Newbie: I just got this game. Suggestions?

[Ferrante]

Based on the answers to a post I submitted earlier in another area, this game, SH III was suggested as a good game for a sub sim newbie. It arrived as I have installed it a few minutes ago. Tomorrow, I have to go out of town and will be taking the manual with me to read. After that, how should I proceed? What are your recommendations please? Would going to the Naval Academy help? I've always loved subs and thought a Sub sim would be fun. I would like to start out easy so as not to get frustrated early on by not knowing what I am doing. Your suggestions/comments are appreciated and I thank you in advance for them.

[Packerton]

Welcome to Subsim and the game Kaluen! :arrgh!:

Yes visit each Naval academy decipline and read the large description in the boxes before the test starts to learn the ropes.

You defintly want to tone down some realism settings however until you learn what they are and what effects them, do this by going to single mission and you should find the option before the mission starts, this carries over to training.

[GoldenRivet]

These are just my suggestions...

1. Read books covering submarine warfare, particularly that of WW2. You will learn a lot, and a great many of your questions will be answered within their pages. I recommend "Steel Boat Iron Hearts" and "Torpedo Junction" and perhaps even for the spirit of adventure and a retrospective "shadow divers".

2. Watch movies covering submarine warfare. "Crimson Tide", "Enemy below", "The Hunt for Red October", "Das Boot", and "U-571" (i dont respect the film U-571 from a serious sub fan and history buff standpoint, but from an entertainment standpoint...which is what it was meant to be... it is an okay film) these movies will help you learn what submarines are all about.

3. Learn the keyboard commands inside and out.... and form an understanding of when to use each command and WHY you are using it for a given situation. this is learned only from practice.

4. ask questions on subsim every time you encounter anything that you have a curiosity about. THE ONLY STUPID QUESTION IS THE ONE YOU DONT ASK! :know:

5. DO NOT download ANY mods for Silent Hunter III until you have developed a good understanding of how the game works, until you have developed your own play style and tactics. ***only when you have come to appreciate the game in its default condition can you begin to realize the talent and achievement of the modders out there and truly respect their products and play them the way they were meant to be played.

anyone else care to take it from number 6?

[baggygreen]

Have a bit of a fiddle around in the training and some of the single missions, particularly happy times. Then, download GWX and be amazed at the difference.

Read the community manual, it'll help, as will reading through some of these threads - they help with tactics, locations, etc.

[Chock]

The obvious thing to do is to use as many of the help settings as possible while you get a feel for the process of positioning your sub correctly for an attack. You'll find this isn't as simple as it seems, because your sub is not very fast unless surfaced, and even then it is only a little quicker than merchant shipping and certainly cannot outpace surface warships. So you have to detect things, get out of range and then skirt around them when you have figured out their general course, in order to position yourself ahead of them.

It's important to note that you will not hear things easily on your hydrophones unless stationary, so if you submerge to use them while doing this kind of thing and you want to make sure you are still in contact with them, come to a halt when you listen!

Setting up an attack like this is called 'doing an end around' and it is a typical U-Boat tactic. It's also where good skill in using the hydrophones comes into play while you are in position waiting for the enemy ships to arrive. Typically, you will start by detecting the enemy, figuring out his course, and then running parallel to it, slightly out of sight while you race ahead of the enemy. When you are ahead by a good distance (round about ten or twenty miles), you turn in towards the enemy's predicted course, submerge, and wait for it to cross your bow with your engines stopped, use the map drawing tools to plot the predicted line of the convoy and also to ensure that you are a nice distance from it for your torpedo shots. You should ideally be firing when the ships appear to be at between about a 30- 45 degree angle from you, so that when the torpedoes intercept the target, the target will be broadside on to you and present the biggest area for your fish to hit (later you might start to bend the rules a bit, but for now, this is a good tactic).

Keep in mind that torpedoes don't arm immediately when fired, they have to travel a couple of hundred yards before they will arm (although on easy settings in SH3, this is not an issue), so don't get too close to the line and don't get too far away either, as the further away you are, the more chance there is for an error to cause a miss. Opinions vary, but anywhere between about 800 yards and 3000 yards is going to give you a fair chance, although personally I tend to go for about 1000 yards if I can manage it, but that's a little close if there are destroyers escorting the ships, in which case I'd go for longer ranged shots.

Note that there is a good chance you won't miss on easy settings, as the crew will be making all of the calculations for the firing solution on easier settings, so all you will really be doing is 'directing the attack', but you can still develop good habits for later on when you are doing more of the work, so keep that in mind. When you are confident in your abilities to manage all that, you can start turning the help off.

