How do you find your prey?

[Gorkian]

So, since I have just bought this game I have looked around this excellent forum for my answers.

Im just curious, how do you usually find your targets? As it is now, I usually travel to my destination at 512time compression and try to intercept any ships that gets reported to me on the map.

I have never spotted a target myself. That is by sight or sonar or hydrophone.

Do yu guys stay put around busy streaks listening and waiting for ships? Or do you as me go for the reports?

Maybe Im not good enough to detect ships myself yet. But its a big ocean out there.

Any tips? As of now I usually patrol the eastern side of england looking for prey.

[Morts]

try to go to this site http://www.communitymanuals.com/shiii/index.php?title=Main_Page it contains lots of information

here for the hunting grounds info http://www.communitymanuals.com/shiii/index.php?title=Hunting_Grounds (same site just a direct link to the hunting grounds page) hope this helps:up:

now go sink some ships:arrgh!:

[kiwi_2005]

When in time compression say 512 or 1024 and you get that tell tale sign of something close meaning SH3 will stall for a second. Cut time compression down to 1x then dive the boat to 30 feet and have sonar to search or do it your self for 15min approx. 9 out of 10 times your get a contact.

[fredbass]

I tend to keep my tc to a max of 256 most of the time. I believe you'll tend to find targets more frequently that way. Every so often, I'll dive and listen at all stop, especially when nearing a spot where I suspect to find something. If I remember correctly, your best depth for listening is between 12-20m or something like that. You should always be able to pick up something on the hydrophone yourself better than AI can.

Another thing is if you stay at periscope depth, not only can you pick up targets with sonar and hydrophone but your periscope AI can pick up visual contacts. Of course the enemy can detect Periscope as well, at least in GWX. :)

[AVGWarhawk]

Make sure you have an officer rated as a watchmen on the conning tower. Have a rated petty officer up there as well. They will spot the ships. Have a crewmen on the sonar with experience.

I go to the grid BDU sends me for 24 hours. I also hunt were the traffic will be and that is on the approachs north and south of England. Stay to the west coast of England. I usually lay out a course and cruise at 10 kts at 256 TC. Seems to work OK for me.

[Corsair]

I estimate I find 75% of targets with my personal mark 1 ears with headphones listening on the hydrophone. Amazing by calm weather how far you spot them...
PS : of course with all engines stopped...

[Jimbuna]

Welcome aboard Gorkian :arrgh!:

As already pointed out by other very talented kaleuns...keep the TC below 256..hang around the approaches...ensure your crew are suitably qualified and remember the hydrophones 'hear' a lot further than the eyes can 'see' :yep:

Good Hunting Kaleun :up:

[Gorkian]

Thanks fo rthe answers. Yes I tried to dive once in a while and on full stop listening on the hydrophone. I got in several ships. Great! 2 of them turned out to be neutral though. But an english boat was also there so it went to the bottom.

I got to say. This forum is great when learning the game, and all the friendly people is just splendid.

btw. after my first patrol I assigned a "radio" medal to one of my pettyofficers just so he would able to hear better. was that a good move? I also wnat to give a machinist medal to one more so they can sleep in shifts. Good or bad? what special medals is the best to go for in the start of a campaign?

[Jimbuna]

It really depends on what you consider to be priority functions :hmm:

I tend to give qualifications in the following order:
Machinist
Radio
Torpedo
Repair
Watchkeeper
(i don't bother with Medic or helmseman normally)

Of course order and number of qualification types can differ depending on differing circumstances :D

[AVGWarhawk]

I add rating in the following arrangement:

1. I recuite an officer with watchmen rating and make a petty officer a watchmen if I do not have one already. You can spend a lot of time on the surface early in the war without to much aircraft attacks.

2. Officer as a machinist and torpedomen.

This is were I leave it for quite a few patrols, but add a petty officer torpedomen in between.

3. Petty officer as sonar man as later on in the war you spend a lot of time submerged so a strong rated officer is a help here.

4. Petty officer as repairmen

5. Petty officer for cannon and one for Flak gun.


But this time I'm usually crushed like an ant under your shoe, say about 1943. I start all over again:oops:

[TarJak]

When you dive for a hydrophone check, don't just stop and listen. Stop turn and listen because if there is a distant target in your baffles (the noise your own engines are making), you can't hear them and your sonarman won't report them.

So what I do is dive just prior to the end of each search pattern leg and then don't surface until after the turn is complete. Becasue all turns are 90deg or more, you will always pickup anyone in your baffles after the turn. I run at ahead slow during the check then get back up to speed if there is nothing to listen to.

[Jimbuna]

OOPS!..I forgot to mention Flak Gunners :oops: :up:

[danlisa]

OOPS!..I forgot to mention Flak Gunners :oops: :up:

....and we know that they are needed, don't we Jim?;)

[Corsair]

I only use them against PT boats...:D I would rather have a "fast diver" badge any day for anti-aircraft use.

[danlisa]

Qualifications.....

As I very rarely start my career at the beginning of the war I use SH3Cmdr to give my crew their qualifications.

Conning Tower - 1xOfficer & 4xPetty Officer (watchman)
Radio/Hydrophone - 2xPetty Officer (radio)
Fore Torp - 4xPetty Officer
Aft Torp - 2xPetty Officer
Engine Room - 1xOfficer 2xPetty Officer
Deck Gun - 1xPetty Officer
Flak Gun - 3/4xPetty Officer

The remaining Petty Officers usually go on repair duty with the leftover slots for each compartment being taken up by Seamen. My Watch officer also has Deck&Flak Gun qualifications & my Engineering Officer has Torp & Repair qualifications.

Of course being rather partial to the IX boats I have a lot of crew to play with.

These qualifications are usually added over the space of 4-5 patrols through SH3Cmdr. I figure as I'm starting Mid-War that I can pick and choose who I want on my boat.

[plastik]

hi

i am a beginner in SH3. some time ago i joined this forum by (naturally) asking noob questions. i was gladly surprised at the speed and quality of the replies and in general how "welcome" you feel in this forum. so thanks all.

now i can for the first time give an answer (even though it basically has been said before). yes, my experience has been that by far hydrophones are more efficient than "eyesight" when finding ships. you will get feeds from BdU from time to time but think of these as a "bonus" to the ones you find yourself. as for spotting ships,
since sound travels much better through water the best thing is to dive to periscope depth from time to time (every couple of hours, or in every leg of your coyurse, as has been said), stop and listen. i mean listen manually: press h, steer the wheel yourself and listen carefully. actually it is not that bad; periscope depth (or a bit more), all stop, one whole turn, and surface again. this DOES make a huge difference on the number of contacts you make. it is also useful to get familiar with the chunk-chunk of merchants as opposed to the shink-shink-shink of warships - sorry for the sounds ;)

good hunting!

[AVGWarhawk]

hi

i am a beginner in SH3. some time ago i joined this forum by (naturally) asking noob questions. i was gladly surprised at the speed and quality of the replies and in general how "welcome" you feel in this forum. so thanks all.

now i can for the first time give an answer (even though it basically has been said before). yes, my experience has been that by far hydrophones are more efficient than "eyesight" when finding ships. you will get feeds from BdU from time to time but think of these as a "bonus" to the ones you find yourself. as for spotting ships,
since sound travels much better through water the best thing is to dive to periscope depth from time to time (every couple of hours, or in every leg of your coyurse, as has been said), stop and listen. i mean listen manually: press h, steer the wheel yourself and listen carefully. actually it is not that bad; periscope depth (or a bit more), all stop, one whole turn, and surface again. this DOES make a huge difference on the number of contacts you make. it is also useful to get familiar with the chunk-chunk of merchants as opposed to the shink-shink-shink of warships - sorry for the sounds ;)

good hunting!

Great sounds man! In all reality the hydrophone should be better than eyesighting ships. Some whales can be heard over 40 miles away make those whale noises whales make:shifty:. Anyway, I cannot see over 40 miles so yeah, hydrophones should be better at finding ships and as far as I'm concerned the hydrophones in the game are modelled pretty well.

[Corsair]

Not 40 miles with the WWII hydrophones... I would think something like 8-10 nautical miles is what you can expect by good weather, which is already a lot more than eye sight, specially considering that in SH3 you have a lot more time with heavy/medium/light fog than with no fog at all...
PS : whales with their personal original mk1 "hydrophones" can communicate over 100s of miles in the low frequencies.