Retired After 3 Missions In Gato, Feb. 1942?

[Takao]

I think the 3-4 average is because a lot of skippers were dropped because of 3-4 zero patrols(sighted nothing, sank nothing), others were lost with their submarines, and still others went to new construction(with the war ending before another war patrol could be started). Also, a trend I have seen is that for as many war patrols as the captain made as CO, he did as many patrols as XO. After all, they were not just dropped in as CO, did 3-4 war patrols, and that was the extent of their war service. Then you have the opposite side of the coin. Take, for example, Wreford G. Chapple. He made 11 war patrols: 2 in S-38, 6 in USS Permit, and 3 in USS Bream. There are several COs with 5-6 war patrols completed. I think the biggest problem with the game is that you are not playing the captain, per se, you are playing the submarine. SHIV, IMHO, lacks any immersive feel that you are playing the CO. I am not the CO of the USS Tuna, I am the USS Tuna. At least in SHIII, there was interaction with the crew and you had your own cabin to retire to. That's not in SHIV. I have yet to have a crewman go "Aye, Aye Captain", all I have gotten are "Yes sir". Heck, any enlisted man would say that to an ensign. The game just makes me feel that I am more the boat itself, then I am her captain. Yes, its true captains, usually did not make a lot of patrols. But the submarines did. Ahh, with any luck it will become an option with a later patch, or some one will, come up with a mod that will do the same

[Ducimus]

Think i may have a reason why on the retirement. And it highlighted an oversight in my own mod pack which im about to corrrect.


Basically it involves the avialbity dates in the flotilla.upc file.

Simply put:

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 4]
ID= F1Gato
NameDisplayable= Gato class
AvailabilityInterval= 1942-04-18, NULL
IDLinkUserPlayerUnitType= Gato
UnitTypeCommonality= 10
IDFlotillaLinkTransferTo= NULL

The bold part means. "boat type comes avialable in apr 42, and lasts tell end of war."

Im guessing that if you forget to update this, when the avialalibty date hits, the game basically trips and thinks its time to retire the boat.

If anyone who's been using my mod pack has had this problem, my deepest aplogies for this oversight on my part. I had this nagging feeling to check the intial dates of the gato avialbilty date, but when it worked properly, on testing, i didnt give it a 2nd thought tell now.

[tedhealy]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Think i may have a reason why on the retirement. And it highlighted an oversight in my own mod pack which im about to corrrect.


Basically it involves the avialbity dates in the flotilla.upc file.

Simply put:

The bold part means. "boat type comes avialable in apr 42, and lasts tell end of war."

Im guessing that if you forget to update this, when the avialalibty date hits, the game basically trips and thinks its time to retire the boat.

If anyone who's been using my mod pack has had this problem, my deepest aplogies for this oversight on my part. I had this nagging feeling to check the intial dates of the gato avialbilty date, but when it worked properly, on testing, i didnt give it a 2nd thought tell now.

Interesting, but I'm not using your mod (unless it's part of RFB) and I've seen retirement after 1 Gato patrol. Part of stock sh4 too?

Are you saying if you get a gato before april of 42, that the game says hey this boat isn't available, time to retire this guy?

[Ducimus]

Are you saying if you get a gato before april of 42, that the game says hey this boat isn't available, time to retire this guy?

Something like that, but this is only a GUESS.

Basically the flotilal.upc file defines what flotillas get what boats, when they get them, and what patrols those boat types will recieve. Boats themselves have a date they appear, and a date they disappear in a flotilla. When you already have the boat, i think the game gets confused and handles the entry date as if it were the exit date. If that makes any sense.

[TheSatyr]

One of the major reasons for the short careers was what happened to Morton and a few others...it appears that a few losses happened while skippers were on their 4-6th patrols and the feeling was that they had been at it too long and had developed combat fatigue. According to Sterling in "Wake of the Wahoo" on the patrol before Sterling transfered out to go to stenographers school Morton would often wake up out of a sound sleep thinking either the Wahoo was under attack or thinking that they had made contact with the Japanese. I'm sure it was rather disconcerting to have your Skipper wake up out of a sound sleep and start yelling for the bearings to contacts that weren't there.

To be honest,Morton should have been pulled after his 3rd patrol...letting a man who was obviously worn out do a 5th patrol was almost criminal.

What happened to Morton was one of the main reasons they went to the 3-5 patrols and your out...and those that made more than 3 patrols were watched carefully for signs of combat fatigue. Those that did 5 patrols were a rare breed.

[nattydread]

Originally Posted by Takao

I think the 3-4 average is because a lot of skippers were dropped because of 3-4 zero patrols(sighted nothing, sank nothing), others were lost with their submarines, and still others went to new construction(with the war ending before another war patrol could be started). Also, a trend I have seen is that for as many war patrols as the captain made as CO, he did as many patrols as XO. After all, they were not just dropped in as CO, did 3-4 war patrols, and that was the extent of their war service. Then you have the opposite side of the coin. Take, for example, Wreford G. Chapple. He made 11 war patrols: 2 in S-38, 6 in USS Permit, and 3 in USS Bream. There are several COs with 5-6 war patrols completed. I think the biggest problem with the game is that you are not playing the captain, per se, you are playing the submarine. SHIV, IMHO, lacks any immersive feel that you are playing the CO. I am not the CO of the USS Tuna, I am the USS Tuna. At least in SHIII, there was interaction with the crew and you had your own cabin to retire to. That's not in SHIV. I have yet to have a crewman go "Aye, Aye Captain", all I have gotten are "Yes sir". Heck, any enlisted man would say that to an ensign. The game just makes me feel that I am more the boat itself, then I am her captain. Yes, its true captains, usually did not make a lot of patrols. But the submarines did. Ahh, with any luck it will become an option with a later patch, or some one will, come up with a mod that will do the same

I agree there are key interaction dynamics that are missing that woul dallow for us to feel like the Skipper. I wished the Devs would have figured that out. Basically they need a sense that actions were being relayed to appropriate crew memeber and the action was being taken by them at their station...the way player and crew interact with controlling the sub(dive, speed, heading, tunrs, etc.)

My main gripe is with the set up and firing of torps. I'd like to feel like Im relaying AoB, speed, range, etc to a TDC officer. I'd like to feel Im telling the XO to push the fire button or switch to the next torp, etc. Not that Im pushing the button, or flipping teh switches, or inputting the TDC data myself.

I want to hear the crew repeate and acknowledge my orders as i feed them data and tell them to fire the fish, etc.