Tactics & Tips

[GoldenRivet]

ok so ... lost my first boat with all hands. long story short, my chief engineer contracted tuberculosis about 2 days into the patrol. the idea is to treat him using an officer with medical skill set and a first aid kit and let him recover in a bunk and hope like hell it doesnt spread.

well... it didnt, but i found a bug. The items that were in my chief engineers que when he contracted the illness - stuck - in his control so any time i needed someone else to manipulate the bilge pump or ballast valve (in this case) i got the message "this is already in use by another crew member" or something similar to that.

well, we were submerged at the time to do a hydrophone check. went to surface... well... nobody could use the ballast tank!

eventually it unstuck and we got to the surface, right under what i assume was a sunderland. we were strafed with machine gun fire and one of the watch crew was injured.

he took to one of the bunks in the forward compartment, one crewman stood beside him and seemed quite exasperated... another sat on the bunk and tried to calm the wounded man.

next we took a near direct bomb hit to the forward compartment (bad luck that guy) sprung a few leaks, damage to the bulkhead, several light bulbs busted out, electrical system completely shorted, everything forward of the control room plunged into darkness and taking water.

equipped one of my officers with breathing apparatus and spare parts, and sent him to work. ordered the compartment evacuated.

and one of the crewmen grabbed the wounded sailor, and dragged him out of the evacuated compartment and took him to an open bunk where he died of his wounds.

meanwhile, two of my mechanically inclined crewmen are working frantically to get the leaks stopped.

the boat was sinking at this point. it was a race against the clock.

next order of business was get the lights back on. again, they grabbed spare parts and eventually got the lights on. things were starting to look better!

ok, leaks stopped, lights on, now i have to get as many people as possible bailing water to the bilge to get it out of the boat. getting very deep now, depth gauge almost pegged :o creaking - groaning

BAM

previous repair to a hatch gave out... there was no saving it now. lost due to implosion.

now for the tips

1. Make sure you have an officer with maintenance skill set, its going to come in handy

2. As early as possible get the sixth officer upgrade, one extra officer comes in super handy

3. Make sure you have someone with medical skill... going to go figure out how to make that happen, but it appears without medical skills - you cant treat sick or wounded sailors :/\\!!

4. Check your torpedo load out before you head to sea, you probably wont start with a full load of fish

6. get plenty of food

7. always have an officer at the navigator station, and when he is low on energy, swap him out... you willget lost at sea if nobody is manning that station and you can get found by assigning someone to it. but it takes several minutes to get found

thats all for now

[zuff]

I have around 20 hours in the game now and would like to go over some tips I've discovered or have picked up over time.


Hold TAB: Great for quickly assigning crew to positions without zooming around the sub trying to find them. Works in any view, as well.
Right Click: Right click on stations to get more options. For example have a crew member selected and right click on the light next to the pump. It'll show you all available colors to select from.
Tactical Map mode: When in the map and nothing else is selected you'll have three buttons at the bottom left. The farthest right one is a tactical map which is great for getting a good overview of the area you're in. Sadly no map tools work in this mode. The regular map can zoom in just as much as the tactical mode though so you can use map tools there.
Don't set off the alarm: When you need to dive but it's not urgent, drop to periscope depth first. Anything past that will set off the alarm lowering morale. After at periscope depth slowly drop your depth. It seems dropping huge increments always set off the alarm (really hope they fix this)
Target three ships at once: You can auto-calculate on three ships at once with a crew member in each the attack, observe periscopes and the hydrophone. Select the position, select a ship, and open target positions on that ship. Do the same for the other ships/positions. You can also triple up on one ship for a faster solution. I like putting three on the first ship, moving 2 to the next ship once the first ship is calculated, and moving the last one to the last ship. Once I fire the first fish at the first ship, I take its targeting crew and move him to the second ship, and so on. It's best to start at the farthest away ship so that your torps have time to reach targets without scattering the rest.
Checkpoints: See those dots on the map? Travel to them to turn them green and make them fast travel points. Great for skipping 15 minutes of mindless travel across the sea.
More O2 and better Morale under water: There are a couple of things you can do to make staying beneath the sea more bearable for your men. First is blue light to indicate silent running. This lowers O2 usage. Second is Ventilation. This extends O2 supply but at the cost of battery.
Red Light at Night: Having the red light on during the night will extend your UZO's crew sight line.


If anyone provides anymore I'll add them to end of this post with credit.


Tips and Tricks from Subsim Members
Deepseadiver: (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=269855)

Oxygen: Potassium cartridges in the ventilator.
Morale/discipline: Good selection of food in the galley(veg, fruit, meat, canned fish, cheeses, canned meat, potatoes)
Morale/discipline: Select radioman to cook
Morale/discipline:Play music, release from duty, if idle release also.
Decoys in the rear torpedo room.
Scrap metal: Get mechanic to make more spare parts at workbench

GoldenRivet (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=229874):

Control room light switch - Right click, it will allow you to then select what light you want on rather than cycling through them one at a time. Red light at night not only improves visibility through the UZO but also visibility of the naked eye slightly (most every click spot aboard the boat has this feature)
Stuck officer work around - if you encounter an item such as the ballast valve that you are unable to operate because of the red text indicating that someone else is using the item, when clearly nobody is (bug) click the evacuate compartment icon in the bottom left of the compartment, everyone will leave the room and it will clear the que for that piece of equipment. then, un-check the evacuation box, and the item will now be usable.
cant use hydrophones work around - sometimes you will find that you cannot make your radio operator switch to the hydrophones once you have gone under water. if this happens, hold TAB key and select the radio officer, on the list of available actions below his icon will be the hydrophones, select those and he will move to the hydrophone station!
Torpedo solutions faster - assign the commander to the attack scope or UZO and assign him an assistant. the captain can calculate torpedo solution for one target, the assistant can calculate a solution on a second target at the same time and if you are submerged, the hydrophone operator can calculate solution on a third target giving you 3 solutions for the price of one!
Faster Crash Dive -
when an aircraft or warship etc is spotted and a quick crash dive is needed, it may take an agonizingly long time for your chief engineer to run from wherever he is to the ballast valves and operate them. so follow these steps instead of ordering a crash dive from the depth gauge.
(1) press the space bar to pause the game
(2) select whichever officer is standing at the navigation table
(3) order that officer to operate the ballast valve
(4) NOW order the crash dive.
(5) set engine telegraph to fastest possible speed.
(6) resume normal game speed
You'll be under in a more reasonable 20-25 seconds

Salvadoreno (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=217718):

Diesel and Electric Engine Saving - if you have officers w/ crewman at the engine stations as well as navigation station, you will increase your battery/fuel life.
Travel Mode - Conserve diesel by traveling @ 7 knots
In Port - Have your torperdoman load the tubes, which gives you 4 spaces open for more torpedo's!

[Deepseadiver]

Oxygen: Potassium cartridges in the ventilator.

Morale/discipline: Good selection of food in the galley(veg, fruit, meat, canned fish, cheeses, canned meat, potatoes)

Morale/discipline: Select radioman to cook

Morale/discipline:Play music, release from duty, if idle release also.

Decoys in the rear torpedo room.

Scrap metal: Get mechanic to make more spare parts at workbench

[GoldenRivet]

Control room light switch - Right click, it will allow you to then select what light you want on rather than cycling through them one at a time. Red light at night not only improves visibility through the UZO but also visibility of the naked eye slightly (most every click spot aboard the boat has this feature)

Stuck officer work around - if you encounter an item such as the ballast valve that you are unable to operate because of the red text indicating that someone else is using the item, when clearly nobody is (bug) click the evacuate compartment icon in the bottom left of the compartment, everyone will leave the room and it will clear the que for that piece of equipment. then, un-check the evacuation box, and the item will now be usable.

cant use hydrophones work around - sometimes you will find that you cannot make your radio operator switch to the hydrophones once you have gone under water. if this happens, hold TAB key and select the radio officer, on the list of available actions below his icon will be the hydrophones, select those and he will move to the hydrophone station!

Torpedo solutions faster - assign the commander to the attack scope or UZO and assign him an assistant. the captain can calculate torpedo solution for one target, the assistant can calculate a solution on a second target at the same time and if you are submerged, the hydrophone operator can calculate solution on a third target giving you 3 solutions for the price of one!

[Salvadoreno]

Diesel and Electric Engine Saving - if you have officers w/ crewman at the engine stations as well as navigation station, you will increase your battery/fuel life.

Travel Mode - Conserve diesel by traveling @ 7 knots

In Port - Have your torperdoman load the tubes, which gives you 4 spaces open for more torpedo's!

[fullmetaledges]

I didn't see the decoy launcher in the aft torpedo room. What is it near?

[zuff]

I didn't see the decoy launcher in the aft torpedo room. What is it near?


Can't confirm but try right clicking on the Ventilation rear torpedo launcher

[GoldenRivet]

Faster Crash Dive - when an aircraft or warship etc is spotted and a quick crash dive is needed, it may take an agonizingly long time for your chief engineer to run from wherever he is to the ballast valves and operate them. so follow these steps instead of ordering a crash dive from the depth gauge.

(1) press the space bar to pause the game (2) select whichever officer is standing at the navigation table (3) order that officer to operate the ballast valve (4) NOW order the crash dive. (5) set engine telegraph to fastest possible speed. (6) resume normal game speed

You'll be under in a more reasonable 20-25 seconds

[fullmetaledges]

Can't confirm but try right clicking on the Ventilation rear torpedo launcher

I figured it out. You have to have the decoys in your inventory for the launcher to show up.

[Cpt-Maxim]

I created this comparison chart showing what happens when you assign additional crew members to various positions after assigning a leader to begin with..

Scroll down the image and you will see various buff and bonus descriptions except when a leader is assigned to the observation scope.. his rectangle for description is empy / no text.

{The attack scope description is shown working ok)



https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtHmw0Cbvn9ig1sN3JSjtxcWgQU8

[Lansetti]

Hold ALT to highlight all available action spots.
Hold CTRL and right click to queue toggle stuff on and off.

No sound underwater: Turn off gyrocompass and all pumps. Full stop engine. Switch steering to manual mode in depth steers station (right click and on radial menu choose manual steering)

Force officer to specific station (right click on the persiscope or hydrostation) so that they don`t go to sleep while calculating torpedo solution. If officer is already on the periscope, move him away for a moment then right click the periscope or use the tab menu (If forced the icon is marked with gold border).

[xXNightEagleXx]

I don't know if this has been already covered here but here we go.

Two important aspect to keep in mind, first is that officers execute task either autonomously due to their role or because you told them to.


Task automatically executed by them will be interrupted by bed time. However task directly instructed won't be interrupted even when their energy bar reach 0. This is important to avoid officers leaving station in critical moments all you need to do is to issue them a task, even if it is already something related to their role.


Second aspect is in fact the role. Tutorial didn't make this clear enough, not only you can assign a role to an office but also there are others roles rather than the initial ones. If you properly use them you can cut micromanage by a lot. Of course there are still things that need to be directly issued (eg. lights) but a good use of roles alone can greatly improve the experience.


For example i had to constantly move the radio office between sonar and radio. Once i figured out that i could just assign the role specific to either radio or sonar all i had to do is change the role quickly and right click on the current task to cancel it thus trig him to move it the other station by itself. The more i play this game the more i like it. Sure it is a different beast from SH but surprisingly it is giving a lot of entertainment, more than cold wars for example. Seeing how active, and most important open mind, the devs are i believe that this product can only improve. I don't want it to follow SH because i prefer this concept, or at least something different, but definitely combat challenges can improve to an experience more closer to SH.

[Onkel Neal]

Tutorial walk through
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeQfh98In8g

[Aktungbby]

Faster Crash Dive - when an aircraft or warship etc is spotted and a quick crash dive is needed, it may take an agonizingly long time for your chief engineer to run from wherever he is to the ballast valves and operate them. so follow these steps instead of ordering a crash dive from the depth gauge.

(1) press the space bar to pause the game (2) select whichever officer is standing at the navigation table (3) order that officer to operate the ballast valve (4) NOW order the crash dive. (5) set engine telegraph to fastest possible speed. (6) resume normal game speed

You'll be under in a more reasonable 20-25 secondsis it also possible to be "heavy" at lower than 4 meters surfaced to improve dive time as with the old SH games?

[stoppro]

I wish i knew what you guys are doing.I can't even get down the hatch! wish there was some instructions. I never played the 'sims'

[fullmetaledges]

I wish i knew what you guys are doing.I can't even get down the hatch! wish there was some instructions. I never played the 'sims'

It has nothing to do with the sims, it's just an oversimplified and lazy comparison in my opinion based on the visuals of the game. Watch some youtube streams. Select an officer and right or left click on the object that you want him to interact with. You want him to keep track of your navigation? Click on an officer (various ways to do this) and then left click on the navigators table, or right click for more options.

[stoppro]

the thing is I see the ladder icon left clickand use the s-key to desend? all I keep doing is opening and closing the the hatch there is a lot of nickel and dime bs to go through but i will keep trying.

[fullmetaledges]

the thing is I see the ladder icon left clickand use the s-key to desend? all I keep doing is opening and closing the the hatch there is a lot of nickel and dime bs to go through but i will keep trying.

You can use the mouse wheel to change to an external view and control your guys from that perspective if its easier for you. In first person use w,a,s,d for movement.

[stoppro]

I going to leave this for awhile. I was clicking on things and ran into a page with which to dress the crewman . no I am not playing barbi with this.wtf

[Hjalfnar]

I going to leave this for awhile. I was clicking on things and ran into a page with which to dress the crewman . no I am not playing barbi with this.wtfGreat, isn't it? A lot of people love to customize their characters. Just check again, you are even able to rename the officers, give them a certain look, clothing, everything. I for my part love it.

Edit: Post 101, yeah!

[Kos_K]

Hello, kind ship killers.


Need a couple of hints, if you may:


- How one can surface without blowing a tanks? Say, if at periscope depth, and want to take a sip of oxygen?


- How one can keep hatches shut? U can close it, but next sailor will leave it open (maybe it's only my discipline problem, idk)


Please provide some guidance, if it possible to do in a current build (B118).


Many ty

[fullmetaledges]

Hello, kind ship killers.


Need a couple of hints, if you may:


- How one can surface without blowing a tanks? Say, if at periscope depth, and want to take a sip of oxygen?


- How one can keep hatches shut? U can close it, but next sailor will leave it open (maybe it's only my discipline problem, idk)


Please provide some guidance, if it possible to do in a current build (B118).