Doing attacks this way gives you plenty of time to set up your torpedoes for an attack and get everything just right, in addition to which, all the targets should pass sideways-on to your bow, so your torpedoes will have a good broad area to hit and a better chance of doing so. If you can manage it, try and aim for ships which have other ships in the convoy slightly more distant and a little to their rear, that way if you miss, there's still a chance your torpedoes might hit something else.

Of course if there is no escort and you have a deck gun, use that, it's 'cheaper' and more fun, but bear in mind that even some innocent-looking freighters can be armed, and they might get a lucky shot!

Also bear in mind that if you are detected, or if you hit a ship, any escorts which might be accompanying the targets are going to suddenly get real interested in making life hard for you. So also have an idea of what you will do to get away. Don't get greedy and try for too many targets, you can always sneak away and re-acquire the convoy on the hydrophone and then set up another attack, and of course, you will already know where to look, because you'll know the ships will eventually resume their original course.

Typical evasion tactics for submarines are to 'sprint and drift'. i.e., you run quickly away from any oncoming destroyers, and then go silent by reducing your speed and ordering 'silent running'. your sub takes a while to slow down, and you can use this speed to turn quickly and then creep away at low speed from the location the enemy thinks you are at. Deeper is usually better, but there are any number of tactics you can adopt, changing depths is also a good tactic, but remember that you'll dive quicker than you rise, so plan your moves carefully. Unusual tactics such as hiding under or near a crippled ship to stop a destroyer from passing over you, or sneaking under a convoy and attacking it from the other side while the destroyers search in the wrong place are all valid things to try, and that's all part of the fun - it's more of an art than a science in many respects.

When you've sussed all that out, it's then time to start thinking about being more cunning with your weapon's and boat's capabilities; some torpedoes are more easily spotted by enemies than others, some have better speeds or longer ranges, some subs turn better than others and can dive deeper. Do you attack at night or in the daytime, are enemy planes going to show up? These are all things to consider, as is where you are when you attack, if the water is shallow, it removes some of your opttions for escape for instance. Knowing all this and planning things in advance and knowing your enemy's capabilities is what will help you to succeed and is something to look forward to when you have the basics figured out.

Above all of that, the main thing is to have fun and play it the way you enjoy it.

:D Chock

[Venatore]

DO NOT download ANY mods for Silent Hunter III until you have developed a good understanding of how the game works, until you have developed your own play style and tactics. ***only when you have come to appreciate the game in its default condition can you begin to realize the talent and achievement of the modders out there and truly respect their products and play them the way they were meant to be played.

GoldenRivet,

A very good suggestion & advice for new players. :yep:

[slow_n_ez]

Welcome aboard Ferrante :arrgh!: .. Do the training missions as susgested ... you'll learn alot ......... then start a campagin like in 1939 ...... Take your boat out for a spin and see what she can do ... the first few missions are pretty simple and you aren't sent too far from base ....

After a couple missions completed , read about some of the add on mods .. I would not susgest the GWX until you get the hang of things ... I would only susgest some of the eye candy mods for a newbie ......

[Vacillator]

DO NOT download ANY mods for Silent Hunter III until you have developed a good understanding of how the game works, until you have developed your own play style and tactics. ***only when you have come to appreciate the game in its default condition can you begin to realize the talent and achievement of the modders out there and truly respect their products and play them the way they were meant to be played.
GoldenRivet,

A very good suggestion & advice for new players. :yep:


Ooops! I installed GWX between Naval Academy missions 1 and 2 so I've no idea what the stock game is like. Good advice methinks but don't wait too long before adding GWX...

[headcase]

Welcome aboard!

I also will say the training missions are very good for getting your feet wet. Don't just waltz through them. Play around and try just about anything you can think of. Maybe even especially the really crazy things.

Don't install the mod yet, but download the GWX manual. Not that there isn't a bit to learn in the official one, but the GWX cats did an exemplary job with the documentation. Some very good things in the back on tactics/ evasion and the like.

Plot everything on the nav map. At least for me it helps develop a better feel for the overall situation. And it helps get you ready for manual targeting.

Have fun! Unless I missed a memo that's what it's about:rock:


Good luck, and good Hunting.

And for the love of all that is Scared...

STAY OUT OF SHALLOW WATER!

[Jimbuna]

These are just my suggestions...

1. Read books covering submarine warfare, particularly that of WW2. You will learn a lot, and a great many of your questions will be answered within their pages. I recommend "Steel Boat Iron Hearts" and "Torpedo Junction" and perhaps even for the spirit of adventure and a retrospective "shadow divers".

2. Watch movies covering submarine warfare. "Crimson Tide", "Enemy below", "The Hunt for Red October", "Das Boot", and "U-571" (i dont respect the film U-571 from a serious sub fan and history buff standpoint, but from an entertainment standpoint...which is what it was meant to be... it is an okay film) these movies will help you learn what submarines are all about.

3. Learn the keyboard commands inside and out.... and form an understanding of when to use each command and WHY you are using it for a given situation. this is learned only from practice.

4. ask questions on subsim every time you encounter anything that you have a curiosity about. THE ONLY STUPID QUESTION IS THE ONE YOU DONT ASK! :know:

5. DO NOT download ANY mods for Silent Hunter III until you have developed a good understanding of how the game works, until you have developed your own play style and tactics. ***only when you have come to appreciate the game in its default condition can you begin to realize the talent and achievement of the modders out there and truly respect their products and play them the way they were meant to be played.

anyone else care to take it from number 6?

Try GWX :p

[StarTrekMike]

I don't see any harm in installing GWX and such, it will prevent you from developing some bad habits that the original game allows but GWX does not.

I know GWX seems pretty hard to me, but that is because I am not used to things being more realistic.

Always good to meet a new skipper

Mike

[Brag]

Welcome aboard. Excellent suggestions above. Once you're done with the manual and start working up your sub, you may want to visit my website.

[neves_rats]

Welcome aboard, you will find as I have that this lot are a friendly and more than helpful bunch who will help you out with any problems you have. I am a relative newbie and have asked one or two questions and always have been able to resolve the problem thanks to the great help you receive. As has been said, this is all about having fun, though fun flys out the window (in a good sense) when you're being hunted and depth charged, the immersion in the game is terrific and GWX makes it all the more so. Have fun and happy hunting fellow kaleun

[STEED]

Newbie: I just got this game. Suggestions?

Say good bye to your life and welcome to the world of SH3 addiction. :rotfl:

[von hally]

welcome aboard, some very good advice already given, but just incase you are finding it difficult and frustrating to intercept ships or convoys early in your career ,some simple numbers i used were quite helpful. now these are not exact sciences but rather observations i made.... when you recieva a cotact on the map, use ure ruler to plot a course for the ship(its heading)by running a straight (as you can) line through the square contact icon...i found... mostly, that merchants traveling slow will probably do about 11km an hour in calm seas.A type VII B sub will do around 30-32km an hour at flank speed on the surface. this gave me a little help in estimating the merchants position over a few of hours by marking , say 33km along its heading( with the ruler again) , this gave me a rough idea where it would be in 3 hours time (thats the 11km multiplied by three, incase im confusing you). thens the time to end around the heading for the merchant youve plotted on the map and intercept the merchant further down the line. merchants always vary in speed so a good idea would be to submerge and listen for screws when you arrive at your estimated point, hopefuly you will pick up the contact, it usually worked for me, and the obvious advantage of this was the ability to estimate a ships whereabouts even further along its course, simply by adding 11km onto your measurement and adding an hour each time. obviously the longer you estimate in distance the less accurate it becomes, due to sea conditions and ships changing course. use the same method for medium fast ships by replacing 11km an hour with 15km an hour. this worked for me untill i got to grips with this great game and i
hope this helps, ive just read it back myself and now im confused!! HA!!
no doubt one of the many helpful guys on this forum will have a much simpler idea, but i , like you played stock sh3,blissfuly unaware of how much help is out there in the subsim forum, im so glad i logged on, youll never regret it.. p.s grey wolves mod is amazing....and free!!!, theres lots of help if you need it....god... i know i do!!!:up:

[Biggles]

STAY OFF THE ENGLISH CHANNEL!

that's all I got...

[Rykaird]

Welcome aboard!

Lots of good suggestions on tactics and of course the use of GWX, so I'll chime in on where to hunt. I'm going to give you some very specific advice, and there are of course alternatives, but these suggestions do work.

I recommend you start your campaign at the start of the war (Sept. 1939) and you go with 2nd Flotilla so you start with a VIIB out of Wilhelmshaven. The litte subs are fun but they are a bit harder to excel at, and its best to ease in the difficulty.

I also recommend the first area you patrol is AM52 (assuming GWX). Lots of single ships in that area (it is the intersect point of four convoy routes into Liverpool - Murmansk, Gibraltar, Sierra Leone, and Halifax). Nothing like a target rich environment to get up to speed on how to engage and sink ships.

