[REL] Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate, full release

[KaleunMarco]

hey guys,

i drew an Equitorial mission (ID530) and something is amiss.
i'll take a look at it and let you know what i find.

[propbeanie]

To save you some hunting time, it's either Equatorial02 or Equitorial05, and I lean to 02 since 05 has a briefing, and 02 does not. The mission star placement is "off" though and makes it slightly difficult to place it. Both of those mission sets have the objective summaries undone, still set to the name of the Objectives, so you do need to pay attention to the orders when receiving radio messages. Those sets of missions get rather complicated, since they were Fife / MacArthur inspired sets...

In the Equatorial02 you should have had a briefing along the lines of "You are to proceed to the Madang area via the Vitiaz / Dampier Straits with a summary of "Patrol off Madang for 5 days", then to "Patrol off Wewak for (probably) 5 days", which is shortened and you are moved north toward the equator with an "Enter Equatorial area near 145-45E and proceed east" message, and once you enter, "Patrol east to 147-20E", upon which you should get a "RTB via Vitiaz / Dampier Straits and Buka enroute".

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

To save you some hunting time, it's either Equatorial02 or Equitorial05, and I lean to 02 since 05 has a briefing, and 02 does not. The mission star placement is "off" though and makes it slightly difficult to place it. Both of those mission sets have the objective summaries undone, still set to the name of the Objectives, so you do need to pay attention to the orders when receiving radio messages. Those sets of missions get rather complicated, since they were Fife / MacArthur inspired sets...

In the Equatorial02 you should have had a briefing along the lines of "You are to proceed to the Madang area via the Vitiaz / Dampier Straits with a summary of "Patrol off Madang for 5 days", then to "Patrol off Wewak for (probably) 5 days", which is shortened and you are moved north toward the equator with an "Enter Equatorial area near 145-45E and proceed east" message, and once you enter, "Patrol east to 147-20E", upon which you should get a "RTB via Vitiaz / Dampier Straits and Buka enroute".

it's 02.

i'll take a stab at sprucing it up.

[propbeanie]

Try this:

EquatorialMissFix.7z


Edit: ratz... mis-spelled Dampier as Damier... lol

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Try this:

EquatorialMissFix.7z


Edit: ratz... mis-spelled Dampier as Damier... lol

i'll see your misspelled version and raise you a proper version.
i just played it and it works fine.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/fd3z5...30123.zip/file

just got assigned Equatorial04 for my next mission. i'll check it out.

BTW, you reference Kavieng and Buna in the mission directions however neither are indicated in the map. just an observation, not a criticism.

[propbeanie]

Thanks KM. I ran an S-18 mission out of Cavite a few days ago, and the islands "to the seaward around Cabra and Lubang Islands and into the Calavite Passage" are missing their names also... sigh - The Campaign LOC & NMS files look to be an incorrect version apparently in v1.8 - fixed for next release.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Thanks KM. I ran an S-18 mission out of Cavite a few days ago, and the islands "to the seaward around Cabra and Lubang Islands and into the Calavite Passage" are missing their names also... sigh - The Campaign LOC & NMS files look to be an incorrect version apparently in v1.8 - fixed for next release.

sounds like a good plan.

add The Shortland Islands to the list. Same use case.

[torpedobait]

I'm in the (unnamed) channel approximately 325 Nm NE of Singapore in Gato. Left from NAB Manus Island to patrol an area East of Malaysia and on August 13, 1944 at 1400 encountered a Small Group in said channel consisting of a DD B Class, a KyokutuMaru, a DE Kaibokan, a DE C Class, and a Torpedo Boat Otari.

The KyokutuMaru was literally pushing the DD-B Class - had its bow (how shall I put this delicately) shoved right up the stern of the escort. Both sank when the Kyokutu exploded. Surprisingly I got credit for both sinkings - usually when a target causes the nearby ships to sink I only get credit for the target I actually hit.

Anyway, the behavior of the other 3 escorts was a bit off. The DE Kaibokan was rocking and rolling side to side as it would in a heavy sea, but the seas were flat calm.

The other two were perched high in the water so much so that the props were about 80% exposed. Not the usual displacement, for sure. It's been a long time since I've seen these odd behaviors. Speaking of which, only the Otari bothered to look for us. The other two escorts stopped and eventually ran off. The Otari was still circling the supposed torpedo launch site when last seen or heard.

Not a big deal, but I know you've seen it before elsewhere. Have fun!

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by torpedobait

Anyway, the behavior of the other 3 escorts was a bit off. The DE Kaibokan was rocking and rolling side to side as it would in a heavy sea, but the seas were flat calm.

how fast was the Kaibokan moving, if you remember?
i have seen this behavior when the DD/DE is moving at high speed, in any seas.
when seas are bad, they can and will sink.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by torpedobait

I'm in the (unnamed) channel approximately 325 Nm NE of Singapore in Gato. Left from NAB Manus Island to patrol an area East of Malaysia and on August 13, 1944 at 1400 encountered a Small Group in said channel consisting of a DD B Class, a KyokutuMaru, a DE Kaibokan, a DE C Class, and a Torpedo Boat Otari.

The KyokutuMaru was literally pushing the DD-B Class - had its bow (how shall I put this delicately) shoved right up the stern of the escort. Both sank when the Kyokutu exploded. Surprisingly I got credit for both sinkings - usually when a target causes the nearby ships to sink I only get credit for the target I actually hit.

Anyway, the behavior of the other 3 escorts was a bit off. The DE Kaibokan was rocking and rolling side to side as it would in a heavy sea, but the seas were flat calm.

The other two were perched high in the water so much so that the props were about 80% exposed. Not the usual displacement, for sure. It's been a long time since I've seen these odd behaviors. Speaking of which, only the Otari bothered to look for us. The other two escorts stopped and eventually ran off. The Otari was still circling the supposed torpedo launch site when last seen or heard.

Not a big deal, but I know you've seen it before elsewhere. Have fun!

325 nm would put you closer to that Riau Island than to where I'm guessing you were, which would be the Balabac Strait maybe, after crossing the Sulu Sea and coming into the South China Sea?? The Strait is labeled, but you have to be at the proper zoom level on the map.

Overall image of the South China Sea, Palawan to the upper right, Singapore to the lower left, French Indo-China toward the upper left...



The Mission Editor showing one of two or three zoom levels that will show the Balabac Strait text. Zoom further in and it "disappears" so as to not "hide" ships underneath the text



You are nearing the end of the 44a layer, getting ready to head into the "no targets" time frame, but there are two "Task Forces" that go through the Balabac, one each direction, but they would both have at least one light cruiser(Leader) and probably one Heavy, along with the escorts, which would vary in type. Which direction was the group traveling? The TF101 traveling east & north has a tanker 100% of the time, but has those CA & CL, along with 4 regular DD, only has 1DE chance, and no torpedo boats. There are no Hunter/Killer groups anywhere near the area... None of the Merchant traffic comes close in Rostering. My primary suspect for now is Convoy 117, which has up to 3 tankers at 100%, 90% & 60% of the time. It can have 2 generic freighters at 70 & 50%, and then escorts as 2x DE 100 & 60%, 2x Corvettes at 90 & 25% and 2xFrigates (the Chidori etc) at 74 & 51% chances... The group can do a top speed of 12knots, and does 9 knots eastbound into the Balabac Strait, with a hard move to starboard and 7 knots a bit after clearing the strait. Combine that with your torpedo attack and them being single file at 816m spacing and the escorts cutting in and out of the tanker's path like they usually do, and that could have been part of the issue. I see no reason for the Kaibokan being light in the skirts, unless they tried to run over the little barrier island while leaving Brunei Bay... I dunno. I'll do a couple of test missions there tomorrow though and see what I see. Thanks for the details!

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Thanks KM. I ran an S-18 mission out of Cavite a few days ago, and the islands "to the seaward around Cabra and Lubang Islands and into the Calavite Passage" are missing their names also... sigh - The Campaign LOC & NMS files look to be an incorrect version apparently in v1.8 - fixed for next release.

pb,

i was assigned a sister mission, Equatorial04.
i spruced that one up for you also.
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/wa4...4_Fix_20230125


and so, we hit the summer of '43 and still no tower upgrade for our Sargo, which means that we have missed both the May '42 upgrade and the 'Jan '43 upgrade. it does not appear likely that we will get one. and so, on to the next.
here is a list of recent careers and the lack of success in getting a tower upgrade:

• Gar/Tambor - no upgrade
• Gato - no upgrade
• Argo - two upgrades
• Sargo/Salmon - no upgrades
• Cachalot & Narwhal - no upgrades available
• Balao - one upgrade available but if you start after July '43, which is recommended, you get the upgrade at ship-build time.
• Tench - never had any luck with this boat, and it appears as if she has only one tower.
• that leaves the Sugar Boats. i guess i'll try one of those and see if i can get a sympathy upgrade.

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by KaleunMarco

how fast was the Kaibokan moving, if you remember?
i have seen this behavior when the DD/DE is moving at high speed, in any seas.
when seas are bad, they can and will sink.

It was moving at a good clip trying to find me.

The other two were moving slow, then stopped for a while. No change in displacement.

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

325 nm would put you closer to that Riau Island than to where I'm guessing you were, which would be the Balabac Strait maybe, after crossing the Sulu Sea and coming into the South China Sea?? The Strait is labeled, but you have to be at the proper zoom level on the map.

Overall image of the South China Sea, Palawan to the upper right, Singapore to the lower left, French Indo-China toward the upper left...



The Mission Editor showing one of two or three zoom levels that will show the Balabac Strait text. Zoom further in and it "disappears" so as to not "hide" ships underneath the text



You are nearing the end of the 44a layer, getting ready to head into the "no targets" time frame, but there are two "Task Forces" that go through the Balabac, one each direction, but they would both have at least one light cruiser(Leader) and probably one Heavy, along with the escorts, which would vary in type. Which direction was the group traveling? The TF101 traveling east & north has a tanker 100% of the time, but has those CA & CL, along with 4 regular DD, only has 1DE chance, and no torpedo boats. There are no Hunter/Killer groups anywhere near the area... None of the Merchant traffic comes close in Rostering. My primary suspect for now is Convoy 117, which has up to 3 tankers at 100%, 90% & 60% of the time. It can have 2 generic freighters at 70 & 50%, and then escorts as 2x DE 100 & 60%, 2x Corvettes at 90 & 25% and 2xFrigates (the Chidori etc) at 74 & 51% chances... The group can do a top speed of 12knots, and does 9 knots eastbound into the Balabac Strait, with a hard move to starboard and 7 knots a bit after clearing the strait. Combine that with your torpedo attack and them being single file at 816m spacing and the escorts cutting in and out of the tanker's path like they usually do, and that could have been part of the issue. I see no reason for the Kaibokan being light in the skirts, unless they tried to run over the little barrier island while leaving Brunei Bay... I dunno. I'll do a couple of test missions there tomorrow though and see what I see. Thanks for the details!

I went back and compared the game map to Google Earth. I believe I was in the deep water immediately to the SE of Raiu Islands, which is not labeled on the game map. Drawing a line from approximately Singapore to that point should give you about 325 NM, more or less.

I was no where near Balabac.

[propbeanie]

Gotcha - I hope... lol - Does this look a bit closer then?





and I am not aware of a name for that body of water there between the islands, other than South China Sea. Anyway, nothing obviously wrong with the group, so the usual possibilities apply in speed changes, sharp turn, running single file, escorts are extremely "wild" in their "guarding" the convoy, plus your attacking. Notice also that the tanker is the "Leader" unit, so if it is sunk, the "Leader" baton must be passed to another ship, which can create the AI all sorts of confusion. I am setting up right now though, to "observe" what I can in the area near August 13, 1944 (checking the ships also, prior to sailing)...

[KaleunMarco]

hey PB,

couple of things to go over.
started a new career with an S-boat, out of Manila/Cavite (i forget which).
was assigned the SBoatSou03 mission.
ran out of torpedoes TWICE, trying to sink two Kongos in Lingayen Gulf. Got one. no idea how the other one stayed afloat, but it did.



secondly, and more importantly, as we were making our way to Watching Point, we received a message that cancelled the remainder of the mission and ordered us to Surabaya to end the mission. that would be great, except that our home base was Tilatjap and not Surabaya. Message arrived on January 4 and we were south of Makassar straits when we received it.

Lastly, as we were making our way around Java, we passed Merak and look what we discovered.


there was no obvious violence between forces. maybe they were playing pinochle and drinking scotch with a sake chaser. probably one of those date things.