Patrol Gets Stale? (TMO)

[CptGlub]

I've got tmo up and running. Am much relieved that the frequency of air attacks against me have been reduced to a more realistic level.

My question is this:

Does the code spawn new units according to history during my patrol or does it set up the map according to date when I start my patrol and I live with that until my next patrol?

For instance, I found a spot off Mindanao that yielded a couple of separate merchants. I assume that it is a shipping lane. However when I loiter and even when I come back after a jog to Formosa and camp out again at the site of my trophies, I get nothing.

Does it make sense to hang out because more cargo vessels will be spawned to support the war effort and use the same lane or should I assume that the only two ships that were placed there for this patrol have been destroyed and nothing new will be coming until I dock and launch my next patrol?

This would also lead to the question of does the patrol get stale by units destroying each other when I'm not around and thereby reduce my available targets?

I'm on my first asiatic fleet patrol in an S-18 if that makes any difference to the questions I've asked.

BTW: So far I'm loving TMO. On one hand I'm glad all those pointless notifications about convoys 1500nm away have been eliminated. On the other hand, all those red marks on the map tended to point out the general shipping lanes. Now I'm guessing and apparently guessing wrong about where my quarry are. I've had some action and about 21000 tonnes but for the most part we play checkers and have painted the entire boat twice.

[pnwdom]

The war starts out slow, but there is a heavy flow of traffic southward along the west coast of the Philippines for the invasion of Borneo.

In the stock game, after Manila falls, there is a nice hunting ground right outside Manila Bay.

[donna577]

Don't expect TMO to have the heavy traffic that stock has, in stock you can't swing a dead cat by the tail without hitting an IJN TF. At the beginning of the war in TMO you will notice H.Q. will keep sending you north from Manila, not too much south unless you patrol the China coast...at least that's how it works out for me.

TMO and TMO W/RSRDC make the war more realistic and cause you to become a hunter, not just sit and wait for them to come to you.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Well, you don't say whether you're running TMO in tandem with RSRDC. RSRDC is accurate as far as WWII history is concerned. I've never played TMO by itself and don't know how it handles historical accuracy. The stock version has a lousy historical track record, though a number of the major engagements are present.


For instance, I found a spot off Mindanao that yielded a couple of separate merchants. I assume that it is a shipping lane. However when I loiter and even when I come back after a jog to Formosa and camp out again at the site of my trophies, I get nothing. I'd say you answered your own question right there. The best way to determine historical shipping routes is to familiarize yourself with the actual historical routes. Do you have a copy of the shipping routes map? I know there is a link to it somewhere in this forum. If you know the dates to specific invasions, you'll have an advantage to where certain traffic will be. However, if you know nothing of WWII PTO history, you'll be taking shots in the dark. Are you playing the latest standard version of TMO (i.e., 2.2) or is it the TMOwTw version?

[MWolfe1963]

TMO for the most part is stock traffic. In the last few versions Ducimas did add some traffic to it and reworked some of the traffic layers.

The large amount of traffic at the beginning of the war is around Manila moving south to Java.