Deck Gun Questions

[joefremont]

Hi All,

Trying out SH3 after using SH4 for a while. I am still using the stock game and have a couple of newbie questions about the deck gun.

Why is it that with even a little weather I am not allowed to man the deck gun and:

Why is it that when we man the deck or AA guns the watch crew has to go below decks and finally:

Are there any mods that can fix this?

[Sailor Steve]

Part of the problem of SH3 and its successors is that they had to make them workable with low-powered computers. A wind speed of 7 m/s is about 12 knots an will produce a wave height of about two meters, or seven feet. Waves of that height will be washing over the the u-boat's deck and making it pretty hard to keep your balance while loading a gun. The stock game doesn't show that. At 7 m/s the sea in the game looks flat calm.

One way to overcome that is to use SH3 Commander and set the wave height to 'Double' or to 'Seasonal'. Then you can see the effects of the waves much more clearly.

Another way is to use GWX. That supermod allows you to operate the gun in wind speeds of 11 m/s. You can set the 'Storm Conditions' yourself within the game, but most people don't want to get that involved with the workings of the game. Another problem is that the crew's wet-weather gear is also tied to the 'Storm Conditions' setting. Set it so you can use the guns in 15 m/s winds and they'll never put on their storm gear.

As for the watch crew going below, it's for their own protection. When the guns are in use there is a chance that someone might be shooting back. This is especially true of the AA guns. A watchman is useful for nothing more than getting shot when planes are about.

I don't know if there's a mod for that one or not.

[Jimbuna]

Steve is absolutely correct in his response and a quick fix for using the deck gun would be the 'all weather guns mod' but as already stated this would mean oilskins would never be worn in inclement weather.

You can enable the mod via JSGME:

http://www.mediafire.com/?1iyxvweix26rk1g

[joefremont]

Thanks for the info. Will have to think about if its worth loosing the oil skins to gain the deck gun back. I can understand the logic about the deck gun in bad weather and having the watch crew go below when the AA gun is manned. But the watch officer can still stay on deck and I can't man the AA gun on top of the conning tower when the winds are above 7ms seams silly since they are protected from waves washing over the deck.

On a side note I was doing some research on this topic and read that when the deck gun was engaging a target, the watch crew was forbidden from 'watching', they were required to continue to scan the area for potential threats, so in real life they did not clear the conning tower when manning the deck gun.

Also note, the SH4 u-boat missions does not have this restriction.

[maillemaker]

I can't answer the authenticity of the crew rotation but as for the rough weather, basically with any kind of seas it becomes very dangerous to be on the deck, and likely impossible to hit anything with the deck gun anyway.

Also I use the deck gun ability/disability to know when it is safe to pull in external torpedoes. If the gun can't be manned, then I don't pull in external torpedoes, either.

STeve

[sharkbit]

Also I use the deck gun ability/disability to know when it is safe to pull in external torpedoes. If the gun can't be manned, then I don't pull in external torpedoes, either.

STeve

I would use that same restriction as well as a "personal" realism setting along with stopping to reload externals. It just didn't seem right to be charging around at ahead flank and pulling your externals out to load. :arrgh!:

Hsie's hardcode fixes actually prevent you from loading externals in bad weather and if you are going faster than ahead slow.

:)