Hi-Playing v1.3, career, PH, early 1/43. I'm on one of those "repetitive missions", insertion of agent into Hokaido, then war patrol.

I started this mission with "limited fuel "checked. Even after refueling at Midway & using 2/3 speed on surface across the N. Pacific, I'm down to just over 1/2 fuel & directed 400 miles south to patrol of Honshu. I have reported my status at each leg.

My question is- Does the AI know my fuel state, will it order me to areas from which I cannot return to(at least) Midway or what? I suppose I could crawl back on battery and/or 3 knot surface speed, but who wants to do that?

Does anyone have an insight for me?

Thanks, Hugh Browne

That is a GOOD question. My hunch is NO. But I'm basing that on very little...mostly my often pessimistic attitude. Good luck.

I know this seems like a dumb answer to sum but are you using battery power!? As staying submerged uses only battery power and when you surface and use diesal... your battery recharges. I have found that using a small amount of diesal to charge the batterys gets you a long way on the batterys.

This may be just me or i just havnt been given a mission to "travel round the world" but i personely have never had a issue... as i make sure i mainly use batterys and only diesal to quickly recharge them..

icecold... I'll make the assumption that when you say "battery power" you mean using the battery on the surface. Now that's interesting.

In your experience, how fast can you go on battery power on the surface? Let's say your on the surface, at night, on battery at 12 knots, sea conditions calm.

In the above case, how many hours before you have to recharge? I always want a full "can" before I submerge in the daytime. Comments, please. HB

As far as I can tell, you cannot use batteries on the surface. You would have to dive to at least 30 ft or so. I would say that if you arent using any mods, you should run at 8kts or 1/3 speed to conserve fuel. This should get you a max distance of 14,000 miles or so. At 2/3 or 10-12kts you will not have enough gas to get to Japan and back to anywhere that you can gas up. If you are on batteries your max speed surfaced or otherwise is 9 or 10 kts depending on conditions and what boat you have. Also you will be out of juice very quickly(less than an hour).

EW2Baird-Thanks for your reply. But it takes me back to a post I had a little while ago re submarine range-to which I've received no substansive replies-what are the ranges of different classes of US subs, in this game? Historically, US subs in WWII , from S-boats to Gato class, had ranges from 8000 nm upwards.

I also play a game, War in the Pacific, which is VERY detailed, historically. In it, there are US/Allied subs with ranges from 2500 nm to 19250 nm, depending on nationality, sub class, etc.

Has anyone asked Ubisoft this range question?

All comments are welcome.

Thanks, Hugh Browne

Just discovered the 1.3 realistic battery life fix. I patrol submerged during the day and surface 2/3 at night, never report, and although the trip from Midway West and back gets tedious with diving and surfacing I have never run out of fuel. It is Feb 45 now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: aanker,

I am not sure of the historic ranges or even if they are modeled in the game, but I use Trigger Maru mod and it give me back the old max range at current speed when surfaced and I think the max value I have seen is like 14 or 19K depending on what boat you have. The manual has endurances listed for the boats but Im not sure how close those are to realistic or even what trigger maru gives me. If you are running the game with no mods, I would say run at no more than 1/3 speed except when needed for manuvers. There is a reason why you see those convoys only moving at 6 or 7 kts. You have to go slow for those long hauls. I would say 12kts across the pacific is just way too fast to WWII.

hbrsvl2007 you can use batterys on the surface but it means they dont charge and you still use diesal.

But what i meant is... Using batterys submerged untill about 1/2-3/4 is left... then surfacing and running at 1/3 speed to charge the battery back up, then once again submerging and doing it again. I have found this maximises the diesal life.

And normally, historicaly, the bigger the submarine (and newer) the further distance it could travel. Wether or not Ubi have included this realsim or not, im not sure as of yet.

When Strategic Simulations, Inc. developed Silent Hunter they did a lot of research. Here are the gallons of fuel they used for each class and it seems pretty close:

S Class 40,000
Narwhal 200,000 ... I listed this class because... lol ... well, you know!
P Class 95,000
Salmon/Sargo 100,000
T/Gar Class 100,000
Gato 117,000
Balao 117,000

I agree that we should be able to sail on the surface in the fleet boats once radar is developed and that somehow the SH4 fuel bytes are off. I hope it is just a matter of finding the correct bytes for each class. Something simple like converting liters to gallons etc.

IMO a fleet boat should have no fuel problems but they do.

I just finished the book from **** O'Kane (Uss Tang).
He says they had to fill their ballast with fuel to have extra patrol range and reach China Sea or Formosa strait.
And they DID run on 2 engines, not only one.

That is a good book, and I agree. He mentions filling some of his ballast with fuel, and also diving much deeper than games (subsims) usually give credit for. Although I'm not sure I want to dis this game on depth...just yet.

Regarding the initial question, since there is NO refuel at sea possible, NO rescue to call I compensate this by unlimited fuel. I know it's not much, but hey - we've got more serious stuff to worry about, like the TON of damn bugs, for example. Have you ever bough a nice new car with only one gear to shift to? Well - SH4 is exactly like it. Why the hell anyone even bothered to release this half-done product? I don't care about excuses like "we have dead lines" - in my job, when I would do job like this, I would go swiftly out of business, our clients need and deserve quality. If this is the way of UBI, then I wish you go to where you belong - to the history. Next time I will need to waste my time and money, I'll know what company to turn to.
I don't know if this is management failure, or marketing trick, but releasing something half-done does double negative job. The people who REALLY looked forward to the product get SO disappointed (like me now), others just see what the product MIGHT be, if it was done right. Now this is not a flame on the devs, good job done there, just fire the f(*^%^%en manager who allowed this to happen. I have waited for the patch 1.3 to address issues like "diesel engines not working, while not being broken", "fuselage acting like full of water, when there is none", "taking orders to rebase or reposition outside of range of sub" etc. etc... I really love the subsims, I really looked forward to this one, and I am really disappointed to the degree of returning the sim to the game store. Maybe I'll buy this game whene it's "finished", after a year or so, for a few bucks. Now, I sincerely HOPE the UBI will go bancrupt and shut down, for being such fI&^*&n ignorant to its customers NEEDS. And yes, I need fully polished product, all my life I strive hard in work for quality, so why should I give money to someone who wants to rip me off, just for being lazy or "smart". I am so NOT supporting this kind of attitude, be it from any company, be it backed up by any excuse. And in order to function like a real customer, from now on I spread the word, that UBI has done it again, and so my friends and close customers can save their money and NERVE. I lost mine a while ago. Sorry for such a long and frustrated post, but I had to vent off the frustration I experienced with product, which could easily might have been the best WW-II subsim ever made. Pity to see this Rolls Royce being buried in a sh@#pile of bugs...

it seems to me the fuel model in this game is WAY off. I cruise from Midway to just south of Japan (for my 4th patrol in a row, but that's a different gripe) and arrive with about 55% fuel remaining. I have tried simply turning around and heading back to Midway and I end up WAY short of gas. I am cruising at 5 kts. It seems that once you complete your objectives the fuel consumption doubles on the way back home.
Am I the only one who has this problem?

Have you measured the time taken too? This is just my guess, but this could be caused by sea currents, if they are modelled. If it took you the same amount of time to get there and to get back and there was a huge fuel consumption difference, then it is a bug. If you traveled "against the current", then the time taken at 5 kts would have to be significantly longer, thus making the fuel burn "more".

Am I the only one who has this problem?

I have the same problem.
I play the carrier in 1941 on the Dolphin class sub.
I'v arrived to the Luzon strait with 60% of fuel, but on the back route I was able to run only 2000 miles on 10 kts and 50% fuel!

1. I have had some hull damages, may be I start to loose fuel gentely?
2. I think there aren't such a magnificent and strait currents in the ocean (I was on the direct course).
3. It can be the major bug, because the 2000 miles is the precise distance, that Dolphin can do on the 50% fuel and emergency power.

P.S. Beg your pardon for the grammar mistakes.

FUEL
There is nothing worse than running out of fuel before you reach your home port. Your career is in effect finished if you run out of diesel while out at sea. There are no tugs, you can’t radio for help, there is no way to get home, period. US Fleet boats do not have oars or sails.

There are many factors affect fuel range. Each class of submarine has it’s own set of built in range factors with the S Class having the shortest range. The following conditions affect the range of all classes. Some MODs make changes to the stock values, but the factors listed below are true for stock and most MODs.

1. Speed
a. The best fuel economy is found between 8 and 11 knots. In the stock game the ideal speed for maximum range is 10.95 knots. Mods alter this slightly so experiment a bit. Speeds above or below this speed increase fuel consumption.
b. Flank speed will result in the highest fuel consumption, so use it sparingly.
c. Slow speeds, below 8 knots, will also decrease your range. If you are low on fuel, heading home at 5 knots will use more fuel than 8 to 11 knots.
d. It is easier to set your speed with the knotmeter rather than the 1/3, 2/3 etc. Engine Telegraph. Click on the stem of the Engine Telegraph and it will change to the Knotmeter.

2. Battery Charging
a. When you are charging your batteries, you are running one of your engines at Flank speed to charge them. (You do not really have four engines in the game, you only have two.) During this time your fuel economy drops dramatically. To conserve fuel do not travel using batteries unless you have to. Just submerge and sit there until it is safe to travel on the surface.
b. Battery charging is automatic and unless you manually turn off battery charging, every time you surface ( see picture below) the crew will run the charger until the batteries are charged to 100%.

c. Damaged batteries will decrease your range by 2/3. See section 3. b.

3. Damage
a. Leaks. If your fuel tanks are damaged, head for home. Even if the crew “repairs” the damage you will still lose some fuel and only a return to base will completely repair your boat. A refit will NOT fix a leaky fuel tank.
b. Battery Damage. Your crew can not completely repair damage to your batteries and they will stop accepting a charge at something less than 100%. If this happens and your batteries will not charge to 100%, but your crew will not turn off the battery charger without your intervention. Battery charging is automatic and unless you manually turn it off, every time you surface, it will continue to use diesel at a very fast rate. Do this if your batteries are not charging to 100% or you will never get back to your home port.

BATTERIES

As with diesel fuel, you range with your batteries is affected by speed. Use the knotmeter to set your underwater speed rather than the Engine Telegraph. Different boat classes have different underwater ranges and different lengths of time to recharge, but in general the following rules apply to all classes. The slower you go, the longer your batteries will last.
At 1 knot or less you will probably run out of air before your batteries completely discharge.
At 2 knots you will easily make it from sunrise to sunset and in some classes 24 hours.
At 3 knots, generally less than 12 hours.
At 4 knots 6 to 8 hours depending on your boat class.
Above 4 knots the batteries discharge fairly quickly.


Dave