VolvicCH
01-06-08, 02:03 PM
Salutations all.
First I would like to express my undying gratitude to the entire GWX team. In this day and age, where everyone seems preoccupied mainly with their own doings and turning a fast profit, it cannot fail to astound me that a group of passionate players will sit down and put so many manhours into a piece of work that has revived the joy of playing for hundreds, if not thousands of players all over the globe and all without the least prospect of making any money out of it. The level of detail, the added immersion not to mention a 604 page manual, the likes of which I havent seen since the heady days of Janes Simulations, is enough to make me prostrate myself at the feet of the GWX dev team. This truly has been a labour of love. Thank you all, you have restored my faith in the essential goodness of mankind.
Now for some questions/observations. Up untill yesterday, Ive been playing GWX 1.04 and many were the hours spent in front of my laptop, plotting firesolutions, dodging DC attacks and enjoying the sun setting over a calm sea. All with a fair degree of success. Then, on my latest patrol (early 1943) things took a turn for the worse. I was sent to patrol a grid near the Rockall Banks, and in transit I got the "Radar detected" from my Radioman. I go to the Nav map and true enough, about 15 kilometers away there were 7 bearing lines, approaching fast.
I stayed on the surface to determine their direction and an approximate speed. Then when they were about 10 kilometers away, I dived and went to the hydrophone station to determine the makeup of what I assumed to be a Task Force. After a couple of minutes, I recognised the, by now, very familiar drone of destroyer props and something else which I was not familier with. THe sound would best be likened to that of a car about to depart this life, headed for that big scrap-pile in the sky. Whatever it was it was coming straight at me.
I veered off my present course to get on the outside of the approaching TF and waited, creeping along at 2 knots silent running. After about 5 minutes I ventured a peek with my attack periscope and lo and behold.....A Bogue class Aircraft Carrier in the midst of 5-6 destroyers. Well.......what can one do when presented with such a target? I know that running away comes to mind, but I, beeing foolhardy, decided to press the attack (DOH!). Three torps fired, change of course and running deep. Endless waiting......Kaboom, Kaboom......2 detonations. I join my crew in cheering at our dastardly stroke against the insidious Tommies.
Cue the Seventh Circle of Hell......The escorts are on to me in about 3 minutes flat, beginning what is to be a 6 hour (real time) DC attack. I will not delve too much on the details as you all know what it entails. 2-3 Destroyers on continous DC runs with another 2 hanging back to use their hydrophones....it was horrible. At one point the odds got better though. One DD has just finished dropping a pattern but was then forced to reverse to avoid a collision with another DD. You can guess what happened next....Scratch one DD. :)
Over the course of the next hours, the number of DDs diminished (through torps and bad steering) till I was left with one. THis guy was impossible to shake, however. I had long since used all my decoys so I was reduced to spurts of flank speed and trying (in vain) to get out of his hydrophone coverage. The latewar sensor array really showed its effectiveness here. He would do a DC run (although at this point he had expended all his DCs, I would set flank and try to stay in his baffles. Suffice to say it did not work. After about 2 hours of trying to shake him and beeing subjected to continous pinging (which is worse, pinging or Chinese water torture??) I had had enough. Surface.....MAN THE DECKGUN.......MAN DOWN ON DECK X 12.....CRITICAL FLOODING...etc.etc.etc.
Dead.
B****CKS.....
It was at that point I resolved to uninstall SH3 and reinstall with GWX 2. And good thing I did. :)
Now my question is: Playing 688/I many moons ago, I remembered reading a passage in the manual saying that hydrophone/Actove sonar use is virtually impossible after a recent underwater explosion due to bubbles. Is that modelled in GWX as well? Is DD hydrophone less effective after a pattern has gone off underwater?
Another question: What kind of ordnance do the planes usually carry? I ask this because I recently came under attack while at 25 meters and i still sustained damage. If the planes carry bombs rather than DCs, surely that shouldnt happen?
Last question: After the fall of France, I have come across merchantmen (both alone and in convoys) flying the tricouleur. Do they belong to the Free French, the Vichy french and can I attack them?
Thank you very much.
Leutnant z. See: VolvicCH
Kaempfen, Siegen oder Untergehen.
First I would like to express my undying gratitude to the entire GWX team. In this day and age, where everyone seems preoccupied mainly with their own doings and turning a fast profit, it cannot fail to astound me that a group of passionate players will sit down and put so many manhours into a piece of work that has revived the joy of playing for hundreds, if not thousands of players all over the globe and all without the least prospect of making any money out of it. The level of detail, the added immersion not to mention a 604 page manual, the likes of which I havent seen since the heady days of Janes Simulations, is enough to make me prostrate myself at the feet of the GWX dev team. This truly has been a labour of love. Thank you all, you have restored my faith in the essential goodness of mankind.
Now for some questions/observations. Up untill yesterday, Ive been playing GWX 1.04 and many were the hours spent in front of my laptop, plotting firesolutions, dodging DC attacks and enjoying the sun setting over a calm sea. All with a fair degree of success. Then, on my latest patrol (early 1943) things took a turn for the worse. I was sent to patrol a grid near the Rockall Banks, and in transit I got the "Radar detected" from my Radioman. I go to the Nav map and true enough, about 15 kilometers away there were 7 bearing lines, approaching fast.
I stayed on the surface to determine their direction and an approximate speed. Then when they were about 10 kilometers away, I dived and went to the hydrophone station to determine the makeup of what I assumed to be a Task Force. After a couple of minutes, I recognised the, by now, very familiar drone of destroyer props and something else which I was not familier with. THe sound would best be likened to that of a car about to depart this life, headed for that big scrap-pile in the sky. Whatever it was it was coming straight at me.
I veered off my present course to get on the outside of the approaching TF and waited, creeping along at 2 knots silent running. After about 5 minutes I ventured a peek with my attack periscope and lo and behold.....A Bogue class Aircraft Carrier in the midst of 5-6 destroyers. Well.......what can one do when presented with such a target? I know that running away comes to mind, but I, beeing foolhardy, decided to press the attack (DOH!). Three torps fired, change of course and running deep. Endless waiting......Kaboom, Kaboom......2 detonations. I join my crew in cheering at our dastardly stroke against the insidious Tommies.
Cue the Seventh Circle of Hell......The escorts are on to me in about 3 minutes flat, beginning what is to be a 6 hour (real time) DC attack. I will not delve too much on the details as you all know what it entails. 2-3 Destroyers on continous DC runs with another 2 hanging back to use their hydrophones....it was horrible. At one point the odds got better though. One DD has just finished dropping a pattern but was then forced to reverse to avoid a collision with another DD. You can guess what happened next....Scratch one DD. :)
Over the course of the next hours, the number of DDs diminished (through torps and bad steering) till I was left with one. THis guy was impossible to shake, however. I had long since used all my decoys so I was reduced to spurts of flank speed and trying (in vain) to get out of his hydrophone coverage. The latewar sensor array really showed its effectiveness here. He would do a DC run (although at this point he had expended all his DCs, I would set flank and try to stay in his baffles. Suffice to say it did not work. After about 2 hours of trying to shake him and beeing subjected to continous pinging (which is worse, pinging or Chinese water torture??) I had had enough. Surface.....MAN THE DECKGUN.......MAN DOWN ON DECK X 12.....CRITICAL FLOODING...etc.etc.etc.
Dead.
B****CKS.....
It was at that point I resolved to uninstall SH3 and reinstall with GWX 2. And good thing I did. :)
Now my question is: Playing 688/I many moons ago, I remembered reading a passage in the manual saying that hydrophone/Actove sonar use is virtually impossible after a recent underwater explosion due to bubbles. Is that modelled in GWX as well? Is DD hydrophone less effective after a pattern has gone off underwater?
Another question: What kind of ordnance do the planes usually carry? I ask this because I recently came under attack while at 25 meters and i still sustained damage. If the planes carry bombs rather than DCs, surely that shouldnt happen?
Last question: After the fall of France, I have come across merchantmen (both alone and in convoys) flying the tricouleur. Do they belong to the Free French, the Vichy french and can I attack them?
Thank you very much.
Leutnant z. See: VolvicCH
Kaempfen, Siegen oder Untergehen.