Quote:
Originally Posted by KaleunMarco
over the years as i played this game i have noticed its tendency to not spawn groups after certain dates, like September 1.
September 1 is the starting effective date of the traffic files....convoys and task forces.
I think that SH4 gets itself lost when the player is on a career-mission and that date passes. traffic seems to disappear. i say again: this is an SH4 issue not a modder issue.
i can't prove anything but it sure seems to be true over thousands of missions.
anyway, nice patrol log. i wonder how you have time and consciousness to keep a detailed log while you are playing the game and then living Real Life as well, with all of its "distractions".
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Drum's real patrol logs:
https://www.drum228.org/patrols.html
Ah yea just writing the reports up in fashion of the patrol reports have read on Drum and others (see link below)
I like keeping a log of important events during patrol, interesting to look back and has helped with modding as well. Figured reports like this may help others, especially newer players on patrol, kind of way real life skippers learned by reading patrol reports.
Time wise, well the events in the report take place over many days real time, so have plenty of time for my real life lol. I leave the sim running, check on it when home. During patrol, I just jot down the important details such as attack data in notepad and then punch up the report en route back to base. Since have to run the sim at somewhat low time compression to make sure don't miss contacts and keep the weather stable, plenty of time to do other things as well. Also, campaign is how I test because its difficult to replicate exact conditions in a single mission. Campaign is the focus of my mod so I've played through the war, played different periods, different areas etc to check. Time consuming but its a marathon not a race. Actually going on vacation end of the month so will be away from for a few weeks . I delayed releasing my update for TMO to work a few more things out, refine some things, but plan to release before I go walkabout
You are correct sir. The traffic delay I encountered was primarily because of the "dead zone" that occurs when the new layers take over. The 42b layers cover 8/1/1942-8/31/1943.So if convoys have a 25 percent chance of spawning every five days (120 hours) it will be at least September 5th( noticed sometimes the next day) before they spawn then with a low chance, it can be a few days.
I modified how convoys spawned, the "feeder" convoys on the less major routes are set to the random defaults, slightly decreased in frequency so have a more realistic amount of traffic. The major routes to ensure consistent but realistic traffic rates taking into account the time period. In most places I added convoys that spawn once at are set to ensure consistent but realistic traffic rate based on the time period. Obviously there are way more convoys running in Fall 1943-Spring 1944 than in mid 1942 when convoys were not the norm for the japanese. Fall 1943 they actually formed an escort command at the fleet level to coordinate escorts. This is now reflected in TMO, fall 43 start seeing actual convoys and their compositions changed. Typical early war convoy of haphazard years are 3-4 ships with one escort, sometimes may have two. Rarely three, three would denote an important group of ships. This is based off research have done, reading of many patrol reports indicating changes over time.
I don't mind the dead periods though, a lot of submarine warfare was sailing about for weeks at a time until found target, especially in the open ocean areas. Forces player to really hunt for targets. I've ensured the traffic is there, player just has to find it. As mentioned in the report, August 26 my was first attack, the next time found shipping to torpedo was 30 September, as was departing assigned area. This happened a bit in real life, weeks in area with nothing then boom found a big convoy at last minute.Added an element of excitement, a nothing patrol can turn into an excellent one. Only had the fuel to pursue and attack for short time, had to attack then. Plenty of torpedoes aboard.
I alluded to changing of convoy routes in my report. I did this as it did happen in real life. Japanese would suffer a lot of losses on one route and change the route for a while, then switch back after time for things to calm down. To a degree I have this implemented in the campaign. The traffic lanes do shift from time to time then shift back, especially as war goes on when convoy routes became more defined. Aggravating as this sim can be, amazing what can be done.
One area that comes to mind is Area 5 off Honshu. They suffered heavy losses in that area in late 43 and early 44, then the area went dead for quite a while, reports by subs assigned there as no traffic. Lockwood sent Tang there in August 1944. The Japanese had quit running convoys offshore in that area, in deeper waters, but instead were running shipping 2-3 ships at a time with plenty of escorts, close to shore from port to port during the day...talking few thousand yards off the beach, thus why the area seemed dead. Obviously this makes patrolling a challenge. Trying to replicate what Tang did in the area is fun but a challenge. Air and surface patrols almost daily, shallow waters, even the coastal pc type escorts can kill you in the shallows. Later in war, there is a coastal minefield (submerged and surfaced) they hide behind. It is one of the most challenging areas to patrol in TMO but with discretion, proper tactics, quite possible to turn out a solid patrol there.
I will say though the traffic in the area was a little too dead. The Palau-Wewak-Rabaul shipping lanes early 1943-early 1944, were busy as were supplying the Solomons and New Guinea forces , so prboably going to probably adjust it a little.