I can not believe this. The fish actually closed on the hull, then, at the last second, TURNED AWAY! Like the magnetic detector is in backwards and repelling from the target.

You're too close, your eels need at least 350-400m distance to arm, so even when firing at 500m you might be too close since your target will be moving towards you as well.

Try for a shot at 500-600m or so from the side, a 90 degree angle. Plot their course, and setup a shot where you'll be waiting as they pass in front of you. Move your periscope so that the gyroangle reads 000, then fire as they pass that point. The AOB of 90 degrees and the gyroangle of 350 to 10 is the most important parts.

First of all, read the manual. You're too close. The torps don't arm until they've run 300(?) meters. I usually get no closer than 400 meters.

RTFM??

What a concept! :D I just figured the torp section would be just as easy as navigation, deck gunning and flak. Guess not, huh? I'll read it all over and get back to you. I've loved sub sims since Silent Service II and look forward to this one.

I appreciate the quick responses and encouragment.

Thanks, guys!

No problem. I struggled to get all five ships in that exercise. I finally figured out the sequence.

Cool!

RTFM and first time out sank 3 of 'em. Not the right ones to pass the test, but they went down. Feels good to be back in the captian's chair again. Thanks guys!

Thanks
 

Thanks for the information and the good advice above on both my posts. I hadn't considered friendly Mines/nets. You guys are great. Shortly after I made that last post I went to visit Davy Jones locker. It's a short story. I made the mistake of not not doing a listening sweep before I popped up the scope. The viewfinder was filled with an un identified destroyer... Crash dive... zoom out the scope... start working on a plan. (only the scope was zoomed out ha,ha) The DD plowed into my conning tower. I think I was nearly inverted when the depth charges went off.

Anyway I'm back to 1940
currently up around AN21
with my new Type IIA U-11

Thanks again

My shortest career ever was a few weeks ago. Got my in my brand new IIA with a new captain, totally set on playing things through the Right Way(tm) and not cheating with renown like I did at first.

So I come tearing out of Kiel Canal and I must have hit my rudder or something because when I reached the end of my waypoints out of the canal rather than stopping like I should have, I just kept going!! Right up onto the shore and DEAD! :(

I think I have you beat. I bought the game several months ago and played for a short bit before putting it on hold for the spring and summer. I finally got back into it about a week ago. I clean installed XP, SH3, and decided to give Grey Wolves a shot. I started out in '40 at Wilhemshaven and set a course for the open sea. I set speed at 1/3rd and turned time compression to 4X or so. I didn't get far before my sub inexplicably took horrendous damage and sank without warning. I couldn't figure out what the heck happened, then I remembered that GW models mines. That was about a 10 minute career. :D

I started a new career in '40 and was also at Wilhems. I was ordered to patrol AM19 so headed northwest towards Scapa Flow. I got about halfway there and found a lone medium cargo. I setup the perfect 90* AOB shot, figured out my firing solution, had three tubes ready to fire, etc. Only one problem...Germany wasn't yet at war with GB. I figure that I went to this much trouble, I might as well go through with it anyway. The cargo ship is about 20 seconds away from crossing into my line of fire when I get the radio message that all British ships are now targets. :) I fire all three torps. One misses (dunno how that happened), one dud, one hit to stern. It must have been a critical hit though because that sucker blew up and sunk in about 2 minutes. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself and continue my course to Scapa. I get about 3/4 the way there when I get a message that an enemy ship has been spotted (time compression was on). I "maintain orders" but by the time I turn off time compression there's a destroyer 600m away firing at me. I crash dive and try to slink away as two of his friends come to help. I get into a good position and take out the first ship with a stern torpedo then end up hitting bottom trying to get away from depth charges (~45m deep seas). I eventually end up sitting on the bottom with damaged diesels and a flooded battery compartment. Four destroyers took turns depth charging me and eventually my ship flooded. So much for my proud moment sinking that medium cargo. :lol:

What time compression were you using before the ship was spotted?
And have you been through a night yet?

I don't remember exactly what time compression I was running, but I'm sure it was at least 32X, probably more like 128. I don't think I'd gone through a night cycle on that career yet since I left port very early in the morning (it was pitch black). It was definitely daylight when I was spotted by the destroyer though. It also seemed like he was AWFULLY close for having just been spotted. My bridge was fully manned with officer and crew and the green bar was full.

