How many of you play DiD style?

[CaptainNemo12]

Be honest guys, how many of you start a new career after your boat has been sunk, instead of going back to a previous save?

[Phantom II]

I might try it one day, but with all my careers up to this point I've just loaded saved games after I die.

-Phantom

[CWorth]

Always play DiD no matter what the cause of my death.No other way to play for me.Full "realism" all the way.

Resistence is futile..Save game reloads are irrelevant..you will be assimilated into the realism collective.:rotfl:

[Gromit]

As much as it sucks, I restart.

Take my sig pic for example. I found a huge convoy that was protected only by a Flower Corvette (or so I thought). After having dispatched the escort, I surfaced and accelerated to flank to catch the convoy. No sooner than I broke the surface I clicked on the bridge icon to find this destroyer bearing down on me. I had just enough time to catch a screenshot of my impending demise. :dead:

[Zero Niner]

I'm still on my first career, and I want to sample the war from beginning to end.
Subesequent careers tho', I might consider DiD.

[d@rk51d3]

The only thing that's been killing me is friendly minefields and subnets when I leave harbour. So I just reload.


BTW, I only just found the extra maps hidden on the nav screen.:oops:


That should solve a few problems.:rotfl:

[P_Funk]

As much as it sucks, I restart.

Take my sig pic for example. I found a huge convoy that was protected only by a Flower Corvette (or so I thought). After having dispatched the escort, I surfaced and accelerated to flank to catch the convoy. No sooner than I broke the surface I clicked on the bridge icon to find this destroyer bearing down on me. I had just enough time to catch a screenshot of my impending demise. :dead:
Sounds similar to the last convoy I encountered. It had a Flower at the helm of the convoy and a pathetic armed trawler taking up the rear. I was considering making a daylight submerged attack on the corvette (wasn't zig zagging) and then within the convoy I noticed a nather large warship imbedded in the left flank moving in a column like a merchant. After getting as close to the convoy as possible I examined my Recog manual I decided that he was too big for me to be able to be all cavalier and sink the weak escorts and just mop up the convoy.

I've never read of escorts doing this, hiding in the midst of a convoy.

[Finnbat]

"Sink them all"
Kptl z see Thomasson

[Eichenlaub]

Once I buy a new pc that can actually handle SHIII I'm going to pllay a 100% DID GW campaign.

Of course it will be a tough learning school since I consistently got killed almost once per patrol at 79% realism...and sometimes more than once!

Kind regards,

Eichenlaub

[Frenssen]

I always play DiD inless I get killed by som stupid time compression issue while sailing in heavy fog. Makes me think twice before I attack a heavily escorted convoy.

[Finnbat]

Play with all realism setting and dont save.
Make a go and you will see you get adrenalin like never before.

I had to quit, because my stomach didnt take it.
When playing I use a 72% realism setting and save few times per patrol.
But I have thumbrule that reload only if error caused system to crash. If was stupid and get killed then punish me by eating only half pizza and give rest to dog.

[Wulfmann]

DID; no t matter what.
Even unknown at TC go to black screen DID.

The idea that it wasn't fair for the game(enemy) to do that, well, when you show me a real Kaleun that got to reset I will consider it.

I have been sunk for unknown reasons but a look at the games minefields (GW) and I can see there are more than just the harbors.
Look through a complete list of U-Boats and see how many were sunk with no explanation from either side.

That is not intended to be condescending to those that play at different levels as what ever level you enjoy is the right one.
But, I play to simulate as much as possible and by continuing to tweak it harder and harder keeps the challenge high.

Wulfmann

[SteamWake]

I think youll find that a large majority of this forums users will answer yes to DiD.

Now ask this over at UBI and it will either get closed due to flame wars or some dork will skew the results.

Anyhow I voted yes.

[kylania]

I voted no. My intention is to play DiD with the exception of game bugs. However since I'm currently learning SH3 I've been messing around a lot with tactics and how things work, so have been restarting a lot with secondary careers. :)

My main kaleun has died twice but I restarted him both times. First time was when I smashed into the Kiel lighthouse at the end of the run. No sense dying due to a graphical limitation of the game map!! Not really realistic that a u-boat captain would run into a light house in a friendly port. The second time turned out to be mines, but I'd thought the game crashed or something since it happened so fast.

[Von Taticus]

I makes you really worry when 2 or 3 DD's and vettes are on top of you.
great for realism.

:yep:

[Safe-Keeper]

Yup.

I really get that feeling of "Nooooooo! Damn!" when I'm taking heavy damage or when I'm otherwise really close to death. Especially when I've had a great patrol or survived for over a year.

[Jimbuna]

DiD...THE ONLY WAY I KNOW :arrgh!:

[Albrecht Von Hesse]

For me, while part of the allure of SHIII (and RUb and GW) is being able to play commanding a sub, much more of the allure is the ability to simulate doing do in a very realistc fashion.

I guess, from what I've read so far, I'm into the 'total immersion' aspect. And part of that is the understanding that, in real life, there are no reset-buttons to fatal goofs and/or miscalculations.

Admittedly, in the beginning, while I was learning the commands, and gaining experience in 'this-does-that-and-most-likely-will-result-in-<blank>' I did a lot of 'save-and-recover's. But after the first week I switched to full realism, with the exception of torpedo data still being automatic (now and then I play manual data only, but I justify using auto as an actual U-boat would have three people involved in data collection and input while I'm just a feeble singleton player) and, once I felt I knew what was what, I started a career with the understanding and acceptance that dead would be dead.

Now I have, at times, made exceptions to that. One, for instance, was learning --the hard way-- that my home port was mined (ouch). I hadn't realized that RUb included that. Another was encountering an aircraft while on patrol, where my boat had one heavy and two light flak stations. My normal response to sighted aircraft is to become very interested in running a crash dive drill. But this time I wanted to see what it was like to actually engage an enemy aircraft.

It's painful.

Ouch.

There are times I leave port for a patrol that I'll 'stand on the bridge', gazing sternwards, watching the dock recede behind. I imagine what it was like, seeing that for real. Thinking, 'Will I ever see this again?' Wondering if that might be my last sight, ever, of home.

There was the time I spent two and a half real-time hours trying to evade four DD escorts. It seemed nothing I did worked. I finally kept creeping, meter by meter, lower and lower, until I finally hit a depth where my hull started cracking and getting damaged. I crept up one meter then kept trying to silent run my way free, all the time hearing virtual non-stop pings and the occassional high-speed screws overhead. Again I kept picturing what that must have been like for real. Dust heavy in the air from prior ash-canning. The air thick, clammy, humid. Unable to see the ships above; no idea where they were, if this next attack run had your name on it . . .

It just wouldn't be the same for me if I simply nonchalantly went, 'Oh well, I'll just reload the last save'.

Albrecht von Hesse

[Dantenoc]

Do I play Dead is Dead?.... well, let's put it this way: I've never seen the end of he war :dead:

[Myxale]

I also do DID!

IT makes everything more nevre-whackin' if a you know that re-load is no option!:rock:
This is half the fun!:|\\

[Marriott]

I play DiD, and haven't finished a war yet

[vonBimmell]

I reload saved games.
I used to do this for a living in the real world, and now I play for fun.
I like to try different strategies for the same situation and see how it turns out.

[rifleman13]

DiD!:dead:

As the French would say it, C'est la vie!:arrgh!:

[KeptinCranky]

Yes, DiD for me, not by design at first, just forgot to save during patrols :oops:, but stuck with it later on because it just felt right to do it that way, learn from mistakes and such

[sharkbit]

I voted DiD.

I still want to see the whole war though. I don't want to go back to Aug. '39 every time I die and see if I get further along.

So after my first career using GWX2.1/SH3 Commander came to a nasty end near Narvik in April '40, I started a new career, in a new boat, with a new crew in May '40.

I plan on doing that throughout the war so I can experience all phases of the war, hopefully with as few careers as possible.
:)

[Brag]

Without DID, it would be too much like an arcade game

[Lible]

I've been completely DiD no matter what happens so far. But I'd probably load a earlier savegame if I had some gamebreaking bug (e.g 100 miles per hour speed to the bottom)

I really can't understand the people who start from '39 and try to get as far as possible. This is nowhere near real life. My longest career so far has been 10 patrols. Yes, I retired.

[papa_smurf]

Have always been playin Did, ever since I got the game.

[UnderseaLcpl]

My DiD experience is tempered by reloading due to stupid sinkings.
Hitting our own mines, being rammed by German ships and running aground because "I'll leave it at 1x while I go pick up some groceries".

[nikbear]

DiD here:up:whatever kills me finishes that career,and its quite fun starting a new career anyway and giving your new kaleun a personality in your head and how he will fight 'His' war;)

[Brer Rabbit]

To reiterate an earlier post we all play the game and get what each of us wants out of it. It is one of real joys of sims. There truely is no righ t way or wrong way, its only reason for existance is for our enjoyment.
I have always played DiD even back in the Silent Service II days. It tool me six months in real time to get to July 1945, and on my last patrol while under TC getting to my assigne patrol area, apparently I was jumped by a hunter-killer team or a lone aircraft with BLUB, BLUB being the the result. It took me the better part of a day to sobber up after the bender, but the several days later ther I was taking a old pigboat out of Manila in Dec 1941. This time it took me 3 months, but I completed the war.
If RL has taught me one thing, it is that in combat caution pays off in the long run. There is no practical alternitive to patience, and the little things
do often count.
This is echoed in the Silent Hunter series as well as in other subsims. When I lose patience--death is often swift, fortunately I can start all over again.
Just my 2 cents.

[Whiskey T. Foxtrot]

I voted DiD.

I still want to see the whole war though. I don't want to go back to Aug. '39 every time I die and see if I get further along.

So after my first career using GWX2.1/SH3 Commander came to a nasty end near Narvik in April '40, I started a new career, in a new boat, with a new crew in May '40.

I plan on doing that throughout the war so I can experience all phases of the war, hopefully with as few careers as possible.
:)

I am doing the same thing. It is December 1940 now and I made it this far with two careers. I died in June 1940 and restarted in July.

[msalama]

DiD all the way excluding a career or a patrol botched by computer or game crashes, in which case I just reload a working save. Haven't survived the war yet - and probably never will :nope:

[Sailor Steve]

I really can't understand the people who start from '39 and try to get as far as possible. This is nowhere near real life. My longest career so far has been 10 patrols. Yes, I retired.
I agree, but some people don't want to get anywhere near real life with their games. The way I play feels more 'real' to me, but I do something that no real captain could ever do - live parallel lives.

I use SH3 Commander with the 'Realistic Career Length' option turned on. I play multiple careers, one in each available flotilla. If a captain dies, or is retired, a new career starts the next month from the same flotilla. I played AOTD this way, and SH1, and now SH3 and, once I get my computer problems resolved, SH4. And yes, Dead is Dead. Unless of course running at high TC gets me killed before I even know it happened. Or if...:rotfl:

[msalama]

Yes, I retired.

Oh, starting in '39 and trying to survive the war in active service is totally daft of course. We just do it because we can :hmm:

My longest career so far has been this Black Sea gig I just screwed up on my 17th patrol. The buggers tried to retire me several times and I refused of course... only to end up getting crushed because I was a bit beery last Friday and dove too deep evading a Storozhevoy :lol:

[Platapus]

I play DiD with the exceptions of death caused by computer hangups and TC deaths

In all the years I have played SH3, I have only completed one full war career. I can honestly say it was not all that fun '44-'45.

[predavolk]

I don't have time to restart a career, so I chose no. Then again, I don't die very often (only once or twice I think). I do get a lot of crashes though, and I wouldn't hesitate to reload those. I just got one last night off the coast of Puerto Rico. I took on a small convoy and sunk a large tanker, modern tanker, medium tanker, and large cargo. I was moving 50KM away to save safely after evading the escorts. At 50km, I dive to make sure there's no one around. Nothing. Then I surface and switch to the bridge view and screen goes black, boots out to Winblows, and I get the message of death. So 2 hours and 40K worth of shipping are toast. :damn: Then again, I've had game crashes bail me out of trouble, so I guess it evens out in the long run. :roll:

Once I finish with this career, I'll probably never start another. It's a great game, but it sucks up soooo much time that it really is a luxury I can't easily afford.

[rob89]

I imagine the most realistic DiD option would be that if one was sunk on patrol, to never play the game ever again.
Dead Is Dead. :)

[mapuc]

I imagine the most realistic DiD option would be that if one was sunk on patrol, to never play the game ever again.
Dead Is Dead. :)

I was about to write the same thing.

So those who play DiD do not play 100% realistic.

Markus

[baggygreen]

I just got my copy back from a mate who borrowed it 6 months back, and he downloaded GWX2 for me as well, so I'll be up and running shortly with DiD and SH3 realistic career length. I'm the same as a couple of others in a sense...

When I play if i survive the career & get retired i'll start a new one from next month. If I dont survive to retirement, i start a new career from the same opint in time the old one started

[GoldenRivet]

rifleman is the zombie thread generator! :rotfl:

[bookworm_020]

I just want to get to the end of the war. I'll do dead in dead when I finish the war.

[rifleman13]

rifleman is the zombie thread generator! :rotfl:
Well, there was nothing else to do.:roll:
And besides, I'm logged on a firewall-protected PC in the college library!:shifty:

I love resurrecting old threads.:|\\

[Jimbuna]

rifleman is the zombie thread generator! :rotfl:
Well, there was nothing else to do.:roll:
And besides, I'm logged on a firewall-protected PC in the college library!:shifty:

I love resurrecting old threads.:|\\

http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/821/discozombievs0.gif (http://imageshack.us) http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/5421/drunkzombiead0.gif (http://imageshack.us)

[Sensekhmet]

With the load times I'm getting on my machine, even non-DiD is nerve wrecking enough, thank you :down:

[Ivan Putski]

I play DiD, adds a little intensity to the sim, I now think out my moves well in advance of my actions, it`s painful to lose an excellent crew, but in real life they did`nt come home. I have a Dicta Boelcke set of rules for submarines that remind me to stay out of harms way. I`ve learned them the hard way, and have had some very long careers, at the top of my list is the first rule: DON`T GET GREEDY.:D

[Bosje]

when I first started, I kept reloading a save game with a taskforce in range. until I finally got the battleship sunk. when I did sink her, I wasn't happy with it after all.

DiD ever since, except stupid deaths from TC in rainstorms when a destroyer completely wrecks the boat before I even get a chance to order the crash dive. (a bit silly, I should just check the hydrophone regularly, but then again I read a book about how destroyers went to ram the boat at those ranges. so i consider it a bit of a glitch when they destroy my conning tower with gunfire at 100 meters while I wait for the boat to drop down.

and there was that time just after I got GWX. My first ever hedgehog encounter. I took the new and improved enemy as read, forgot everything I thought I knew at that point and learned the basics all over again. This process can be read between the lines in my war journal.

other than that, it's DiD all the way. still have to see the end of the war. several careers running in various boats. Freiherr Beckman will probably die some day too but it will make for some interesting writing (and hopefully, reading) and it will make me cry.

Horribly exciting way to play, actually sweating when the ping hits the hull, panicking when the boat sinks down, out of control. Wouldn't dream of having it any other way.

[msalama]

Uh... I just suggested that Airforce War ( http://war.by-airforce.com/ ) got into DiD. Let's see whether they give the idea any consideration...

Sez By Yrs Fecked

RBD_Make

a brave VVS groundpounder - always dead too :doh:

[neron]

i have allways played DID
i try to learn from my mistakes
i find i can relax more easily by carefully thinking through what my next move will be
which with my job finding time to relax is a bonus

[-Romanus-]

There was the time I spent two and a half real-time hours trying to evade four DD escorts. It seemed nothing I did worked. I finally kept creeping, meter by meter, lower and lower, until I finally hit a depth where my hull started cracking and getting damaged. I crept up one meter then kept trying to silent run my way free, all the time hearing virtual non-stop pings and the occassional high-speed screws overhead. Again I kept picturing what that must have been like for real. Dust heavy in the air from prior ash-canning. The air thick, clammy, humid. Unable to see the ships above; no idea where they were, if this next attack run had your name on it . . .

It just wouldn't be the same for me if I simply nonchalantly went, 'Oh well, I'll just reload the last save'.


You're right, it wouldn't be the same if one was enjoying such a wonderful realistic simulation in one's air-conditioned house, comfortable in one's chair with hot delicious food thirty paces and ten minutes away. Wouldn't be the same if you simply nonchalantely went, 'Oh well, I'll just go grab myself some dinner and then start a new game.'

Horribly exciting way to play, actually sweating when the ping hits the hull, panicking when the boat sinks down, out of control. Wouldn't dream of having it any other way.

