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View Full Version : Frustrated Too Know End!


Fish40
10-25-08, 12:55 PM
I'm patrolling in the AM Grid, right where the major convoy routes converge above Ireland. Lack of shipping is certainly not a problem, but the continued crappy weather is! At first while I was tracking a large convoy, the weather turned overcast with high winds, pouring rain, and zero visibility. I positioned myself abeam of the convoy, only to be nearly rammed by a freighter comeing out of the fog. There was no time to set up a shot, since I can't see the ships until they're right on top of me!

I decided to break off the attack, and hope the weather improved. Well, the rain stopped, the skies cleared up, but the wind is still howeling. Trying to excecute a submerged attack, even in clear conditions with the winds as they are, is near impossible! With the waves constantly washing over the scope unlocking the scope, it is difficult to get accurate speed readings, as well as range and AOB:damn:.

Mods used: GWX2.1, OLCGUI, Exhaust and Water Stream:up: Any tips or advice?

Task Force
10-25-08, 12:58 PM
Ya know, Ive noticed that once you get to a certan latitude, the weather gets bad, and stays bad, Its about the line of latitude that runs throught the middle of britian.:yep:

Fish40
10-25-08, 02:02 PM
I guess it was reality: Horst Elfe, second officer on board U-99, “We had to endure some pretty massive Atlantic storms. It could not have been worse. No U Boat could be controlled at periscope depth in this, it had to be well under or on top. Surface attacks were unthinkable because nobody could see, move, aim or anything. People only thought of their own survival in these seas”.

Graf Paper
10-25-08, 04:43 PM
My last two patrols, AM53 and BF14, were just like that...miserable weather with visibility less than 1000 meters during the day and around 600 meters at night. The seas were heaving so badly that my watch crew spent a good portion of their time underwater from the swells swamping our u-boat.

The periscope was nearly useless and the bow was pitching up and down so much that it was nearly impossible to launch a torpedo with any great accuracy.

In situations like that, all you can do is set you eels for a surface run ( 0 depth ), and hope a swell doesn't lift your target's hull above the path of your torpedo. :roll:

Bagged only an average 9,000 tons on each of those patrols.

Nothing more frustrating and disheartening that a winter patrol in the North Atlantic. :nope:

meduza
10-25-08, 05:45 PM
I enabled periscope stabilization in the settings. Unfortunately it lowers your realism percentage, but I think it's more realistic that way. The rolling and twisting of the periscope in SHIII seems too exaggerated. I never had a chance to peek through a real U-boat periscope :D, but I believe they did have some kind of stabilization.

I avoid attacking convoys in low visibility, and prefer to stay on surface when attacking unescorted merchants, using the radar if available.

richardphat
10-25-08, 06:19 PM
Hmm maybe schnellboot attack style migh help you? Plotting a close range ?

Fish40
10-25-08, 07:03 PM
[Quote] Nothing more frustrating and disheartening that a winter patrol in the North Atlantic. :nope:



If it were winter, I'd understand! It's June for cryin out loud!!





At Meduza: I have the scope stabelised view option ticked, as per the advice of OLC when useing his GUI mod. Even that don't offer much help.

Philipp_Thomsen
10-25-08, 07:46 PM
Why don't you give a shot at my mod?

The waves are pretty smaller. With bad weather, they wash the periscope more often but more quickly.

In my humble opinion, on my mod the waves are more realistic.

Plus I'm not having any trouble getting the data at bad weather with the mod.

Ok, SOME trouble... :lol:

Graf Paper
10-25-08, 07:47 PM
Yeah, scope stabilization was indeed used by u-boat periscopes but it indeed is pointless if you have it enabled or not when your scope is underwater most of the time from the heavy waves.

If you're using the Real Weather Fix 2 mod (and you are if you're using GWX 2.0 or 2.1, it's built in), then you might want to check this post by Subtype Zero about the settings used to control the weather in game...

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=928930&postcount=186

According to his experiments, these settings seem to give better weather changes than the settings built into RWF2.

And PT's water mod is indeed the absolute best I've ever seen! A must have if your computer specs can support it. :up: