underwater obserwing with OBS

[ntz]

hello,

little Q: .. i have SH3+GWX+sh3cmdr playing at 100% difficulty (no god's eye) and would like to ask, if using OBS (OBservation Scope, probably should be OBP - OBservation Periscope) when dived in some shalow depth is unrealistic .. i suppose so .. when you're around 50 meters even in night, you can easily track traversing destroyers by an eye using OBS and you see depth charges sinking, whatever ..

pff .. i stopped playing for some time, resting between patrols .. my last patrol ended up after 42 days with all (one remainded in back) torpedos out and only with 2 sunk ships in sum 7k tons .. most of the time rough seas and no visibility .. torpedos either malfunctioned or I just missed 4/5 times .. but as I say, 10/14 torpedos were fired at night at rough sea and at moderate distance to target (800 - 1200 m) .. too dangerous to come closer .. heavily guarded convoy .. i also hit at least once my first big (20k tons) battleship, but other torpedos missed .. frustrating to be captain of submarine .. we also received some damage but thanks to God we returned all in one piece back to our home port .. actually i am #5 in submarine aces rankings after 9 patrols with average 12k tons of destroyed enemy ships per patrol .. from long view still 50% torpedos either missed or malfunctionous ..

thanks for response and regards, ntz

[sublynx]

People here in the forum who have actually been at sea in a war ship say that it's unrealistic. There's two things: apparently the water pressure is too much, as the glass in the periscopes would not be able to take the pressure. Another thing would have been that there are no light sources in a night sea so it would have been too dark to see anything. I guess one might not see much in daylight, either.

About your experiences: hard working nice work there :arrgh!: That's what we love about SH3!

On a side note: you do know that the weather in SH3 can be edited? What I personally try to achieve is continuous stepwise weather changes. The weather in GWX is too static in my mind. Might be days without a slightest weather change. Storms are ok, though. Especially late in the war the storms might keep one alive a little longer as the airplanes don't seem to fly in bad visibility - though I remember reading that NYGM has scripted in some night fliers to the Bay of Biscay

[ntz]

1) sounds interesting .. how are you editing weather behaviour ? it also seems quite static to me .. there are usually 3-4 days in row with same weather no matter if it is calm or rough sea .. also some weather forecast based on radio request sounds very sane and probable to me .. some mod ?

btw i'm also starting to be annoyed by few things:

2) i'm annoyed with that if you play with 100% realism and no god's eye there's only possible to ask WO to tell you the bearing and distance to the closest ship .. is there some way to ask him for a list of ships he sees ? might be some mod .. same with hydrophone .. they always refer only to closest ship .. not realistic that captain has to check manually ..

3) also is there please some mod compatible with GWX3 and providing some usable map & plotting and angle measuring tools (better rulers) .. default rulers are PITA or i just didn't catch how to use them effectively .. ofc i'd welcome even guide to use default rulers

4) also i'd welcome, if WO (based say on his skill and experience) could somehow estimate contacts course and speed .. also welcome it as mod or so

thanks, daniel

ps. currently i'm in patrol .. sunk already 5k tons big cargo and having 8/12 front torpedos (however 2 of them T2) .. following heavily guarded convoy .. rough sea at current moment and if they will keep theirs current speed and course (i guessed theirs route by convoy map in GWX3) i should have at least 72 hours for following them and attack .. but now all what i need is weather forcast :D to decide

[Sailor Steve]

Almost. It's not the glass, but the seals in the periscope shaft that can't take the pressure. And yes, it is too dark to use the periscope to look at things above from underwater. Some players use this to watch depth charges falling. I've seen no record of anyone ever actually doing that.

[ntz]

i do, warships are in the night using reflectors so you guess by a beams direction and shape possition of vessel above .. but if it is not realistic i won't use it .. in the final it always works a same: when you hear motors above you just set full speed ahead to avoid a depth charges :P

i play it hardcore, no loads (reloading game on torpedo miss or submarine death) at all .. if i die, i usually create new captain leaving current KIA .. it's pretty hardcore and i'm even in June 1940 on my 10th patrol .. seems to me, that i'm getting worse in each patrol .. on last patrol (reffered above) i sunk only 2x 3.5k vessels / 13 torpedos in water, in this patrol i set on the floor only one 5k tanker / 4 torpedos (1/2 T2 hits, 2/2 T1 hits to ?finish it) .. i'm starting to think that this will be final result if weather won't come wiser ..

[Pisces]

...
3) also is there please some mod compatible with GWX3 and providing some usable map & plotting and angle measuring tools (better rulers) .. default rulers are PITA or i just didn't catch how to use them effectively .. ofc i'd welcome even guide to use default rulers
...


http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=3704

Is this better? Or do you still not understand how this is to be used?

[sublynx]

1) sounds interesting .. how are you editing weather behaviour ? it also seems quite static to me

To my understanding the weather is mostly controlled by scene.dat. There are some mods that have changed the weather patterns by editing that file or some of the campaign files (campaign_rnd.scr etc IIRC). But scene.dat is the key and you need S3D editor to open it. This forum has some older threads about weather editing and they can be a starting point. If I find values that I like I plan to let the forum know about them, but that will probably take a long time in experimenting.

[ntz]

@sublynx .. thanks .. that would be great .. JFYI, i finished patrol which i mentioned as OT in this thread and now on next (#11) patrol .. weather is now 3-4 days in row 0 m/s wind speed and unlimited visibility .. yeah, it's static indeed ..