Patrol Realism

[anthony210]

Im just wondering how everyone does their patrols, not the realism settings you use, but things like time compression.

Right now I use 1024x anytime im just traveling, when I get a sighting or hydro conact i slow it down to 1 and plot my intercept course then increase time again until im a bit closer then I go back to 1.

Doing this I complete a patrol in about 2-3 hours real time. 12-13 days gametime. Im wondering if maybe I should limit the time compression a bit more but I seem to get real bored when Im just sitting around at 1x.

I once tried to do an entire patrol in 1xTC and at about the 10th hour I said screw it. (i left my computer on while sleeping etc). Has anyone ever done an entire patrol in 1xTC?

Im also wondering how everyone conserves their fuel, I see people doing 30+ day patrols etc, I seem to start running out of fuel on the 13th-14th day and this is without even sailing back to port.

And the last thing, do you sail back to your home port to dock or do you just hit escape and exit patrol when your done?

Also is there any mod that makes your crew yell something loud when a contact is made or sighting? Like if I want to leave the game on while im sleeping one night, is there a way to get them to yell really loud so I wake up? Kinda like the alarm when you crash dive.

[Heibges]

In my opinion, and many will disagree, Time Compression doesn't have anything to do with realism.

If you want to stay at sea the longest possible time, travel at Ahead Slow. It is best to try to conserve fuel on the way to your patrol area, so you have plenty of fuel to chase down enemies, and you can return to base at the best possible speed. It took Hardegan something like 23 days to get to the US East Coast, but only 10 days to return. Travelling submerged as much as possible, thus running on batteries, also saves fuel.

I think 1 or 2 people did real time patrols in Type II's when SH3 first came out.

I've done a 105 day patrol in a Type IXc without refueling.

I return to port because I love to back my uboat into the pens.

[Salad]

I've been running at 1x lately whilst doing the ironing. I make sure the volume is up loud enough that I don't miss anything while distracted with collars or sleeves. That little dude on the planes still keeps looking nervously over his shoulder to see if I'm still watching.:D

[skookum]

First of all, I play at 80% realism:

---External Views (Screenies)

---Contact Update (the navigator, not the captain, would mark contacts as they are called)

---Auto TDC


Time compression is great because is helps the player control the level of immersion in the SH3 world. If real world time is short, or you just want to sink a bunch of boats and return to port, you can burn from convoy to convoy with little difficulty. But if you're like me, and you play SH3 only when you've got time to really immerse yourself, playing at slower speed is quite rewarding. In rough weather I always spend about a half an hour realtime (1:1) just sitting on the bridge ejnoying the ride, or placing the external camera up ahead and letting the sub slowly pass (taking lots of screen shots of course). Evading escorts is thrilling realtime, especially if you're running the hydrophone manually. I rarely pause the game. Often, if my boat is in a relatively safe area, I'll leave the game running at realtime and go to the store or do other stuff.


Time compression is certainly not cheating in my book.

[Dekessey]

Wow.
I don't know if I should admire players doing patrols at 1x or if I should... laugh at them ;)
I mean, immersion is great in this game but ... after a few minutes at 1x in a quiet area it's time to move on! 1024x baby:up: . The only problem then is air attacks of course, but I believe it is possible to mod the game so the spotters are more efficient.

[Canovaro]

I use time compression a lot, except in contact situations or when I plot an intercept course or manage crew of course.

The thing is, with TC 64x or higher, the crew fatigue is not affected, which saves you a lot of crew dragging around in the boat.


Using time compression is just a matter of how much free time you have.

[Shelton]

Anthony

If you want to add further realism to the game, especially when you have reached your patrol grid try this:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=121887

[desirableroasted]

Im just wondering how everyone does their patrols, not the realism settings you use, but things like time compression.

Right now I use 1024x anytime im just traveling, when I get a sighting or hydro conact i slow it down to 1 and plot my intercept course then increase time again until im a bit closer then I go back to 1.

Doing this I complete a patrol in about 2-3 hours real time. 12-13 days gametime. Im wondering if maybe I should limit the time compression a bit more but I seem to get real bored when Im just sitting around at 1x.
The game is meant to be "fun", which is different things to different people (and different times). For me, that often works out to 512x out in the middle of nowhere, but no more than 16x-32x in places where I really should be keeping my eyes open. I have my gramaphone stocked with lots of old radio shows (my crew is partial to Abbott & Costello and the Great Gildersleeve) and I have a laptop or book handy to pass the time. For me, a big part of the fun is the sudden, terrifying exciting call to action after an hour of nothing.

But other days... bring on the 1024x; let's go pop something.

Im also wondering how everyone conserves their fuel, I see people doing 30+ day patrols etc, I seem to start running out of fuel on the 13th-14th day and this is without even sailing back to port.

And the last thing, do you sail back to your home port to dock or do you just hit escape and exit patrol when your done?
7-8knts in a VII or IX seems to be the most fuel-efficient speed (rather, set your speed for 7-8knts and just lump it if heavy seas drags that down to 5-6). Keep it there except for tactical situations (you will find that 7-8 is more than sufficient to intercept most contacts if you use a little trigonometry (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=88961&highlight=dantenoc)). And you don't need to keep moving...just stopping in the middle of BE39 for a day or two can bring great rewards. Running submerged during the day while hanging out on convoy routes doubles the time you can stay out.

Do all that & eels will be your limiting factor, not fuel.

And yes, I always sail back home. 1) you get renown for it and 2) you will almost always run across a small merchant or two to take out with the deck gun (obviously, I am talking "Happy Times" here.)

Hope that helps.

