Occasionally (after I assume my status report shows I'm at 15% fuel) they send me a new mission 1000's of miles away. but all tehy ever do is send me more targets. Run a few missions now, still kinda divided-Īm I missing something? Baed at Pearl (1942) I keep getting missions to patrol teh South China Sea, by the time I get there I'm far less than 50% fuel, I've tried making it back to Midway instead, but can't, tried sending status report after status report to see if HQ would arrange for a supply tender/something. In the distance is a Japanese CVL, and the burning ship in the distance is the wounded seaplane tender. You can see the destroyers gathering to ping the heck out of me. Other differences seem trivial.Įdit: Here we go. for instance, US boats fired "salvos" tube-by-tube, rather than a true salvo. I have a saved game just as I was in firing postion, so maybe I'll try again.Īs for the interface, I get the impression the changes were to try and simulate the differences between U-boat tactics and US Fleet sub tactics. The second carrier I sank (attacked with 4 fore and 4 aft tubes at once) rolled over sideways. I found a thermal layer at 146 feet and skulked away after a pair of 48000 ton carriers. There were also 2 light carriers in the task force, but no chance at a shot. and the escorts were very, very excited by that point. I also got a pair of torpedos into a Chitose class seaplane tender, but the hits were not critical. On 7-16-41 I managed to intercept a task force east of the Celebides Sea and popped 2. I'm playing my first career war patrol as part of the Asiatic Fleet in a Salmon Class boat. There are also some awesome mods available. AA armament, deck guns, radar, torpedoes and crew are all still purchased with renown, however.Īnyway, if you enjoyed SH III, I strongly recommend you give it a try, though I also recommend you patch it up to 1.4 as soon as it's installed. You don't 'buy' your next U-Boat as in III.they give you a chance to trade up instead, and conning tower refits happen in a similar way. While you get renown for ships you put on the bottom, the admiral likes it when you actually carry out your mission objectives, though I'm fuzzy on whether that translates to more renown or a better chance of a promotion or assignment to another boat. Lifeguard duty, insertion of supplies or commandos, and photo recon are the main three, in addition to the usual 'sink the enemy' thing. It's still a dynamic, free-roaming campaign, but you can be assigned objectives other than simply patrolling a certain section of ocean. It's like comparing a Euro roadster with a V-6 to a big ass American muscle car.Ĭareer mode has some small changes. Once you get used to that, you likely won't care: They have much greater firepower, higher 'stock' speeds, seem a bit more resilient, etc. They're bigger, can't dive as deep, and are not as maneuverable as a Type VII U-Boat.
You're operating against the Japanese, which means no 'mega-convoys', and while the AI, when you actually do find an expert destroyer, is sufficient, most of the escorts you run in too aren't that bright. Unlike SH III, you're not generally operating out of bases where you're subject to air attack as soon as you leave dock, and there can be some long transit times to your patrol zone (thankfully made bearable by much higher time compression). One thing it's important to note is that the setting changes things a lot. One change on 1.4 changes the distance ships render at, making it possible to track them visually even when all you can see is little parts poking above the horizon.something I haven't see since Aces of the Deep, and that makes penetrating a convoy both more doable and more of a nail-biter (hard to explain). Patched even to 1.1, the game improves considerably, and by 1.4, I was regarding it as superior to it's ancestor. Unpatched, the game has serious, serious issues, which make it more of a headache to play than SH III was. Now your crew works in shifts that automatically switch every so often allowing your guys to rest and such, and when you need everyone, you can sound battlestations and roust everyone out of their bunks. Graphics are improved considerably, and they changed up how crew management works.