A few questions from a new commander

[treblesum81]

Hi all,

As the title suggests, I'm still earning my sea legs as it were. I've come up with a couple of questions which I haven't readily been able to find the answer to on the forum here, so I figured I'd ask them directly and see what result I get.

1) With GWX removing any renown earnings from patrolling your assigned grid for 24 hours, is there even a point to following those orders? Also, along the same lines, are there any mods that might give something more worthwhile (i.e. Go and patrol this port for at least that many days due to suspicion of enemy movements there),or perhaps one that might give occasional updated tasking along the same lines? Or I guess the other possibility is that U-Boats were given exactly those orders "go patrol here and come home" and they had to make the best of what they did on their own.... anyone know how close to accurate this is?

2) About how long should a full supply of O2 allow a boat to sit underwater. I've read reports of boats spending whole days (periods of daylight at least) underwater hiding before surfacing at night to move on. Is this possible in SH3? From what I can tell after about an hour I'm already down to 75%-80% O2 which would never last a full 8-10 hours. Again, is this realistic, or is there a mod that might be able to correct the issue, if it needs correcting, that is?

Thats all i can think of at the moment, though I know there were some more things I wanted to ask... I guess I'll either edit this post or post reply questions when I think of them.

As always, thanks for all your help,
Greg

[Jimbuna]

Hi all,

As the title suggests, I'm still earning my sea legs as it were. I've come up with a couple of questions which I haven't readily been able to find the answer to on the forum here, so I figured I'd ask them directly and see what result I get.

1) With GWX removing any renown earnings from patrolling your assigned grid for 24 hours, is there even a point to following those orders? Also, along the same lines, are there any mods that might give something more worthwhile (i.e. Go and patrol this port for at least that many days due to suspicion of enemy movements there),or perhaps one that might give occasional updated tasking along the same lines? Or I guess the other possibility is that U-Boats were given exactly those orders "go patrol here and come home" and they had to make the best of what they did on their own.... anyone know how close to accurate this is?

2) About how long should a full supply of O2 allow a boat to sit underwater. I've read reports of boats spending whole days (periods of daylight at least) underwater hiding before surfacing at night to move on. Is this possible in SH3? From what I can tell after about an hour I'm already down to 75%-80% O2 which would never last a full 8-10 hours. Again, is this realistic, or is there a mod that might be able to correct the issue, if it needs correcting, that is?

Thats all i can think of at the moment, though I know there were some more things I wanted to ask... I guess I'll either edit this post or post reply questions when I think of them.

As always, thanks for all your help,
Greg

Welcome aboard Kaleun treblesum81 http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/9708/piratebf4.gif (http://imageshack.us)

1) You could try SH3 Gen....that mod has an ability to advise you of traffic movements.

Historically accurate naval movements are also scripted intp GWX. If you read the accompanying manual I'm sure you'll find it very informative.

2) Your O2 should last at least 24 hours (in game time). In RL there are reports of it lasting in excess of 30 hours.

[irish1958]

Welcome Aboard!

1)There is no real reason to go to the assigned grid in GWX2.1; there is a mod in development which will give you realistic orders. See: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=135399
2)I don't know how long the air is supposed to last; someone will know and will post it. I have never run out of air before I have run out of battery, except when going at dead slow for several hours.

[treblesum81]

Ok, so I've given SH3 Gen, which is definately better than the standard SH3 orders, though it did tell me basically the same thing in Nov 1939... "go to quadrant AK and patrol"... yeah its not a specific grid, but still, the middle of the north atlantic before the US is even involved?

I guess I'm just trying to find a better balance between "Go here and patrol randomly for some period of time" and "Who cares about orders, I'm taking this boat into every harbor I can find until we're either dead or out of fish". How do you all solve this problem, if you even consider it a problem?

Continuing with a few more questions:

1) Is it worthwhile to sink ships smaller than 2k-3k tons? In my last 5-7 patrols, I've encountered numerous small merchants and coastal freighters which I sunk, but I'm not sure if I wasted fish that could have been used on better targets. What do you all think about this? Kill everything you can as quickly as possible? or wait for better, more valuable targets?

2) Do different target types have different renown values? I.E. if I sink a tanker and a merchant with equal tonnage, will they provide the differing renown points? I ask think because I've noticed that a lot of the time, my renown gain does not relate directly to tonnage sunk... 30k tons netted me 1000 renown, but 80k tons only netted 1500 rather than the expected almost 3000. Should I be choosing my targets more on value than on tonnage?

3) Do radio reports actually accomplish anything? I know that a status report will get BdU to call you home when you're out of torps, but do either status or contact reports serve any other purpose? This I ask because I've noticed a lot of people complaining about getting zeroed because they sent a report... if they don't serve any real purpose, why send them at all?

Thanks again,
Greg

EDIT: I also have the GWX Mission orders mod now, though I've not seen any specific orders or updates come down the line.

-Also, How can I go about figuring Lat and Long coords without having to count marks on the map side? Almost all mine and sinking reports seem to come in lat/long coords, but there isn't any easy way, at least as far as I can tell, to figure out where they are talking about... something that could be an issue if its a minefield and I just sail right on through not knowing.

[McHibbins]

1. Sometimes a sparrow in your hand is better than a pidgeon on the roof !
If you´re sure you´ll meet something bigger soon, let the small ones go....if not....hm...what will Dönitz say if you´ll always come back with empty hands ?:lol:

2. Jepp


3.They´re only added for immersion

[mcf1]

Hi Kaleun and welcome

1) I usually avoid sinking small merchants when the use of the deck gun isn't possible.
Here's an example on my last patrol, I started from Wilhelmshafen and on my way to the assigned patrol grid encountered many small merchants and couldn't us the deck gun and left them alone, It was wise to do so because few days later I've encountered a task force and sunk the Hood, imagine what if I had no torps.

2) I've noticed that too. But as said, I sunk the Hood and some merchants for
a total of 60000 tons and got about 700 renown :damn: I can't explain that.

[Tessa]

To address an earlier point, I too disagree with the decision to remove the renown for going to your patrol area. Irl it served several major purposes: On your way out to the patrol area you were always at watch looking for single merchants or convoys. If you found one (on your way to patrol area) you'd have radio'd it in and had other boats in the area converge on it to attack. Same holds true once you get to your patrol area, but you could have also been assigned that area as a matter of recon to see if making future patrols of that area worthwhile.

1. Deck gun is perfect for the small fry, and even some mid size ones in calm weather where you can get good waterline shots. Unless the target is 7,000 or more I usually don't go after it. Murphy's law happens too often that you'll expend all your eels and run across a large troop transport or other 20,000+ target and have nothing to fire at it.

2. They do, if you do a search you'll be able to find a list of them (don't think it's in the GWX manual, but maybe community manual?) for each ship and its value.

3. Aside from annoying you 90% of the time no, since the game can't generate dynamic content you won't get ordered to a new location based on your current status. You will get some useful reports of convoy sightings and wolfpack attacks, and of all the action during battles or other historical events.

[treblesum81]

1. Deck gun is perfect for the small fry, and even some mid size ones in calm weather where you can get good waterline shots. Unless the target is 7,000 or more I usually don't go after it. Murphy's law happens too often that you'll expend all your eels and run across a large troop transport or other 20,000+ target and have nothing to fire at it.

Does this mean I'm reading a little too much into the BdU communicaes that specifically state not to use your deck gun against anything basically? I've ready plenty of messages on this board talking about using the deck gun, but from what I can tell in game... at least with GWX 2.1 and GWX mission orders installed... is that you shouldn't do that. Are these really just fluff and I should just ignore most of them? I do know that some are just not applicable in game like the fish running too deep, but others like the warning about magnetic trigger pre-detonation seem to hold true, so i'm not sure what applies and what is filler.

Greg

[filefool]

2) I've noticed that too. But as said, I sunk the Hood and some merchants for
a total of 60000 tons and got about 700 renown :damn: I can't explain that.

Hmm, that's strange. Was your boat damaged? IIRC the hull integrity serves as a multiplier for the earned renown. If you sunk ships that are worth 1000 renown and you got 10% hull integritiy then you only get 100 renown points. Could be wrong though.

I once did a patrol with a type II where the Hood was the only ship i sunk and received 1500 (or 1600 don't know exactly) renown. But that was GWX 2.0 so they may have changed that.

[Tessa]

Does this mean I'm reading a little too much into the BdU communicaes that specifically state not to use your deck gun against anything basically? I've ready plenty of messages on this board talking about using the deck gun, but from what I can tell in game... at least with GWX 2.1 and GWX mission orders installed... is that you shouldn't do that. Are these really just fluff and I should just ignore most of them? I do know that some are just not applicable in game like the fish running too deep, but others like the warning about magnetic trigger pre-detonation seem to hold true, so i'm not sure what applies and what is filler.

Greg

Bdu does give out useful information, there's just so much spam its too easy to just ignore them or remove the radio officer altogether. Early in the war the deck gun is great for finishing off damaged ships, or sinking lone merchants. I think of them as freebies since no torpedo's were used. Once the ships become armed you're better off just removing it completely.

Forgot to share something about a question you had earlier. Raided Scapa tonight (really ****ty patrol, biggest warship was a light cruiser) and was easily able to stay submerged for around 30+ hours; albeit I don't have a full crew complement (25 sailors instead of 30) which helps to save air.

[treblesum81]

I'm actually in the middle of raiding Scapa right now... I snuck in decks awash (I love that, 7m deep and you are almost invisible as long as your smart and you get to run on diesle and fresh air) and parked myself in the first inlet west of the port for the day. I was able to stay submerged for 8hrs and it put my CO2 meter on "2" so my guess is I'd get at least 24hrs before I got too far into the red. Getting ready to make the attack right now, so we'll see if it turns out worthwhile (it will be my first successful breaching yet).

One thing you mentioned brought up a question I'd been wondering about... namely, does removing the gun improve any specs for your boat? Submerged speed and range are probably the most logical, but there are more than a few other benefits from removing it. I guess I just wonder if removing the gun makes any difference or if its just cosmetic.

I also had two more questions:

1) Does depth sounding affect your detectability? It sure has a loud sound associated with it, but I've never seen using it have any effect on enemy DD's and its never caused my noise meter to change color.

2) Are land defenses automatically on in a supermod like GWX 2.1? I've heard people here talking about playing with them on and off, but I've never seen any options to change that, so am I missing some option menu, or is it just something to look for in a config file?

Thanks,
Greg

[mcf1]

2) I've noticed that too. But as said, I sunk the Hood and some merchants for
a total of 60000 tons and got about 700 renown :damn: I can't explain that.

Hmm, that's strange. Was your boat damaged? IIRC the hull integrity serves as a multiplier for the earned renown. If you sunk ships that are worth 1000 renown and you got 10% hull integritiy then you only get 100 renown points. Could be wrong though.

I once did a patrol with a type II where the Hood was the only ship i sunk and received 1500 (or 1600 don't know exactly) renown. But that was GWX 2.0 so they may have changed that.
No, hull integrity 100% and no damage at all