact a bug the game - if you relocate the deck gun you'll lose your assignable positions for the crew to man it. So, yes it is actually available to do in the game but it's a somewhat "broken" option.

04-29-13, 04:55 PM

depends on your orders, sometimes you just have to get to the spot and other times you need to stay in that spot for a certain time. sometimes you need to stay in that spot AND sink a tonnage requirement.

it varies so recheck your orders and if you leave the area the clock stops until you return to the area so if you can stay in the middle of the area and not on the edges.

I always felt those "report to an area" missions never felt they worked right but they do work.

Father Goose · 04-30-13, 03:09 PM

I read the following in the TMO manual today. Granted you are not running TMO but this may shed some light on your deck gun question.

Due to a hardcoded bug in the SH4 game engine, it is not possible to switch locations of the deck gun once a game has been saved to file. Trying to move the deck gun from fore to aft, or vice versa will result in the crew member slots disappearing. In order to circumvent this bug and prevent it to happening during play, the deck guns have been “fixed” to a location.

joefremont · 04-30-13, 03:52 PM

I just started my first U-Boat campaign last weekend and on my first two patrols one said I had to sink 5k tons of merchant ships, the second said I had to be on station for 48 hours. But when I did the normal campaign it never said what I had to do, there were several missions where I arrived on station in my fleet boat and it never registered as completed.

Even when it never registered as objective completed, when I returned to port I still got plenty of medals.

Interestingly sinking warships did not apply against the tonnage needed for the mission.

04-30-13, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joefremont

Interestingly sinking warships did not apply against the tonnage needed for the mission.

where a ship is at makes the difference in if it gets counted towards your mission objectives so your not alone in scratching your head why some ships didn't count. its best to not expect anything on the edges of your area to be counted

peabody · 04-30-13, 08:07 PM

There are several types of missions, but answer the specific questions asked.

The two basic patrol/sink missions are "Reach Zone" and "Patrol Area", the icons are different for each one. Patrol has the binoculars and Reach zone has a flag unless it was changed by mods. You will not see the specific wording of "Reach Zone" it is used by the Mission Editor.

On a "Reach Zone" you only have to get to the star and it turns grey, complete, and then you are usually given a second objective to sink enemy vessels.

In the Patrol Area mission, it is not enough to just reach a certain location, you must 'patrol' the area for whatever amount of time is set by the person that wrote the mission. And as mentioned, you need to stay in the 'patrol area' for the mission to complete. I always felt it was a good idea to put the area size and amount of time in the orders so you know what it is, but not everyone does that.
As for leaving the zone, most are written so that if you leave the zone the time starts over, (continuous) but can be written so you can leave the zone and reenter to complete the mission (non-continuous). Example: If it is continous for 48 hours you must stay in the zone for 48 hours without leaving. If it is non continuous, you can patrol the zone for 20 hours then leave to attack a convoy, return to the zone and in 28 more hours it will complete
NOTE: I never actually tested the non continuous to see if it actually works or not.

As for ships not counting, the mission can be set to sink tonnage and will complete or not depending on the amount of tonnage set AND the type of Tonnage set in the editor.
The types are:
Any
Merchant
WarShip
Merchant Replenesment
Merchant Cargo
Merchant Tanker
Merchant Troop Transport
Warship Capital
Warship Escort

So whether the mission completes or not depends on how it is written. If it is written to sink 10,000 tons of merchants shipping then sinking a warship will not count toward finishing the mission, but you WILL get credit (renown) for sinking it. If the mission orders say to sink merchant shipping but the type is set to "Any" then warships will count toward the total tonnage. (in other words, the mission was not written correctly and will work but not the way it was intended to work)

The only type of mission that requires you to stay in a zone for them to count is "Destroy Enemy Class" which will be a specific Class of ship such as Fuso Battleship and will be set that way, but normally isn't used because it is very specific because it must be a certain ship in a certain location and doesn't work well with the SH4 Random style of doing things. I do not think it is used in the stock game at all but may very well be used in the more historical MODs.

I hope some of that makes sense.

05-01-13, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peabody

There are several types of missions, but answer the specific questions asked.

excellent info, thanks.

its been so long since I did missions but I never really took the time to learn enough about it from the start.

04-30-13, 08:07 PM	#6
peabody Admiral Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: New York State, USA Posts: 2,390 Downloads: 126 Uploads: 7	There are several types of missions, but answer the specific questions asked. The two basic patrol/sink missions are "Reach Zone" and "Patrol Area", the icons are different for each one. Patrol has the binoculars and Reach zone has a flag unless it was changed by mods. You will not see the specific wording of "Reach Zone" it is used by the Mission Editor. On a "Reach Zone" you only have to get to the star and it turns grey, complete, and then you are usually given a second objective to sink enemy vessels. In the Patrol Area mission, it is not enough to just reach a certain location, you must 'patrol' the area for whatever amount of time is set by the person that wrote the mission. And as mentioned, you need to stay in the 'patrol area' for the mission to complete. I always felt it was a good idea to put the area size and amount of time in the orders so you know what it is, but not everyone does that. As for leaving the zone, most are written so that if you leave the zone the time starts over, (continuous) but can be written so you can leave the zone and reenter to complete the mission (non-continuous). Example: If it is continous for 48 hours you must stay in the zone for 48 hours without leaving. If it is non continuous, you can patrol the zone for 20 hours then leave to attack a convoy, return to the zone and in 28 more hours it will complete NOTE: I never actually tested the non continuous to see if it actually works or not. As for ships not counting, the mission can be set to sink tonnage and will complete or not depending on the amount of tonnage set AND the type of Tonnage set in the editor. The types are: Any Merchant WarShip Merchant Replenesment Merchant Cargo Merchant Tanker Merchant Troop Transport Warship Capital Warship Escort So whether the mission completes or not depends on how it is written. If it is written to sink 10,000 tons of merchants shipping then sinking a warship will not count toward finishing the mission, but you WILL get credit (renown) for sinking it. If the mission orders say to sink merchant shipping but the type is set to "Any" then warships will count toward the total tonnage. (in other words, the mission was not written correctly and will work but not the way it was intended to work) The only type of mission that requires you to stay in a zone for them to count is "Destroy Enemy Class" which will be a specific Class of ship such as Fuso Battleship and will be set that way, but normally isn't used because it is very specific because it must be a certain ship in a certain location and doesn't work well with the SH4 Random style of doing things. I do not think it is used in the stock game at all but may very well be used in the more historical MODs. I hope some of that makes sense. __________________ System Spec: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, PentiumD Dual Core Presler 945 3.4Ghz, Gigabyte Geforce 7600GS, 2-1GB Corsair XMS2 800Mhz in Dual Channel, 2-WD 250 SATA 3Gb/s, Onboard Realtek HD 7.1 Audio, DVD ROM, DVD burner, Hiper 580 Watt Power supply, WinXP SP2.

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04-29-13, 02:32 PM	#1
MetalMania Watch Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Rhode Island, USA Posts: 23 Downloads: 18 Uploads: 0	I can see maybe it takes the elapsed time for the star icon to change and maybe I never noticed the duration before, but I've always gotten the COMSUBPAC message when I arrived on station but that's not happening in this case. I don't mean any kind of "objective completed" message, it's usually been something like "engage enemy merchant shipping" as soon as I arrive in the vicinity of the patrol location marker. The weather, I'm not worried about it - it's kind of cool actually - I just mentioned it in case there might be some correlation with weather state and patrol zone arrival recognition. I doubt it but hey you never know in what way a "bug" might manifest itself. Regarding moving the gun, I'm not sure if whey you say "would like to know if that's a real option" if you mean a real option in the game, or if it was done in real life? In the game, I wanted to upgrade from the standard 3" 50 cal to the 4" 50 cal. So, in the crew management screen accessed from the "office" while in port between patrols, I selected the "gears" icon (normally this brings the damage control screen when at sea). This had optional equipment that could be "purchased" with the renown points. It had options for the 4" deck gun bow or stern. I selected stern, dragged it over to the right side of the screen and it was finished. When I started the patrol my deck gun was indeed upgraded to the 4" and was mounted at the stern, and my original 3" on the bow was gone, but so were my provisions for a deck gun crew in the sub's crew management page. The deck gun still works, but only if I man it myself. I can't have it auto-manned because I can no longer assign any crewmen to it. I read somewhere after the fact that this is in fact a bug the game - if you relocate the deck gun you'll lose your assignable positions for the crew to man it. So, yes it is actually available to do in the game but it's a somewhat "broken" option.

04-29-13, 04:55 PM	#2
Webster Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	depends on your orders, sometimes you just have to get to the spot and other times you need to stay in that spot for a certain time. sometimes you need to stay in that spot AND sink a tonnage requirement. it varies so recheck your orders and if you leave the area the clock stops until you return to the area so if you can stay in the middle of the area and not on the edges. I always felt those "report to an area" missions never felt they worked right but they do work.

04-30-13, 03:09 PM	#3
Father Goose Sonar Guy Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Matalava Island Posts: 378 Downloads: 59 Uploads: 0	I read the following in the TMO manual today. Granted you are not running TMO but this may shed some light on your deck gun question. Due to a hardcoded bug in the SH4 game engine, it is not possible to switch locations of the deck gun once a game has been saved to file. Trying to move the deck gun from fore to aft, or vice versa will result in the crew member slots disappearing. In order to circumvent this bug and prevent it to happening during play, the deck guns have been “fixed” to a location.

04-30-13, 03:52 PM	#4
joefremont Loader Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Near San Francisco Posts: 82 Downloads: 47 Uploads: 0	I just started my first U-Boat campaign last weekend and on my first two patrols one said I had to sink 5k tons of merchant ships, the second said I had to be on station for 48 hours. But when I did the normal campaign it never said what I had to do, there were several missions where I arrived on station in my fleet boat and it never registered as completed. Even when it never registered as objective completed, when I returned to port I still got plenty of medals. Interestingly sinking warships did not apply against the tonnage needed for the mission.