I started a new career last night (my third in two days <sigh> ) and actually got to leave the docks during daylight hours for the first time. I'm in a type IX heading towards sector BE, IIRC. I think I've been out to sea for about two days now and have yet to see or hear a thing.

Is there a way to have the game pause when your crew spots something during time compression? I hate the choices of essentially "dive or do nothing". If I spot a ship I dont necessarily want to dive. I want to stay just outside of his visual range and get his identity/range/speed. I'm also curious if it's worth my time to dive, cut engines, and check the hydrophone every so often. I've been doing that every four hours like clockwork and have never had a hydrophone contact. So far all of my sightings have been visual.

Okay. I usually run at TC 128 (let's say out in the Atlantic Ocean) and as soon as my Watchman (who has been qualified as Watchman) spots a ship (in SH3 you got the screen to make 3 choices and you cannot break TC until you answer one of those choices, then I immediately break TC.

Now, using TGW1.1a, I have yet to have a ship spotted by my Watchman (who is qualified) after leaving Wilhemlshaven, either in the daytime or night time. But Just now, in Grid AN95 my Watchman spotted a submarine on the surface (I had no screen come up with me having to make choices). It was a clear night 0157. Through the periscope I checked the distance and it was 1659 m. So I would have had plenty of time to make a normal dive if I had needed to. I was in TC at the time (probably 128) so I would have had to dive had it been an enemy ship. I'm sorry, but I cannot recall whether the TC dropped to 1 itself or whether I pressed "break" and then +.

This is only my 2nd patrol using Grey Wolves and in my last patrol, my Watchman never spotted a ship.

But in SH3, I would go to periscope depth so I could not be spotted.

I think this is what caused my problem. I was running pretty high time compression and when I got the popup I didn't want to dive. I wanted to just maintain speed and course and get eyes on the ship before I did anything drastic. Unfortunately, the TC doesn't seem to default back to 1X when you make a selection. So, I clicked "continue on course" or whatever that choice is, then immediately hit pause. However, "immediately" on 128X or 256X time compression is a fair amount of time in-game. Even if it only took me a quarter of a second between "maintain course" and pause, at 256X TC that's a full minute of game time! If i'm going 14 knots and the destroyer is going 20 knots (closing at 34 knots), we'll get a LOT closer in a full minute of game time. I wish that one of the options on the "ship sighted" popup was to pause the game or at least IMMEDIATELY set TC to 1X. I guess from now on I'll have to choose "dive" and hit pause ASAP.

I did find this: http://www.communitymanuals.com/shii...ssion_Settings

I'm going to try setting EnemyDetected=1 tonight to see how that works.

Brightness / Contrast Issues in SHIII
 

Hi all,

Does anyone know how I can darken the screen in SHIII? I tried turning the brightness down on my monitor, but it's not enough (not to mention that everything else is too dark now). The interior of the boat has too much light, the shadows aren't black, but light gray. It could be a contrast issue as everything inside has a kind of white haze. I've seen screen shots that look much more real than what I see, because they're darker and the details come out more. The exterior world would come to life if I could just ...

My rig is top notch, processor, video, ram, you name it. So I can tweak to my heart's content, if I know what to do.

There is no setting for this under video options, so I'm hoping that someone understands the config files enough to show me the way.

Much thanks!

I know that most people don't have as much time or patience as I do, but I'm one of those "strange people" that plays at 1x speed. One of the things that I've noticed is that I will spot a ship about 2-3 minutes faster than my bridge watch. A lot can happen in those 2-3 minutes. Also, playing at 1x speed adds immeasurably to the experience of the game.

For example, watching the sun go down and rise the next morning, at 0532 hours, is a rewarding in itself, having survived a night at sea. I also like to play the gramophone, to which I've added .mp3's of my own, including many Wagnerian pieces. If one of the pieces from Das Boot comes on, I go to my bunk and enjoy.

But the trouble with time compression is suddenly coming out of it to find yourself under attack by warships or aircraft. I learned that with Aces of the Deep, the hard way. After all, they may "make them good in Germany, Heinie ..." (The Enemy Below), but even a U-Boat can't get hit with a full salvo of 5-inchers from a Fletcher-class, and survive, if you don't get out of time compression until you've sunk 450 meters down!

Okay, I may take several weeks to run 198 hours at 12 knots to my patrol grid (I did on my first patrol with SH3). But on the way, I managed to dive away from a British aircraft, evade a destroyer patrol between Scapa Flow and the Shetlands, and still manage to sink a C2 two hours later (after the DD's broke off). I'm now happily patrolling BF17 at 4 knots (maximum effort with hyrdrophones), and just before I quit, tonight, I came up with a merchie sound contact, long range, closing.

Tomorrow will be fun.

I'm much like OldGamer. I used to run TC a lot because I was impatient with the long distances I had to go, but I soon learned that a ship (be it a destroyer or just a plain C2) is right next to you before your Watch man got the word out "Ship Spotted". Too late "Crash Dive" in order to avoid a colision.

Now I run mostly at TC 1. and that's when I started hearing strange noises, like wire scraping the bottom of my U-51. These were in area I figured I would never come across a subnet. As a matter of fact, the nets (or at least the scrapping) continued through 6 grids.

Golly Gee Molly, I would never had heard those noises or hear the crew talking when running ar high TC.

Now for the point of brightness in your screen, I wish I could borrow a little of that brightness, because my nights are so dark, I wouldn't see a whale parked in front of the Good Ol'e U51.

U-51? That's my boat, sir ... :cool:

Sorry Dude, but I had her first back in March 2006.:up:

Hello!!!

New to this myself.

I find this to be an excellent thread\post for us newbies. Learned a few things.

On the torpedoe training\exam thing. My son and I found that we can generally get them all by going after the Tanker first as it is moving the fastest. SO. From the start turn due east and go at full speed or flank to get inside of 800m for that tanker then go around in clockwise direction jumping on the surface to run them down as they delete upon reaching last waypoint. OK let me explain we were using what I call the point and shoot method. Set the torps for impact at 3 meters depth 000 gyro angle and maneuver the sub to be dead abeam and slightly ahead. Now since the stationery ship starts moving rather quickly you need to sneak in rather close (under 500) and hit him with a fast one or even a salvo. (I tried for five kills with five torps) That C2 Cargo is moving slow so he is no worry. Even better to turn short of due east and send one out the rear for the third ship clockwise from the tanker as I find the second one not much trouble to run down.

On lower realism settings where the game figures the solution it is entirely possible to sink them all without moving, though I find that stationary ship to be a real pain even then. Just installed Grey Wolves and it makes the five for five feat that much harder to achieve even with the lowest realism setting.

Anyway nice to meet you guys and gals. Hope to get some multi player time in with at least a few of you in the near future.

Great thread, great site, great game. A few questions and observations from a new player.

I'm having difficulty managing crew fatigue. It doesn't seem like my men are recovering endurance at all when sent to quarters. Also, I don't heve near enough space to rest all my idle men. I end up putting the un-used manpower into the battery compartment or a torpedo room. Unfortunately here they suffer endurance loss even if they aren't doing anything. After a while I have a boat full of extremely fatigued sailors. Is endurance recovery affected by the sea state? Can you recover endurance quicker if you you dive your boat to get under a storm? And if so how deep do you need to be?

The computer selected settings for crew assignments can be quite annoying. For instance, I hate that the computer shoves both of my skilled seior mechanics on watch in the engine room at the same time. It would be much better to have these guys on a rotation. In fact the entire notion of the captain manually selecting individual members for mundane crew assignments is pretty silly. On real warships, crew members rotate on a watch rotation automatically. In my opinion all the crew stations should be swapped out by the computer every four, six or eight hours, without the need to involve the captain. It can be quite tedious to interrupt my voyage all the time to manually move guys around on the boat. Also, in this game guys can stand on watch for days at a time!

Every now and then I get a radio message which refers to longitude and latitude. How can I see these co-ordinates on my nav map to determine where to go?

Is it just me or can you simply hit escape and end your patrol at any time? Regardless of damage or fuel state you can simply warp back to port safely. Is it just the honor system in place here to restrict people from essentially cheating? It can be real hard to resist warping home when you've had a paticulairily good patrol or are in real trouble (or both).

Numerous times when steaming through the straights into Wilhelmshaven my ship would take massive damage and sink. I assume I'm hitting mines. How do you avoid these things? Can they be spotted? Why doesn't my captain have some prior knowledge as to roughly where these mines are laid? There should be some known safe routes, shouldn't there.

Thanks for any help or comments.