How do you balance your desire for realism with your love of the games eye candy?

[PapaSmurf]

Right now I am playing at 86% realism with event camera and external view turned on. I'm trying to learn how to judge escort attack activities by switching between hydrophone and external view to see what is happening on the surface and seeing how that translates to the hydrophones. Problem is, I love the games eye candy so much that I want to look at the external camera a lot. I love watching the escorts searchlights scanning the water and seeing the star shells light up the ocean, things like that. So I was wondering what you do to play the game as challenging as possible but still watch all of the things that add up to make this game as visually enjoyable as it is.

[Sailor Steve]

That's a tough question. I never use the Event Camera, but always have External View turned on. I mainly use it to look at cool stuff, but try to never use it during combat. That said, there are different types of realism. I never use full manual targeting, as I have no math skills at all. I leave myself open to enemy attention by having Manual Targeting turned on, but use the Weapons Officer to get snapshot details, which means putting the 'scope up every couple of minutes to update the information, so while my Difficulty level is lower, the Realism of risking being spotted is high.

Or so I keep telling myself.

[bstanko6]

I have always used 100% realism. I have never use a camera or used any outside visual references. I love 100% realism with that said I am more towards having a realistic plotting tools because I manually target from start to finish. To me I candy is great but getting as close to the real thing is way better.

[PapaSmurf]

Sailor Steve, 10-4 on the different levels of realism and danger. It's just something I wondered about because I just finished a convoy attack where I sank a couple of tankers and the convoy had seven escorts and 3 of them came after me, 2 corvettes and one destroyer, and when the destroyer would make a depth charge run it was like popcorn popping it threw so many at a time and it just seems like it would be quite the challenge to try to make the correct decisions and finally evade the escorts without ever looking outside of the submarine. But watching those depth charges flying off the tail, hearing the mechanical sounds as they are launched and seeing everything else that's happening is too cool to miss. Plus I just have some chicken in me and feel an almost overwhelming urge to peek and get a jump on an evasive maneuver when things get tight. Maybe some patrol soon I'll get gutsy and turn off external view just to see if I can do it because I don't know if I have what it takes to not peek if I have that option...haha.

[PapaSmurf]

bstanko6, that's the nice thing about this game, being able to configure it tofit your likes and dislikes. A question since you are already doing this.ow do you judge distance to escort and know it's close enough for you to have to go to flank speed to evade or just keep creeping along because it's not close enough to be a threat? I know when it's making a run through the hydrophones but can't tell if it's right on top of me or 50 meter away. That's my main problem.

[bstanko6]

I have a pair of sol republic headphones I paid good money for. So I get stereo sound. I know where the escort is coming from the sound inside the sub. As soon as the pinging stops, you will hear the props going over head, flank and change direction. Keep
Flanking until the run is over.

You are not suppose to know exactly where the destroyer is, by realism standards, that's why I love using 100% realism.

[Delanski]

I think I'm playing at 86% or 84% realism.

I only have the External View and Weapons Officer turned on. I use external view just for looking at cool stuff and for snapping screenshots. I try avoid using weapons officers as much as I can. I left it on in case if I would have trouble identifying the target on pitch dark nights or if i have trouble determining the range in rough weather. So far I haven't used it at all.

Recently for my new career, I turned off the God Eye option which disables the ships location on the map and hydrophone contact. It's only early days but I'm liking it so far. Got to be careful when you're leaving port in high TC though so you don't ram into ships. Just take notes of nearby ships and their current heading and you should be golden.

[PapaSmurf]

I never thought of using headphones! I just hooked a pair up and started another patrol. Contacted a convoy in terrible weather. Got 2 hits on a tanker that didn't go down before escorts forced me deep. It's amazing how much more I can hear from inside the sub now. Estimating escorts location and activities is much more doable now. Oh, I had to go into options and turn off the music to be able to hear prop speed good enough but I found I like the feeling of the game better with only environment sounds. Makes the immersion better without the music, actually adds to the tension. Right now I'm learning the sounds from inside the control room without peeking above. This is fun! Thanks for that tip!

[bstanko6]

Headphones are what it's all about. You actually feel like you are inside the boat!!

The hydrophone station becomes a great tool and you can hear props, speed, distance!!

[YellowFin]

I just played a patrol at 100% realism (LSH3). I like it and I decided to only use external camera now when I record for youtube.

I get the eye candy argument, but I think it's outweighed by the experience of tension and pressure when you go 100%.

[Commander Wallace]

Like you, I use the external camera as I like to see the surface ships at night in a panic after being attacked. :D I use high realism and target manually-always. Depending whether I use the XXI or not, I pre target tubes 1-2 to an offset of 20-30 degrees to port and tubes 3-4 to an offset of 20-30 degrees to starboard.

After being picked up by a destroyer or escort and being astern of me, I take a straight line at 1/3 speed and let them pursue. Judging by distance and calculating speed differentials, at about 1-2 minutes depending on how crowded that part of the sea is, I go to flank and throw it over to port or starboard. You can out turn the escorts for the most part. The dangers here to your sub in a maneuver like this are the K guns on the destroyer and whether they have hedgehogs.

If I initially went to to port and the destroyer has passed and overshot me and is now astern or bearing 160 degrees and decreasing, I go to starboard at slow speed and go to the hydrophone station and listen and look at the tactical mode sound trace letting the destroyer / escort approach the bow of my sub at 300-500 meters. Escorts slow to 11 knots to ping you and reacquire as the acoustics are a bit muddied from exploding depth charges.

Since tubes 3-4 are offset to 20-30 degrees to starboard, listen to your hydrophones and look at the sound traces in tactical which are measured. I fire at distances of between 300-400 > meters when they are at about 40 degrees according to the tactical assessment board and is in the " sweet spot. " This allows you to engage the destroyer at the optimal 60-90 degree offset. This also allows for a follow up shot in case you miss. The greater difficulty is the smaller vessels like flower and hunt class ships and especially the armed tugs as the margin for error is greater due to their smaller size. Correct identification is necessary if you set the depth to run under the keel of the ship. With smaller ship like the hunt class, I set my torpedoes for impact and a shallow depth of 1 meter or in the case of not being able to identify the pursuing vessel.

Targeting ships like Merchies that haven't detected you are completely different and you have the fun of calculating speed, distance and angle on the bow. With practice, most can do it and it gives you a fair idea of the challenges that sub commanders faced. SH3 gives you the ability to target manually or automatically letting players grow at their own pace in their abilities.

Give it a shot and enjoy. :)