[seafarer]

Heck, if you want to add realism, I suggest you get a basketball or soccer ball and stand on it while using the periscope to set up your attacks and firing solutions. That at least might come closer to how a small vessel heaving in heavy seas might feel like.

Better yet, put on a diving mask, and every 20-30 seconds have someone heave a bucket of water at your face. And no, you may not wipe the face plate clear with anything afterwards.

Time compression is just a means of making the experience available to people with real lives and jobs. Who can actually take the next several years off to do nothing for 24hrs a day but play a campaign of Silent Hunter?

P.S. I normally criuse at about 8 knots (1/3rd telegraph) - seems to give me about the maximum range possible with the minimum fussing (I suppose extreme fixation on speed settings and sea state & weather might squeeze a few more kmiles but I'm just not prepared to be that anal about my telegraph settings :lol: )

[3Jane]

I found that 9 knots in a VIIB and 8 knots in a IXB seem to be the most fuel efficient. TC, X128 over distance, but keeping down to X64 or lower when nearing a possible contact. Too much TC near a convoy and you could end up too close to avoid being spotted by the escorts by the time the watch crew see it.

[SmokinTep]

I will use TC when on patrol and slow it down to 1x once a contact is made. I also like to bring her into port all the way, just seems like the thing to do after a patrol.
Setting the speed to about 8 knots seems to be the best for fuel economy.

[Sailor Steve]

Time compression is just a means of making the experience available to people with real lives and jobs. Who can actually take the next several years off to do nothing for 24hrs a day but play a campaign of Silent Hunter?
Very well said. Some people leave it running while they sleep. I don't see the point; high TC while you sit there, or 1x while you ignore it, amount to the same thing. I used Commander to turn my TC all the way up to 4096x, but when I get going again I think I'm going to start limiting myself to 128x. That way I won't miss the contacts that people say you lose at higher TC.

[Dowly]

Has anyone ever done an entire patrol in 1xTC?

Many have, but I think the famous 1x kaleun must be Vrrratt, who wrote a huge story about it as he progressed. He was mentioned in some gaming magazine too. Too bad the thread has now been most likely deleted.

I usually play at max 256xTC, using 256 only if the distance exceeds 1000km. 64 or 128 is the standard my game's usually on.

[Hakahura]

Buy the Subsim Almanac:up:

Along with other stuff there is a great artical about a guy who played several patrols all in realtime. His computer ran for days on end. Wish I could remember his name but I'm away from home with no book to hand. Anyway this guy immersed himself completely, named all his crew, discussed the war progress with them, caught lice together, shared left over food with friendly sailors near home port, you name it. A cracking read. Yes he left it running while sleeping, even when he was using stock SH3 before the fatigue mods arrived. Had an alarm set to wake himself up to organise shift changes! Yep total immersion (don't think he sat in a cold bath tub though).

Personally when nothings happening I have TC up at 1024 (the most my laptop can handle). I have'nt got enough time in my life to spare much more than a few hours a week to SH3. So I try to make the most of it and enjoy convoy action. But it really is, as many have said, each to their own and very dependant on how much free time they have to spare.

IMHO use of TC does not effect realism.

[Hakahura]

For more info on the Subsim Almanac......


http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=100080

:up:

[Brag]

When SH2 Came out, I lived on a sailboat and ran the game at TC1 a lot of the time. Speak about immersion! I tried to synchronize the game time with real time. A lot of times lookouts would get me out of my bunk. And more than once I've burned my dinner being to busy sinking ships or evading escorts. :88)

Now, with SH3/GWX, I seldom go above TC 128. When in contact, TC 1.
I always sail into harbour.

[Dowly]

Buy the Subsim Almanac:up:

Along with other stuff there is a great artical about a guy who played several patrols all in realtime. His computer ran for days on end. Wish I could remember his name but I'm away from home with no book to hand. Anyway this guy immersed himself completely, named all his crew, discussed the war progress with them, caught lice together, shared left over food with friendly sailors near home port, you name it. A cracking read. Yes he left it running while sleeping, even when he was using stock SH3 before the fatigue mods arrived. Had an alarm set to wake himself up to organise shift changes! Yep total immersion (don't think he sat in a cold bath tub though).

Yep, that's the guy I'm talking about. Vrrrat was his name. :up:

[Jimbuna]

Be like a real Kaleun......don't shave or bathe for 3 months, then play. The wife certainly doesn't mind if your up playing all night instead of coming to bed ;)

Welcome aboard Kaleun anthony210 :arrgh!:

[anthony210]

Ive decided that im going to try to do a patrol in real time, im even going to post daily patrol logs after each day in the game is complete.

I wont be leaving my computer running it all the time but it will be in real time.

Im going to make a new thread about it.

[Dau-U-42]

Ive decided that im going to try to do a patrol in real time, im even going to post daily patrol logs after each day in the game is complete.

I wont be leaving my computer running it all the time but it will be in real time.

Im going to make a new thread about it.

Sounds cool! I'll certainly read your logs!

I am also interested in using TC 1x. Just haven't got the guts to play the game on and off the screen for hours and hours. A much better solution, at least for me, would be to use TC 1x from time to time for some 10-20 minutes and role-play it: wear a Kaleun uniform, read books, listen to music or radio of the era, eat etc...

I've come up with an idea to do the sleeping: if possible one could sleep for only a few minutes or so and TC the time that would have passed if he had slept a whole night. After all, you can't really tell if you've just slept for 10 minutes or 10 hours, it feels almost the same.

[Shelton]

Ive decided that im going to try to do a patrol in real time, im even going to post daily patrol logs after each day in the game is complete.

I wont be leaving my computer running it all the time but it will be in real time.

Im going to make a new thread about it.

sounds intesting - will be reading your daily logs:)