Greetings

[9emini]

Hello friends

Just starting learning SH3 over past few days and am persisting with 'initiation by fire' (i.e. realism = 100%) despite some frustration. Never tried a sim before (unless X-Wing Alliance counts!) but this game is getting its teeth in me. Anyway - my career starts in '39 with the 1st flotilla and my initial sub seems pretty slow. I've managed to 'intercept' two merchant ships but they were travelling at medium pace (~9 knots) which is at times faster than my boat can handle (even on the surface)! So even keeping up with these boats was difficult, and getting in a good position to try an attack was impossible. Perhaps the idea is to complete the first few patrols without engaging even merchant ships, and gathering sufficient renown to purchase a speedier boat(?). Not sure - appreciate any advice re this (and thanks in particular to Wazoo and Dantenoc for their invaluable guides!).

[meduza]

What boat do you have? Even the slowest Type II can go 12-13 knots in good weather. Maybe you are charging batteries, which slows you down. In that case, order your CE to stop charging.

Welcome aboard! :up:

[Brag]

Welcome aboard, 9menimi! :D

The secret of a succesful attack is getting into a favorable position (ahead of your intended victim) without being seen. Take a peek at my kielman webbie for tactics and other articles.

Good hunting!

[Jimbuna]

Welcome aboard 9emini http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/welcome.gif

I reckon meduza has already informed you of the reason....set your engines for standard propulsion.

You can use the external view (F12) if you have it enabled to check that both propellors are turning.

[Lzs von swe]

Welcome 9emini:up:

Don´t go chasing after them if they are too fast, planes may find you. And they are faster then you.
Wait for some one to cross your T, then send it to the bottom.

[Weiss Pinguin]

You can also ask the Chief Engineer if you don't have external cam enabled. (I imagine you don't, since you're playing 100% realism)


A submerged Type II is a slow bugger compared to its stablemates, but on the surface it can move fairly quickly. If possible, I'd try to manuever into position on the surface. If you're moving underwater, you'll definitely be left behind. :p

[meduza]

@9emini
Besides the external camera, there are three ways to determine if your batteries are charging.


Click on the CE/Propulsion. The current propulsion mode is highlighted.
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/9053/eng1iv7.jpg



Look at the RPM gauge. The right engine is used for charging. If it is charging, the RPM is at the maximum. If you're at flank speed you won't see a difference, but if you slow down for a moment, you will.
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/5753/eng3lj2.jpg



If the green light above the engine telegraph is on, the engine is turning the propeler, and not charging the batteries. Unfortunately that feature doesn't work for all types. I'm certain that it works with Type VII, and doesn't work with IX.
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2268/eng2qe5.jpg

@everyone
Is there a fix for this issue?

[9emini]

What a helpful lot you are! Thanks to all who replied - my batt was indeed being charged and I can zip along far more pacily now in standard mode. Woohoo!

Now am I right in thinking that some of you fanatics play this game without time compression / pausing?!?! Even when leaving / approaching base? That's hardcore!

At the risk of exhausting your patience, I'd be grateful to know which one of 'morale', 'endurance', and 'resilience' (more than one perhaps?) contributes to the green bars visible above e.g. the 'bridge' and the 'command room' on the 'crew' screen (F7). Is there any advantage to be gained in filling the bar of (say) the electric engine room beyond the level (about halfway?) required for the engines to actually operate? And relatedly, is there any point in continuing to add crew to that room after its green bar is completely filled? I'm guessing that one advantage is that the time before the crew needs to be rested is lengthened.

I'm also guessing that the red exclamation mark that appears over a crew member denotes that the guy's endurance is <50%. Is the mark just a handy indicator of this fact, or does it denote something more serious?

Regards etc (and fully expecting cries of RTFM!!! :cry:)

[meduza]

I'm not realy sure which of the characteristics fill the green bar, but I know the fatigue empties it. :D And when a crewmember is fatigued, the exclamation mark appears.

There's no need to have engines room green bar completely filed, just be sure it's more than a half full.

It's a different story for torpedo rooms, guns and radio room. The bar affects loading times and sonarman's detection ability.

[Weiss Pinguin]

If a crewmember loses too much stamina he'll be unable to function, and if he loses anymore, he can die. Always good to check up on your crewmen every so often.

[GoldenRivet]

Welcome aboard!

[A Very Super Market]

Wait, what? I never knew your crewmen die from being overworked.

Sounds like I need to rearrange my shifts...

[Weiss Pinguin]

Yep.


At least I'm pretty sure they do... :hmm: I don't really feel like finding out at the moment.

[TarJak]

Never seen em die from overwork just keep working but sooooo sloooowwwwly that you end up going nowhere until you get some rested crew into the engine room.

They will die if they get too tired whilst fixing damage and the compartment floods though.:lol:

[FIREWALL]

Just wanna say welcome. :D

[Red Heat]

9emini...Welcome aboard!
Here in the Subsim the people are very friendly and give all suport about every thing about the game...the only thing you must do its explain correctly what the problem is... :D

[nikbear]

Welcome aboard 9emini:up::arrgh!:

[Ping Panther]

Welcome 9emini. Your questions are welcome here as well.
Just remember, you only get 3 wishes or 20 questions, whichever comes first. Then you are on your own. :smug:
Good hunting!

[Weiss Pinguin]

They will die if they get too tired whilst fixing damage and the compartment floods though.:lol:
lol, I guess that's what I was thinking of. :p

[Laufen zum Ziel]

Welcome. Check out the Silent Hunter Addict site
for every thing concerning SHIII (GWX) Here.
(http://www.silent-hunter-addict.com)
Be a fan of the Great BALZ & read past adventures
Here. (http://www.silent-hunter-addict.com/THE_ADVENTURES_of_BALZ.html)

[9emini]

Cheers for all the help and greets y'all - I'm pleased to report that I have sunk my first cargo ship! What a feelin'... on my first patrol n'all... I used 3 torps in a 'fan' shot from 600m in the dark - surfacing just before I fired so I could get the watch officer to get the range (hard to measure range manually while submerged in the dark!). Am now tailin' a ship on my second patrol which I'm hoping to sink before sundown in about 6 hours :D . Wazoo's guide rocks!

[Weiss Pinguin]

Great feeling watching your first kill sink into the waves. :up: Be more aggressive!

[Robert Fulton]

....

Just starting learning SH3 over past few days and am persisting with 'initiation by fire' (i.e. realism = 100%) despite some frustration. Never tried a sim before....

This is most impressive. I am also a rookie on my first career, but I am running at 50% despite having had some time as a skipper in Aces of the Deep.

We are both fortunate to have found subsim; the captains here are skilled and generous with their time.

[9emini]

Great feeling watching your first kill sink into the waves. :up: Be more aggressive!
I'm trying! Had to begin a new career, as I 'enjoyed' my first destroyer encounter yesterday, which annihilated the boat during my 5th(?) patrol! Today's first new patrol went real well - 5 torpedoes, 4 kills! I really feel like I'm getting the hang of the TDC...

Couple of questions have arisen I'm afraid: can destroying cargo on board a cargo ship using (don't laugh! It's all I've got this early on!) the flak cannon, help contribute to its sinking? Am I right in guessing that cargo is the _only_ thing worth 'flakking' on a cargo ship? Flak shells (AP) don't seem capable of puncturing hull or bridge etc...

Given I don't want the first destroyer I see to end my career (again!), what can be done on encountering one? I dove to 100m, changing course 90deg just after I submerged, after it opened fire at me on surface. It kept pinging me and I wasn't sure how to respond. Silent running? Sit still? Hmmm... one of the great arts to be learned in SH3 I'm guessing!

Oh - and just how many senior seamen (50 renown) are we supposed to be allowed to purchase before the first patrol? I've discoved a "feature" in the 'crew' screen which keeps replacing a purchased senior seaman in the list of 'crewmen in base'. So I began my first patrol with 14 of the b**gers :-) . This 'feature' also permutes the list of officers, so that an officer with any given combination of quals (as long as one is watch/flak/gun, and there are either 2 or 3 [edit: or 1] quals) can be made to appear. All this is acheived by clicking between 'award' and 'barracks' on the 'crew' screen.

Hi Robert - thanks for the ego massage ;-) . Hope your career is continuing, unlike mine!

[9emini]

In an effort to encourage replies to my above questions, I thought I'd bump them and simultaneously update my progress on the new campaign. Only sunk 1 merchant ship on patrols 2 and 3 before earning enough renown to score a VIIb (IIRC...). Its deck gun completely rocks! I took out 11 merchant ships with it on my 4th patrol and have just begun my 5th journey, to the hitherto unvisited waters southwest of the UK. My first kill on the 5th was a neutral merchant (whoops! I'm used to engaging vessels after seeing red markers on map, not coming across them out of the blue and having to check their flag)! I realise now that the sooner this sub is acquired the better, so spending renown on crew is not something I'll be doing during future careers. IIRC I get 1680 renown or something at career start as I finished the tuts with flying colours, so hopefully after first patrol the VIIb will be within reach (after my inevitable death on current campaign).

[A Very Super Market]

Ahhh, I can barely remember how stock worked....

Flak gun will do nothing against any ship you will be trying to sink. They work on PT boats, but they'll rip you a new one if given the chance.

Always go silent when encountering destroyers. Stay away from shallow waters. Make sure you turn off silent running after you're clear. It'd be wrong to give you a cheat sheet on how to evade destroyers, so you're on your own with that. Just remember that stock AI is a LOT easier than GWX or any other super-mod

It barely matters in the rank of the crew, so buy as many as you want. I'd say you wasted quite a bit of renown in that purchase though.

The constant cycling of the officers is perhaps an exploit, but I highly doubt that there were only 5 different prospective U-boot officers at one time, and there were definitely much more than 10 seamen or petty officers wanting to sign up. Whatever you choose.


I don't think you should be trying a super-mod just yet. Get a feel for the game first, maybe until you get all the medals or something. In the meantime, you should install SH3 commander, it will give you a lot of different options to mess around with, and make managing your crew a lot easier.

[Keelbuster]

9emini,

if you're still playing stock i would advise you to install a mod asap. Mind you, I started on stock, and it sucked me in - i remember those black contact lines on the nav map for sonar contacts. Anyway, i can't see any reason not to get up to speed - the modding community has gone apesh#t with this stuff, and it's way worth indulging in the product of their efforts. I've played a few mod packages, but I'm pretty happy with the GWX package. Plus a few extras.

Anyway, welcome aboard mate. Sounds like you're getting sucked into this submarining business just like we were.

Cheers!

[RoaldLarsen]

I'm trying! Had to begin a new career, as I 'enjoyed' my first destroyer encounter yesterday, which annihilated the boat during my 5th(?) patrol! Today's first new patrol went real well - 5 torpedoes, 4 kills! I really feel like I'm getting the hang of the TDC...
That's really quite good for a newbie! I don't think my early careers in Ducks were that successful.

Couple of questions have arisen I'm afraid: can destroying cargo on board a cargo ship using (don't laugh! It's all I've got this early on!) the flak cannon, help contribute to its sinking? Am I right in guessing that cargo is the _only_ thing worth 'flakking' on a cargo ship? Flak shells (AP) don't seem capable of puncturing hull or bridge etc...

I can't say for sure that blowing up deck cargo cannot contribute to sinking a metal ship, but if it does, it is a very small contribution. You might want to try out your flak gun on a fishing boat or a tugboat. It might also be useful if you are ever silly enough to have a gunfight with a PT boat or an armed trawler. I woudn't advise doing this without a deck gun, though, and even then, it is safer to evade.

Given I don't want the first destroyer I see to end my career (again!), what can be done on encountering one? I dove to 100m, changing course 90deg just after I submerged, after it opened fire at me on surface. It kept pinging me and I wasn't sure how to respond. Silent running? Sit still? Hmmm... one of the great arts to be learned in SH3 I'm guessing!

Thr best way to avoid having a destoyer sink you is to prevent him from ever detecting you. Once he has seen you - HIDE! You can't outrun a destroyer on the surface (with enough of a lead, you can run away from trawlers and corvettes), so dive.
If the destroyer can't hear you, either because he is moving fast or pointed away from you, you can and should move fast underwater, away from where he last knew you to be. If he could be listening to you (he's pointed towards you, not too far away, and not moving fast) then you must go silent. Drop engine revs to 100 or lower (usually 2 knots), rig for silent running, turn with no more than 10 degrees rudder, and try to keep your bow or stern pointed at him to reduce your reflective profile. (Hard to do at slow speed and little rudder.) All this time you want to be diving as deep as the ocean floor and your pressure hull will let you.

Turning right after you dive will slow your boat significantly. You don't want to slow down until just before he can start listening to you. You want to put as much possible distance between you and the location at which you dived, because he'll start his search at your last known location. So, either turn sharply just before you go silent, or turn slowly after you go silent.