Many ty

I haven't found a way to keep the bulkhead doors closed without evacuating the compartment. It's a feature request that I would like implemented.

[caenmatt]

my tips
in customize section.
name your officers
Cap
watch 1
watch 2
engine 1
engine 2
sig 1
sig 2
etc.

change clothing so signalers are in stripes, engineers red and watch blue. change hats also.
this allows you to quickly determine who is who at a glance and save loads of time.

[jimbob]

This does not warrant a mod imho since the game gets updated daily it seems.
But I've made a guide anyways.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1741765523

Mainly because my career save files didn't load so I had to dig into those files
and figure out about the console just so I could get my game to same level I had it before.

Plus, I loove shenanigans in my single player games.
:03:

[Sledgehammer427]

my tips
in customize section.
name your officers
Cap
watch 1
watch 2
engine 1
engine 2
sig 1
sig 2
etc.

change clothing so signalers are in stripes, engineers red and watch blue. change hats also.
this allows you to quickly determine who is who at a glance and save loads of time.

now that is a handy suggestion! great first post :Kaleun_Salute:

[nikimcbee]

So I'm finally getting into the game, I got stuck on one thing. I got the mission to find and inspect a missing U-boat. I found the U-boat, but how do you inspect it?

Also, how do you end a mission? Just sail back to port, then what?:doh:

[Aktungbby]

CAENMATT!:Kaleun_Salute: & KOS_K! :Kaleun_Salute:

[Salvadoreno]

So I'm finally getting into the game, I got stuck on one thing. I got the mission to find and inspect a missing U-boat. I found the U-boat, but how do you inspect it?

Also, how do you end a mission? Just sail back to port, then what?:doh:

An icon should pop up around the "green" icon when you get very close to it. A pop up will also appear saying there is a mission available. You can click the icon and options will come up. Make sure you bring the right officer with the correct tools as well (medkit, spare parts, etc)!

[Wisq]

Hello, kind ship killers.


Need a couple of hints, if you may:


- How one can surface without blowing a tanks? Say, if at periscope depth, and want to take a sip of oxygen?


- How one can keep hatches shut? U can close it, but next sailor will leave it open (maybe it's only my discipline problem, idk)


Please provide some guidance, if it possible to do in a current build (B118).


Many ty

Been a while, so some of this may have changed since you posted, but:

"Decks awash" will put you at the surface without blowing the tanks, and your watch officer(s) will continue to use the periscopes instead of climbing onto the deck. The hatch will still remain closed by default, but you can open it manually (may have to wait until a wave isn't crashing over it) and get sips of oxygen. Just be careful to watch the bilge level, because you'll take on water if doing this under high sea states.

You can also now research the snorkel, which — when extended, via the switch next to the navigation station — both feed air to the engines and also supply air to the sub.

Finally, you can use potassium absorbers in the ventilation system (turned on) to just filter air that way. (Generally, it only takes 2 or 3 of them to replenish the entire sub's air, so you may want to only put that many in, in case you forget to turn it off.) And you can pick up new potassium absorbers from base once you complete the appropriate HQ mission.

The hatch now seems to stay closed by default, so I can't comment on the latter issue.

--------------------

My own tips:

Beware that some of these are pretty cheesy (unrealistic) tips, i.e. oversights or questionable balance decisions in the game right now. Pick and choose which ones you're willing to (ab)use, and which ones you'll ignore for the sake of realism and/or difficulty.

---

Your hydrophone has two uses: Picking up distant ships ("propeller noise"), and pinpointing ships within the blue "bubble" marked around your ship. And I do mean pinpoint — a hydrophone sighting may as well be a visual sighting.

You can have your hydrophone operator target a ship, just like a watch officer, and calculate a torpedo course. As such, you can actually target convoys from deep underwater, basically like a nuclear submarine might. (Or, you can use the hydrophone to supplement your watch officers' targeting, particularly if only part of the convoy is in visual range.)

You can use the observation periscope to target — potentially allowing you to target three things at once — but it's incredibly slow at doing so. I often use it on low-value targets so I'll have a head start when I finally point the main periscope at them ... or I'll use the main periscope to get something up to an acceptable solution (e.g. 90%) and then use the observation periscope to refine that while I work on something else.

You can get a ship identification pretty fast, I think around when you have 30% of a targeting solution. That's helpful when HQ wants you to take out a particular ship and you want to know which one to concentrate on.

It seems like the accuracy of your torpedo solution never decreases, even if you stop targeting and the target changes course or speed. So you can get the entire convoy figured out, launch your first volley, then just continue firing torpedoes at them even once they're running scared. So long as they don't successfully weave away between when you fire and when you hit, you'll continue to score hits.

It seems like transports (at least unescorted ones) will not actually change course or speed until they detect your sub directly — even if their buddies are blowing up around them left and right. So as long as you stay hidden, you can continue to torpedo them with impunity.

---

Torpedoes can sometimes take out a ship in one shot, but more often, your radioman will call out "minimal damage" and the HP bar will only decrease very slightly. This might happen several times in a row, so never count on taking out multiple targets with one torpedo each.

However, it does seem like there's some cumulative effects on damage, such that further torpedoes or deck gun shots will more easily lead to fires and/or flooding. It's rare that it takes more than two torpedoes to take out a standard large freighter.

Ships will abandon when they reach 50% HP. However, they will not automatically sink, and will not be counted as kills until sunk. Of course, an abandoned ship is a prime deck gun target, since they won't shoot back — but small arms fire from transports seems to be something you can largely ignore anyway.

You can collect crates from wrecks by getting them in visual range and clicking on them in first person. You can also move one crate (or pontoon or etc) to the rear deck of the U-boat, either to collect items from it, or just to get it out of the way so you can more easily spot other crates. (It seems to stay there until replaced, even if you submerge.) This allows your crew to collect items from it and move them to the sub's own storage. The most common items I've found are foodstuffs, so killing transports can help you stay well fed at sea.

---

Flooding seems to be your main enemy in this game. The game models buoyancy, so flooding can rapidly become a runaway situation, where more flooding = less buoyancy = sinking faster = faster flooding, slower bilge pumping. The moment you have any leaks, pause the game and assess. You may have to make hard decisions, like sealing compartments with wounded people inside, or surfacing the boat and facing whatever danger put holes in your hull in the first place.

Don't forget that you can have an officer block a leak (reducing the flow by 90%) while a mechanic works on repairing it (or is busy repairing others).

The threat model in UBOAT is, in my experience, quite different than that of Silent Hunter. At least in the several patrols I've run so far, escorts seem largely ineffective, since you can hit convoys quietly and from afar (potentially, without even using your periscope), then slink away and catch up and try again if needed. The few times they've come after me, I've generally had little trouble being silent and escaping.

On the other hand, airplanes are a far greater danger, since they jump you without warning and can put holes in your hull just at the worst possible time — when you're trying to dive to avoid them, putting you at risk of flooding and an uncontrolled dive if they score a hit. Unless you have plenty of warning from your Radar Detector, or you're running "Decks Awash" when a plane shows up, consider staying on the surface and gunning them down — it may ultimately be safer.

All of this might change as the war goes on (or as the game is rebalanced closer to launch), of course.

---

Radar detectors are currently rather wonky. The tier 1 "Metox" system has a range of ~13nmi, but supposedly it emits signals the Allies can home in on. (Of course, this is just accurately modelling the misinformation the Allies fed the Germans! In reality, they had cracked Enigma, and they claimed they could detect Metox in order to throw the Germans off.)

Tier 2 "Borkum" claims to solve this problem, but sacrifices nearly 40% range to do so. Tier 3 "Naxos" is garbage — 2 nmi! You can see further than that! Tier 4 "Tunis" is finally back to the same range as "Metox". So don't bother researching or installing T2 detection until you're ready to go all the way to T4. (I've filed this as a bug, since 2 nmi is ridiculous.)

Caveat: I have so far not actually ever gotten a successful detection with my radar detector — but neither have I had any planes slip through. I've only run a few patrols with a radar detector equipped, though. I've heard some speculation that the radar detector is actually modeled as a "reduce chances of air intercept" tool rather than "detect air intercepts from far away" tool — in which case, the range is irrelevant, and higher tiers are presumably always better.

---

The snorkel can be researched right from the start of the game (with an engineer and the appropriate time in HQ). It's a really useful piece of tech, since it does a bunch of things all at once:


gives you some protection from planes (smaller radar contact, faster dive times)
lets you get closer to convoys before going to internal air + e-motor
you can still use the radio and receive orders from HQ
lets you use the hydrophone — very important for finding contacts

That last one is important. Unless you want to dive the sub a lot to check (which is quite time-costly due to "open seas" time acceleration) or rely entirely on "please destroy this ship" orders from HQ, you'll want to stay underwater for long durations in order to detect "propeller noise" signals and head towards them.

The main downsides of the snorkel are just the disadvantages of being submerged — your speed is reduced, your visual range is reduced, you can no longer use the radar detector, and it may cause a lot of switching to the e-motor if high seas mean waves are crashing over the snorkel head.

---

Overall, the radar detector and the snorkel (in either order) are probably your two most important early research targets. But you should also pick up type 3 torpedoes relatively early, because the type 2's (early electric) are awful.

For your first mission or two, you can get away with just using type 1 (steam) torpedoes. (So far, the visible bubble trail has not been a problem for me.)

Your sub will come with some type 2's, but you can generally replace these by ...

buying ONE type 1 torpedo (to clear up a spot in HQ inventory)
using the "off duty" time skip to load the torpedo
selling your type 2 (using the HQ slot you just freed up)
go to step 1 and repeat

If you buy more than one torpedo at a time, you increase the risk that the HQ stock resets and you have nowhere to offload your type 2.

As a bonus, the superior T1 torpedoes are worth $800 while the ****ty T2 torpedoes are worth $900, so you actually get more credits to spend.

Alas, this eventually stops working, because HQ stops stocking type 1s altogether. So research type 3 before this happens.

---

Buy every officer ($750 cost) you can from the recruitment officer at base. They come with random traits, and some can be very useful, even just for HQ missions. If you don't want to make hard staffing choices — like leaving behind one of your critical officers to do a particular HQ mission — just continue grabbing officers until you either get the officer you want ... or you get one with the trait that lets them assume any role (for the purpose of HQ missions).

Once you have either the radar detector and/or the snorkel, get a second radioman (even if you have to sacrifice an engineer). Assign one (or both!) to "technician officer" so they prioritise the listening station. You'll want them on that non-stop, while the other radioman sends and receives messages (or takes over listening while the technician sleeps).

Even if you only have one radioman, consider setting them to "technician officer", so they prefer the hydrophone over the radar when you're at periscope depth.

"Doubling up" officers is often a good strategy. While travelling, I often like to have two Chief Engineers, so one is resting while the other works on engines. You don't need your torpedoes warmed all the time! (In fact, it can be better to warm them at the start of an encounter, so they don't un-warm right when you need them.) Just remember to switch one (or both) of them back to Mechanic (or manually warm torpedoes) at the first sign of enemies. I also often like having two Technician Officers, since radar detector and hydrophone are almost always more important than radio. And once I'm in a combat situation, the Chief Boatswain is useless, so I usually assign him to be a Watch Officer as well.

---

Money becomes pretty much pointless after your first decent patrol. Spend freely. I'm currently carrying around a full stack of 40 small arms in my weapons locker — $280,000 in value! — just because I can.

Similarly, fuel is dirt cheap. Don't worry about wasting it, unless you have good reason to worry that you won't have enough to make it home. With crew helping the engineer and navigator, you can pretty much just zoom around everywhere at Flank Speed — especially if you start at La Rochelle, the best port for Atlantic operations by far.

---

Vacations are great, and cheap. My favourite is the one that gives you +25% XP for the last patrol, and +100% (i.e. double) speed HQ missions. Since most missions are 12 days, and the vacation is 14 days, you can get at least two projects done in that time — or four, if you have the "2 projects at a time" HQ upgrade.

You can cheese base time in various ways, such as buying and selling goods (particularly torpedoes), or swapping upgrades (takes several days to install). This can allow you to e.g. wait until a particular HQ mission is complete before setting out — or if you really want to cheese, you can use this to sit out the 7 day cooldown between vacations, and take another one. (Just be careful delaying your departure too much, since if you delay too many days and then leave without vacationing, your crew will have a constant drain on their discipline due to "fatigued".)

I used to think that if a project finished while you were at sea or on vacation, you only had one chance (via the "project complete" beaker icon) to pick your next project. But no, turns out you can access the HQ at any time, via the top right menu — the beaker is just a shortcut. (Same goes for radio orders, etc.)

---

If you're close to enemies, and your crew discipline is a problem, consider adopting an "ostrich" approach. Deliberately blind yourself — unassign hydrophone, and either lower periscopes or go too deep for them — so you can't see the enemy any more. What you can't see can hurt you, of course ... but as long as your crew doesn't know that, they'll eventually fall out of "alert" mode and back into normal mode, where things like "varied meals", "cooking" (officer with appropriate talent), and "music" (radioman) will replenish their discipline.

If you try to go deep while surfaced, I believe it's considered an automatic crash dive, which means "alarm" status, and draining discipline for a while. To avoid this, go to periscope depth first.

---

The Gyrocompass takes a constant -2 energy, which can actually be more than the electrical engines at flank speed! (if you have officers helping to reduce the drain) Turn it off if you need to save power (or reduce noise). Keep it on while travelling ("open seas") to reduce the risk of getting lost, but it's pointless when you're in any kind of combat / shore map. (If your Chief Boatswain is not automatically using the navigation console when on duty, then you can't get lost, and you don't need the Gyrocompass.)

Another common source of noise is the electric steering. Turn that off by right clicking on the dive station (while submerged). I assume it has some effect on depth keeping (or maybe the rudder), but it doesn't seem to use power.

Blue lighting ("silent running") does not seem to have any effect on the noise you make. It does, however, cause your crew to use up the air 15% slower. If you think you'll be underwater for a while, go blue early, to maximise the benefit.

I haven't measured the effect personally, but according to a loading screen tip, red lighting is supposed to help increase your crew's visual range at night — and (for you, the player) make the night visibly brighter.

---

I have not found any use for the diving suit, beyond the tutorial mission. It's worth $9000, which is a lot of money at the start of the game — more than your entire starting budget. You may want to consider selling it if you can't afford the gear you want. However, HQ doesn't normally carry another one in stock, so if it ever disappears, good luck finding another one.

Having said that — it seems like items don't ever actually disappear from HQ at the moment. For this reason, you'll want to make sure you sell items on the correct HQ tab, e.g. selling food on the "food" tab, selling ammo on the "ammunition" tab, etc. Otherwise, you may find your "equipment" section is clogged up with food and ammo, etc.

The easiest way to buy and sell items is to right click. Dragging items into empty slots works fine for buying, but you can have trouble selling items that way — e.g. dragging your potatoes onto HQ's potatoes won't work, and there often won't be any empty slots in the "food" tab that you can drag to. (This is how I ended up clogging my "equipment" section with food items I didn't want, until I learned about right click.)

---

[CaptainC]

Good tips thanks all o7

[nikimcbee]

Hey, what's the latest and or best walk through, since they've made updates to the game?:k_confused:

[HerrRitter]

Tutorial walk through
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeQfh98In8g


Hello, Onkel Neal!


I haven't been around for quite some time, but I've been playing SHIII, until I managed to get through the entire war ... alive ... one time. I made it!



I downloaded UBOAT when it first came out, but it was in such a primitive state that I haven't actually played it, yet. I've got the B127 update, and decided to give it a try. It's beautiful ... actually ... but I have yet to get the boat out of St. Nazaire.


Has anyone came up with a step-by-step guide that goes from picking your boat to putting out to sea? This would be extremely valuable, in my estimation.

[derstosstrupp]

Hello, Onkel Neal!


I haven't been around for quite some time, but I've been playing SHIII, until I managed to get through the entire war ... alive ... one time. I made it!



I downloaded UBOAT when it first came out, but it was in such a primitive state that I haven't actually played it, yet. I've got the B127 update, and decided to give it a try. It's beautiful ... actually ... but I have yet to get the boat out of St. Nazaire.


Has anyone came up with a step-by-step guide that goes from picking your boat to putting out to sea? This would be extremely valuable, in my estimation.

Yes sir! Start with this guys series, it’s basically a manual in video format.

https://youtu.be/0pEaoqvPzbE

[TheNolan]

Got to the point that I could take apart entire convoys by doing the following:


1. Sink the destroyers using torpedoes from distance and repeated attack runs. Also sink any transports with deck guns using torpedoes.


2. Sink the corvettes by approaching underwater from behind. Once within ~ 1 km surface and open fire with the deck gun. You will be able to sink it before it can turn enough to return fire. You may take a hit or two but you can make multiple attack runs and repair in between.


3. Finish the rest of the convoy using deck guns and/or AA gun at your convenience.




This strategy was done early war, 1939/40 and I've not played in ~ a year. I'm curious if improvements have been made to the sim/AI since then.

[Harmsway!]

A good deal of the how to videos I watch are someone flying back and forth in the cutaway view of the sub. Quite often I don't know what they're doing. This video I made is just the opposite. Slow and tedious. Its slow but I try to make it clear the things you can do to escape depth charges while in first person perspective. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGzOkGBLMzM

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice work on the video :up:

[ThatHistoricSailor]

I've got several hundred hours put in..always played SH4 to the point my room was entirely dedicated to it. Happy to see more depth in this game and wanted to share a few tips:

1. If you are in shallow water, keep an eye on the top right corner of your depth to keel. If an enemy patrol is coming, you'll spot them before they come upon you. I like to keep my deck awash to hide my profile better..this helps on missions where you need to drop off a spy, weather station, attack a port. Your crew will spot the smoke stacks.
Pause the game, Alarm, rig for silent running(blue lights), assuming you are stopped set telegraph to STOP, set depth to Depth To Keel, set dive planes to manual, turn off gyro, and make sure the radio op is on the hydrophone.

8/10 times this always works. It does feel a bit scary watching an enemy war ship chug over top of you. If they spot you, just floor it and scrap along the bottom. They will have a wide turning radius anyways.

YOU WILL ALWAYS ENCOUNTER THE TASK FORCE AT BEAR ISLAND. THIS TACTIC WORKS FANTASTIC WITH EARLY WAR SONAR.

2. Cut it in a 90 when you are about to be charged. Keep a good fair distance, playing with your depth and sound. It works if you go silent running and dive deeper, then cut into a 90 degree angle.
This tactic also works with convoys, especially if a war ship sniffs you out. Of course the idea is to never put yourself into that position in the first place.

A good note with this tactic is if the warship is heading towards or away, you'll be in his hydrophone blind spot. So exploit it by going as quiet as you can to make a good get away.

This also works by just hiding in the convoys rear blindspots until you are ready to strike.

3. When in an encounter where you must surface. Get a fair distance away and put a preference to electric engines (should be the first tick back on the telegraph) deck awash and ride on the electric for awhile. This lowers your chances of being spotted when you surface. Your Diesel engines make lots of noise and will push smoke that attracts attention.

4. Vet your crew. If you get in a high risk situation, one guy freaking out will cause a mess. If he does it once and reveals a bad personality trait, just toss him from the crew. It's not worth keeping him around when you are in a tight situation. After about my 5-6th patrol, I weeded out any anxious ones. A good way to tell if the person you recruit is going to be worth it, just read their little bio.

5. During mine laying missions, avoid encounters and load them mines....I was a noob who didn't know any better.

6. Make sure to have a radio officer on the hydrophone while deck awash or on the surface. It has a greater range than visual sight. I like to manually rotate him at times.

7. Ensure each shift has proper coverage and two floaters. That guy will probably be the sixth person and keep him fresh. I like to sort of give him three hours on, 5 hours of sleep, 3 hours anything and the rest as working where I think I'll need him. I also do it at random with another officer. This way these guys don't get tired quickly but also can cover other jobs needing to be done. Radio man or engineer would be the best option.

Anyways Happy Hunting!

[Aktungbby]

ThatHistoricSailor!:Kaleun_Salute: finally on the surface after a 6-year 'silent run'?...with a great first post!:up:

[ReallyDedPoet]

I've got several hundred hours put in..always played SH4 to the point my room was entirely dedicated to it. Happy to see more depth in this game and wanted to share a few tips:



Nice list :up:

[Onkel Neal]

Full release UBOAT Tactics & Tips by Len "Viking1" Hjalmarson

Review (https://www.subsim.com/ssr/uboat/review_uboat_full.php)


SURVIVAL TIPS ON ATTACK

Attack at Night. Gives you a huge visibility advantage.

Attack from head on, showing your profile increases detectability. (Also works for sonar)

Attack with tanks pre-flooded (see Depth Control) to stay low in the water and reduce dive time.

When in the midst of a convoy and submerged ALWAYS use manual depth control (assign an officer)

After your first successful mission, use your points to upgrade officers for faster torpedo reloading and faster enemy tracking.

Turn on Red Lights for less eye fatigue and better vision while submerged at night

Turn OFF your Gyro Compass when making your getaway for silent running and continue to use Manual depth control

Assign at least one sailor to each officer from the start. It will make all their tasks faster and more efficient.

Use ALARM sparingly or it will exhaust your crew. But DO use it.

Assign at least one crewman to each officer in the Squads section of the Crew management UI, but two for each engineer.
Stuck on the bottom after some flooding, and blowing the tanks did not help? Select any officer then try the EMERGENCY blow tanks setting on the main ballast valve.

For a faster crash dive increase your engine speed. Even faster if decks are already awash.

When air raids at port are frequent (in particular the French bases) assign a crew to your AA gun as you are leaving port.
Ensure your tubes are pre-loaded with torps before leaving port.

If the gyro will not behave try hitting the RESET on the info GUI above the torpedo GUI

Use the ‘U’ key to remove the GUI from the screen

Crew Management Video -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLU2fLpdHVU

[ReallyDedPoet]

Full release UBOAT Tactics & Tips by Len "Viking1" Hjalmarson

Review (https://www.subsim.com/ssr/uboat/review_uboat_full.php)


SURVIVAL TIPS ON ATTACK

Attack at Night. Gives you a huge visibility advantage.

Attack from head on, showing your profile increases detectability. (Also works for sonar)

Attack with tanks pre-flooded (see Depth Control) to stay low in the water and reduce dive time.

When in the midst of a convoy and submerged ALWAYS use manual depth control (assign an officer)

After your first successful mission, use your points to upgrade officers for faster torpedo reloading and faster enemy tracking.

Turn on Red Lights for less eye fatigue and better vision while submerged at night

Turn OFF your Gyro Compass when making your getaway for silent running and continue to use Manual depth control

Assign at least one sailor to each officer from the start. It will make all their tasks faster and more efficient.

Use ALARM sparingly or it will exhaust your crew. But DO use it.

Assign at least one crewman to each officer in the Squads section of the Crew management UI, but two for each engineer.
Stuck on the bottom after some flooding, and blowing the tanks did not help? Select any officer then try the EMERGENCY blow tanks setting on the main ballast valve.

For a faster crash dive increase your engine speed. Even faster if decks are already awash.

When air raids at port are frequent (in particular the French bases) assign a crew to your AA gun as you are leaving port.
Ensure your tubes are pre-loaded with torps before leaving port.

If the gyro will not behave try hitting the RESET on the info GUI above the torpedo GUI

Use the ‘U’ key to remove the GUI from the screen



Nice list Neal :yep:

Thanks Len "Viking1" Hjalmarson, well done for sure :up: The games not perfect, but does give a very solid base to play off of and also build on going forward.

[Raf1394]

I played UBOAT for a while.

I think the basis escaping maneuvers for depth charge attacks are everywhere the same.

When you hear the splashes or sonar contact stops pinging. Change speed (full speed) change course, and if impossible change depth. You have to time it good.