[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Sheldon

Ahoy everyone!

I have been playing SH3 for years but recently was persuaded to try my skippering in the Pacific theatre. I have a few questions based on my first voyage and am wondering if any of you old salts can advise.

Hey everybody, we hooked another one! Wonder what kind of questions he has?

Originally Posted by Sheldon

1. Patches - I bought the game from Direct2Drive. Played a night then decided I should check for patches. Here in the SubSim site I see an official 1.4 patch but in the forum posts I have seen reference to a 1.5 patch. The 1.4 patch instructions say to uninstall then re-install then apply the patch. That's kind of a pain. Is that really necessary? What happens if I have already started a campaign?

Don't know. I doubt it. I'd install patch 1.4 and then try it. If the game is toast you'll have to reinstall and that's what they said to do anyway. Sounds like a no-risk deal to me. Go for it and just install the patch. There's an outside chance you'll need to go back to an in-port save.

Originally Posted by Sheldon

2. Widescreen - I recently bought a 24" widescreen with a native 1920 x 1080 and have searched for a method to make SH3 and SH4 look good but the games just display stretched wide. My solution is ... to just use my old monitor when sub simming. Is there a better option?

Not my area of expertise. I think that you are doing the best you can with the old monitor.

Originally Posted by Sheldon

3. Salvo - Wow ... looks like the US torpedoes suck compared to the German ones. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to fire a salvo. The 'S' button on the tube selection panel doesn't seem to do it.

You have to realize that the defect is in SH3. There was no salvo firing from U-Boats, except that all the torpedoes were set up together as in the game. The torpedoes were fired individually at least 4 seconds apart to avoid a premature explosion blowing up the whole salvo in open water. That would be bad, by the way...

In the American TDC with target locked and normal targeting procedure, you are aimed at MOT (middle of target). The spread adjustment aims the next torpedo to be fired a certain number of degrees left or right of the aiming point (MOT). So if you want three separate hits on a 4º target, shoot, set 1º left, shoot, set 1º right, shoot. Boom. Boom. Boom. That's how the real American TDC worked.

Originally Posted by Sheldon

4. First Sub - I realize I know little about American submarines. There are a few types to choose from and the differences seems to do with range and number of torpedoes. As someone who is used to a VIIb, these American boats seem HUGE! I think I will stick with 1941 Pearl Harbour as a base. Any recommendations for what type of sub I should captain?

The S-Boat is a combination of the Type II and Type XXI U-Boats. It is a small sub that doesn't carry enough torpedoes and has no aft torpedo tubes. However it is optimized for underwater performance, doing 10 knots as opposed to the fleet boat's 7 when submerged. I like 'em. They are a lot of fun.

If you go for a fleet boat, you are carrying a lot of heat to the battle. 24 torpedoes aboard, with up to 10 tubes means you can flat out decimate a convoy. I like the latest type I can get. It's also fun to run the oldest type and progress through the boats as your career develops. To give you an idea of what you're getting into, at 100 RPM, darned quiet, you're running almost 3 knots under water, as opposed to 1 knot in the U-Boat. Which one do you think evades better?

Originally Posted by Sheldon

5. Function Keys - It seems like most of the F key functions are still there ... they've just been re-assigned to other F keys. Why would they do that?

For the same reason that they changed Das Boot from a good book to a lousy movie: they thought they could improve it! Fortunately, in this case you can fix it by installing TMOkeys, which installes the Trigger Maru keyboard layout with the ";" changed to radar depth and shift-i for "some dag blamed crewmember identify that target!" Trigger Maru uses a keyboard layout very close to SH3.

Originally Posted by Sheldon

6. Running Depth - This sim has much better visual effects than SH3 for water murkiness and such ... but now I notice I can see my sub when at periscope depth. 25 metres seems to be the magic spot to avoid being spotted. Am I just being paranoid or will aircraft/ships spot me at periscope depth?

In the stock game you'll not be bothered at periscope depth. Download Trigger Maru Overhauled or Real Fleet Boat and you'll meet Ducimus' evil airplanes up close and personal. They'll bomb you to about 80'. I always go to 100' just for insurance.

Originally Posted by Sheldon

7. Targets - There seems to be fewer big merchants and more military targets and smaller transports. Is that about right?

Beats me. There are a lot of smaller merchants out there. Military targets other than escorts are really pretty rare.

Originally Posted by Sheldon

8. Local Time - My clock seems to be broken. I am cruising off Hokkaido and the sub's clock says it is 14:00 local time (2 pm) yet it looks more like 2 am ... pitch black with a starry sky? Do I misunderstand what local time means? It seems like my clock is off by 12 hours.

Time in the game is base time from whatever base you embarked from. Because of the size of the Pacific, the time difference between boat time and local time can be great.

Originally Posted by Sheldon

Any other advice for transitioning from SH3 to SH4?

Thanks in advance.

Sure. Don't try to force a fleet boat to play like a U-Boat. It is its own monster and must be tamed on its own terms. Those of us moving from American boats to U-Boats have the same problem in reverse. It is a waste of time to worry about why it does not act like the U-Boat. Find how it DOES work and you will find out that you'll like it. Different is not always worse.

I'd recommend using Imperial units for the American subs. You're used to measuring speed in knots, and you'll be amazed that the unit is nautical miles per hour. The nautical mile is an imperial measurement, and sinice for the first time you are using units that agree with each other you'll find your calculations get MUCH easier. You're going 5 knots, in 5 hours you'll travel 25 miles. Simple Simon! Doing the knots-kilometers deal is just unnecessary torture! I know, in SH3 you have the pull down table.

I think the flavor of the game just comes out better when you use the native measurement system. I use metric in U-Boats and Imperial in fleet boats.

But possibly the most important advice (at least in manual targeting). In the fleet boat the gyro ange is not directly hooked to the periscope heading. You have to hit the red send button on the TDC input dial to transmit the info.