So is this typical of career mode?

[Ed]

Essentially hours of tedium getting to where you have to be (and back) punctuated by the very rare - if you're lucky - flash of tension and excitement?
I've just been on my first ever career patrol - into the North Sea around southern Scotland.
Almost nothing happened. Amazingly I hardly saw any ships the entire time - not even allied ships along the Dutch coast (incredible!), which should have been swarming with vessels. Likewise the British coast.
I saw - and sunk - one destroyer off the northern English coast. The only other contacts I had really were annoying Hurricane bombers - luckily they were totally ineffectual.
There was a noticeable dearth of any major sea traffic.
To my anger, after all this, the warship I sank did not even appear in my end-of-patrol record!!
Even if I saw a bunch of targets - which I didn't - then this early sub is so crap it only carries 5 torpedos! Assuming you're gonna miss some of the time then you're unlikely to sink much tonnage.
Eventually you have to bring the boat up because the batteries are so crap, and that's when the enemy finds you! Moreover, it takes several hours on the surface to recharge the batteries, so you are potentially a sitting duck.
So after many hours I have gained literally nothing. I'm wondering whether my life is too short for career mode - see if you can convince me :)

[FourGreenFields]

If you want a larger sub, consider starting in the other flotilla. Those get the Type VII right from 1939. More torps, a deck-gun, more fuel. Or start later in the war, but then you'll also meet better foes. You can also play the default flotilla a bit, you should be able to switch to the Type VII after a couple of patrols.


Not meeting stuff for long periods of time is normal. If you know where to look, you should meet a bunch of freighters though. Some risky hunting grounds would be on the northern and eastern shores of britain. Safer would be north and north-west of ireland (you're likely to find convoys there), and just generally west of the british isles. I generally go to the assigned grid, and then go hunting as I please. And, ofcourse, I attack targets of opportunity on the way there too.

Keep your radio-station manned when surfaced, if possible with a specialised guy. Also consider diving to periscope depth, and listening for freighters with engines off.
Notes on hydrophones:

• Hotkey for hydrophone-station is "H". You'll want to use that a lot.
  
• There's a knob on the bottom-right, to adjust volume - turn that up. Then click on that "clock" to adjust direction.
  
• If you're lucky, you'll hear a freighter's engine. Turn towards it, surface, and head for it at high speed for 15-20min. Then dive, and listen again, adjust heading. (Or just approach submerged, but early-war your batteries and speed are likely not sufficient for that).
  
• Keep in mind that listening manually is more reliable than having that guy do it - allthough he can still provide usefull info (e.g. "moving away" vs "closing"). And sometimes, you can hear a ship, but there still won't be an "unknown" showing up - so actually listen, don't just check that notepad.
  
• You can also clearly hear the difference between a warship and a freighter
  
• Destroyers need to go to ahead flank to drop depth-charges. If you hear them go full power towards you - go ahead flank yourself and evade (tight turn). They're basically deaf while going that fast, so don't worry about getting detected..
  
• I feel hydrophones are more usefull in very busy waters (like south-east of the english coast), while radio is more important in the atlantic.

If you press "K" it should show the destroyed targets. If the destroyer was still floating when you left it, it may not have counted as sunken - allthough destroyers usually only take one torpedo. If it actually vanished beneath the sea, then it's probably a glitch or something - haven't seen that happen much though.

Also, the majority of attacks early in the war are done surfaced. Consider diving a means of saving your behind, not a means of doing a sneak attack. Now, ofcourse: if you're lucky enough that a freighter is headed for you - do dive, and stay undetected. But if you start on its side, or behind the target, you'll have to surface to attack. Batteries should be less of an issue then.


Allright, I hope there's no brainfarts in there, it's late here.

[Hellsteeth30]

Welcome to U-boat warfare. Lot's of long hours looking for something to sink.

Do the above, should pick up a little then. It can get very busy later in the war, and more dangerous.

Also be aware of historical events too, they can lead you to some juicy targets. Like Dunkirk should be around the corner.

[Ed]

Thanks, FourGreenFields for your detailed response. I may well switch flotilla then and will definitely try using the hydrophone more.

You mentioned that you go to your assigned spot and then do what you like. Does that mean you don't fulfil some of your mission objectives because you haven't patrolled there for 24 hours (or whatever the brief is)?

If you sink objects outside of your assigned patrol map region, do they not count in the final count of your tonnage sunk?

Thanks for your note on the destoyers too, I didn't know the thing about evading their depth charges.

I definitely sunk that destroyer - so maybe it's a game glitch...

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by Ed:

You mentioned that you go to your assigned spot and then do what you like. Does that mean you don't fulfil some of your mission objectives because you haven't patrolled there for 24 hours (or whatever the brief is)?

I do stick around for those 24h. Generally at low speed, to save fuel - it's hardly ever a good place to hunt.

Originally posted by Ed:

If you sink objects outside of your assigned patrol map region, do they not count in the final count of your tonnage sunk?

They most certainly do count. Otherwise, getting kills would be nearly impossible too.

[Ed]

Originally posted by FourGreenFields:

it's hardly ever a good place to hunt.

Thanks. Makes you wonder why the head of the navy sends you there if it's slim pickings....

[Oparator Stalker]

career mode isn't bad, you have to remember it is just a game. There are going to be limitations. Your shipping lanes are all on the random spawn map, which spawn markers and their ship selections are random if they will spawn or not.. So yeah, for the most part, it is quiet.

How ever when you do get a contact report, there is a chance you will get a good ship spawn, or at other times chase ghosts. War ships you will not have a problem finding since they are on the script map and there for available at all times near or just off the cost.. Which is probably one of the reasons why people had turned to mods..

[Ed]

Just finished my second patrol - took around 2.5 hours of RL time (used 1025 time compression a lot). I saw 1 (ONE) sinkable ship the entire trip. And I sank it. This time I did get recognition for sinking it.

Problems:

- I wasn't able to delete courses I had plotted - the rubber tool does not work and nor does "alles löschen"
- apparently a movement bug - a couple of times my boat came to a total standstill and the only way to get it moving again was to go in reverse, then command it to go forward again

Question:

- Btw, are the characters standing by the band which plays when you leave/return to port doing the Hitlergruß?

Thanks.

[Oparator Stalker]

The eraser with the squibel line is for clearing the map from all refs and notation marks. The eraser itself with no squible marks is is used to remove what you notated or waypoints. To remove the waypoints you take this eraser function and click on the waypoint marker itself.

I do not know about the movement bug, I never really had a problem, unless you hit a all stop command mainly near a cargo vessel that is sinking. This has been considered a bug by players when you stop near cargo ships and the U-boat dosen't move and you have to go reverse and forward again to get going. This would be the only time I had ran into this, but I do not consider it a bug because there is a function in which you could refuel and reload. But the function is not available for some reason but the icon for it is present in the radio commands graphics sheet. Maybe the developers ran out of time while making it. There are also other icon functions on the sheet that are also not used in the game.

I know one time when I stopped a cargo ship and my U-boat was low on fuel, I was stuck and could go no where, and then the ship reveresed very fast away from me and I noticed I was refueled again..

[Ed]

Thanks, warcatt. I've now finished your video tutorial series and have found it most helpful.

Just done my third patrol. Didn't go submerged once. Only saw one enemy ship and that was too far away to bother with.

[Carl Dane]

I have the game on cd do i have to buy it again to play it here ?

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by Carl Dane:

I have the game on cd do i have to buy it again to play it here ?

If you want to play it as a Steam-game, yes. Can have Steam run non-Steam programs too though.
Then again, I have it on b oth CD and Steam, and run it with Steam off. Messes with Steam's window-size otherwise.

[Carl Dane]

i cant get it to play on my windows 7 i was hopeing to get it to work through steam so far to no avail.

[Hellsteeth30]

The disc one won't work as it has copy protection, or at least mine does. You could try the CD key in Steam as that would usually give you a Steam copy at no extra cost. Sometimes the keys don't work mind you.

[Oparator Stalker]

Originally posted by Carl Dane:

i cant get it to play on my windows 7 i was hopeing to get it to work through steam so far to no avail.

If you have the version 1, no that will not work with WIN7 at all because of the copy protection program like Hellsteeth30 stated. And I am not sure if getting the patch b for the game will work to resolve it. I have the original v1.0 too but I also have the b version on DVD as well and that dose work. The steam version has been already updated so it will work in WIN7. I had no problems with it..

[Oparator Stalker]

Originally posted by Ed:

Thanks, warcatt. I've now finished your video tutorial series and have found it most helpful.

Just done my third patrol. Didn't go submerged once. Only saw one enemy ship and that was too far away to bother with.

No problem, I am glad any of it helped.