PT boats in 3.0?

[IntellWeenie]

I was looking through the obc41 tables when I noticed that there are no PT boat or MTB classes listed for the allies (ship class type 12). The only listings in any of the obc files are for Japanese Hirashima, Type A/B and Type C/D classes.

Is this a change in the game or a bug in the pacwared21.xls editor that is included in the game download?

[Jeremy Pritchard]

Nope, it was a game change. There were too many problems arising with PT boats, as they could not really be adequately modeled in the game, especially due to the poor way that aircraft dealt with them. They could stop any transport TF, even if it had heavy cruisers in them (PT boats made transport TF's abort like mad, no matter what the escorts in them). It was virtually impossible to intercept PT TF's with a surface TF as well, making PT boats 'virtually' invincible.

I also decided to make a rule that ships smaller then 1000 t will not be included in the game, just as a cut off. Otherwize, there would be a score of tiny vessels that PacWar cannot handle very well (tiny Minesweepers, luggers, gunboats, etc...). I added many larger then 1000t ships to both sides to compensate for the loss of the PT boats.

Also, PT boats were used in the 100's by both sides, while pacwar only gave you, maybe, 100 maximum for the Allies. The Japanese used PT boats as well, but pacwar uses them as convoy escorts.

I removed them because they caused too much trouble and complaints from players. And I didn't like them either.

[Howling H R Bryars]

Hooray! PT Boats were overglorified by Hollywood and were totally wierd in the game. Your comment about the aircraft vs. PT boats is dead on. I particularly hated the way aircraft armed with say torpedos or 800kg bombs would (in appearance, anyway) dump those weapons into the drink and gleefuly bypass big targets in order to shoot popguns at PT boats. Good Riddance!