Realism

[Sea Sap]

Ahoy shipmates! . I'm a bit of a sucker for realism and I'm trying to make the SH3 experience as realistic as possible. I'm on 100%, I have GWX3, dead is dead, I've found a way to give new crews different names (I was starting to have dreams about the ghost of Adolf Carlwitz) and I'm only eating bread when it has a healthy white coating on it. I've trawled the forum and elsewhere on the net and found a pile of info about U boats but one thing I'm still a bit unsure about - Did commanders periodically submerge their boats to listen for contacts? I can understand them doing so if they already had the scent but on the off chance? Would they really have done this every hour or so?

[Venatore]

Would they really have done this every hour or so?

Quotes from the movie Das Boot

Lt. Werner: What's going on? Why are we diving?

2nd Lieutenant: Hydrophone check. At sea, even in a storm you can hear more down here than you can see up there.

[danlisa]

Welcome to Subsim.:yeah:

Did commanders periodically submerge their boats to listen for contacts? I can understand them doing so if they already had the scent but on the off chance? Would they really have done this every hour or so?

Every hour or so is probably too frequent considering the distance they traversed. They certainly periodically submerged when they were at their patrol area because, as you know, sound travels further in water than the eye can see, so it makes sense. The game simulated this with better hydrophone range than that of the MKI eyeball.

TBH, if you are transiting anywhere you consider enemy traffic to be, then it is advisable to submerge (approx 25 - 50m) and listen either manually for a couple of sweeps and allow you crew to do it (allow longer for them to report contacts though, they're a little slow ;)).

[RConch]

I have made it a habit to submerge every night after dark till dawn.
I can hear farther than I can see and it also allows the crew to rest, especially in storms and rough seas.

[Sea Sap]

Just been browsing one or two other sites and they are saying that hydrophones could detect convoys up to 100k away and that on a good day you can see over 20k by eyeball. My guess is, they would submerge maybe every 100k looking for convoys and possibly sometimes pick-up smaller, closer targets by chance when doing so. What I'm looking to do is get as near as possible, within the limitations of the game, to the real behaviour of a u boat patrol and I'm debating with myself whether or not to consider some of the grey box contacts as picked up by periodic stop, submerge, listen techniques rather than actually submerging and doing the listening myself.

[Sea Sap]

What's with the paragraphs on this site?

[Jimbuna]

There is some information here:

http://www.uboataces.com/hydrophones.shtml

[Sea Sap]

Yeah that's one of the sites I've been looking at. Think I'll experiment with considering some of the grey boxes as contacts picked up in this way rather than submerging myself.

[mookiemookie]

Every day they would perform a trim dive to ensure that the boat was balanced and the ballast was distributed correctly. So at least once a day they were going under. I'm sure they used the opportunity to listen for contacts.

[FIREWALL]

Every day they would perform a trim dive to ensure that the boat was balanced and the ballast was distributed correctly. So at least once a day they were going under. I'm sure they used the opportunity to listen for contacts.

:DL Ya beat me to it Mookie. :up: I was thinking that as I was reading all the posts.

Daily trim dives are mentioned in all the books I have.


I would like to see this in SH5 as manditory every 24hrs or boat won't handle right.

[Sea Sap]

Well my first real commander, Gus Kraus just got more realism than he bargained for. On his way back from AN59 after his third patrol, in which he bagged a 10k cargo and a 2k small steamer he got caught sunbathing on deck by a British destroyer, although he managed to submerge and try to creep away he never saw sunlight again. Hope the new guy has better luck!

[FIREWALL]

Well my first real commander, Gus Kraus just got more realism than he bargained for. On his way back from AN59 after his third patrol, in which he bagged a 10k cargo and a 2k small steamer he got caught sunbathing on deck by a British destroyer, although he managed to submerge and try to creep away he never saw sunlight again. Hope the new guy has better luck!


OUCH !!! :dead:

[Snestorm]

As Mookie pointed out, The Daily Trim Dive.

They also had to carry out The Daily Routine (maintenance on all internal torpedoes, including those in tubes).

Figure on being submerged at least 4 hours daily.

The most dangerouse times to be on the surface are:
2 hours prior to sunrise til 2 hours after sunrise.
2 hours prior to sunset til 2 hours after sunset.
(Especialy if your heading into the sun).

That should provide your hydrophone operator more than ample time.

[Brag]

For true realism, before leaving port have a good trim drunk. Hangovers are dealt nicely by the fresh sea breeze that makes you puke.

Gute Jagd :D

[Sailor Steve]

I've found a way to give new crews different names (I was starting to have dreams about the ghost of Adolf Carlwitz) and I'm only eating bread when it has a healthy white coating on it.
SH3 Commander does that for you. With a database of 42,000 first names and the same amount of last names, you get a randomized combination of roughly 1,700,000,000 names.

It does a bunch of other cool stuff too, like naming the merchants you sink and givin cargo and crew information about them.

[Sea Sap]

SH3 Commander does that for you. With a database of 42,000 first names and the same amount of last names, you get a randomized combination of roughly 1,700,000,000 names.

It does a bunch of other cool stuff too, like naming the merchants you sink and givin cargo and crew information about them.

Thanks Steve, I didn't know it did the name thing. I've been toying with the idea of loading SH3 Commander because I can foresee a time when I may want to use the days in base feature. However, I'm reluctant to load any more mods as I have a very low software problem threshold caused by decades of shouting at computer screens. Also My computer reached crush depth on leaving Kiel harbour after loading GWX3, no problems since but it's made me wary of venturing any deeper.

[Sea Sap]

As Mookie pointed out, The Daily Trim Dive.

They also had to carry out The Daily Routine (maintenance on all internal torpedoes, including those in tubes).

Figure on being submerged at least 4 hours daily.

The most dangerouse times to be on the surface are:
2 hours prior to sunrise til 2 hours after sunrise.
2 hours prior to sunset til 2 hours after sunset.
(Especialy if your heading into the sun).

That should provide your hydrophone operator more than ample time.

I figure that the daily trim thing is part of the routine stuff we don't do in the game and for now prefer to consider some of the grey box contacts as found by this method but hey! It's interesting to shoot ideas and learn how others add to the immersion.

[Radio]

SH3Commander isn't a mod and thus does not use any resources. It is a front end to launch/edit/roleplay a Career and SH3. Reading your posts here, I am absolutely sure that you will like it. Trust us about that recommendation, you will no longer play SH3 without it once you have installed it.:up:

[Sea Sap]

SH3Commander isn't a mod and thus does not use any resources. It is a front end to launch/edit/roleplay a Career and SH3. Reading your posts here, I am absolutely sure that you will like it. Trust us about that recommendation, you will no longer play SH3 without it once you have installed it.:up:

Thanks Radio. However, Hermann Koenig has already left Kiel and is now believed to be riding out a storm somewhere in the North Sea. Once I've managed to get him killed the next guy will be a graduate of the SH3 Commander academy.

I just realised my last commander bought it because the guys couldn't repair the damage due to silent running being on. Doh!

[IanC]

Gotta use SH3Commander, just to see the names and cargo of the ships you've sunk! That's a pretty sweet feature.

[Jimbuna]

Thanks Radio. However, Hermann Koenig has already left Kiel and is now believed to be riding out a storm somewhere in the North Sea. Once I've managed to get him killed the next guy will be a graduate of the SH3 Commander academy.

I just realised my last commander bought it because the guys couldn't repair the damage due to silent running being on. Doh!

Once you try it I doubt you'll ever leave port without it http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[Sea Sap]

Ok guys, it appears that Commander Koenig has been put ashore at Heligoland after the crew mutinied due to his, up to then undiagnosed obsessive compulsive disorder.

SH3 Commander is aboard and the new guy will be arriving sometime this afternoon.