SH4 Interactive - USS Kingfish Goes to War

[Coffee Warlord]

It is 1942, just after the battle of Midway. Sub battles rage, and newly appointed Captain of the USS Kingfish, Lieutenant Commander Rob Nielsen is set to get way. Time to sink some Jap shipping, boys! We go to sea in a freshly minted Gato Class submarine, ready to rock and roll.

Now, the patches to SH4 has made it playable. It ain't perfect by any means, but I'm in the mood to screw around with it, and it's very amenable to a dynasty, assuming everything stays functional. In true quasi interactive fashion, I've listed the notable crew positions below. You may sign up for any position you wish. I started the game with the maximum amount of Renown (it's what you use to acquire improvements to your boat, as well as transfer in better crewment), to start with a pretty quality crew. I'm not gonna transfer anyone in/out unless they die. That said, those in charge are pretty competant, but many of their subordinates (mostly not listed) need developing.

When/If we do return home safely and successfully, I will allow the officers the opportunity to reccommend who is deserving of those eligible for promotion, as well take input on the medals I am allowed to award to those in charge (subject to the Captain's whim, of course).

Unless you really want to play a lowbie, the important crew is listed below. I'll list more crewmen if we manage to fill up everything. The Station Heads are organized by what shift they are on. Obvious, during battle stations, the officer (bolded) takes charge, blah blah blah. And yes, we have a ton of Lt's for a WW2 boat, but there were no more junior officers available with the specialties I needed.

Anyway, sign up, we go to sea tomorrow!

Crew of the USS Kingfish

Command
-------
Captain: 	LtCmdr Rob Nielsen
XO: 		Lt Philip Walker
OTD:		LtJG David Gonzalez
OTD:		LtJG Al Mighty

Station Heads
-------------
Engines:	Lt Deacon Palmer
		CPO (Open)
		CPO (Open)

Fwd Torpedo:	PO1 Chris Prewitt
		PO1 (Open)
		Lt (Open)

Aft Torpedo:	PO1 Braylon Hart		
		Lt (Open)
		PO1 (Open)

Conning:	Ens (Open)
		PO1 Sean Treacy
		PO1 (Open)

Watch:		CPO (Open)
		CPO (Open)
		LtJG (Open)

Damage:		LtJG Tully McCarthy
		PO3 (Open)

AA Gun:		CPO Jace Hunter

Deck Gun:	CPO Danny Wilson

[DeToxRox]

Deck Gun CPO sounds like a winner

[Coffee Warlord]

Oh. Provide a name. Preferably not a handle as it sounds better in the write ups.

[DeToxRox]

CPO Danny Wilson

[Coffee Warlord]

And I suppose I should at least get the name of the damn boat right.

[hoopsguy]

Fwd Torpedo PO1 Chris Prewitt reporting for duty.

[Tyrith]

Lieutenant Philip Walker, Executive Officer.

[Coffee Warlord]

Don't fail me, XO!

[Travis]

CPO Jace Hunter, AA Gun requesting permission to come aboard sir.

[kingfc22]

OTD: LtJG (David Gonzalez)

[thealmighty]

OTD: LtJG Al Mighty

[Coffee Warlord]

We have a command staff. Whoo.

I played some of our first mission last night. Suck thing is, I cannot figure out any freakin' way to take screen shots in game, aside from hitting print screen and physically pasting them into some graphical editor.

Which, as you can imagine, sucks big time if you're in the middle of a torpedo run.

[ntndeacon]

Engine: Lt. Deacon Palmer

[Sublime 2]

Aft Torpedo PO1: Braylon Hart

[st.cronin]

Conning PO1: Sean Treacy

[Coffee Warlord]

All hands. We have barnacles on the hull. Get to scraping.

Also, the cook made Mexican food tonight. Officers and Chiefs will be provided with the appropriate hazmat suits.

[Tellistto]

Damage: LtJG Tully McCarthy reporting for duty. Someone has to keep this tub from sinking!

[Coffee Warlord]

June 12, 1942

We get underway from Pearl, with orders to deploy to Honshu and blow the shit out of anything flying a Japanese flag. The watch is set, the course is plotted, and we're off!

June 21, 1942

We arrive near the heart of the Japanese Empire itself. Tokyo is a stones throw away, and we commence our patrol. The first several days of patrol involves repeatedly crash diving, avoiding the vat of aircraft that seems hell bent on tracking us down. Search planes, torpedo bombers, and more than a few Zeros come buzzing our way. We count our blessings, as we escape unscathed, continuing our patrol without issue. Our boat moves south along the main island of Japan, awaiting radio reports of shipping, or, with luck, we catch something on our own.


