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View Full Version : The Curse of Takeshiki Island


Bullethead
19 Aug 06, 13:33
For those of you who haven't yet had the pleasure of going there in your campaigns, Takeshiki is a fairly big island kinda in the Tsushima Straits, a bit east of Tsushima itself. Actually, Takeshiki is 2 long islands running N-S and separated by an extremely narrow band of water. There's a Japanese port on the north coast of the south island in the middle of this narrow strait.

Strange things happen around Takeshiki. On the minimap, you'll see that there's a huge circle of red/brown hashmarks centered on the port and extending miles out to sea all around the islands. The circle's diameter is about 1/4 the length of the minimap's side at zoom level 1. This circle, however, is only visible in the minimap, not on the water itself. I've never seen such a circle anywhere else in the game.

The circle is the where the strange things happen. If your ship every gets inside this circle, you cannot issue helm commands in the usual manner, although speed and targeting commands work normally. By "usual manner" I mean where you select the ship, then left-click out in the water nearby, drag the new course line to where you want it, then right-click to pick how you want the turn executed. If your ship is inside the circle, left-clicking on the water near the ship just deselects your ship.

The ONLY way to issue helm orders for ships inside the circle is to do the left-click on water outside the circle. This involves selecting your ship, then moving the POV many miles away out beyond the edge of the circle in the direction you want to turn, panning around to look back towards your distant ship, and then left-clicking on the water near the POV. Then you can see the course line on the minimap, although often not in the main view itself. Adjust as desired and select the desired right-click button.

The circle also does strange things to the AI. AI ships try hard to avoid going into the circle and throw themselves into utter chaos making sudden turns when they reach the edge of the circle.

You will also occasionally hear big explosions of unknown origin while you're inside the circle. But there are never splashes near your ship, your ship remains unharmed, and the text buffer is silent as what's happening, so it's probably not AI ships wrecking. On the campaign map, Takeshiki is just a port, not a naval base. It's not fortified so I don't think there are shore batteries there. No minefields there, either. So what's causing the explosions? It's just another unexplained mystery of the "Takeshiki Circle".

I suppose the Takeshiki Circle has something to do with AI pathfinding, so the AI won't try to run huge fleets through the tiny strait between the 2 islands. It's not a corrupted port symbol, because that displays normally in both the minimap and on the water. But if it's an AI thing for the strait, why does it extend so many miles out to sea? Why does it affect player ships so strangely? And what's making the explosions? Where's Leonard Nimoy when you need him? :D

If you're even in a battle near Takeshiki, I recommend avoiding the circle if at all possible. However, when my ships are involved, it seems they always spawn deep inside the circle, so be warned. Expect strangeness in this area.

Spharv2
19 Aug 06, 14:18
I always figured it was a minefield. I had a battle start with my cruiser inside, facing the 22 TBs that usually hang around there, and my ship got 97% flooding on one side with 54% persistant. I'm pretty sure that none of them had a chance to hit me with a torpedo yet, so I assumed I hit a mine.

Dogbert
19 Aug 06, 14:25
I also figured it was a minefield... weird to start in the middle of it and not be able to order your ships, though.

Admiral Nelson
19 Aug 06, 14:46
Incidentially, that is actually Tsushima Island itself. Takeshiki is a place on Tsushima Island.

Bullethead
19 Aug 06, 15:03
I'd thought minefield, too, at first. However, there's no minefield icon on the campaign map there, like there is at IJN bases. Maybe you don't see the map icons for non-base locations? But if it's an IJN minefield, why does it show on the minimap when you're not supposed to see enemy minefields? And why don't I see similar circles elsewhere?

It's still a puzzle as to why you can't control your ship in there. And if it's such a no-trespassing area, why do you spawn in the middle of it?

BTW Nelson, thanks for correcting my geography :). I'd always thought Tshushima Island was the one to the west, which I see now is called Cheju Do these days.

Cloudy
20 Aug 06, 01:10
"Maritime Operations In The Russo-Japanese War" by Julian Corbett states that "Immediate orders were sent to Sasebo for it's flotilla to go out and keep guard, all ships to stand by wireless during the night and mines to be laid at Sasebo and Takeshiki". He also relates that the Tsushima torpedo-boat flotilla was stationed there and it's job was to hold the Straits of Korea against the Vladivostok squadron. I would guess that the area is a minefield with a glitch...

pthomas
21 Aug 06, 14:17
this may be an "island area" bug bullethead......i encountered exactly the same symptoms in the ulsan scenario after running my cruisers up to the islands just outside vladivostok......caught in the circle, couldn't navigate, constant explosions, etc.....i didn't find your long distance nav help though, so i had to just quit

Bullethead
21 Aug 06, 15:04
OK, since 1.012 campaigns have worked well enough that I've seen fit to continue one for several days. I've now gotten a number of ships close to Japan and am starting to see "Takeshiki Circles" near many ports and bases, so this is not an isolated phenomenon.

More importantly, the circle IS a minefield. Or at least it's an area within which mines may be present. Doing some requested trials for ES, I've replayed a battle near Takeshiki many times. In doing so, I've noticed that when the POV is inside the circle and you put the cursor over the water, you see the words "Takeshiki Naval Base Outer Defenses" appear next to the arrow. Even more interesting, closer to the base itself, you see a grid pattern of dark, translucent circular tiles superimposed on the water tiles. When you put the cursor over one of these tiles with the circle on it, it says "Takeshiki Naval Base Inner Defenses".

So far, I guess I've been lucky not to have hit a mine inside the Takeshiki Circle. Perhaps there aren't mines everywhere inside the circle, but instead clumps of mines scattered throughout it. I guess I'll have to wait for a battle near Port Arthur, which I've been mining heavily, to see what such a minefield looks like from the friendly side.

Still, regardless of the circle being a minefield, I think not being able to give helm orders very easily to ships inside the circle has to be a bug.