Utter Noob...Help

[StayingPower]

Hi guys, SH3 has just arrived but I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing (did everyone's game not come with a manual or was I just lucky?).

I hope you'll forgive the noobish questions:

1)Don't laugh, but I'm having trouble with the tutorials. On the Navigation one, I set a course of SSE and completed the first objective, but I couldn't complete any more. I kept going SSE until I reached a German Destroyer before giving up.

2)Then I moved on to the torpedo tutorial, where i had some sucess. I hit a merchant with my first torpedo, but as I was admiring the explosion I forgot to order my sub to stop, and I went speeding by. I tried plotting a new course to get behind the merchant but for some reason my crew decided to approach it backwards. Is there an easier way to move and turn the sub without messing with dials and plotting (read: can I use the arrow keys or something?).

3)Is there a way to lock the camera on to the sub in external view?

I had no idea the game would be this hard, so please forgive the noob questions. I'm sure I'll have loads more once I actually get into the game. :)

[Brag]

Welcome aboard. I think your problems are based on lack of familiarity. If I remember right, the first nav problem also requires some changes in depth. I failed it the first time. Go through the tutorials again and it will work better.

Once you get finished with the academy, you may want to look at my Kielman website.

[StayingPower]

Ah, I was under the impression I had to change depth when I got to a certain point. Thanks, I'll try that next time.

[GoldenRivet]

when I read the title of your post I thought you wet talking about a different kind of utter.

[bookworm_020]

Welcome aboard StayingPower! :up: With the first tutorial, keep an eye on your radio messages (press the m button to bring up a list of the latest). They have all the required steps you need to complete the mission.:up:

Take your time with each training mission, and repeat them till you feel more confident. It's better to learn here than when you have a destroyer depthcharging you like no tomorrow.:yep:

Have a look ing the Newbie sticky at the top of the page for futher help and feel free to ask questions. We don't bite too bad here!:arrgh!:

[StayingPower]

Thanks guys, the SH3 Community Manual website has expired.

[Elmer Kosterman]

Hello, stearing the sub takes lots of practice. There are a couple ways to change your heading:

-by ploting a course on the map

-by moving the rudder with the mouse or keyboard

-by clicking on a heading on the compass

-in any pariscope view or from the bridge/deck gun, press the key next to delete (my keyboard is German), and your sub will automatically turn to that heading

-check out this thread (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=101924) for other ways you can enter commands

-you can't use the arrows to stear the boat. However, there are ways to change the keyboard functions around, but I haven't gotten around to doing that myself yet.

To get the external view locked on your sub, press the key under the 'L' key (sorry). You can also keep pressing it to look at other ships in the area.

I think Bookworm was talking about this thread:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=96026

It's gives useful tips for newcomers.

Good Luck!

[Brag]

[quote=
-in any pariscope view or from the bridge/deck gun, press the key next to delete (my keyboard is German), and your sub will automatically turn to that heading



http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=96026

Good Luck![/quote]

On English keyboard is the = + key :up:

[Laufen zum Ziel]

Welcome,

On this forum you will never find a shortage of help. If a question goes unanswered it is because were all stumped,

http://silent-hunter-addict.com

[Slang]

Its been a long time since I was digging around in the SH3 directory.

But unless I'm mistaken there is a .PDF manual there. May be useful for a new player. I think its in the Docs folder along with the game map.

[Hanomag]

Welcome Aboard Herr Kaluen!! :arrgh!:

[von hally]

lo stayingpower

you posted---3)Is there a way to lock the camera on to the sub in external view?


if you press the " . " button just above th altgr next to your spacebar then this should loc the view on your sub...sorry u-boat!!!

please dont give up on this sim mate...its incredible

never have i seen a game improved in everyway than this. imho try gwx when u can mate.

also the community is invaluable.... helpful....understanding and very patient..

cant believe i was a noob(and in some ways still am) not too long ago...but the help i got here from these guys was priceless.

no question i asked was too daft...
if you find youre getting bored or just not getting it...then im sure youre missing something mate cos its worth the time.

happy hunting see you in the atlantic:up:

[StayingPower]

Wow, thanks guys, I'm amazed at what a helpful community this is, never seen anything like it. I really appreciate it. :)

I've managed to get through the first 2 tutorials now, I was going to try the next ones but my butt was getting sore.

Edit: Argh! I just tried the torpedoes tutorial and it's impossible. There's just too many things happening at one time for me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my torpedoes will go where my periscope is pointing at 0 degrees? So the other ship is moving, I'm moving, I have to be pointing straight at it, all in a short space of time to press 'fire'.

So eventually I managed to get all this figured out and got lined up with the ship I was hunting. The targeting arrow over it turned green, so I assumed that meant if I fired it would hit it. So I fired two torpedoes...but nothing happened. I looked in free view and one of them was pointing down, below the ship, not moving, and the other seemed to have gone under the ship and was speeding on past it.

[Antiacus]

If it hit the ship but failed to detonate it will just slowly sink beneath it.

Dud...

[Mild Ed]

I'm a noob on the board too (my first post!). Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but no, you don't have to be pointing straight at the target. In fact, you often want to "lead" the target, that is, put your nose in front of where you expect the ship to be. Ideally you'll get a green indicator, but you'll get plenty of kills even when it shows yellow. Also, make sure you're not too close. That's a mistake I made when I first started playing. My torpedoes weren't arming and just thumping off the side of the target.

[Elmer Kosterman]

Torpedo technology has come a long way since WWI. When the correct speed, angle, bearing, and distance of the target are entered into the torpedo computer, the torpedo will make one turn after being launched and run strait to where the target should be, so you don't have to "lead" it. That means, torpedos don't just run strait ahead and the target doesn't have to be right in front of you. However, for various reasons, your chances of scoring a hit increase if that is approximately the case.

But that is for later. You're using automatic targeting, where all pertanant data are entered into the computer automatically just by pointing a scope at a target, and you want to know why torpedos didn't detonate. There could be several reasons for this:

-- You might miss the ship in front or behind

If you are using contact detonators (torpedo must strike the ship):

-- The torpedo runs too deep an misses the ship entirely. Set to shallower depth.

--The torpedo runs too deep and strikes the curved underside of the ship and does not detonate. Set to a depth not more than half the depth of the target (or even less in bad weather because the target will be stomping in the sea)

-- the torpedo strikes the ship and an angle that is too acute and does not detonate. Try to position your boat so that the target will cross your bow at a 90° angle. Ideally you should fire before the target is at a bearing of 0°. Otherwise, the torpedo will have to "catch up" to the ship at a less-than-ideal angle. The angle doesn't have to be perfect, as you have about a 20° window on either side of the perpendicular.

If you are using magnetic detonators (torpedo should run under the target and explode)

-- torpedo runs more than 2 meters under the target and fails to explode. Set torpedo depth to between 0.5 and 2 meters below target's keel (closer to 2 meters in bad weather). If it still doesn't explode, make sure magnetic detonation is selected.

-- Torpedo runs too shallow and hits underside of target. See above.

Sometimes, if the angle is too close to 90° with the target. a magnetic torpedo won't explode because it isn't under the ship long enough to "sense" the target's magnetic field. In this case, wait for a more acute angle or use impact detonation.

-- In any case, the torpedo in question could be a dud.

[Albrecht Von Hesse]

Edit: Argh! I just tried the torpedoes tutorial and it's impossible. There's just too many things happening at one time for me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but my torpedoes will go where my periscope is pointing at 0 degrees? So the other ship is moving, I'm moving, I have to be pointing straight at it, all in a short space of time to press 'fire'.

So eventually I managed to get all this figured out and got lined up with the ship I was hunting. The targeting arrow over it turned green, so I assumed that meant if I fired it would hit it. So I fired two torpedoes...but nothing happened. I looked in free view and one of them was pointing down, below the ship, not moving, and the other seemed to have gone under the ship and was speeding on past it.

You don't have to be pointing directly at the target, no. Your boat is not like a firearm, where the bullet goes where the barrel is pointed. There are several factors which influence a successful hit, but I'll try and keep it simple for you right now.

1) Try and keep the target within +/- 30 degrees of your bow (or stern for a stern shot). Although you can fire at a target perpendicular to you that doesn't make for a good targeting solution.

2) Try and make sure the target is as close to perpendicular to your course as you can. That's known as AoB (Angle of Bow). If you're looking through your periscope with a bearing of zero (straight ahead) and your target is moving straight left-to-right (or right-to-left) that's an AoB of 90 degrees and is a perfect line-up. (Picture the letter 'T' with you as the leg and the target as the top.)

4) Press 'L' to lock the periscope onto your target. Pressing TAB will shuffle back and forth between magnification settings. Once you've 'locked' onto the target, at the upper right you'll see some information displayed: Ship class, range, AoB and speed. Click on the 'ship' header and your recognition manual will be opened, displaying the targeted ship. Look and see how deep the keel depth is.

5) Press F6 to bring up your TDC (Torpedo Data Computer). Here you can make some changes to your torpedo settings. The important ones at this stage of the game are speed and depth. Select a torpedo by clicking on its tube (the bright green tube designators) then assure that the running depth is at least 2 meters higher than the max depth of your target. Otherwise you run the risk of the torpedo grazing and bouncing off the bottom of the hull without exploding. Set the speed to fast, then hit F3 to go back to the periscope view.

6) Make sure your periscope is still locked onto the target; if not, hit 'L' again. The press 'Q'; this opens the outer tube door. If you don't open the tube door before firing, there is a several second delay between the time you press fire and the torpedo actually launched due to the outer door having tp open, and this quite often will cause the torpedo to miss.

7) It is always better to be as close as possible to your target, but no closer than 300 meters, as the torpedo requires 300 meters to arm, and if you're closer it'll just bounce off the hull without exploding.

Hope this helps! And welcome aboard!

edit: And there is a manual included during install. If you did a default install it is located in C:/Program Files/Ubisoft/SHIII/Documentation. It is called SH3_MANUAL.pdf. If for some reason you don't have it, let me know and I'll email you a copy.

[StayingPower]

Great! I tried again and sunk two ships, I think I'm almost ready for the convoy attack tutorial, and then I can actually start a game. This help has been brilliant guys.

Edit: I just started a career and on my first patrol I sunk a ship! Took me ages to find one but when I did I snuck up on it and torpedoed it. I must've taken out its engines because it stopped moving, but by the time I'd stopped cheering and realised it wasn't sinking, I'd already gone past it so I couldn't get another torpedo off. I wanted to finish it off with my deck gun but the water was too choppy. So I circled back around and torpedoed it again and it sunk. Thanks for all the help guys.

[Murr44]

If you're using gas/steam powered torpedoes, magnetic fuses can be used in mildy rough weather (wind speeds of 7 to 9). Just remember to set the torpedo speed to slow: it lessens the chance of premature detonation.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome aboard Kaleun StayingPower http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!...SINK EM ALL!! http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[melnibonian]

Welcome to SubSim :up:

[Steel_Tomb]

Welcome to Subsim Herr Kaleun! Unfortunately for you it seems BDU wants you to head out to sea immidiately, here are your orders...

If your looking to go for fully manual TDC, I would recomend using OLC's GUI and environment mod when your ready. It realy adds an extra level to playing SHIII, you feel a real sense of achievement after you sink a ship!

A few tips:

Avoid the English Channel like a plague, go around the northern side of the UK and if your feeling daring go raid Scapa Flow and bag the fatherland some warships!
Avoid engaging in shallow waters, even unarmed merchants pose a threat in that they can call in support from near by destroyers operating outside visual range!
Remember to check your baffles every so often. If your not sure, your baffle is the area where your sonar can not detect ships, namely the rear of your sub when your engines are running. You can either stop and listen carefully, or change your bearing to have a peak without slowing.
Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT use magnetic fish until about '41. My experiances with magnetic fuses are not good, they detonate far too easily, even in calm waters. Stick with contact settings!
If you find you can't find convoys, every few hours submerge to about 40m or something and manualy scan your hydrophone for contacts. Your sonarman seems to wear earplugs when at his station, he doesn't pick up much until its rather close!
Don't use GWX v2.0 to start with. Instead play stock SHIII for a few weeks to familiarise yourself with the game. This way you will truely enjoy GWX, and appreciate the tremendous amount of work thats gone into this truely SUPER mod.
Watch out for anyone making mistakes in your crew, and pray to god his name isn't Bernard!
Enjoy SHIII and your stay at Subsim
Finally........BE MORE AGGRESIVE! :up:

[StayingPower]

So when I'm hunting a convoy or ship, is there any way I can tell my officer/crew to follow it, or do I have to do it manually?

[Jimbuna]

So when I'm hunting a convoy or ship, is there any way I can tell my officer/crew to follow it, or do I have to do it manually?

Manually http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif