Creating 188 missions for SH4

[Aktungbby]

rjord! stuff like this always fascinates keep up the good work!

[rjord]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

rjord! stuff like this always fascinates keep up the good work!

Thanks Aktungbby

Hopefully the last few posts will explain my methods for creating these missions.

[rjord]

This illustration I put together shows the first 10 days of the mission ending with the sub reaching the Lingayen Gulf at the top of the picture and attacking hostile shipping.

She entered the gulf just before dawn on 22 December. At 06:45, she sighted an enemy convoy of four transports escorted by two destroyers.

Waiting for the range to drop to a very short 1,000 yards (910 m), at 07:10, she fired four bow tubes — all misses. As she reloaded, the enemy destroyers closed in, pinging, but no depth charges came. At 07:58, she launched two torpedoes at an anchored enemy cargo ship. Less than a minute later, the 5445-ton Hayo Maru blew up.

Enemy destroyers again closed the submarine, and she went "deep", to 80 ft (24 m), and lay doggo as depth charges fell around the sub.

Of course it will be up to you if the first 4 torpedoes all miss.

[rjord]

Before finishing this mission for SS-143 as listed in last few posts.......

I am going to first recreate the missions for those of the USS S-36 (SS-141) commanded by Lt. Creed C. Burlingame (age 36)

EDIT : this has been changed as Burlingame commanded till February 39.
James R McNaught is the commander of this sub during the time of this mission

With these missions I will be adding in some features to make them more challenging.

- where possible you will have to stick to the timeline as given in the mission and experienced by the original sub crews

- some events may happen which may leave you on the surface when you really need to dive. Example.... with the SS-141 diving was delayed by oil supply failures to the starboard engine, and she was subsequently sighted by a Japanese destroyer.

This first mission recreates what happens in the weeks before the incident with the starboard engine and what happens when the destroyer chases down SS-141.

With these missions you will be forced to operate the sub as per the mission.

Example, the SS-141 experiences an issue with her main motor bearing which began smoking and oil needed to be applied by hand squirt gun. Later her trim pump stalled. The No. 2 main ballast was blown and at 230 feet (70 m) the boat began to rise.

Obviously these issues are not going to be showing in Silent Hunter 4 but I am putting this mission together in a way that when you are told the sub's ballast has blown and the sub is starting to rise..... you need to head to the surface. However venting and flooding was begun and you stop at 90 feet below the surface.

In a critical condition concerning trim and propulsion with the Japanese Destroyer still hunting you need to try and clear the area.

You might think your troubles are over but if a fire broke out in the main motor auxiliary circulating pump you might have to surface the boat.

This is a brief idea of the first mission.

The USS S-36 (SS-141) had 2 war patrols and these will be the first 2 missions I am recreating. Very detailed notes on what happened to the submarine have been taken from the microfilm records to make this mission as close to realism as possible.

Can you guys let me know which is the preferred place for me to start adding these missions so you can try them out as each one is finished?

[rjord]

As the S1 Class submarines are not simulated in SH4 I will have to default to the S-18 class submarines.

[rjord]

Sometimes the war reports will not have details on the weather conditions at the time of a particular stage of the war patrol.

Iw have designed a randomization factor in Excel which I have used when I play my custom missions so that every time I play the mission there is always something new. One day it may be foggy with no rain and no wind while the next time I play it could be no fog but heavy cloud and medium rain.

Sometimes there will be no wind while other times there may be wind up to 15 m/s

With clouds , precipitation, fog and wind there will randomly be no changes or small changes.

The weather will also have a minimum time in hours between 2 and 96 hours before weather changes.

I need to check if there can be any fog while there is any type of rain and I am sure there can be no fog if there is any heavy wind.....certainly not at 15 m/s

[rjord]

This is an example of the spreadsheet I use to determine weather and how often it changes if it is not specifically mentioned in the microfilm records for the war report I am recreating for SH4.

The numbers on the left of each category are randomised and sorted in ascending order.