Struggling to stay interested

[Kurt Alden]

Hey all

It's a shame but I think my interest is waning. I don't get a lot of time to play games and the long load times are really getting on my nerves. Plus, every time I load, I get frame rates of around 1 frame per second for two or three minutes until everything settles down.

I started a new career mid 1943 hoping things would get more interesting btu it's still the same old "travel to x, patrol for 24 hours, return to base" with nothing more interesting to do. It's fun enough sinking ships but the missions are so samey that I'm finding it hard to keep interested.

I crept into Scapa Flow last mission and managed to take out a couple of more interesting ships but that was not particularly exciting.

As you progress more, do you get more interesting missions with specific goals instead of just going to a certain patrol position? There seems to be lots of room for more orders but the orders never change.

[The Avon Lady]

Consider a career at WaW. Just click on my sig's WaW banner pic to go there. :yep:

[Ducimus]

Dont pay much attention to the orders. I consider them a formality.

When i do a patrol, the first thing i do is plot my course to the grid assigment (assuming i do it, and 90% of the time i do). While im sitting there for the alloted 24 hours, im planning out where im REALLY going to go.


But to rewind a bit, certain mods help the game alot. one of those is harbor traffic. Raiding harbors is one of my favorite pastimes, albiet a dangerous one.

One thing i like about IX boats is im not limited by range or short torpedo stores. If i want to go chase a convoy, i can do that, just like a VII boat. If i go raiding a harbor, well, some of the far off ones are a bit lucrative. Early war, ill raid casablanca. Once drumbeat starts rolling, ill go shoot fish in a barrel in caracco.

Another lovely thing about IX boats is you can get heavy flak a bit earlier then an VII. One highly unrealistic pastime i have is quite frankly, not diving when a plane attacks and watch my flak gunners shred him to bits, or man the guns and do it myself.

Deck gun action is another past time. Ill occasinally dabble in "running gun battles" with armed merchantman. THeir aim sucks so the odds are usually in my favor. To be honest thoguh, im too chicken to attempet this with any escort, to include an armed trawler. So i have my limits as to how much risk ill take.


Running gun battles and shooting down aircraft are on the gamey side of things, but its things like that, that keep my intrest. Modding the game is a big perk. You can do it for realism or for fun. If you get bored, you can do wierd stuff. Like... making a IID boat have a 35 kt surface speed and try running the gibralter singleplayer mission on the surface.

Just ideas, sometimes taking a break helps alot and you can come back with a fresh perspective.

[canimo]

1. Get a good ship (Type VII , or Type IX)

2. Check the wiki manual for some hunting grounds. Direct link below.
http://www.communitymanuals.com/shiii/index.php?title=Hunting_Grounds

3. Learn how to safely use TC, go surfaced as much as you can (in this case put some watch men on the tower). If you use unlimited fuel, go ahead flank (surfaced) most the time.

4. Have a good sonar man, give him medals. Go 20m or 30m once in a while to check for contacts, go slow in this case for better hydrophone range. If you find nothing, surface and cruise some 30Km.

5. Install the convoy routes map mod. It shows you the convoys routes on the map when you zoom out.

ps. In the 2 hunting areas of the wiki manual, i had no trouble finding lots of targets. :up: :up: :up:

[SmokinTep]

I have 2 careers going. One that I follow orders with and another where I just do what I want, mostly try and go into enemy ports. Also found if you leave the game for a while, coming back is sweeter.

[davidaspy]

where can i find the harbour traffic mod? I looked in the list on ths scripting forum but couldnt see it.

[Gizzmoe]

where can i find the harbour traffic mod?

http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=46447

[canimo]

What does this mod do ??!? :lol: :lol:

More Ships ?? :88)

[Wolfram]

Oh yeah more ships and if you not careful some collisions with friendlys too.

Capt. of a type 34 still waiting for me to return to port for summary review board and courts martial... :doh:

Yup a very good mod - try mines and nets also and see how often you sneak into an enemy harbor to get all those extra ships.

With mod enabler I swap out mods like those to vary things - but you have heard the best advice - moderation and even a break from the game...or if you are realistic actually do things like eat, sleep, read, etc...leave in it reduced or x1 TC....let your crew run the boat for a while

:lurk:

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

... and to help your performance out a bit, open the task manager (ctl/alt/del) and shut down some of those processes that aren't doing anything but wasting resources...

... if you've got qttask.exe, realsched.exe, that ipod iTunes crap running... just shut em down... either from the task manager, or the task bar at the bottom of your screem...

don't shut down everything now... just the processes that you know you surely aren't gonna be using during a SHIII session...

that should help a bit...
good hunting :up:

--Mike

[Panama Red]

Google and find a program called "EndItAll". Download, install and it will close all unnessary programs that are running in the background. It's a smart program, so it will not close anything that you PC needs to operate.

[Crop-Duster]

Play the sim in the nude :-j

[Panama Red]

Crop-Duster:
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[Marhkimov]

Play the sim in the nude :-j
Ya know... That will make anything interesting.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[DMarkwick]

I got this sim a couple of weeks ago, I'm still having a ball. I take it you've tried all the game derivatives - total manual solves, using a stopwatch & drawing tools only etc? That can rack up the difficulty and add a new element.

I went onto Ebay & purchased a Junghans stopwatch circa 1950 or so, and also made an angle-on-bow calculator from 2 printable CDs of different sizes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v15/DMarkwick/SubTool1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v15/DMarkwick/SubTool2.jpg

[Kalach]

New mods really help to revive the game when you are getting bored. I only just started playing again yesterday, mostly due to discovering Teddy Bar's NYGM damage mod beta. It makes ships actualy sink instead of explode after being shot a few times.

[Camaero]

Way cool DMarckwick!

[Bluewings]

DMarkwick , you play hardcore and its the way to go . Congratulations ! :up:

Cheers .

[Shahed]

where can i find the harbour traffic mod?

http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=46447

Gizzmoe (or anyone) do you know where I can find the "...the convoy routes map mod." which "shows you the convoys routes on the map when you zoom out." ?

:rock:

[Gizzmoe]

Gizzmoe (or anyone) do you know where I can find the "...the convoy routes map mod." which "shows you the convoys routes on the map when you zoom out." ?

http://mpgweb.de/downloads/index.php?act=view&id=528

[Shahed]

Danke ! :up:

[kylania]

In case you're confused like I was with this, to see the convoys zoom out on your nav map to see them.

[Shahed]

Ok, Thanks !

[shegeek72]

... and to help your performance out a bit, open the task manager (ctl/alt/del) and shut down some of those processes that aren't doing anything but wasting resources...

... if you've got qttask.exe, realsched.exe, that ipod iTunes crap running... just shut em down... either from the task manager, or the task bar at the bottom of your screem...

don't shut down everything now... just the processes that you know you surely aren't gonna be using during a SHIII session...

that should help a bit...
good hunting :up:

--Mike
Good suggestions. Also (if you haven't already) go to Start, Run, type in 'msconfig' (without the quotes), hit enter, that'll bring up the system config utility. Hit the startup tab and uncheck any programs you don't need starting everytime you reboot. If you don't know what something is, find out before unchecking! Don't uncheck anything from C:Windows\System32 or C:\Windows unless you're positively sure it's not a necessary Windows file. If you have any doubts leave it alone.

After you've made changes when you reboot a window will popup saying there have been changes in the system config. Check the "Don't show this message or launch the system config again" box. If you click on the Performance tab you can see the CPU Usage and other system information.

Low FPS could also be due to under-powered CPU / GPU.
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http://users4.ev1.net/%7Etaragem/sh3_dark_gw3r.jpg

[shegeek72]

Hey all

It's a shame but I think my interest is waning. I don't get a lot of time to play games and the long load times are really getting on my nerves. Plus, every time I load, I get frame rates of around 1 frame per second for two or three minutes until everything settles down.
Have you tried some of the single missions (both in SH3 and custom)? They often put you right into the thick of things.

Or create your own in the mission editor. :know:
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http://users4.ev1.net/%7Etaragem/sh3_dark_gw3r.jpg

[kiwi_2005]

Post # 1

Start using the editor and create your own mini campaigns expanding over 4 or 5 single missions, doesn't have to be perfect either as its just you playing them - can be alot of fun.