Amazing Game/Newb

[Kurek]

Newb reporting in. I signed up earlier in the year not long after the game was released, I like to lurk around game forums to see what they are like, but for some reason I just never got around to getting SH3, then I saw it going cheap in the local Game and thought 'why not', and I'm bloody glad I did, this game is amazing.

My first patrol I er, well got sunk :oops: but then I actually tried the acadamy, searched around the net and found some advice and embarked on my second career, 1st Flotilla, Type IIA. Type II's suck but I decided to stick with it, first patrol no kill, I didn't even see anything... second patrol they give me the grid where Scappa Flow is in, took me a almost a week to get there, bumbled around not seeing anything although at one point I swear I was hearing something in the hydrophone that the rookie manning it couldnt hear, well it certainly sounded like it was a engine of some sort, so I went off in that direction searching, listening etc for about a hour, couldnt find anything thanks mainly to the piss poor weather, so I gave up and went back to patrolling.

After a while I thought sod it and went home, but on the way back a sighting comes in, I quickly switch to the Bridge, as the guy is still shouting about the contact I was amazed to see him actually point in the direction, nice touch but this game is full of them :D Anyway, I point me binoculars in the direction and lo and behold a bloody destroyer, I almost panic but as the weather is still bad and its getting dark I decide to stalk him, after half a hour or so I have a perfect shot lined up, he is just over 1km away, at a decent angle from me and he still hasnt seen me, I fire my three loaded torps and hope for the best, I watch the clock tick down as I hold my breath then it hits, and I'm rewarded with an amazing explosion, looked even better against the dark sky and reflection cast on the roaring waves, the other two hit and that bastard is down in less than a minute.

I feel bloody great after this, the past three hours of boredom and no action are redeemed in this brief moment of action, so with a smile on my face I bugger off back to Wihemshaven. I almost bump into a small merchant on the way back, my main watchman was sleeping so the rookies up there didnt spot it till it was almost on top of us, that and the weather was still crap, so he starts zig zagging around and my last two torps miss, so I dive and quickly make my get away before he can call in any local friends.

Rest of the patrol quite uneventfull, make it home and have a few reknown points to spend, a medal and a promotion to hand out as well, and I'm feeling proud of my boys at the moment.

So yeah, sorry to bore you but I just had to share my joy at this game, these past hours are the best gaming time I've spent in some time. SH3 rocks.

[Trav_R]

Glad to hear it, yeah this game does kick ass. I'm pretty new to it too but I've logged quite a few hours in the last few weeks :up:

Yeah that hydrophone will help you find targets up to 20km, much farther than your watch crew especially in fog, but it helps if you have the volume on it turned all the way up. I don't know if you've noticed it, but it's that black knob near the wheel. There's no obvious way to turn it up or down, you just have to click it and drag it around until the sound is loudest. Only thing is, you won't notice whether the volume is actually going up or down unless you are actually pointed at a target with it. So, rather than wait till I'm searching for a merchant to play with the volume, I run my electric engines and then turn the hydrophone at 180 so I can hear my own screws, then I adjust the volume to the max. Then when I'm searching for targets later on I'llk now that the volume is all the way up. That'll make sure you don't miss any fat targets just because the volume wasn't all the way up :up:

[Kurek]

Aha, I missed that little knob and resorted to turning my PC speakers up to max, which gave me bloody a shock the first time I forgot to turn them down and gave the order to surface... ouch.

I'm running things on about half realism at the moment, I feel like I'm kinda cheating but manual torpedo controls look like they might take some getting used to. I got most other things set on realistic though, I keep event cam on as its fun to watch the **** go down, external views as well but I only use that to watch my boat bounce up and down in the stormy north sea and take in the other eye candy ;)
Oh I also kept on the unrealistic gods eye map thing, that'll be the first to go I imagine.

Oh and a question, how does one turn off the automatic identification stuff? I'd rather identify boats myself, its not as fun when that blob in the distance automatically comes up as 'C Class Destroyer' or whatnot.

Oh and one more, I see that there is a very healthy modding scene for this game, any 'essential' mods I should be aware of?

Cheers.

[Marhkimov]

I'm glad to see that the new people are enjoying it! :up:


The modding scene is VERY healthy, indeed. It's probably a little overwhelming, so lemme help out a bit.

The first thing you should know is this: www.u-boot.realsimulation.com . This site has just about everything SH3 related, and more.

Some BIG PACK mods are out there as well.

Real U-boat (RUb) is a mod that attempts to make SH3 into the most realistic subsim out there. Get it here: http://www.beerymod.com/

Improved U-Boat (IUB) is another big mod pack with realism at mind, but more emphasis on game playability (i.e. new menu screens, sounds, textures, etc.) Look for it here: www.u-boot.realsimulation.com


And don't forget to check out the mod thread: http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=30638 . It is constantly updated, so you'll find a bunch of neat stuff in there.


This is just the tip of the iceburg. There's more than a ton of things for you to try out. I hope this helps. And welcome to the community! :up:

[Trav_R]

To find out how to disable automatic ship recognition, go here.

http://www.communitymanuals.com/shiii/index.php?title=Disabling_Ship_Recognition

On another note, if you have the time and want to invest some of it in learning more about the game, that link I gave you has all kinds of good info on this game. You can read it all in about 2 hours, and you'll learn a ton about most aspects of the game.

P.S. If you have manual targetting disabled, I'm pretty sure the target will be identified automatically even if you follow the instructions in the link I gave you. Since for me it's hard to start playing a game on easy settings and then make it harder later on, I just started out with all realism options on except for external cam and the stealth meter, that way I don't miss the auto-targetting since I've always done it manually. Manual targetting seems real tough at first, but once you get used to it you find easier ways of doing it that don't hurt your head so much.

[Kurek]

Cheers for the links :up:
I downloaded RUB, and SH3 Commander, started a new career and this time played at 100% realism, I fired about 5 torps in total during my first patrol and only hit once, and I only hit that one time because I battered up this one boat with me deck gun beforehand and it was stationary... I'm sure I'll improve with time though.

I'm having problems also with crew fatigue, as I spend most of the time on high compression the fatigue isnt affected, but when I come down for a bit of action which turns into a few hour long slug fest my crew become rather tired, and after the action whilst I resume my course I usually just bump the speed back up, as waiting around for a few extra hours in real time on a lower speed gets real dull, well I guess thats part of the experience eh? I dont mind as I got a good book or two to read :rotfl:
I spent most my last patrol reading some Warhammer 40K fiction book a friend lent me, I spent five hours in total sailing, about 40 minutes of those in actual combat, the rest in time compression, but I guess thats the life of a U-bootman eh? Hours or days of boredom and minutes of intense terror and action, SH3 simulates that well :yep:

Now for a question, navigating to your patrol grid. My last patrol was out in the Atlantic off of Spain, I decided not to risk the English Channel gauntlet and thus crawled around the UK, trying to stay out of the range of planes, it took forever, should I risk the chanel in future or play it safe? What do you people usually do?

[Kalach]

Now for a question, navigating to your patrol grid. My last patrol was out in the Atlantic off of Spain, I decided not to risk the English Channel gauntlet and thus crawled around the UK, trying to stay out of the range of planes, it took forever, should I risk the chanel in future or play it safe? What do you people usually do?

If it's early in the war you can risk it. If your in that type II still and get even medium fog you could make it through sufraced the whole way. Later in the war when they get decent radar I wouldn't recommend it though...

Those wonderful type II's are almost invisable, except for the occasional Elco you should see anything else well before it sees you :yep:

[The Avon Lady]

Zeh Channel isht forboden! :nope:

[wetwarev7]

Aha, I missed that little knob and resorted to turning my PC speakers up to max, which gave me bloody a shock the first time I forgot to turn them down and gave the order to surface... ouch.



:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I did the same thing! Scared the crap out of my wife too, who was in the other room.... :rotfl:

[Floater]

So yeah, sorry to bore you but I just had to share my joy at this game
Boring us? No way - I always enjoy reading other people's accounts of their SH3 experiences.

[Dowly]

My advice is that don´t give up on the manual targeting! Just practice, practice and practice! When you learn to target manually, it´s almost as easy as playing with automatic targeting! :)

Just try to get close to the target and so that you are facing it´s side. My english is bad, so it´s hard to explain what I mean! :)

Ok, ok I´ll try. T <-- you are that vertical line and the target is that horizontal line in the letter 'T'. Got it? :rotfl: