What happened to all of the ships, there are no more?

[Systemlord]

This happens every now and again, the shipping lanes are littered with single ships as well as huge amounts of large convoys in June 1944, yet I can't seem to find any ships or convoys, not even by accident?! I search for 45 minutes continuously and not ONE ship found after patrolling everywhere, no airplanes either?! Has this happened to anyone else? It's IMPOSSIBLE for someone to patrol where there is heavy activity and still not a single ship found after 45 minutes of patrolling! I have never gone that long without finding a single ship whether it be by skill or accident!

[Dread Knot]

The Japanese heard you were coming and surrendered.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Forgive me but I'm not sure I understand you correctly. Are you implying that you run into single ships or convoys every 45 minutes? I've never encountered that. Also, if you cannot find any ships, I don't understand how you can say that the shipping lanes are littered with single ships and convoys. Now, you say this happens "every now and again", do you mean it happens once in a while during June of 1944, or at any time during your career? What version of SHIV are you running?
Again, I apologize for any misunderstanding.

[Daniel Prates]

Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp

Are you implying that you run into single ships or convoys every 45 minutes?

He means that he has patrolled for 45 minutes, in TC, and did not run across a single ship.

Is it?

[Systemlord]

The map is showing huge movements of single ships along with large convoys contacts marked in red, yet I can't seem to find any ships. It doesn't make sense, if there are so many ships being indicated as map contact updates why am I having so much trouble locating any enemy ships? Its almost like all of the map contact updates a fake and there really isn't any ships being spawned anywhere in the game or by some chance I caught up in a wormhole teleporting me to a parallel world where WW2 didn't happen, !

[Daniel Prates]

If you are talking about the contacts you get by radio, remember that they are always late, showing where a convoy or a task force WAS, not where it IS. When you get such a report, the best you can do is an educated gess on where it is going, and try to intercept. You can't just go over the contact, hoping it will still be there.

But if you are talking about your own contacts (say, radar for instance), could it be that you are not zooming in the map enough? At a farther zoom level, even a milimiter may represent dozens of miles.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Well, if you're in high TC, sure it's going to appear as if a lot of contacts are showing up. Slow down to real time and it'll be more like hours or days that these are appearing. Like DP says, these contacts aren't going to sit around waiting for you to come to them. They're contact reports sent in by other units, subs, etc. and they only report their last known location. They don't report any change of course the convoy may take. Sometimes you can guess their destination and plot an intercept course, but if you're several hundred nm away when you get the contact report, your chances of running into it are slim unless you get very lucky.

[Systemlord]

I don't think you guys are hearing me correctly, I've been playing SH sims four over five years and I'm not a noobie when it comes to finding convoys, anyhow I returned to port and started the next patrol. I did not spend 45 minutes trying to find ship and convoys, instead using the exact same method of located ships I found them on a repeated basis, I did not spend 45 minutes finding nothing, mmm....

I may have forgot to mention this earlier but when I would go to my radar station the radar would turn itself off like there was a power surge in the electrical system, I also noticed that the contacts that I was getting were in real-time, all of them on the entire map. I could zoom in and actually see the contacts in gray like you normally could when you had a radar contact, something is wrong with the game at least in that patrol! The heading I took showed the convoys right in front of me, after some low time compression the convoy would end up directly behind me as if they passed right through me. During all of the other patrols (more than 10) I never encountered a problem with what I'm going to call phantom ships that show up on the map but aren't really there. However I have had this happen before in other campaigns in a different year and time, after returning to port everything was back to normal.

This game has more bugs than my basement!

[WernherVonTrapp]

Well, like I said earlier, I'm sorry for any misunderstandings. Your description of the incident is very vague and you didn't give any details. Rather than have people answer your questions, only to have you respond "That's not what I mean" (as in this case), I thought I'd save you some trouble and try to get you to be a little more specific. When you go to the radar station, it always shuts off. Just click the "On" button and it'll be back to normal. That has always been that way as long as I've been playing it.
If the contacts you are getting are radar or sonar contacts (a significant detail that you omitted) which suddenly appear and disappear, then there might be a problem. Does the ship icon disappear and get replaced by a sonar line, or does it simply disappear? Also, are these contacts within visual distance? Are you running any mods?

[Armistead]

I don't even recall that issue in stock, but maybe you should try a mod like TMO with RSRD.

[Systemlord]

Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp

Well, like I said earlier, I'm sorry for any misunderstandings. Your description of the incident is very vague and you didn't give any details. Rather than have people answer your questions, only to have you respond "That's not what I mean" (as in this case), I thought I'd save you some trouble and try to get you to be a little more specific. When you go to the radar station, it always shuts off. Just click the "On" button and it'll be back to normal. That has always been that way as long as I've been playing it.
If the contacts you are getting are radar or sonar contacts (a significant detail that you omitted) which suddenly appear and disappear, then there might be a problem. Does the ship icon disappear and get replaced by a sonar line, or does it simply disappear? Also, are these contacts within visual distance? Are you running any mods?

I'm running stock with no mods version 1.5, for me the radar station is always on when first leaving port by default and all I have to do is set it to maximum range and I'm set to go. The radar would flicker off then on again all by itself with no user input from me, when I go to the radar station it's always on and will not turn off unless I choose to turn it off. We may have different realistic setting that may differ from one person to another.

When I submerge and resurface it comes on automatically unless I turn it off. All of the contacts are while on the surface never submerged, I do not submerge ever unless I get a contact on the map followed by a radar contact. I only submerge right before I setup an attack to take down some ships in a convoy. The instant I get a convoy contact on the map it will get updated several times even when changing course, these are not radar contacts but contact updates and I fully realize that by the time the contacts are reported, the contacts are well ahead of the red icons which showed their last known contact. I hope I have not been vague, I'm trying here.

[WernherVonTrapp]

OK, I don't think the realism settings have anything to do with it, but I could be wrong. As long as I've been playing, when I go to the radar station, it automatically shuts off and I have to turn it back on again.

As far as the radar shutting off and starting up intermittently, the only time that may happen to me (fully surfaced# is during extremely rough seas where the waves wash completely over the boat. It will happen if you're running decks awash in rough seas or are partially submerged. The stock version is very buggy but the mods fix a lot of those problems. Before you start a new career, do you go into your #:My Documents/SHIV/Saved Games) folder and delete all the old data? I have sometimes had issues where old and new files become corrupt and/or interfere with gameplay. At least, I haven't had any real problems since I started deleting my old saved games data before starting a new career.

It's probably just me, but I'm still not sure what you mean by "contact updates". They're not radar, not sonar, but contact updates?

[Systemlord]

Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp

OK, I don't think the realism settings have anything to do with it, but I could be wrong. As long as I've been playing, when I go to the radar station, it automatically shuts off and I have to turn it back on again.

As far as the radar shutting off and starting up intermittently, the only time that may happen to me (fully surfaced# is during extremely rough seas where the waves wash completely over the boat. It will happen if you're running decks awash in rough seas or are partially submerged. The stock version is very buggy but the mods fix a lot of those problems. Before you start a new career, do you go into your #:My Documents/SHIV/Saved Games) folder and delete all the old data? I have sometimes had issues where old and new files become corrupt and/or interfere with gameplay. At least, I haven't had any real problems since I started deleting my old saved games data before starting a new career.


It's probably just me, but I'm still not sure what you mean by "contact updates". They're not radar, not sonar, but contact updates?

Contact updates are sent over the radio by other friendly ships and airplanes when they have spotted enemy contacts, the realism settings does effect this particular feature. There is a setting for not to have contact updates, "No Contact Updates". That's why you probably have never heard of it, you have that realism setting unchecked which makes it even harder to locate enemy ships and convoys. After finishing a campaign I always delete saved games in My Documents/SHIV/Saved Games folder. I also have changed the .exe the SH4.exe instead of the gu.exe. gu.exe was found years ago to cause saved game loading issues!

[WernherVonTrapp]

Ahhh, OK, now I'm clear in the "contacts" issue. Yes, I have "no contact updates" checked off. Still, I do get some, but for the most part, I ignore them unless I'm especially close to the contact location. There are so many elements involved in obtaining a successful intercept, not the least of which is a change of course by the contact. Most of the time, you only end up wasting fuel. I have suceeded on a few occasions though.
I've never use the contact updates feature because my experience with most of them has proven to be futile. Try using one of the mods. They fix a lot of the stock's buggy features.

[Systemlord]

Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp

Ahhh, OK, now I'm clear in the "contacts" issue. Yes, I have "no contact updates" checked off. Still, I do get some, but for the most part, I ignore them unless I'm especially close to the contact location. There are so many elements involved in obtaining a successful intercept, not the least of which is a change of course by the contact. Most of the time, you only end up wasting fuel. I have suceeded on a few occasions though.
I've never use the contact updates feature because my experience with most of them has proven to be futile. Try using one of the mods. They fix a lot of the stock's buggy features.

I can name a few frequent bugs, your men have no eyes or there in the back of their heads, dive plans don't extend correctly looking more like a bats ears!

Someday I might actually check most all of the realism settings, talk about playing a new campaign for the first time again! So is this mod pretty strait forward to install?