June 24, 1942

Luck is in our favor. Big time. The radio room receives a call that a large convoy is headed due north along the isle of Honshu...straight at us. Bigger bonus: The sun has just set in stormy, nasty weather. We will be set up perfectly for a night run at a juicy set of merchant ships!

The Officer of the Deck, LtJG Gonzalez orders full speed, course due south. He wakes the Captain not long after setting the intercept course, and the crew is excited. It's killing time!

THey were close. Very very close. A mere few hours after the initial report, radar reports surface contacts closing in, right where they should be. And it's a juicy load indeed. 8 freighters, travelling in 2 rows of four. The two destroyer escorts are positioned to either flank, completely unaware an American submarine has already penetrated their coverage.

Under the Captain's supervision, Mr. Gonzalez navigates the boat so that 6 of the 8 ships will pass directly in front of the bow of the ship, and the remaining two will be available for a possible stern spread. Undetected and in dark and stormy conditions, Cap'n Nielsen submerges the ship. This attack will be conducted without having to fight the chop as much.

Battle Stations.

It's picture perfect. Cap'n Nielsen orders the the Torpedo Officer to open all forward tubes and ready for the attack. We will launch 2 fish per freighter, and hope for some quick scores. As ordered, the Petty Officer Prewitt and the torpedo room sets all the fish to run a maximum speed, with those god damned magnetic detonators off. We're at around 2,000 yards on a nearly perfect beam shot.

The doors open, the ships happily chug along at 7 knots...fire one! Fire two! Next freighter...fire three! Fire four! Last target...fire five and six!

The Torpedo Room is abuzz with activity, frantically reloading as the compressed air shoots 6 fish out of their tubes. In the Aft room, the order comes down to ready tubes 8 and 9 to fire. The Captain swivels the periscope around 180 degrees, where the remaining 2 freighters we have a shot on are coming into position. Now's the time to strike.

Aft tubes 8 and 9 are fired, and we've got 8 fish zooming to their targets.

Bam. Shot 1 vaporizes a freighter. All 6 fore torpedos score hits, and seconds later, massive explosions indicate our aft shots have found their mark as well. We couldn't have asked for a better shot setup, and made the most of it.

As expected, all hell break loose on the surface. The ships not burning/sinking scramble, attemping to evade the undectected Kingfish. Unsure of what the destroyers have managed to track, but certainly not ready to break contact, we drop to 120 feet and set a course that will hopefully give us decent position for another round of shots. Petty Officer Treacy calls in bearings to the merchants as we chug away at 2/3rds speed, repositioning for round 2. The Torpedo Rooms are a mess of activity, with both officers hurrying to reload. We still have 2 fish loaded in the aft tubes, which we elect to save in case we need a desperation shot on a closing freighter.

...Amazingly, neither destroyer seems to have found us. After several minutes of deep-sea maneuver, we return to periscope depth, and see what we can see. And it's grand. 3 freighters sunk, 1 more burning, and 2 lined up perfectly ahead of us, with 2 more aft. Hoo boy.

Trouble is, the torpedos aren't ready. Only one fish is ready in the fore tubes. The forward torpedo room officer screams at Petty Officer Prewitt to get his ass in gear and load faster. This being the Navy, and Petty Officer Prewitt being a fairly high ranking enlisted man, he in turn barks orders to his subordinates, who indeed get their asses in gear. Alas, we have no time to dick around and wait. The aft torpedo room has some fish ready, and they've got targets. Turning attention to the aft ships, we rapidly plot a firing solution on the closest freighter (inside 800 yards), and fire salvos from tubes 9 and 10. Seconds later, there's no ship there. Don't fuck with the Kingfish.

Whipping the scope back around, we elect to fire our 1 available torpedo at the undamaged freighter, a scant 1200 yards off the bow. It too succumbs to its wounds, and we're at 5 confirmed kills.

We decide it's time to go deep and bug out. We're running low on torpedos, and 5 ships sunk is a good score for any boat. We drop to 120 feet, and slowly edge away from the war zone. Battle stations are secured, and the crew gives a glorious cheer.

...But wait. As we leave, Sonar notes that the destroyers are moving away, escorting the remaining ships we have undamaged...and leaving 1 juicy, damaged freighter to its fate. Well, if you insist. Hard to port!

Battle Stations are taken up once again, as Petty Officer Prewitt comes on the horn and announces that tubes 2 and 3 are loaded and ready. We take aim at the stationary target, and fire from 4500 yards.

...boom boom. Splash. Fucking Dept of Ordnance. Both torpedos explode halfway to the target.

FINE! Chief Wilson, man the deck gun!

We approach in the rain and dark, and watch from 1500 yards off as the Chief puts shell after shell into the ships water line, where it finally sinks. THat's six, boys.

With the remaining freighters long gone, we secure from battle stations and proceed south. Captain Nielsen applauds the crew, and informs them that with only a few fish remaining, we'll see if there are any targets of opportunity south along the coast, and then make our way back home to Pearl.

[st.cronin]

w00t!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kingfc22]

Nice way to start!

[Coffee Warlord]

A gift from the gods, I tell you.

We've got I believe 6 or 8 torps left. I'm hoping we can find something before I turn her around. We'll see.

I actually have fuel turned off, due to the absolutely miserable way fuel consumption is handled in the game. You basically cannot get any freakin' where. My personal house rule is to keep my patrol times at roughly the same length it was in real life.

[Tyrith]

Very nicely done. Going to go down as a good patrol, assuming we don't get blown out of the water on the way back to Pearl.

[hoopsguy]

Wait a minute - two freighters and two destroyers got away? This is an outrage!!!

[st.cronin]

Is SH3 I always used to love to try to take out the destroyers.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

Wait a minute - two freighters and two destroyers got away? This is an outrage!!!

Listen here, Petty Officer. If you and your crewmates could load the damn torpedo tubes faster, maybe we coulda gotten more!

[path12]

When you get back to Pearl, LtJG Pat Hutchins will take the watch. Or CPO. I'm not picky.

[Coffee Warlord]

June 24, 1942

Okay, bizarre. I load up the game, and ... all of a sudden, we're in the middle of another convoy!

Lookouts? You're fired.

Fortune favors us, however, and we find ourselves just past the enemy destroyer escort, in perfect position to line up for a torpedo run on the 3x3 merchant convoy. We have 6 fish remaining, 4 in the bow, 2 aft.

The Captain takes up position, with XO Walker barking out orders to the crew. Battle stations are quickly called, as we easily navigate ourselves in the midst of the convoy. The water is still unbelievably choppy, making periscope observations difficult, if not impossible. Taking a chance, Cap'n Nielsen orders to rise to 30', instead of the standard 60'. It being night, it's not a huge risk, but that scope is standing awfully far out of the water.

Luckily, we are unseen. The destroyers seem happy to patrol far, far away, and we lie in wait, with 2 freighters coming into our site bow, and 2 aft. The plan is to launch 2 fish each at 3 freighters, and hope for the best.

Petty Officers Prewitt and Hart anxiously await the call to fire from their respective stations, as the control room is abuzz with targeting solutions. Finally, the freighters come into position, and the fight is on!

In seconds, all 6 fish are set and fired. We waste no time. This is a surprise attack, and after this, we'll be out of torpedos and nearly defenseless. The familiar hiss of compressed air pushes the torpedos out, and several seconds later, the crew cheers, as we hear six, count 'em, six explosions. 6 fired, 6 hits....piss. Only one looks to be damaged enough to sink.

Decisions decisions. The Captain calls to the Sonar room, where PO1 Tracey reports to the officer in charge that the destroyers have advanced beyond detection range.

Wow.

Hookay, we'll take a shot here. Surface the ship, Chief Wilson, man the deck gun!

To make a long story short, while the Torpedo Rooms are off drinking grog they snuck aboard (having nothing to do now that they are out of fish), the dead-eye Chief offs both merchants in range, increasing our kill count to 8. We catch a glimpse of a destroyer due east, but he apparently hasn't the foggiest where we are.

We rapidly secure the deck gun, submerge to 120 feet, and slip away into the night. Eight confirmed kills, 37,000 tons sunk.

Captain Nielsen is honored with the Navy Cross upon his return, and is eligible to award a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts (I have no idea - noone was injured as far as I know) upon the Kingfish's uneventful return to Pearl Harbor.

Liberty Passes for all, boys.

And now that I know how to do screenshots....from our last attack.

[Coffee Warlord]

We have 3 medals to give out. One Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts.

Reccomendations, my valient crew?

[DeToxRox]

PWND

[st.cronin]

Bronze Star - Danny Wilson.

[Tyrith]

Purple Hearts? Did we accidentally shoot some crewmen out of the torpedo tubes without noticing?

[Coffee Warlord]

I think our cook made some bad eggs and some crewmen got food poisoning.

[kingfc22]

I thought the gas was from me farting. Not the bad eggs. Ooops.

[Coffee Warlord]

Someone find King and launch him out a torpedo tube.

[Tellistto]

I'm sure I could find someone in my department who stubbed his finger doing maintenance work. You could just pick one if you like, I have a wrench just in case you pick one that didn't have a stubbed finger before you picked him.

Tell

[st.cronin]

I'm feeling pretty tired, if that gets me anything.

[Coffee Warlord]

On behalf of the United States Navy, it gives me great pleasure to award the Bronze Star to Chief Petty Officer Danny Wilson. Successfully sinking 3 enemy merchent vessels while at sea, Chief Wilson's lethal marksmanship has struck a heavy blow to the enemy.

On behalf of the United States Navy, and for both their and my own personal amusement, I hereby award the Purple Heart to Chief Petty Officer Jace Hunter. For standing there with his little pea shooter gun while Chief Wilson actually got to shoot something.

And on behalf of the USN, I hereby award the Purple Heart to Seaman SoandSo, who stubbed his toe while reloading the forward torpedo tubes.

[Travis]

-snap salute-

Sir, thank you sir. Peashooter still ready to go sir.

[DeToxRox]

Honor appreciated, more blood wanted.

[Coffee Warlord]

Just an fyi, it's paintball weekend for your fearless Captain, so unless I get a patrol started this evening, don't look for an update till sunday/monday.

Besides. Crew's on liberty.

[Coffee Warlord]

Well...

So as not to end the dynasty short, but to give you all a little point of amusement. We took on a convoy, and drew the attention of all 3 escort destroyers. We actually managed to take two of them down. In the end, we had zero engines, could stay underwater for about 2 minutes before flooding forced us to surface and fend off attacks, had no stern tubes, and had major bulkhead damage.

We were rammed by the final destroyer, who plunged us into the depths of the Pacific.

Alas, the Kind Hand of Fate (tm) decided to reload the savegame. We live again.

[Tellistto]

LtJG Tully McCarthy wiped sweat from his brow. He was in the engine room with one of his many damage crews, working feverishly alongside Deacon's engine room crew to give the boat power again and listening to the many damage reports flooding into his radio from other areas of the boat. It sounded bad, really bad. He knew the Captain had gotten two of the destroyers, but there was another and the boat was in a bad way now. No engines, no ability to dive, no stern tubes. The list went on and on, and he was fighting despair as he vicously turned his wrench to remove a damaged plate cover to get underneath it.

Suddenly, he was flat on his back, blood streaming from his head. He didn't know what had happened, he was confused from the blow to his head. He shook his head, blood flying in every direction as he heard shouts from the hatchway. Water was streaming in through the open hatchway, and he blinked at it owlishly, wondering what had happened. He struggled to to get to his feet, still fighting disorientation when suddenly a huge tide of water forced it's way into the compartment and begain filling the room...

He barely had time to understand what had happened, when his head hit the outer hull and blackness overcame him...

With a violent jerk, he woke up. He raised his hand to his head, seeking the blood, wondering what had happened. Was he alive, was the ship alive? He looked around in confusion, seeing the familiar site of his compartment aboard the ship, the sounds of a smoothly running ship surrounding him. He wiped the sweat away from his brow, gave his body a violent shudder to remove the last vestiges of the dream. A very bad dream....

Tell

[Coffee Warlord]

Quick update.

The modding community has started to take ahold of the game and really fix things. I'm going to download one that sounds immensely promising, and give it a whirl. If it works well, I may restart.

[Neon_Chaos]

CDub, I just recently bought SH4, and have downloaded the appropriate patches to make it decently playable. Where can I grab hold of the mods?

[Coffee Warlord]

The modpatch I tried didn't work too terribly well (hence the dynastic death). I'm pretty fed up with the game at the moment till it gets more fixes.

Which it might even not. UBIsoft is currently considering not even bothering to further patch the game. Excerpts from their main board.

Hello everyone. We apologize for not posting news on patch 1.3 for Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific. This is because it is currently uncertain if there WILL be a patch 1.3. Currently all the moderators and community managers for the different language forums are trying our best to represent you, our community. We know you want a patch, and we need your help to try and make it happen. How can you help? Well, first we need a list of prioritized bugs that need to be addressed. One currently seems to be development here:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...855#5271062855

We realize that this is a less than ideal situation, but the only options that we have available is 1) Fight for patch 1.3, or 2) Get nothing. The decision to make a patch 1.4, 1.5 etc is out of our hands, and we are doing everything within our power to do what we CAN do. We thank you for your help, and will continue to represent you.

Never. Ever. Will I buy an Ubisoft game again.