Is there an "easy" way of playing this game or should I look for something else?

[MedievaLord]

I love the concept of this game, I just don't want to fall into the rabbit hole of meticulously plotting my course or manually calculating where my torpedos should fire. Can this game be played more casually or do I need to spend hours learning the right way to do all of these things? Should I play a later title or something like Uboat instead?

Sadly the community manual page on the sticky doesn't seem to be working.

[Tabris]

well, I'd urge you to reconsider as learning to shoot is one of the most rewarding things to do in this game, however a number of mechanics concerning rangefinding, firing solutions, and target identification can be automated. I don't believe you'll get 100% accurate values, rather estimates, but most of the time those estimates are more accurate than what the player can come up with. I'd advise you to simply turn off all the settings under "realism," visible right before you start a patrol, and see if you enjoy the game more that way.

navigation cannot, for the most part, be automated. If you run with "Limited Fuel" unchecked, you'll be able to travel much faster though.

If you haven't played Uboat yet, you should probably give it a go, it's popular with veteran and rookie subsimmers for a reason.

[propbeanie]

I love the concept of this game, I just don't want to fall into the rabbit hole of meticulously plotting my course or manually calculating where my torpedos should fire. Can this game be played more casually or do I need to spend hours learning the right way to do all of these things? Should I play a later title or something like Uboat instead?

Sadly the community manual page on the sticky doesn't seem to be working.
Welcome to SubSim MedievaLord! :subsim:

You can certainly play SH3 with and without any targeting or navigational helps, as well as with unlimited fuel air & battery! As you get used to certain aspects, you can add more difficulty as you progress, if desired! If you plan on adding mods later, do not take the standard install folder of "C:\Program Files (x86)...", but rather, make your own folder, such as "C:\Games" and install it there, even if you use the Steam version of the game. :salute:

[Hooston]

If you allow the weapons officer to do the targeting for you SH3 is very easy and "arcadey". It's simply a matter of point the boat roughly at the escorts and select the appropriate items from the weapons officer menu. Once all the escorts have sunk you move onto the merchants in the same manner or surface and let fly with the deck gun.
I've seen others play uboat and it has a better "semi-automated" approach where the crew do an adequate job for you - as long as they are continually reminded to do their jobs. Uboat, and SH3 auto targeting, seem way too easy for me.

SHIII really shines when using manual targeting - simply because of the superb balance between likely short term success and the near certainty of death in the long term campaign. Whilst many use complicated tools and plots the fundamentals can be quite simple - establish target speed by timing the target past the periscope reticle (double target length and divide by time to pass to get knots), get within 1km, input angle on bow by educated guesswork, wait until the gyro angle is roughly zero and shoot. Additional trigonometry just increases the hit percentage.
In real life most uboat Kaleuns were terrible shots, probably because firing all their eels from a safe distance and going home was very important to them.

[MedievaLord]

Thanks for the replies guys, I did a few missions, and while the game is amazing from a sim perspective, I think uboat is probably more up my alleyway as I wasn't having very much fun going to the patrol destinations looking at the dot moving on the map for long periods of time with time compression on

[Aktungbby]

MedievaLord!:Kaleun_Salute:

[Shadowblade]

Thanks for the replies guys, I did a few missions, and while the game is amazing from a sim perspective, I think uboat is probably more up my alleyway as I wasn't having very much fun going to the patrol destinations looking at the dot moving on the map for long periods of time with time compression on


It is more fun if you follow convoy routes or patrol in areas with high ship traffic, do the hydrophone checks to listen if there are any ships around, check the reported contacts from BdU on map etc.

http://etnies.muskatli.hu/sh/faq/SH3_MAP.jpg

[VikingGrandad]

Thanks for the replies guys, I did a few missions, and while the game is amazing from a sim perspective, I think uboat is probably more up my alleyway as I wasn't having very much fun going to the patrol destinations looking at the dot moving on the map for long periods of time with time compression on

I think you'll find UBOAT gives you the same problem in that respect. Like SH3, UBOAT gives you a patrol grid square, and you're supposed to stay in that grid looking for targets. Also you're not supposed to leave that area until you've travelled a set distance (e.g. 2000km) within the assigned grid square. As with SH3, you can ignore your patrol orders, but you'll not get as many points if you do that.

UBOAT also offers you missions in its campaign, but most of them are very far removed from being historically realistic, e.g. finding the location of a sunken ship and sending a deep sea diver down to the wreck to recover things from it. You may have some fun with those missions for a while, but they become too predictable after you've done a few of them.

If you simply want to play a U-boat sim game in a more casual way (i.e. get straight to the action), and have targets pretty much handed to you, then maybe try playing the Single Missions in SH3? I'm not saying they're easy, as there will be challenges to deal with (e.g. enemy destroyers protecting the targets). But, from memory, in most missions you won't have to spend hours hunting for targets.

If you have some success with the SH3 single missions and enjoy them, you could then consider trying the campaign again. Eventually you will learn where the hotspots are for finding enemy ships, or which side/corner of your assigned patrol grid square is more likely to have targets passing through it. You can check the map included with the game (the one Shadowblade linked) to get an idea of where the convoy routes are. And if you get assigned a grid square and you're not sure where to focus your searches, ask here and I'm sure other players will give you advice.

[bstanko6]

If you ever need help, let us know.

[Shadowblade]

I think you'll find UBOAT gives you the same problem in that respect. Like SH3, UBOAT gives you a patrol grid square, and you're supposed to stay in that grid looking for targets. Also you're not supposed to leave that area until you've travelled a set distance (e.g. 2000km) within the assigned grid square. As with SH3, you can ignore your patrol orders, but you'll not get as many points if you do that.


well, rewards for patrolling in assigned grid were removed in SH3 GWX anyway. So I just set my patrol grid in SH3 Commander where I want to patrol and go for a hunt :arrgh!:

After long consideration, the GWX Team decided that GWX will award renown only for sinking enemy ships and shooting down enemy aircraft, with penalties for sinking friendly or neutral ships and shooting down friendly or neutral aircraft. This means GWX will no longer award renown for reaching and patrolling your patrol area in fairness to players in the Black Sea and Indian Ocean, since some areas received this award and some did not.

[ReallyDedPoet]

well, rewards for patrolling in assigned grid were removed in SH3 GWX anyway. So I just set my patrol grid in SH3 Commander where I want to patrol and go for a hunt :arrgh!:

There’s also a Free Roam option in UBOAT, earned with reputation points.

[Zosimus]

Well, if you can't find ships, just go to the Straits of Gibraltar and approach submerged at 2 knots. Your hydrophone officer will find you a steady stream of ships going in and out of the Straits.

Once you find one, it will be within 20 km so you can simply surface the boat, and head towards it at full speed. Draw a small circle around where you detect the ship initially. Then draw a 10 km circle around where you are. Go full steam until you're at the edge of the circle (you've gone 10 km) then go to periscope depth and ahead slow. Your hydrophone officer will find the ship again. Then, just draw a line from where the ship was to where it seems to be now. That will be its course, more or less.

If you don't want to mess with firing solutions, just go full steam to a position ahead of where you think the ship will be and have your deck gun people take it out (assuming you check the flag and it's hostile). Usually, it's not that hard to figure out as hostile ships usually start firing at you. Stay nose-on and try to hit it broadside firing at the waterline until it sinks.

If you want to shoot a torpedo at it but don't want to work out its heading, bearing, speed, etc., again, that's no problem. Just get ahead of it and submerge so that when it passes you it will be at a 90º angle on bow. If it's going slow, set the TDC speed to 6½ (halfway between 6 and 7). Set the torpedo speed to fast and fire from within 1 km. At that range, you really can't miss. If it's going medium, set the TDC speed to 8½ (halfway between 8 and 9). Don't forget to set the AoB to 90º. You can do so by going to the F6 screen, and it will show you a little torpedo track that will be ahead of the target. If it's behind the target, switch the AoB from 90º port to 90º starboard (or vice versa).

If what I have said is too complicated, then this is not the game for you. Find something else.