S.O.S.

[Fido]

I have owned SH3 for almost 5 yrs but initially used it as a teaching aid, (I was a Military History Instructor at a U.S. college), I have since moved to the Netherlands, and just now dusted off this outstanding game. I played it stock for a while, then added the GWX3 Gold mod, that's when a couple of little problems cropped up. Problem #1 No matter what I do, I can not complete either the torpedo or naval artillery courses in the Naval Academy section. I can sink and verify every target destroyed, but I still do not get credit for all of my kills. Secondary Objective: Sink all merchant ships, always is listed as incomplete. #2 The sights on my deck gun, when in magnified mode will start to creep to the left after 20 or so rounds. It is not ship movement, it is consistent, and happens when both the target and my sub are motionless on a calm sea. It gets so bad I have to aim at least 15*degrees off target to make a hit, even at close range. I have changed out my gun crew, in case of fatigue, but to no avail. #3 It seems that the GWX mod strips out the AP, Star Shell, and AA rounds from the deck gun, well I can do with out AA and Star Shells, but on more than one occasion I have been forced to surface only to find myself face to face with an escort. With only HE, all I can do is fire away and wait for the inevitable end to come; it would give me comfort to be able to at least fire a few AP's in case a lucky hit just might save my boat and crew. Any help would be appreciated. These little problems take away from a game and mod, that together are truly great.

[OuNiS]

#1 It is not necessery to achieve all goals at the courses.
You will learn more and harder on your war patrols (especialy in GWX).

#2 I don't understand the problem.

#3
First. GWX = more realism.
From GWX 3.0 Gold manual page 56: 'GWX has eliminated all armor-piercing and star shell ammunition since U-boats did not carry these ammunitios types historically".
Second. Fighting with escorts when you are surface is some kind of suicide.
In GWX you have no chance to win such encounter even if you have unlimited AP shells. 'Fragile' U-boat structure against gunfire from destroyer will be always broken.

[Fido]

OuNiS :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/cfsfido/Capture_02052010_144002.jpg
Hope this helps, when I fire, my rounds are falling far to the left of the center of my sight picture. Sorry, my explanation was so vague.

Fido

[Ping Panther]

:DL
# 2 Deck Gun: traverse aiming adjustments?
:hmmm:
Variable A = gun optics
Variable B = gun barrel distortion/warp due to overheating

"Barrel distortion is a divergence from the rectilinear projection in geometric optics where image magnification decreases with increasing distance from the optical axis. The visible effect is that lines that do not go through the centre of the image are bowed outwards, towards the edge of the image."... this covers the optics variables you may be experiencing in this awesome simulation... Variable A :up:

So, tie this variable together with... of simulated barrel warp affecting the trajectory from 20+ rounds fired in quick succession... this would be Variable B :up:

There ya go! GWX3 = the ultimate simulation! :har:
It's FRIDAY!!! (Fido, About your #3, I do agree that despite historical GWX to have only HE rounds, a small stash of AP's would not be out of order.)

[Fido]

Ping Panther :

Thanks for your help, between you and OuNiS, I am just now beginning to understand the depth, pardon the pun, of this game. I would have never imagined that The Gray Wolves might have simulated a gun tube overheating.
Thanks again
Fido

[ryanglavin]

The problem #2 is really realistic, IMO. Like when are you going to have a 5000 yard gun battle?

And my own question: Do you just randomly encounter subs in GWX or are they on a certain path?

[Ping Panther]

Fido, I truly am joking about this level of SH3 simulations to the gunnery physics! I just really enjoy the scope (sub pun!), of the historical elements, all the folks here, and the depths (sub pun!) of discussions and general help we all provide the best we can around here at SubSim. And it's really been a LONG week here for me, and it's FRIDAY! :up:

Hey, and Welcome Aboard Fido! I caught you are fairly new on posting here. Cheers!

[Snestorm]

AP Shells? Escorts?

