New player with a couple of questions

[Rangoon]

I finally picked this sim up through Steam. I also have SH4+expansion. I'm debating playing through SH3 a bit first, then SH4 and by then SH5 will be out. I've been scouring the forums/wiki's about this sim and now need to get serious about playing.

Is SH3 worth it? Or is SH4 just as good/better and therefore a better use of time?

Also...if I do start with SH3, is the general consensus that all one needs is the GWX 3.0 mod? Or are there others to consider instead? Or others to use in concert with GWX?

Thanks! Just need to get rolling here and wanted to check in with some experts.

Edit: I should add that while OLC is fascinating, I don't think I'll be ready to manually compute everything for a while...

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD!:sunny:

Is SH3 worth it? Or is SH4 just as good/better and therefore a better use of time?
Now there's a loaded question! Fans of either will give you highly opinionated answers, and both will be correct. SH4 has gone way beyond SH3 in the realm of graphics and crew management, and it's much more stable, but the modders have kept SH3 very much alive and in some respects more desirable.

Also...if I do start with SH3, is the general consensus that all one needs is the GWX 3.0 mod? Or are there others to consider instead? Or others to use in concert with GWX?
GWX is the most talked about and most used supermod, but NYGM and WAC both have much to offer.

NYGM (Not Your Grandmother's Mod) is a descendant of the first SH3 supermon, RUB (Real U-Boat), and makes the gameplay both tougher and more realistic, and its fans will tell you it is the best by far.

WAC (War Ace Campaign) goes out of its way to deliver all possible real wartime campaigns and ship movements, plus has beautifully rendered harbors, making the experience very much more real and immersive. And its fans will tell you it is the best by far.

GWX (Grey Wolves Expansion) adds its own fantastically rendered harbors, improved gameplay and many surprises along the way, and of course its fans will tell you it is the best by far.

Whichever one you choose you'll probably be happy, and if you try all three you likely will choose one as your favorite, and for your own reasons. One way to test is with MultiSH3, which lets you have several separate installations of the game at the same time.

There are also a great many add-on mods that enhance the experience, probably the most vital being the Keil Canal Locks mod, Water Streams and Exhaust Smoke for u-boats, and Diving Ducks newest Open Hatch mod.

Whichever way you go in the long run, you will also want the best tool ever made for the game, and the one thing that truly sets it apart from SH4: SH3 Commander. This is an external tool that lets you manually adjust things like water color, wave height, deck gun reload times, days spent in base and more; but its real necessity lies in the fact that it adds names, cargoes and crew fatalities to the merchant ships you sink, lets you have a realistic career length if you want, and most importantly adds more than a billion possible crew names and lets you award all the medals and promotions you see fit.

There are also several others I think are great, but they aren't really important so I've left them off for now.

SH4 also has several good supermods going for it, but none add the detail and pure fun of GWX or WAC. That said, SH4 loads faster, has better working time compression and gives a lot of detail SH3 does not. I would try both and decide for yourself.

[Ping Panther]

Very well put Steve. And welcome aboard SubSim, Rangoon! :salute:

I would just mention that once you install which ever way you choose, to also install Jones Soft Generic Mod Enabler. This is the ultimate way to bring the fantastic selection of mods to your Silent Hunter experience.

[Rangoon]

Thanks you guys, glad to be here!

Sailor Steve, I certainly believe what you say about each mod having its own qualities and supporters. I will read a bit more on each of the main three and go from there. I assume from what you said that the other add-on mods will work with whichever supermod I choose and that there are others which I can pick and choose from but which are not crucial to the experience for a new player.

Ping Panther - thanks for the suggestion. Will JSGME work with MultiSH3 which Steve mentioned? Or are these mutually exclusive?

Ah, and another question - is there a 'preferred' or more 'complete' SH3 and/or SH4 mod repository somewhere?

Edit: this is the only one I've found that seems to be the place to start, but maybe there is more out there....

http://www.subsim.com/subsim_files/patches2005_sh3.html

Thanks!

S!