Wolfy's Continued Patrol #8 (74 Huge Pics, Big 56K Warning!)

[WolfyBrandon]

Hi All,

It's been a while, but with a ton of new mods and a day off work what better way to spend it continuing my 8th patrol.

For those who didn’t see my first post, you can view it here.
http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopi...ght=interested

WARNING: A LOT OF HI-RES PICTURES!!!, If you get some pictures with a red x on them right click them and select show picture to fix it.

I recomend you let this page load a while before reading, itll take a while to load up all the pictures!
- - - - - - - - - -

After slipping away from the destroyers seeking revenge for their lost ships I came out shaken but unharmed. I decided to surface when the convoy was out of range and everything was quiet.



I plotted a course for the convoy and one for me to intercept them if they were to follow it. If they changed course I would either run into them again if they moved south, or know they were further north if I didn’t see them again.



I never ended up seeing the convoy so I thought I might find them where I wanted to setup my next torpedo attack. I dived the boat and waited. All was quiet on sonar so my gut told me they were north, I surfaced and plotted a new course. Shortly after I get a radio report of the convoy ahead and north of me. I plotted a new course to intercept them.



Sailing at flank speed around dawn the next morning I hear my watch crew shout out "Ship Spotted!" I grabbed my binoculars and looked in the direction he was pointing to. A close examination showed we had found the convoy we were chasing, PARASCOPE DEPTH! I shouted.



Checking the convoys position through my attack scope I noticed by the time I got into position for a torpedo attack I would be really close to them and risk being detected early. I changed course and raised my speed so I could get out in front of them more. After correcting my position I began looking through the scope again to monitor my position to the convoy and to located the ships I wanted to attack to make sure I was located in the columns I wanted to be in.




As the ships were beginning to get closer sonar calls out a warship closing. I thought to myself this must be the lead destroyer closing on my position. I ordered all stop and waited for it to pass.





While she is passing I go to my weapons control and begin setting up my torpedoes. I have decided I will first fire a stern shot at the Dido Light Cruiser which will be the first ship to pass behind me. Then I’m going to wait for a small merchant to pass in front of me then fire 2 torpedoes at a T3 Tanker. I set the all the torpedoes to impact and some at 5m running depth and some at 4m running depth. I'm in position for firing so I open the outer door on tube 5 and wait for the dido light cruiser to come into position.

I switch back to my attack scope to watch as the convoy closes in on my position. As I’m watching I notice something strange, some of the ships seem to be switching lanes? I watch as the entire convoy becomes a complete mess and totally ruins my torpedo attack plan.





I watch as the ships I planned to fire on move out of position. I was watching carefully in the scope to see if I could still release a fish at them and possibly wound or sink one, but with their changing speed and angle it made it hard to setup an attack on either of them. I wasn’t ready to start wasting torpedoes just yet. Instead I decided to just wait and watch for anything to come in position. Unfortunately as time passed the ships that did come within firing position where to close to me and even if I did fire the torpedoes would bounce off before they armed.

I let just about the entire convoy pass me without firing, which upset me greatly. All this time to setup this attack was wasted and I couldn’t fire on any of the ships. Just before I was about to set a new course away from the convoy to "try again" I found a lone C2 at the rear of the convoy trying to get back in its column, and it just happened to be passing in front of me within firing range. The ship was speeding up fast after it finished its turn to catch up with the convoy. I scrambled to the attack scope and checked the keel depth for a C2. I ran over to the Weapons control and set Tube 1 as a magnetic and at the correct depth to go under its keel.



Man this C2 was really cruising, probably at top speed so I would really need to lead shoot her to get a hit. After trying to get some information on her on my notepad she was coming up so fast I would run out of time. Screw It! I said I think I can get her just by guessing. I closed the tube door on tube 5 and opened the one on tube 1, and took aim. "LOS!!!"





"Torpedo Impact!!!"



The magnetic found its target and hit just behind the bridge. At first I thought I would need another torpedo but the keel shot was deadly, she slowed down and sank from her stern. After the fireworks were over I ordered a depth of 80m and ahead slow. The destroyers and corvettes were so far away they didn’t have a change of finding me. I had my men reload the tube as I plotted yet another attack on the convoy. I just hope the same problem wouldn’t happen yet again.

After I was out of range I surfaced again and plotted a course like before to intercept the convoy. By this time I found out what happened was they did a zigzag which threw my torpedo attack way off. I thought to myself, if they just turned I could probably get in front of them again before they turned again.

A few hours passed and we finally got to our destination. If the convoy didn’t turn, I would be in the perfect position for a torpedo attack. I ordered Periscope Depth! and waited. As we arrived at periscope depth sonar had contacts approaching our position.




----

Somewhere On The Surface





----

I positioned myself for a forward shot on the Dido Light Cruiser. This time she is going to the bottom, even if it takes 3 fish to do it. I begin picking out a target for a stern shot. It seems a C2 is in the row behind me which is to close to fire on, I can see a small merchant on the other side of her, and behind it is another C2, which will be the target. Ill fire my forward shots on the Dido, then wait for the first C2 to pass and then fire the stern shot through the row behind me and at the C2 in the next row. I set my torpedoes up in the weapons control panel, I will have 3m impact torpedoes for the forward shots and a magnetic at 8m for the stern shot. I then order all stop and wait for the ships to arrive.


Forward Target

To Close To Fire On

Sturn Target


Watching through the scope the forward target, Dido Light Cruiser has come into firing range. I open the outer door on Tube 1, "LOS!!!", open the outer door on Tube 2, "LOS!!!"






Torpedo Impact!



Torpedo Impact!



A few seconds pass.... Torpedo Impact!

YeSsS! the crew cheer, "That’s All 3 Fish!"




"Were Taking On Water, Someone Help!!!"


A look through the scope shows both ships going down. A successful attack!




After the ships go down, I start looking for a last forward shot; I have 1 torpedo left in my boat. The next ship coming into firing range is a coastal merchant. She is pretty close, but I think I can hit her, Open the outer door on tube 4. "LOS!!!"




Keeping the scope on the bearing I fired on I wait for the torpedo to explode...


"Damn, looks like she was to close, Oh well, we got what we wanted" I turn the scope around to see a Merchant very close and hear... We've Been Detected...

Dive the boat, ahead 1/3, make our depth 84m!




While beginning my dive, sonar says we have incoming warships.





----

Somewhere On The Surface




----

Continuing our dive to what I now order 130m and ahead slow...




Feeling that im pretty safe, we wait for the surface ships to unleash their anger...









Did they get me?

I couldn’t count how many charges went off but it was a lot! It seems by quickly diving and going silent they lost track of me from the beginning so all their charges didn’t even come close to me. I eventually changed course and ordered an all stop to make them think they got me and waited until they gave up and left the area. Since I was out of torpedoes it was pointless to cause any more trouble. Once everything was silent on sonar I ordered periscope depth to check the area and then surface.







Everything was clear, although I had no torpedoes I was thinking of still going to my patrol area just to get more renown, but it was way up north and at least 2 days of sailing to get there. It wasn’t worth it to me so I decided to head home to Brest.




All in all not a bad mission from start to end. I had fun and that’s what counts

Hope you all liked, sorry for the huge pics but I wanted good ones because they help tell the story. If you didn’t like, well sorry for the huge pictures.

====
List Of Enabled Mods

SH3 Commander v1.43
Ail Hi Res Moon v2.5 Mod
Ail Particles Mod
Ail Dials Mod
Ail Wake Mod v2
Ail Sky Mod v2
Ail Navigation Map Mod
Camera Mod v2.0
Instant Torpedo Load Recognition Mod
British Southampton Class Light Cruiser (No Float Plane)
Captian America's Officer Icon Mod v1.1
Transparent Torpedo Screen Background Mod
Hi-Res Flag Mod
Bad Weather Guns
F4 Bridge and Conning Tower Mod for v1.4b
T2 Torpedo Range Mod
Ai Sonar v1.0
Additional Merchants v2.0
Full Vulnerability Manual Mod
Augie64's English & Flag Recognition Mod v1.0
Improved Convoys v200509150059
SH3 Map Convoys
No Fatigue (Reduced)
Real Damage Mod (Hollywood Part 2)
Fubar's IXB Plain Skin
SH3 Gramophone Tipperary Sound Pack
Sergbuto's Uboat Reflections Fix
Fubar's VIIB & VIIC Skin v2.0
Multiple-Skin Ships Mod v2.0
New Unit Flottenbegleiter v2.0
KGV Shooting Fix
Marhkimov's Enhanced Ocean Reflections & Sky Mod v1.0
Type VIIB Bow Fix
Type VIIC Cable Fix
Marhkimov's Torpedo Textures v1.1
Marhkimov's Dials Mod
Cloud Distortion Fix


Wolfy

[thasaint]

cool shots, be glad that last torp didn't blow up, check the flag it was flying :P

[WolfyBrandon]

oops, looks like I had my head in the Recognition Manual looking at the Renown for each ship to much I guess someone up there was looking down on me for that shot...

Thanks for the reply thasaint glad you liked the shots

Wolfy

[Clacker]

Thanks for that, a great read and some great camera work!

Clacks

[jpinard]

Excellent story! That's a picture book!

[Syxx_Killer]

Good post. I bet that took forever to upload and incorporate 74 pics into the post.

[wetwarev7]

Excellent......

[SteamWake]

Very nice picture book and great camera work.

Thats quite a list of mods you have there.

[benetofski]

[WolfyBrandon]

Thanks All,

@ Syxx_Killer - Heh, yeah it took a while to create that post, it was over an hour of uploading and typing. It wasnt to bad though, when you upload imageshack will give you links to the pictures you can easly copy and this forum has a buttion to quickly insert [ img ] tags for pictures. Glad you liked it!

@ jpinard - Thanks bro! SH3 is such a beautiful game it would be a shame not to take a bunch of pictures.

@ Clacker & SteamWake - Yeah I wanted to get some shots to look as if you were on one of the surface ships during the attack, something you don't normally get to see. Thanks to the Camera Mod I can get closer to the ships to get better pictures.

SH3 Mods


Wolfy

[Gizzmoe]

Wolfy, please use JPG compression, it´s there for a reason, don´t save them at 100%! I´ve recompressed the pictures to 90% quality and the total size shrank from 22.2MB to 6.2MB. It would also be good to resize the pictures to 800x600, with 90% quality the size is only 4MB. Not everyone uses high-res desktops, I´ve set mine to 1152x864 and those pictures don´t fit into my browser window. If you don´t know how to resize pictures and change the quality setting download Irfanview, it´s free and it can do batch conversions. When you resize them activate "Use Resample function".

[WolfyBrandon]

I posted a warning in the title that I had big pictures cause I wanted to have them, and all the picture files are in .jpg format, and I did used infranview to save them.

Wolfy

[Gizzmoe]

Originally Posted by Savages_Wolf

I posted a warning in the title that I had big pictures cause I wanted to have them, and all the picture files are in .jpg format, and I did used infranview to save them.

I know that they are JPG files, but you saved them at 100% image quality, it´s a terrible waste of bandwidth. There´s this "Show Option" box that you can click when you save files. Next time you should set it to 90% quality, the resulting files are then 70% smaller (file size, not image dimensions) without a loss of quality and people have less trouble getting all the images. It can take a very long time to see every image, even with DSL.

[Marhkimov]

Savage_Wolfy,

Why aren't you using photoshop to save your pictures?

And I agree with Gizzmoe... Save them as 800x600 or 768x576, you won't much quality. And another thing, when you save it using photoshop, it offers you a quality scale (1-13, I believe); save it as 10.


BTW, great storybook!!!