Perhaps this is better posted to the Patrols and Screenshots section, but I wanted to see what would happen if I made an entire war career on just one boat. For the sake of honesty, I play with auto-targeting and map contacts on, and with the external cameras available, but no event camera. With duds on, the realism factor is 74%, if I remember correctly.
Started a career out of Midway on Dec. 8, 1941. My one and only boat was a Tambor class, USS Tuna (SS-203). Stayed with that home port and boat through a career that ended on August 8, 1945 after arriving from my 22nd patrol. Without a single harbor raid we amassed over 1.7 million tons, mostly because I found a few of the places where Propbeanie routed some large ships/tankers/whalers and a few convoys (Thanks, Props!). In those 22 patrols, I was awarded 15 Navy Crosses, 4 Navy Commendation Medals, 3 Bronze Stars, and 1 Purple Heart.
The interesting part was that because so many patrols were successful, including the first four, I was offered no less than 7 new subs, each of which I turned down to see what would happen. The offers came after the 4th patrol, and then regularly after each group of 3 patrols, if that makes sense. Apparently the accumulated renown was sufficient to get the upgrades on a timely basis.
Actually, nothing much else happened in the way of upgrades. There was no refit of the conning tower, the only upgrade in the AA gun was from a .50 Cal to a 20mm and then to a twin 20mm. Was never offered a 40mm or a twin 40mm. Did get the expected upgrades to radars and the deck gun on a reasonable schedule. It was surprising that I was not able to upgrade the AA armament. That twin 20mm is virtually useless even in the hands of a gunner rated at 107% effective, hence the Purple Heart.
Either the radar is less effective than it should be, or the sonar is way too effective, especially when surfaced. Although it was a nuisance to have to turn the radar off every time the boat surfaced from a dive, I found the sonar was equal to it for detecting even surface targets, without giving away my position. Would be nice to be able to turn it off completely, as we can with the Air Search Radar.
Anyway, I had never taken a single boat through the entire was, and thought it worth reporting on the upgrade activity. Next time I think I'll start at Pearl in the oldest boat they have, but I'll take all the upgrades Comsubpac will offer.