Remember when transiting to these target rich zones - whether AM52, or the also fine BF13/14, or others - to never, ever transit through the English Channel. Yes, it will take a heck of a long time to head off towards Iceland and around the north coast of Ireland, and it will burn a lot of fuel, but the Channel is an absolute death trap. Go easy on the speed to conserve fuel.

Make sure you layer in the difficulty a little at a time!

[Ping Panther]

Welcome,
Always prepare a 2-pronged attack. That means having both of your scopes ready & poked up on the soft under-belly of an attacking destroyer... the results are ... devestating! ;) :smug: :hmm: :doh: :huh: :dead: :arrgh!: :rotfl:

Kidding on the periscope jousting method. :p

Read to support your SH3 sub-sim experiences.

I am currently reading the first chapters of, "Unrestricted Warfare", by James F. DeRose. A little known book; just newly published, that is turning out to be one of the most informative books of many I have studied. It pivots on the U.S. Submariners of WW2; with a very descriptive respect to the subject (both SH3 & SH4, Atlantic/Pacific), Even better, it often corresponds to U-Boat situations/details/tactic as a contrast to the American boats, so you soon become fully involved with very similar aspects that Silent Hunter offers. (Evolution of the TDC, dealing with duds, periscope elevation/feathering, crash dives, recharge methods, cabin oxygen/crew moral, etc.)

[slow_n_ez]

I don't mean to rain on anyones parade but to susgest installing GWX for a newbie to this game is basically going to turn them off to mods in general if not the game in whole .

GWX in my opinion is a mod addition for perhaps advanced users and those of us who have completed several campagins from start to finish . A newbie playing GWX has maybe a 5 % chance of ever seeing the war come to an end .

I personally completed 3 campagins using stock sh3 with a few eye candy mods and had alot of fun playing plus learning from mistakes as I went along .... then it got a bit too easy and loaded GWX and then had more of a challange to stay alive .... sometimes just hiding really deep and letting fat targets get away ....

Anyways , GWX is great for both eye candy and realistic submersion , but its like handing a kid (who don't know what they are doing) a pellet gun and tell him to go out and find that guy with the .44 mag and take him out .

[flag4]

hi ferrante

hope you enjoy sh3 + gwx.

here's my penny.

read DAS BOOT by GUNTHER LOTHAR-BUCHEIM available cheaply at amazon.

watch the full-length T.V VERSION of DAS BOOT, by wolfgang petersen available on dvd from e-bay and amazon.

and don't forget patience, patience, patience.

welcome aboard,

flag4

[panzer 49th]

I'll just give this tip for the sake of things


If destroyers are near you keep the torpedo tubes open it really helps.

[Jimbuna]

Newbie: I just got this game. Suggestions?

Say good bye to your life and welcome to the world of SH3 addiction. :rotfl:

Amen on that :arrgh!:

[Ferrante]

I must say that I am truly impressed at how many have responded and are willing to help. I am excited about this and will be getting into it this weekend (this has been a busy week for me :( And everyone is so nice, which I truly appreciate. In the past when I have posted to Usenet groups, most were very nasty when I sought help with various things. I know I am going to have fun and have read everyone's post(s) and will be printing all of them. I just hope that when I go out, I don't accidentally torpedo one of your subs! Again, thanks my new friends!

[headcase]

[quote=STEEDSay good bye to your life and welcome to the world of SH3 addiction. :rotfl:[/quote]

Addiction is such a nasty word.

[PapaG39]

I am new at this also so I can only give you what I did.

Do all of the training exercises. The get you balanced and into just what to do with all the keys.

I stayed away from all mods until I had about 13 patrols in the type IIA/D boat. it is small & very easy to handle. fun as heck also.

I did the 1st flotilla out of Wilhelmshaven & only short patrols into the North Sea along the English east shore area & up by Scapa Flow. The water is very shallow so learn what the Destroyers sound like on the hydraphones & stay away from them..Avoid them at all costs and you will have a good experience learning how to sink merchants.
Oh, by the way, It's o.k. to sink anything French at any time. No penality & good practice...lol..

Go slow & try to master each phase as you go along.

ask bunches of questions.. The guys/gals on this site are just great & you won't get put down...and pardner..I asked some dumb questions..lol


Also...***A MUST*** Under the newby link stuff click on the GWX link and read the manual made for the GWX mod. you don't need the mod yet, but the information in this manual will give you a great understanding on what we are doing in this sub sim. It is a wealth of historical background and will really give u a heads up..

The learning curve is large, but it is worth it

Just don't get in a hurry...This is NOT a hurry sim...for hurry go to IL2 & fly fast...