SH3 Rookie going straight in at the deep end.

[Stargazer]

Hiya,

I've only just jumped on the Silent Hunter bandwagon and surprisingly, it has struck me in a massive way that I hadn't anticipated. Silent Hunter is like nothing else I've ever tried and I am loving it.

I have done what seems to be the sensible thing and put the GWX3 mod in. Admitredly, I went against most of the advice by competing the training exams, doing just a single career mission and then updating to Grey Wolves. Rather than getting to grips with it all first and then going for the mod.

But I'm glad I did. Just the eye-candy alone is worth the update and with all the game-play elements as well, I think I'm better off this way.

I intend to have a serious search through the downloads section here this afternoon and will ensure I equip myself with the Commander utility that my pre-registration browsing led me to beleive was even more necessary than Silent Hunter itself!

I do have a couple of questions though... (Don't all newcomers?)

Mainly to do with the transition from stock SH3 to GWX3.

1) The interface is slightly more hidden than it was. This is good. It makes everything slightly tidier. But I have a stopwatch tucked away at the top of the screen that I can drag about. This is not so good.

For the time being, the stopwatch in the periscope interface is fine for me. Is there a way for me to switch off the UI stopwatch to tidy things up further?

1a) As well as the stopwatch, I now seem to get additional popouts. The command menu in the top left is good, but I've got gauges that come in from mid-left (mostly okay) and a monolithic, garguantan navigation compass thing that slides out from the right. Any switches or cfg tweaks to pick and choose which of these I can keep and which to deactivate?

2) As a newbie, I'm starting slow and will vamp up the difficulty as I get more familiar with it. GWX has made the map show all boats/ships in the same colour.

How do I make it revert back to friendly and enemy colours while I get to grips with it all?

2a) Additionally, it doesn't show direction the vessel is travelling in. How would I re-enable this?

3) GWX has (and I can understand why) removed the orange surface marker from the external camera that shows where your boat is submerged and what direction you're travelling in.

However, as someone who has traditionally stuck with Racing and Flight simulation, I'm used to having windows that I can see out of in all directions. Something that Subs don't have. So I'm using lots of external cams for the time being (also, I don't think I'll ever get tired of some of the visuals) and when I'm top-side, it's nice to know where I am in relation to the aggressive looking destroyer that's doing the rounds.

4) This one might be a GWX thing but I think probably not since it was a lengthy process first time around. I have left weapon reload times as realistic. And then I got told that it was going to be about 25mins for a torpedo to be loaded back into the tube.

Now I know crew maangement and training is something I need to invest in, but 25mins?! Can that be right or has something gone wonky somewhere?



Apologies for an overlong first post, for asking questions that you're probably sick of hearing (I did look first, I promise... Just didn't find them) and for only becoming interested six years and two sequels too late.

Regards,

Rob.

[Gargamel]

1) You can just slide it off the screen.

1a) Your going to want that huge compass, makes it easy to get set your course on t he first try, instead of multiple clicks in the crap shoot that is your small compass.

2) You have to visually identify the ship. See the numerous threads on neutral ships for help with this.

2a) You mean on the map? The compass tells you your direction, and for realism, the map doesnt show ship direction, but there are mods to re-enable it.


3) Realism. You'll get used to it. In my experience, I've found the free cam always points north, and if you know your course, you can tell relative bearings to ships.

4) Again, Realism. These are HUGE tubes filled with explosives. They just didnt slam them in there. It was such a long procedure, they rarely reloaded while under fire, as a dropped torpedo could be a bad thing.

[Stargazer]

Thanks for the answers.

It's funny... I only spent 2 days with the stock version of the sim, yet I got so into it that these changes have really knocked me off my stride.

I guess I'll have to get used to it. i can see your point about the big compass. Now that you mention needing several clicks to get the exact bearing you were hoping for I realised that an UBER-sized one is probably not too shabby a tool to have.

The rest of it I could learn to live with, but the surface marker I think is a must.

I like to use the free cam to move about and check things and then zoom back near to where my boat is and then dip under the water. Call it the (wannabe) film maker in me, but there's something great about flying from the ship I just torpedoed, back past the rest of the fleet, under the waves and then see my tub.

I'm not yet a master navigator and I'm not likely to be entering any screenshot or video competitions, so this would be a great little tool to reactivate.

I'm willing to live with all the other things as they are now if anyone can name a fix for this one thing.

Cheers,

Rob.

[Stargazer]

Found it...

Tried another search and this time, stumbled upon an ancient thread almost totally obscured by cobwebs and spiders.

Another problem with arriving late to the party... Lots of stuff to trawl through and catch up on.

[frau kaleun]

The GWX Contact Color mod will return the friendly/enemy/neutral colors to your ship icons, as well as the directional "tails" that you were used to seeing in stock.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=33

To get the surface marker for your u-boat back, you can try these:

http://www.filefront.com/15467417/Umark.7z/
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=702

I'm pretty sure the first one returns it, the second one definitely says so in its description.

I found the big slideout compass unnerving at first and I still wish it wasn't so 'sensitive' to me mousing about in that area - even so it's now my 'go to' choice for navigation because of the added precision, as Gargamel has rightly pointed out that little one doesn't allow for anywhere near the kind of precision you get with the GWX slideout one.

[Stargazer]

Perhaps one day I might not need these. Today is not yet that day.

Much Fab!

Thanks ever so!

[frau kaleun]

You're welcome!

I never played enough stock to really miss the surface marker - in fact I don't even think I knew there was one until I reinstalled the game for some reason and happened to load something in stock and go to external cam when I was submerged. So I found its presence more disconcerting than its absence, lol.

But I put the colors/tails back almost immediately after adding GWX - which, like you, I did very quickly after getting the game and coming here for information. And I still have them there, and it may be a while before I let them go. That and manual targeting will be my last big hurdles, I think. :D

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD! :sunny:

1) The interface is slightly more hidden than it was. This is good. It makes everything slightly tidier. But I have a stopwatch tucked away at the top of the screen that I can drag about. This is not so good.
The "grab" for the chronometer is actually just below it, so you can push it all the way up and out of the screen, where you can't see it at all, but still bring it down if you want to lower the periscope and still time the torpedoes.

1a) As well as the stopwatch, I now seem to get additional popouts. The command menu in the top left is good, but I've got gauges that come in from mid-left (mostly okay) and a monolithic, garguantan navigation compass thing that slides out from the right. Any switches or cfg tweaks to pick and choose which of these I can keep and which to deactivate?
Those are a duplicate of the ones that come up if you click the LI (Chief Engineer) and ask for 'Reports'. They put them as a slideout to make it quicker and easier to check your fuel and batteries.

As pointed out, the giant compass makes selecting a precise course a whole lot easier. That is actually taken from my favorite mod, which makes everything a popout, so the screen is always clear, and all the guages are giant like that one.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=1401974&postcount=5

However, since all our tastes are different, here is how to make it go away:

1. Make backups of [SH3 install]\data\Menu\menu_1024_768.ini and one of [SH3 install]\data\Menu\cfg\Dials.cfg

2. Edit the menu_1024_768.ini and find the string [G3F I300] in there.

You've got to delete the following eight blocks (the ones 'g3f i300' to 'g3f i307'). (That's no problem because no blocks are following behind them in this section).

3. Go to the ...\data\Menu\cfg\Dials.cfg to it's very end and delete the the block there (which begins with [Dial 52]). You should also go to the beginning of the dials.cfg and decrease the DialsNo setting by one.

I know that seems a little daunting for a beginner, which is why you make a backup first, so if it doesn't work you can just switch them back. Unfortunately there is no easier way, as every mod changes that file so any changes someone else made for you would not be exactly the same. Follow the instructions carefully and jump right back with any questions.

2) As a newbie, I'm starting slow and will vamp up the difficulty as I get more familiar with it. GWX has made the map show all boats/ships in the same colour.

How do I make it revert back to friendly and enemy colours while I get to grips with it all?
Frau K has given you the link to fix that one, so I'll just say that the real answer is visually ID the flags, and compare to the upper-left slideout that shows who is what at any time period. I actually use a mod that removes all contacts from the map, but still lets them show up once they are IDed.

[4) This one might be a GWX thing but I think probably not since it was a lengthy process first time around. I have left weapon reload times as realistic. And then I got told that it was going to be about 25mins for a torpedo to be loaded back into the tube.

Now I know crew maangement and training is something I need to invest in, but 25mins?! Can that be right or has something gone wonky somewhere?

[Jimbuna]

Perhaps one day I might not need these. Today is not yet that day.

Much Fab!

Thanks ever so!

Nothing I can add here other than to say Welcome Aboard and enjoy the GWXperience.

You'll get all the help you need on this forum http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif