About Community Manual, bugs, VII-C/42, IX-D2

[kirka80286]

Hello everybody.
First an important update as of this day: After I turned the Internet upside down and inside out I was finally able to find the community manual here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20071012230924/http://www.mysh3.info/shiii/index.php?title=Main_Page

As you can see, that's an archived page so I suggest you save it on your computer like I did for nobody knows when it will disappear. All the other links I found are long dead.
That said, I have few very important issues with SH3, hope you can help:

Please, provide recent, working links to a patch that has proven good and healthy. I totally rely on you as to which version is best. Or, if not a patch, at least some tools and means of modifying some files accordingly. I've been playing the original unpatched version and it starts to annoy me big time as bugs are one too many:

* Supercharger and improved batteries NOT working after you load an in-mission save. That I can tell, and maybe other upgrades are disregarded too, I don't know.
* Crush depth of ALL subs in single mission absolutely the same and equals (I guess) the one of your current career sub. I tried each and every sub in single mission, from IIA to XXI. Made the most subtle and gentle dive ever made, at 1 knot, no hurry! And guess what - ALL subs have the same depth meter ranges. ALL of them gave me warning at 160m. And, with the exception of XXI which gave up at ~220m, ALL of them crushed at 180-185m. Now these are the depth figures of my current VIIC in career, March'42. And I know some of them "ladies" COULD go deeper than 180! That's just wrong.
* Repair times are supernatural. I remember in SH2 fixing stuff for days and here they twist the wrench for a couple of minutes and there ya go, good as new!
* Crew members are restless after that round octagonal medal, think it was German cross in gold. That is cool, but not realistic. I understand morale and everything, but please...
* 80% of my mission time is in storm, regardless season or location. Come on, they didn't have that much storm even in "Das Boot"!
* Worse yet, often it won't allow me to arm the deck gun in dead calm sea, saying it was storm. And it's not!
* Sometimes ships' endurance is beyond. 4 fishes for a small merchant!?! Dafuq is that ship?
* XXI's batteries' range and recharge time have nothing to do with reality.

And finally, when and where do VII-C/42 and IX-D2 appear? So far, I've only seen them in the manuals (including the community one) regarding technical characteristics. Nowhere in the timeline of flotillas, nowhere to be found, nothing. To a point where I doubt if they are for real in this game, or just put in the manuals for more eye candy.

Thanks for your attention and I really, really would be glad if someone replied to that post.

P.S. I did post the very same thread in ubi's forums. I'm NOT a spammer or something, just want to double my chances of getting an answer to the issues above. That's why I registered there and here. Good hunt!

[Raptor]

To use deck gun and/or flak guns in any weather, open the sub type.cfg file.

Scroll down to the line for Storm Conditions.

Change Storm Conditions=7,0.1; to =30,30.1 to allow use of deck gun in any weather conditions.




Example for VIIC:

c:/ProgramFiles(x86)/Ubisoft/SilentHunterIII/Data/Submarine/NSS_Uboat7b.cfg

default:
StormConditions=7,0.1;max wind speed [m/s], max rain intensity [0,1]

changed to:
StormConditions=30,30.1;max wind speed [m/s], max rain intensity [0,1]

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SH3 screwed up the medals big time. In the first place, the u-boat (war) badge and the front clasp are reversed. The u-boat war badge was awarded after the 1st war patrol if a vessel was sunk or after the 2nd war patrol irregardless. The example below reduces the renown required from 500 to 5, resulting in a more realistic award. The Front Clasp did not even appear until 1944, so to make it unobtainable until then, the example below changes the tonnage required from 5000 to 500000. Change the tonange back to something between that required for the GCG and the KC in 1944 if you want it available.

The Iron Cross 2nd Class was given out commonly. The change below makes it easier to get. I changed the tonnages for the other medals to reflect the unusual ease of racking up big tonnage kills in SH3 vs. reality. Use my numbers or make up your own.


To adjust renown needed for medal awards, either use SH3 Commander (which allows you to give whatever whenever to whomever) or with stock SH3 or SH3+GWX:

Edit SilentHunterIII/Data/cfg/Basic.cfg

[MEDALS_CREW]
DecreaseFatigueMax=0.1
IncreaseMoraleMin=0.1
RenownStep=500; RENOWN, u-boat badge...............changed to 5
SunkInPatrol=5000; TONNAGE, front clasp................changed to 500,000 to eliminate this award
RenownStep2ndClass=20000; TONNAGE, IC 2nd..........changed to 10000
SunkInPatrol1stClass=30000; TONNAGE, IC 1st...........changed to 40000
SunkInPatrolGerman=40000; TONNAGE, GC.................changed to 80000
SunkInPatrolKnights=50000; TONNAGE, KC.................changed to 120000 for a type VII or 250000 for a type IX

Your Tonnage May Vary.........


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[Raptor]

Unrealistically short repair times:

Select REALISTIC REPAIR TIMES from the Realism settings for your career. Even these are too short.


There actually is a mod that extends repair times to a more realistic value. See http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1185 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1185) It is designed for use with SH3 with GWX3.0 installed.

Longer Repair Times v2.04 Full ('LRT') modification for use with GWX v3.0 'Gold'

Created by ZMC.

The goal of this mod is to 'hopefully' make SH3 more realistic, challenging, and fun.

Main features of Longer Repair Times v2.04 mod include:

a) Much longer U-boat repair times than vanilla SH3.

This was implemented because the usual one or two minute equipment repair times in vanilla SH3 game is just plain ridiculous, and borderline cheating. Real U-boat damage could take up to a day or more to repair, or couldn't be repaired at all, and the U-boat would have to abort back to base early. This is what I am trying to model with this mod. It will now be very rash to run in attacking convoys recklessly without considering the consequences. Also, it is highly recommended that you qualify some crew with the repair skill. Expect heavily damaged equipment to take up to 16 hours+ to repair. Also expect to abort more often back to base due to unrepairable equipment, just like it was in real life.

b) Less U-boat crew compartment deaths below deck, and greatly increased chance of crew deaths on top deck.

This was implemented because crew deaths inside U-boat compartments caused by depth charges happen much too often in vanilla SH3. In real life, most U-boat crew deaths were caused by drowning due to flooding or pressure hull failure, being killed on the top deck by enemy gunfire from aircraft or ships, being killed by bomb explosions on top deck, or drowning or freezing to death in the open sea after abandoning the U-boat. Most U-boat crew deaths were not caused by the actual depth charge explosion.

c) Much slower U-boat compartment flooding times

This was implemented for two reasons. First, due to the decreased crew efficiency (to make the repair times longer), I had to slow down the flood times because the crew couldn't ever stop the flooding before the compartment filled up. Now, this isn't an issue. Second, when a compartment completely fills up with water, you are dead- game over. I think this is also ridiculous. With LRT v2.04, the compartments fill up much slower with water, sometimes taking more than 1000 minutes to completely fill up. This will give your crew more time to battle the flooding, without always getting the instant flood death game over screen. So realize that there is a good chance that you will die from being crushed at extreme depths due to pressure hull failure, and much less likely to die from actual complete compartment flooding.

d) Less U-boat instant death (game over) screens from 0% Hull Integrity

I am trying to lessen the instant death screens due to hull integrity reaching zero percent (due to depth charges, enemy shells and bombs). What I have done is greatly increased all U-boat hit points and gave each compartment it's own armor rating (no more dependence on hull integrity). Now there is less relevance of hull integrity, except when diving past crush depth. All U-boat crush speeds were greatly increased to make up for the increased U-boat hitpoints. You won't have much time to live once hull failure begins (when going past crush depth). Internal and external u-boat equipment will still be damaged normally.

e) Uncertainty of repair and flood recovery times

I removed all flood and repair timers for realism reasons. This was just too arcadish in my opinion. Now you will only have a basic estimate of repair and flooding recovery times, just like a real U-boat captain would. As the captain of a U-boat, you will have to use your own best judgement. Hopefully this new feature will add a bit of realism, uncertainty, and fun to your SH3 experience.