No cargo ships

[luca1989balza]

Good evening. I have a bug with u boat. When i spot a contact or a convoy, i see military vessels only, no cargo. I have already tried to reload, change missions…always the same. Can you help me? Thanks

[Dewgle]

You're not experiencing a bug. Just gonna copy and paste this over from another thread
https://steamcommunity.com/app/494840/discussions/0/3422194766258308651

Originally posted by McDewgle:

Gonna categorize this under "Where are all the ships?" which is a FAQ of new players.

First, if all you're finding are warship patrols then you most likely started a new career out of Bergen or Kiel. Those two ports tend to send the player on patrols in the North Sea which is an area patrolled primarily by allied warships.

"Why is it patrolled by allied warships?"
Because many u-boat flotillas are based in the North Sea and transit that area to get to the North Atlantic. The allies know this and are deliberately trying to intercept you before you can attack allied shipping in the Black Pit, the Western Approaches or the English Channel.

"Okay, but I don't like these hunting grounds, I want to hunt that juicy tonnage!"
Well, easiest solution is to not start a career out of Bergen or Kiel and instead to start a career out of Wilhelmshaven or La Rochelle.

But if you want to keep your existing save or simply prefer starting out of the North Sea then simply keep an eye out for the first available transfer to a different flotilla (such as Wilhelmshaven or La Rochelle).

Flotilla transfer missions appear in the mission selection screen, so keep an eye out for them every time you return to port. If you cannot wait, you can cheese it by requesting a new mission from your base commander. Keep requesting a new mission until you get the mission you want. This will cost you 1 reputation point each time you do this as this is technically failing the currently selected mission.

Alternatively you could also force the transfer with a console command such as "Rebase La Rochelle" I think it is, check the wiki.

[luca1989balza]

Sir, you are wrong. I prefectly know how to find the enemy ships. I have completed about 12 patrols sinking destroyers and cargo ships too. But now, when i find a contact, there aren’t any cargo ships, the convoys also are a group of 15-20 military vessels!! No cargo ships, at all! I need help, I don’t know why cargo ships are vanished completely :( can you help me?

[Dewgle]

I don't think you read the entire post.

[luca1989balza]

I did. I am the U96, based in la rochelle. In 9-10 patrols in the black pit I have sunk a lot of tonnage. But now, there are no cargo ships. Is that clear? I changed missions, harbours…nothing changed. No cargo ships, anywere…sometimes i have no visual or acoustic contacts at all, but when i found a convoy, there are military ships only, also in the black pit

[Dewgle]

Thank you for explaining. Are you playing with any mods by chance?

[luca1989balza]

Thank you for your attention. No any mods

[Dewgle]

I just have trouble believing what you encountered was a 'bug'. Over a thousand hours in the game and I have never seen a bug that spawns only warships, or an unreasonably high amount of warships.

Warships spawn in the game under two circumstances; There is a high concentration of warships in the North Sea and when performing missions, there is a higher amount of warships in the patrol area when accepting hard difficulty missions.

What is the average difficulty of the missions you select?

[luca1989balza]

I’ve tried low, medium and hard difficulty. I’ve tried to patrol the black pit, the seas around the GB and the norvegian sea. No cargo ships at all :/ my God, a convoy for example has 21 corvettes and destroyers but no cargo ships😂

[urseus]

I was constantly getting unescorted cargo ships. All I craved was running into warship groups to have a crack at putting down a battleship. Ive never even seen an aircraft carrier in game yet.

[Dewgle]

Originally posted by luca1989balza:

I’ve tried low, medium and hard difficulty. I’ve tried to patrol the black pit, the seas around the GB and the norvegian sea. No cargo ships at all :/ my God, a convoy for example has 21 corvettes and destroyers but no cargo ships😂

It's a big ocean, finding convoys requires patience as well as knowing how to properly use your hydrophones.

Hydrophones allow you to detect convoys from much, much further away than with just vision. And when using the hydrophones make sure to slow down to the slowest engine speed or come to a complete stop as engine speed effects the maximum range of your hydrophone operator's hearing range.

[urseus]

The solution here is to use the code to show all convoys on the map. If they are all warships then its a bug, if they arent, OP not looking hard enough.

[luca1989balza]

So, you don’t have any solution? I don’t think that is normal what is appening to me. A day before i found cargo ships alone, convoys…a day later, warships only. Convoys of destroyers… If this is not a bug…what is it?😂

[luca1989balza]

Originally posted by urseus:

The solution here is to use the code to show all convoys on the map. If they are all warships then its a bug, if they arent, OP not looking hard enough.

Could you give me that code, please?

[Dewgle]

Originally posted by urseus:

The solution here is to use the code to show all convoys on the map. If they are all warships then its a bug, if they arent, OP not looking hard enough.

Give a u-boot commander a convoy and you only feed him for a day, Urseus. Teach a u-boot commander how to find convoys and you feed him for his whole career :P

Case in point, I even took screenshots to help. You can see the tooltip that pops up when I hover my mouse over the hydrophone operator at highest engine speed and slowest engine speed. See how it affects his maximum detection range?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2807218128
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2807217983
128 kilometers is a very large detection radius so long as you're moving at slowest speed. Perform a hydrophone check for about an hour of in-game time (not real time). Then move another 50-100 kilometers and do it again.

And do not make the noobie mistake of chasing after a convoy while submerged just so you can keep them on the map with your hydrophone operator's help. You move slower while submerged and you will drain your batteries.

When you detect a convoy just mark them on the map, surface the boat and start heading towards them. When they disappear, perform another hydrophone check and place an additional mark on the map. Then using your line tool you can connect the dots and plot their course. Now you can intercept the convoy based on where you know they will be.

[luca1989balza]

My God mcdewgle, I do the same things you do. The same things, ok? 50-100 km then down to 150 ft, zero rpm and listen. I’ve found cargo and military vessels during my patrols, but now there are military vessels only! I don't know how to explain this anymore