Agreed.

Everybody is a bloody expert.

"Too much of this.... too much of that.... my porridge is cold."

:shifty:

Frag the critics.

Hey guys...chill out...it's just a game...Sometimes it will all go your way & sometimes it won't.
It's funny how I can get all bent outta shape on some minor issue today & tomorrow I won't even give it a thought...

Damned games are a total waste of time anyway...(according to my wife anyway)

Hi!

Which missions, in particular? :)

Pablo

I agree that if you are steaming in at 8 kts then you are going to get detected. I am new to SH3 and GWX and am in the first year of the war and have no problems attacking convoys, as has been mentioned above, stealthy approach fire off the torps and get the hell out again (but slow and deep). Have to say that if I approached convoys at 8kts would expect to be sunk before getting anywhere near them.

I've found that it's 50/50 for me.

Just 2 hours ago (literally) I was approx. 750 km due west of Gibraltar. Convoy contact was given on the map. Luck of the draw! It was headed my way, as I was headed there way! yay!

Okay, weather was: C R A P! foggy, rain, 15 meter/sec wind. Okay, they won't see me, and I'll have a heck of a time seeing them.

So I dived. I put myself at 150 meters down. Any further and I start to get damage (I'm not using the crush depth mod). Shut the engines down, rig for silent running and just sit there, hoping that the convoy doesn't shift or that we run out of air! :huh:

Again, I'm in luck. Here they come, sailing along as though nothing..........ah crap.
The lead escort suddenly starts turning his screws like he's doing a power run! (Which, by the way is cool as hell, all three of the ships I was on, when we'd do a power run, we'd kick it up between 36 to 38 knots! Deck is vibrating and to see that rooster tail shooting 25 feet up into the air is just, awesome! :up: ).

So here he comes, right to where I'm sitting. Okay, what did I do wrong? I'd had no contact with anyone in 3 days. No ship sighting in three days. I've kept radio silence since the patrol began. I dove down to my present depth of 150 meters when the convoy was still over 50 km off. Sea state is at least a 6 or 7 up there. Okay, maybe his sonar man has ears of gold on that DD and he heard me sipping my coffee from 15 km away at 150 meters. As Darth Vadar would have said: "Impressive."

Here come the depth charges. Hold our breath and don't move. Again, I'm in luck. No damage and after a while, the DD seems to give up. Here comes the convoy over me, and now I can try to get at least 1 or two ships before they try and get me.....

Okay, so what gave me away to that lead DD? Here's the thing. It happens every single time!
I don't boldly sail in at 18, 12, 8 or even 5 knots. I'm not that stupid. I used to talk to the sonar guys on my ships. Duh. And yes, this is 1939 and 1940. I'd swear that these guys some how have the same tech as we have now, and have an Adams class DD or Spruence class with a helo using a drop sonar!

Maybe it is the game engine. Maybe it is the Mod. If it's not, and something that we're doing wrong, lets here what it is. I'd gladly take the advice.
If the answer is: "That's just the way it is." then so be it. I'll keep doing what I'm doing and hold my breath (now THAT is realistic! :smug: ).

But if I'm doing something wrong, I'd like to know what it is, so I can learn from it too.

@Kpt. Lehmann

I think that GWX is the most wonderful mod that I've ever encountered. You and your team did an outstanding job! And there was a lot of hard work, sweat and even tears put into it. You have a great forward in your Manual.
Thank you for this gift.

However, no. Not everyone is an expert.
Some of us have had real life experience in the Navy. But I don't think there are too many people here that can claim to be ex-U-boat commanders, or have actually fought in WWII.

While not everyone is an expert; no mod is perfect either. You and your team have done a hell of a job with this one, and you and your team are giving us teasers that the next update (and the last) will make it even more outstanding, and many of us are waiting for it with bated breath.

I'm sorry if people here upset you with complaining about something. Hell, I'M sorry if I upset you. That was not my intention. Only that something seemed wrong to me is what called out for me to speak up (shoot, for all I know what is wrong is ME for goodness sakes).
However, we had a system in the USN. It's called "Lessons Learned" ranging from mishaps with equipment, to things that got sailors killed. It was the USN's attitude to learn from any mistake, so it would never happen again. There is another system that the USN has: Feedback. Everyone, from Seaman Recruit Jones to 5 star Admiral Blowhard can use it, to show if they think is something is wrong, not right, or needs to be corrected or added to it. I know, I submitted plenty on my radar system during the 10 years I was in. And they are taken very seriously. Sometimes things would change. Sometimes not, if it was something that couldn't be changed for one reason or another.
Point is: nobody should be afraid to offer critisim. As long as they either try to offer a solution, or do so in a professional manner.

So please don't take this the wrong way. Like I said, for all I know, it's ME that's doing something wrong, not your mod.

Now excuise me, I've got to get back to my sub, as I'm out of torps, low on fuel, and I've got 2 more days before the resupply ship shows up! 2 more days of banging on the door, yelling at Benard to get out of the Head!

Its not that Im being reckless its just the fact by the time I make my descion I have shells riping through the air around me!

In Sh4 i've certainly found what schultz claims to be true, but in GWX, i haven't.

I pay attention to the following factors

sea state
moonlight
my bow wave (ie speed)
Decks awash in calmer sea states.

And then i try to time my approach so that i don't get too close to an escort

If its pitch black i can get very close, certailny within 2 kms. Man I even once rammed an escort by accident with neither of us seeing the other (yes i was on the surface!)

If you don't like the way it plays, switch to a different one. There are several others out there to try out, WAC, NYGM for a couple. Coming on here and whining about how you don't like this or that about a well established and respected one like GWX is not going to change anything.

I've encountered the same thing as the OP only a very few times during all my GWX 1.03 as early as '39, which I put down to bad luck.

Up until '41ish with the radars appearing, I can usually attack surfaced at night, getting as close as 800 - 1000m to escorts without getting detected in moonless nights with some choppy seas, managing my angle and speed to maintain a low profile. Once into the merchant stream I can usually manouver as close as 300-400m to merchants without getting spotted, if the night is dark.

Hell, I've even launched surfaced attacks on convoys from 1000m literally a minute or so before sunrise in relatively calm waters and still got away without getting detected. Escorts in my experience tend not to open fire on you until they are relatively close, even when they do detect you - which allows for plenty of very interesting surface evasions during night/twilight time.

The once in a blue moon incidents where escorts fire at me from long ranges with extreme accuracy, or spot me at impossible (in my mind) instances are so few and far between I'm very content explaining them away as Acts of the Patron Saint of Tommies :)

This is with 16km sighting mod btw, so it certainly is not an issue for me at least. As for the OP - it seems SH3 behaves slightly different on different systems, even with identical mods installed. Gremlins no doubt - you can't trust them....

How The Hell Do You People Get So Close!!!!

Same here, bad luck on visual sightings. What I dis-like, is that virtually every NME escort, right down to armed trawlers has an active sonar set, when IRL they were few and far between in the early years, even on destroyers. Some of those being prototypes that nobody really knew how to operate efficiently.

However, it is worth noting that Destroyer AI has was increased for GWX in an effort to balnce a few other issues, if I recall correctly. So at the moment I'm more than content to grin and bear it. Nothing will take away my GWX.:rock:

Nevertheless most of my problems are caused by a stupid act of over-zealousness and impatience.:dead:

strange... this has never been an occurance i have experienced before with GWX.

im wondering if there is more to you encounter than you know of? enemy AI sub nearby?

I have frequently been INSIDE the shipping lanes of convoys with not so much as a rude gesture being cast my way.

5 or 6K meters is a bit far for anyone to be seing you though.

there simply HAD to be another element to the encounter that you might not have been aware of. at least thats my opinion.

I doubt this element is there every time. :damn:

We are sneaky beggars! Stealth is the only way to get close. I never go about 4kt on the surface when approaching a convoy and if I'm feeling that a surface attack is too risky I submerge and travel at 2kt or less. Any faster and someone will hear or see you. Being a submariner is all about stealth and surprise.

andylegate puts forward a rational comment based on more real life experience than anyone in the GWX team has, and you dismiss him (and indeed anyone with a different POV to yours) with this condescending drivel? :nope:

You really aren't doing yourself any good with your snippy outbursts lately...

Cold porridge will do that to a man. He'll be great again come lunchtime.

Hi!

Can you estimate how close the destroyer was to you was when it reacted to your presence?

Pablo

@Pablo

It varies, this last time I'd say he was about 15 to 18 km away. That was hydrophone bearing line ended.

Sometimes they've been closer, or about the same.

@JScones

Hey, it's cool. This is a sim, not real life. Apparently the GWX guys have heard people complain about things that are either the complainer's fault, or things that the GWX people have no control over.
I'd just rather hear that than a flipant remark. But everyone has bad days or days that they get disgusted with people.

Just remember, and this is an OLD navy saying:
"A B****ing sailor, is a happy sailor. If your men are quite, something is WRONG!"
And it's true! ;)

Hi!

FWIW I have observed ASW ships give a "false start" at fairly long range and zoom around as if they have a contact, only to settle back down into their normal routine several minutes later.

It is my understanding that stock Silent Hunter III throws a random number into the detection value, which can cause an enemy to detect you in circumstances that they otherwise wouldn't if the random value is extreme enough, causing the reaction that you heard. I suppose this simulates the effect of a crew member dropping a heavy metal object onto the deck plates, or the destroyer itself picking up a false contact and scurrying about trying to reacquire it.

The saving grace is that they cannot maintain contact without another extreme random value, even with the inherent bonus to maintaining contact once contact is aquired, so if they're a ways off and suddenly get "spooked" your best bet is to maintain your noise discipline and hope they calm down before they get too close to you.

Do you remember if the ship closed and attacked you?

Pablo

C'mon, man!