The thought of GWX's 20 minute load time makes me sweat and panic.

EDIT: grammer ;)

[Chisum]

I resume a backup whenever I was killed.
Let's be serious, we will not stop playing SH3 because we has been sunk !

:lol:

Where is the difference between DiD and backup method ?
None, both plays again after died.
A real DiD makes that you can't never more play the game.

:p

[Reise]

The thought of GWX's 20 minute load time makes me sweat and panic.

I play DiD unless I die by CTD or other bug

GWX loads faster than WAC on my machine and nowhere near 20 minutes

[Sailor Steve]

There was the time I spent two and a half real-time hours trying to evade four DD escorts. It seemed nothing I did worked. I finally kept creeping, meter by meter, lower and lower, until I finally hit a depth where my hull started cracking and getting damaged. I crept up one meter then kept trying to silent run my way free, all the time hearing virtual non-stop pings and the occassional high-speed screws overhead. Again I kept picturing what that must have been like for real. Dust heavy in the air from prior ash-canning. The air thick, clammy, humid. Unable to see the ships above; no idea where they were, if this next attack run had your name on it . . .

It just wouldn't be the same for me if I simply nonchalantly went, 'Oh well, I'll just reload the last save'.


You're right, it wouldn't be the same if one was enjoying such a wonderful realistic simulation in one's air-conditioned house, comfortable one's chair with hot delicious food thirty paces and ten minutes away. Wouldn't be the same if you simply nonchalantely went, 'Oh well, I'll just go grab myself some dinner and then start a new game.'
Good point. I've made similar remarks when someone complained that the seafloor or other external views weren't realistic enough.

Of course people have different things they want to get out of it. I'm probably being silly when I complain that harbors don't look the way they really do, since I probably wouldn't notice if I wasn't using the external views to look at all the cool stuff. As far as reloading saved games, I don't recall being able to do that on Silent Service or Silent Hunter, so it seems like a 'newfangled gimmick' to me. And of course if you brag about the way your doing it you are being silly, just like bragging about huge tonnage scores when you're playing at the easiest levels. To each his own.

On the other hand, if we're just discussing different playing styles and why we play that way and how it makes us feel, then we're just having a conversation, and getting to know each other. I like to think I run my careers as realistically as I can, but then I certainly didn't have three different careers going at the same time when I really was in the navy, so I can't brag either.

I used to play a lot of tabletop miniatures naval games, and there were discussions about various rules sets, and the question of "realism versus playability". While I like my games to reflect reality as I saw it as much as possible, I also argued for disposing of "realism" altogether and substituting the term "feel". After all, it can never be real, but we can talk about how real it feels.

[VonDos]

Savegame is my friend ^_^

usefull for test and verify different dangerous tactics: this is a simulator, isn't it?

[Wildhawke11]

I always play D I D so much more thrilling and terrifying at times. It makes you much more careful and for me only take calculated risks. I personally would play it no other way. But its of course up to the individual. For me anyway i want to feel just a fraction of the fear those brave men must have felt at times in those iron coffins.

[Chisum]

i want to feel just a fraction of the fear those brave men must have felt at times in those iron coffins.
Be sure that you can feel it in no-DiD too.

I remember the first time that I have been fatally hit on SHIII, I was terrified in front of my screen and during the hellish descent of the boat to the Neptune world, I had cold sweats(that was really a "total immersion" !).
After being killed, I stayed 20 minutes to do nothing and think it was really a horrible thing.
I did not understand why we were out of the game so quickly, before this horrible window saying that the career is over, all hands lost, and it took me some time to understand that to die like that was just as brutal.

Probably that we love horrible things because we re-play every time. Danger is like a drugs and it's probably also why these courageous man left again on sea despite the risks they knew they were taking.
In my opinion, a normal man would have refused to left again.


I don't know what you thing about it.
But I'm sure that I feel it perfectly in no-DiD.

;)

(It was a hard text for a no-english man. Apologizes if mistakes)

[Parkera]

Yeah i play DiD. Adds to the feeling when your 200m deep being depth charged with flooding and damage trying to fix it all and get out cause ya dont want to die. If i do die, i will then start a new career in the same month/year with a new commander and boat.:p

[Sensekhmet]

I used to play a lot of tabletop miniatures naval games, and there were discussions about various rules sets, and the question of "realism versus playability". While I like my games to reflect reality as I saw it as much as possible, I also argued for disposing of "realism" altogether and substituting the term "feel". After all, it can never be real, but we can talk about how real it feels.

As an avid simracer I can only say 'yep, that's right'. You want 100% real? Be careful what you wish for, in simracing that would mean being locked up in a 140 decibel, rock hard race car for 3 hours, in temperatures around 40-60 degrees Celcius, covered in layers of fireproof clothing... I do amateur rallies and even that is taxing both physically and psychically. 99% of simracers would probably pass out on the first few laps in a GT car. Not to mention no one 'from the street' just comes and gets to race. Same thing with being a u-boat captain. Yet, there are games that seem to be harder than real, I guess just because for some nerds 'hard = real'.

[BasilY]

In the long run, playing DiD will actually enhance the gaming experience. Making narrow excapes and lucky victories that much more exhilerating and memorable. It also make you play more historically by avoiding excessive risk and targeting merchants more often, instead of trophy-hunting.

Since after my first 2 careers to get a feel of the game, has been DiD ever since for the last 4 careers. Among these, I finished once, died 3 times, the last time I was killed on May 7th, 1945:damn: (should have been more careful...), but not before I reach and 2mil milestone with my trusted IXB.

[msalama]

If i do die, i will then start a new career in the same month/year with a new commander and boat.:p

Yep, the same thing. DiD, 100% realism, a new Kaleun continues where the previous one croaked it. Haven't gotten through the war yet, not even close :nope: HOWEVER... Oberleutnant z. S. Johannes Lang, the commander of U-33 a Type VIIB Unterseeboot, just tied up at Lorient after his 10th war patrol on 22th of March 1941, having altogether sunk 146940 tons of Allied shipping so far! Happy times indeed :up:

[Randomizer]

To each his (or her) own, DiD makes life in late war patrols interesting to say the least. That's where one misses the renown that vanilla awarded for reaching the patrol area and returning alive. Type VII careers in starting summer '44 tend to be rather short and violent sometimes and just getting home is an accomplishment.
Good Hunting

[Adriatico]

I set myself a rule: savegame on contact with "something"... and 3 attempts to plan and execute an attack/escape combination... :
1 in game attack and 2 reloads allowed.

Seems to me as fair common ground between fun and real life sim.

It's pointless to get killed every 1942... as well as being successful from 20 attempts of convoy raid...

If I had to choose Yes or No... would be closer to DiD.

:know:

[Iron Budokan]

I play DiD. Once I got killed and restarted a saved game. I felt like I was cheating.

DiD all the way for me! :rock:

[Sailor Steve]

Of course no one ever plays DRID=Dead Really Is Dead. No, I don't mean if we die in the game we kill ourselves, but we might be more careful and play more realistically if when we die in the game we don't start a new career for, say, a month.

Or a year.:dead:

[Jimbuna]

Phew!....read this just in time to stop myself from jumping out in front of a runaway patrol car :lol:

[Badger Finn]

I play DiD. Once I got killed and restarted a saved game. I felt like I was cheating.

DiD all the way for me! :rock:

Agree :up:

DiD a habit from AOD!

:)

[Sailor Steve]

Phew!....read this just in time to stop myself from jumping out in front of a runaway patrol car :lol:
Dang! I posted five minutes too soon!:p

[Simdude]

I'll try DID once i've completed a 39-45 career...i've only had SH3 a few months (i had SH2 years ago) and haven't got past 1940 yet. I like the idea of it actually meaning something if they sink my boat.

[Doolar]

I play DID except when the power goes off (1x) or a rare system crash, these aren't my fault. I restart at the last save. On my one computer, if I get killed in game play then I'm toast, and start a new career with a new boat, captain and crew, at that point in time. I want to see how many careers it takes me to reach the end of the war. On my other computer I restart at AUG 1939 from Willy.

[Zosimus]

Do I play DiD? Kind of. Yes, if I am legitimately depth charged and killed then the career is over.

However, it often occurs that I've loaded a save, and I'm out somewhere when something comes up IRL. If that happens, I merely quit the game. When I log back in I'm supposedly "Dead" but I load a previous save and replay that part of the campaign.