First: You should not be trying to slug it out with a warship.
Historicaly, he WILL win.

Second: Destroyers, and their smaller cousines, are NOT armoured.
(Neither are merchants).

The name Destroyer is shortened from Torpedo Boat Destroyer.
You are a Torpedo Boat, that can dive in an emergency, or for torpedo attack.
"The primary weapon of the uboat is the torpedo." - Karl Dønitz

[Fido]

Thanks for all of your responses, but I would like to clear up one small point; I would never, ever, intentionally surface my boat to engage a warship of any kind, I know that would be like taking a knife to a gun fight. My thoughts were, that in the event, I were forced to surface, or could not submerge, because of damage, (flooding from depth charge attacks, etc), with a few AP rounds on board we could at least go down fighting, maybe even give 'em a bloody nose.

Fido :salute:

[maillemaker]

My deck gun habitually shoots to the left also.

Steve

[Jimbuna]

SINK EM ALL!! http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[BillCar]

Actually, you can win surface battles against escorts with HE shells in GWX 3.0.

I don't know how, but I did it just last night. In calm seas and broad daylight, I sank two Black Swans and one Flower corvette in under two minutes with the deck gun, while attacking a convoy. I posted about it in the "Tell us what you are up to in your current campaign" thread.

Guess I'm just lucky. The only reason I was on the surface was because of an error in blowing ballast that could not be fixed, so I figured I was as good as dead and might as well shoot back – not only did I survive the artillery engagement, I subsequently sank a merchant ship in that convoy with my stern tube.

I took two hits – one from the flower and one from the second Black Swan. The first Black Swan apparently never even had a chance against my furious 88mm, poor guy.

[ryanglavin]

I took two hits – one from the flower and one from the second Black Swan. The first Black Swan apparently never even had a chance against my furious 88mm, poor guy.

It is slightly easier to destroy the corvettes, because they have ALOT less guns than the destroyers. If it was a destroyer fight, you would die.

[BillCar]

It is slightly easier to destroy the corvettes, because they have ALOT less guns than the destroyers. If it was a destroyer fight, you would die.

I know. Realistically, I shouldn't have survived any of that. Black Swans have plenty of guns as it is. I don't know what went on there, but GWX has never allowed me to get away with something quite THAT insane before.

[ryanglavin]

I know. Realistically, I shouldn't have survived any of that. Black Swans have plenty of guns as it is. I don't know what went on there, but GWX has never allowed me to get away with something quite THAT insane before.
I once sank a battleship in GWX 3.0 with a deckgun... But the escorts left, it had a 40 degree list to one side, and I went to the other and started shelling it. 210 shells later, and, whabam!

[bigboywooly]

AP shells - as posted - will make no difference to anything below a cruiser as not armoured
Not 100% certain they are much different ingame than the HE anyway

Not sure RE your problems in the naval academy as never done it :oops:

[Sailor Steve]

Actually, you can win surface battles against escorts with HE shells in GWX 3.0.

I don't know how, but I did it just last night.
Because the game is wrong in that area, and all the mods in the world don't seem to be able to fix it.

Corvettes only carried a single deck gun, true, but they carried a 40mm AA gun aft and it would very quickly kill the entire u-boat crew on deck in a matter of seconds (and did in at least one case).

Part of the problem is that the game lets the player be much more accurate with the deck gun than the AI can be, which leads to the second problem, that of the gunsight wandering to the left.

Simply put, it's unrealistic for the captain to be shooting the deck gun at all. And if he did, he would almost certainly be less qualified at it than a trained gunner (though another thread mentions that the Ubootwaffe didn't have a gunner rating).

Bottom line: The game lets us play unrealistically, and only our own self-monitoring can fix that.

[BillCar]

Yeah, I definitely don't plan on doing it again. I just did it because I'd surfaced by accident (blew ballast), so I figured I was a goner anyway. I was very, very surprised when I turned out to be the terror of the surface fleet.