Turning right after you dive can work against aircraft, if they have already dropped their first pattern. The time they take turning around for the next pass is usually enough for a sharp turn to take you out of harm's way.

If a surface ship lines you up for a depth charging (you hear him pick up speed at close range, coming right toward you), alter course and speed to try to evade the bombs. Do this only if you are fairly sure he has your postion - otherwise you have just given yourself away. The deeper you are, the more time you have to get out of the way of the depth charges.

Once you get them, decoys can be planted at places you expect him to search for you. These can give you a few more seconds to get farther away.

Oh - and just how many senior seamen (50 renown) are we supposed to be allowed to purchase before the first patrol? I've discoved a "feature" in the 'crew' screen which keeps replacing a purchased senior seaman in the list of 'crewmen in base'. So I began my first patrol with 14 of the b**gers :-) . This 'feature' also permutes the list of officers, so that an officer with any given combination of quals (as long as one is watch/flak/gun, and there are either 2 or 3 [edit: or 1] quals) can be made to appear. All this is acheived by clicking between 'award' and 'barracks' on the 'crew' screen.
Well-known exploit. Generally the renown cost is a pretty good indicator of the return on investment. I prefer to upgrade systems on the boat first, before upgrading crew or petty officers. Sometimes a good officer can be worth the renown cost. I usually upgrade radar detectors first, then batteries, decoys, anti-sonar coating, engine, hydrophones, conning tower, flak guns and finally sonar and radar. The general pattern is defensive stuff before offensive stuff.

[mookiemookie]

The best advice I can give about being pinged (early war, mind you) is to go to flank speed and present the smallest angle you can towards the DD pinging you. You can go to flank speed for a few seconds in order to get your ass-end towards the DD, as they can't use their hydrophones when pinging...don't worry about your "stealth meter" turning red while doing this. Once you get your butt towards them and you go back to slow speed, it'll quickly go back to green. Just make sure that you don't go any more than 2 knots (unless you're pulling an evasion move as described above) and try to get to at least 100 meters deep and you shouldn't have any problems in early war.

After late '41/early '42...well, the rules change. I'll let you figure that out for yourself. :arrgh!:

[9emini]

Well, my stock days may be over: I've just joined the bottom feeders during my 12th patrol during which I left St Nazaire for the first time (after some trouble finding the place...). 300 kilotons sunk in total woohoo. I came across a convoy at night in my assigned grid square, but its warship escort made depressingly short work of me. It all went bad when I submerged to avoid being spotted (about 3km from nearest ship) and promptly received a "We've been spotted, Sir!" message. Guess they heard me... I then surfaced to take on the Flower (?) Corvette racing toward me with my deck gun but quickly received some damage which I elected to repair UNDERwater :-) . Dropped to 100m but was soon done-in by depth charges. It's quite eerie (and terrifying) using the 'scope to peer at the surface while 100m down and seeing your nemises travelling above you with barrel after barrel pouring out their rear.

[Torplexed]

Now am I right in thinking that some of you fanatics play this game without time compression / pausing?!?! Even when leaving / approaching base? That's hardcore!
A devoted crazy few maybe. I'm not one of them.

Welcome aboard. :salute:

I then surfaced to take on the Flower (?) Corvette racing toward me with my deck gun
Ooo. You never wanna go gun to gun with an escort on the surface. He's better armed and armored than you. Your deck guns are really only for polishing off unarmed or lightly armed merchant ships.

[Laufen zum Ziel]

Sounds like you jumped right into the http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii113/laufen345/fire3_red.gif

[Sailor Steve]

I use GWX3 and always enter and leave port in real time. On patrol I max at 128x, getting the feel of long boring patrols without actually doing them. Still takes awhile though.

Agree with Torplexed: I never engage in surface combat with a surface combat ship. That's a sure way to end a career today.

As for looking at ashcans dropping on you, I can't - I use SH3 Commander and have the water density set for 2, which means I can barely see the bow as the scope comes up.

Buying sailors: I never spend renown for crew. SH3 Commander lets me give them all the qualifications and medals I want after one patrol, and occasionally transfers them out and replaces them with other qualified men. In fact I hardly ever spend renown on upgrades, either - I only buy things I think would be normal for BdU to offer me at any given time.

I just can't let go of my WE Assistance or External Views, so I'm perpetually stuck at 84%. I'm to lazy for manual targetting, and only use the external for screenshots, so I'm still able to convince myself I'm playing realistically...
:rotfl: