My Game Realism

[Otto Smaigler]

Im only playing at 27% Yea I know Im a noob, but manually trying to figure out the calculations for a torpedo drive me crazy. Fuel, Batteries, Compressed 02, all that stuff is pretty much infinite. Only thing I dont have infinite is torpedos, and 1 or 2 or things. And I have the outside world view. Will complete 1 career then start turning off the other options.

Im simply amazed that you guys can plot solutions and actually hit a target w/o having the auto target on. ;)

[gdogghenrikson]

Im only playing at 27% Yea I know Im a noob, but manually trying to figure out the calculations for a torpedo drive me crazy. Fuel, Batteries, Compressed 02, all that stuff is pretty much infinite. Only thing I dont have infinite is torpedos, and 1 or 2 or things. And I have the outside world view. Will complete 1 career then start turning off the other options.

Im simply amazed that you guys can plot solutions and actually hit a target w/o having the auto target on. ;)

for some real fun play at 0% realism

and I like your signature :rotfl:

[JBClark]

Welcome noob (hey that's the first time I have ever been able to say that. Usually I am the new guy.) :88)

Just a few suggestions, even though you didn't ask for them. ;)

Go to about 65% right away. You don't need infinite batteries or air or that stuff and living within those constraints adds to the experience. There is no pain.

Yeah, manual targeting is a bear. But its nothing more than high-school trig and it can be done. There is nothing quite so satisfying as doing it yourself.

That being said, I play at 85%. In the real world the captain didn't have to do every last calculation himself. He had a fire-control party to do most of this, or at least back him up. I'll make my own calcs on a lone target or the first shot or two of a convoy, but when the fur starts to fly, I rely on my WO to take some of the load off.

And I will always play with the external camera (though I have turned the event camera off.) The stock game had pretty good eye candy but these modders have done amazing work and I won't deny myself the enjoyment looking at it. Someone said in this forum many months ago that it was impossible to have the external camera and not use it to cheat. Well, I think he was right. I often, hell always, gain situational awareness everytime I use the cam but this is a game after all.

I played for a long time with auto-targeting and frankly was getting bored. If not for the efforts of these remarkable modders, I probably would have given up on the game before I really learned to appreciate it. Beery and others (and a great book called "Shadow Divers") convinced me to go the realism route and it opened up a whole new game.

This thing is now about ten times better than it was when it first came out. SHIII Commander is a remarkable addition to this experience and RUB and now IUB and everything else that adds to the historical accuracy of this sim are responsible for making this one of the best simulations to date.

So the point is, everyone plays the way they want to play and there is not a thing wrong with that. But it can be more than a game. The real beauty of SHIII is that it is a history lesson. And the classroom is full of really smart folks and the lesson is fun. Take the plunge. I wasted a lot of time before coming around.

Good Hunting,

JBC

[zoinks]

things that helped me manually target that i still always try to do:
-set up at 90 degrees with target
-get in close 350m - 500m
-don't get detected

[wetwarev7]

Im only playing at 27% Yea I know Im a noob, but manually trying to figure out the calculations for a torpedo drive me crazy. Fuel, Batteries, Compressed 02, all that stuff is pretty much infinite. Only thing I dont have infinite is torpedos, and 1 or 2 or things. And I have the outside world view. Will complete 1 career then start turning off the other options.

Im simply amazed that you guys can plot solutions and actually hit a target w/o having the auto target on. ;)

You can turn auto target off, and you can still have the WO solve targeting solutions for you. This gives you the option of letting him do it, or doing it yourself.

And I agree that turning off unlimited stuff actually adds to the game, and is not any more difficult. You just can't run your entire patrol submerged.....

[Lane]

I play at Realism 74% U-47 out Kiel
Dec 22 1939 Patrol 3 Patrol BE-33 complet 4 torps remain starting
home for Kiel sunk 5 merchants and 1 warshipe. Sunk one C-3 convoy
attack at night at AM-02.
Lane :D

[Nedlam]

I'm stuck at 85% mysellf for the same reasons JBClark stated. I also installed RuB 1.44 which makes the sim even harder (IMHO). But believe me it's worth it. I've never sunk more than 3 ships in my IIA while on a mission and sometimes I come home empty handed. My tonnage isn't way up there but for some reason it just feels "historical" which is what I'm going for.

[Wulfmann]

I play at 100%

There is nothing as nerve racking as the ping of an escort and you in your coffin hoping to see light again.
With the outside view, you can cheat. Some may not others may and lie about it, LOL
But at 100% you have no option; you must get the feel of a U-Boat and figure what to do from where a real kaleun would.
You hear things you never heard before, you listen to gauge when the enemy will pass then crank it to high speed for 3 seconds to get you a few more feet away from possible death and turn in to him hoping he won't lock on for the brief burst of speed.
There is nothing more satisfying than getting a severe DCing and surviving it.
Particularly when you have smacked the convoy a good what for!

I have not had high school trig. Yet I have come home empty without a single miss. The worst I have done was 3 hits out of 14, one time. Well many hit but at a bad angle or prematured.

Learning manual is the coolest thing and when you do it you will wonder how you could have waited for such fun and satisfaction.

The simple beginning way is to imagine making a "T" with you as the leg and the enemy ship's track as the line across the top.
Get in the ship's path then back and turn, moving forward and back to get a close distance. With your fish pointed at zero degree wait until the ship is -5 and fire one, then at zero to fire two. If the angle is flat, you will have sunk the ship, not just tell the game to sink it!!!.
For angles, later, just imagine throwing a ball with the angles being like using the wind to arc it flat against a wall.

Yes it is true the Kaleun designated these jobs to his crew. But, I want to do everything myself. Why should the computer do it when I can? I man the deck gun as well. I use the RUB deck gun so my U-Boat will not annihilate the Royal Navy all alone before X-mas 1939!!

There is no doubt what ever way you enjoy is the right way.
In SH3 you can virtually make a new game by increasing the difficulty.
100% is not 100% real at all. It is 100% difficulty.
I have gone through the files and made things much harder and that keeps it even more interesting and successes well earned.

Wulfmann

[kiwi_2005]

Dont know whether you already have it but if not then try
Wazoo's Manual Charting & Targeting Tutorial [v 2.3] i found this in the documents folder of Improved uboat mod (IUB1.1) but it probably could be found in the mods update thread in the mods forum.

Wazoo's tells it like it is.

[wetwarev7]

I play at 100%

Yes it is true the Kaleun designated these jobs to his crew. But, I want to do everything myself. Why should the computer do it when I can? I man the deck gun as well. I use the RUB deck gun so my U-Boat will not annihilate the Royal Navy all alone before X-mas 1939!!

100% is not 100% real at all. It is 100% difficulty.
I have gone through the files and made things much harder and that keeps it even more interesting and successes well earned.

Wulfmann

Then what's the point of having crewmen? If it weren't for the fact that only they can load torps, you could go out alone!!! :up:

[Twelvefield]

Wazoo's Website:

http://www.paulwasserman.net/SHIII/

A must-read website!