What's a successful mission?

[KL-alfman]

Originally Posted by dfscott

Thanks, all, for the tips! I finished my 6th cruise last night and came home with fuel to spare and no eels and bagged over 40K of merchants. So it looks like I'm starting to get the hang of this!

Two questions:

1) I ran into a huge convoy made up of about 20 merchants and 3 warships. I tried to get their speed via hydrophone contacts, but there were too many to keep straight. I eventually just eyeballed their course, popped up ahead of them, and launched a 4-eel salvo, which got me two. I'm not sure what the best strategy is with a group that size where you also have to look out for the warships?

2) I've started another patrol where I ran into 3 unescorted French merchants traveling in a line (Two large merchants led by a Granville). After stewing over the best way to take them, I decided to take the sure shot from abeam. I put 1 into the trailing ship, two into the middle one to make sure of the kill, and threw a token one at the Granville in the front. None were sunk outright, but the middle one was crippled badly. I elected to ignore him for now, assuming I could come back and get him with my guns. So, I spin about for a stern tube shot on the other large merchant. I hit with it although not a good shot (in my excitement, I forgot to open the tube doors!). As I'm surfacing to finish him with the deck gun, I get the cheering and see the other merchant breaking up. However, I don't get the shipwreck image on the screen. Does that mean I didn't get credit for him? I wasn't very far away from him (no more than 5 km). Should I have finished him off right away and then chased the others down?

@ 1) for me it's important to track the nearest lane for a certain time (on the edge of visual contact!). this reveals speed, course and distance of the column I like to attack.

@ 2) shipwreck symbols show randomly ....
always check your patrol-log (hitting "k") where you can verify your successes.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by KL-alfman

@ 2) shipwreck symbols show randomly ....
always check your patrol-log (hitting "k") where you can verify your successes.

Yep, I've had ships I hit go down right in front of me and the "sunk ship" icon never showed up on the map. But as long as it's recorded in the patrol log in-game, I always get credit for it when the patrol is over.

[Jimbuna]

You can only be certain the 'kill' has been registered to your account when the game engine recognises said accomplishment and it acknowledges the fact via the message "she's going down".

[dfscott]

Originally Posted by KL-alfman

@ 2) shipwreck symbols show randomly ....
always check your patrol-log (hitting "k") where you can verify your successes.

Ah, thanks -- I didn't realize you could get to the patrol log before the end of the mission. That's good to know!

Originally Posted by jimbuna

You can only be certain the 'kill' has been registered to your account when the game engine recognises said accomplishment and it acknowledges the fact via the message "she's going down".

Sometimes I see that message and other times I don't. It seems to have to do with whether or not the Navigator position is occupied?

[frau kaleun]

I believe the navigator is the the one who makes that announcement in-game, so probably yeah, if there's no one at his post, you won't get the message.

There should always be officers at the CE and NA stations in the control room IMO, too many important things get done or reported through them to have those posts unoccupied.