Back to SH3, A Few Questions

[GC1CEO]

More then a year later and a new computer, I attempted Silent Hunter 3 again. Now I can run it with the highest detail, even the uber high detail mods give me no problems now. However I'm rather rusty and..

I am trying to figure out how to get some tonnage with 100 percent realism, I kept restarting a career in 1939 focusing on the Type IIA. I figured with a smaller sub, smaller crew, few torpedos, etc that it would be easier to manage everything and my patrols wouldn't be extensively long. The long runs around the Danish coast just to get out into the Atlantic is annoying enough; however the problem I run into is I get extremely few radio contacts and they are almost always completely out of my reach. Likewise the closest I can seem to get to any decent contact is long-range on hydrophones and I never seem to have luck getting closer; a few times I hit a warship (I'm good at evasion, probably the only thing I'm good at) but in general I can't get close to get a good interception done for a contact.

For some reason every time I run into a hydrophone contact, its usually in the middle of a storm and often at night so the hopes of an eventually long-range visual contact are completely hopeless (not to mention the weather affecting my engines apparently). I have read Wazoo's Tutorial forward to back, unforunately they relay on getting visual contacts which I have been unable to do (least for a proper merchant contact; warships are too fast to intercept with a Type IIA). I have read through a Hydrophone Hunting Tutorial and might try and give some of the tips in it a try (if anybody has any other advice on trying to intercept a contact thats beyond visual range I'm ready to listen).

I have played around with a couple of super-mods and decided until I'm a crack-ace on stock at 100 percent realism that they don't make things any easier for me. However I am looking for any individual mods that provide a compass (getting an easy to read quick bearing to north would be helpful), chronometer on the nav map (like is available in NYGM but seperate from the supermod) and maybe something to clear up the nav map from the "background imprefections". Likewise any other mods that help with precision targeting/intercepting will be helpful, I am terrible at accuracy and my sight isn't the greatest.

I do have a few questions on top of all of that:

1.) I have seen mention of radio mods that add radio programming, they don't appear to have anything to do with the gramophone (Ex: Captain Midnight's CBS News Pack) but can't find anything to interact with a radio onboard in terms of setting frequencies to listen to. Any help?

2.) With the stock game, are there any "close" hot spots for merchant traffic in the North Atlantic, east of Scotland. The ones I saw listeed in tutorials are really meant for Type VIIB and better, but I am hoping to get good with the Type IIA.

3.)Should I keep with trying to hunt with the Type IIA before the Type VIIB, or should I get better with the latter before trying to go back to the IIA?

4.)Are there any detailed stories that go over details of a career in '39, not a war diary story but something that goes over the details of encountering various targets and steps (preferably with screens, even maybe video) in what they did. The Hunt is a good start, possibly ones similar to that?

[GoldenRivet]

As for intercepting sound contacts, draw a line on your chart using the ruler tool from your u-boat to the direction of the sound contact's bearing stretching the line outward for perhaps 30 KM. Observe the sound contact for several minutes and note the bearing change. Plot another ruler line on the new bearing. this will give you an idea of the direction he is moving in. surface and proceed at flank speed toward your latest sound contact observation for upwards of 20 (minutes in game) submerge and make further observations of the sound contact's bearing. Draw a line from the U-boat outward toward the ships bearing... wait several minutes and make another observation. repeat the line drawing. this gives you an idea gain of which direction the contact is moving... surface and close on the last known position, eventually you will find him. keep in mind that the louder the contact is on the hydrophone the closer you are to him.

check with the mods forum for your mod requests, make a posting there if you want, someone must know of something like what your looking for. personally im a GWX Kaleun myself.

1.) The radio mod i believe you are referring to is for Silent Hunter 4 not Silent Hunter 3. the closest things to radio mods for Silent Hunter 3 are in the form of additional gramophone music and immersive radio messages that have nothing to do with game play they just add to the feel of the game.

2.) This depends on what version you are using, Anywhere off the East Coast of England is decent to pick off tramp steamers and medium merchants in GWX. Other hot spots further away are BF11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16. lots of inbound and outbound traffic through there.

3.) The type IIA has the limitation of not having a deck gun and carrying fewer torpedoes also it has a shorter range than the VII boats. If anything you would want to start out with the IIA and work your way up to the VIIs but thats all a matter of personal preference

4.) There are several postings on here regarding this question... search around, i have not read many of them in a while... sorry wish i could help you more.

good luck out there :arrgh!:

[Shelton]

I think you should start in 1940 with the VIIB - I did that and Im in my 3rd war patrol.
You can also choose a location on the French coast like Brest which makes things much more fun and exciting to travel into the Atlantic!

[papa_smurf]

If you want some good hunting - try off the east coast of Britain, you should get a good number of contacts going up/down the coast.

[GC1CEO]

I finally have had a bit more luck, I can't quite do it on 100 percent realism but the only thing I really need is No Map Updates and I finally have figured out where to go for some decent hunting. I might eventually be able to drop that as well.


I adopted some of the hydrophone hunting tutorial information which helped me a fair deal in locating my hydrophone contacts, likewise knowing the bit about sonar not picking something up until 20k but you can hear contacts out to 32k was incredibly useful.

After a few attempts at interception, I finally blew up a KDN(?) at point blank range.

Some more questions:

1.) Can you sink any ship with the Light Flak? I played around with getting 500 meters from a small coastal merchant and was blowing up its cargo out of boredom; is it possible to actually sink the ship that way or just blow up the cargo (which seems to have no value aside from a bit of side fun).

2.) How do you set TDC for anything closer then 3 kilometers? The range dial only goes down to 3 kilometers. I am going to try hitting from 3 kilometers some tonight to see how my TDC handles, I was mostly blind shooting at point blank (500-700 meters) last night and I had some decent luck with that.

3.)Getting accurate range with the stadimeter seems near impossible in even the mildest of choppy waters, any suggestions?

[GoldenRivet]

1. I have taken out very small merchants with the AA gun out of boredom but it took nearly every AA round on the boat to do it.

2. cant answer this qestion as i never really attack further than 1200 or so meters at the most.

3. Hold you finger over the backspace key, when the waterline of the boat touches the UZO or Periscope horizontal line press backsapce and it will pause the game... but you can still use the range finder while paused.

[GC1CEO]

Ok, so basically not worth it to try the Light Flak approach, gotcha.

If you don't attack any further then 1200 meters, what do you set your range dial to with TDC?

Is it worth it to change my patrol grid and try and hunt Polish targets in September '39? If so, which grid is arguably the best for that? (I ask because the journey around Denmark is extraordinary annoying).

[GoldenRivet]

I'd go for the English tonnage.

I use whatever reading i get from the UZO or periscope range finder to set into the TDC when i use it... most of the time im in a pinch so i just use the note pad

[johnno74]

2.) How do you set TDC for anything closer then 3 kilometers? The range dial only goes down to 3 kilometers. I am going to try hitting from 3 kilometers some tonight to see how my TDC handles, I was mostly blind shooting at point blank (500-700 meters) last night and I had some decent luck with that.

3.)Getting accurate range with the stadimeter seems near impossible in even the mildest of choppy waters, any suggestions?

Its been a while since I bothered using the TDC (I normally just get the weapons officer to do the solution...) but if I recall correctly the TDC range knob has a logarithmic scale... and it starts at 300, and the distance on the knob between 300m and 1000m is large compared to the difference between 1000m and 2000m... if you see what I mean.

And as for the stadimeter, I've never been able to use it with much accuracy either. I normally take 4 or 5 readings, then average them. When on the surface I ask the watch officer to report on nearest contact, and he gives you the exact range.