So much valuable knowledge is on these boards. Sometimes though hard to find. We should never want to hinder new players.

Thats why this subsim has always been especially good in my opinion.

Mature

Depends on what game you're playing. If you're playing the "I want my XXI" SH3 renown game, then yes, choose a DD over a coastal merchant (although if you have a coastal merchant and a DD in the same place, there's every likelyhood you're near a convoy and wouldn't choose to go for either ;)).

If you want to play a more historically aligned game, then you'd go the commerce war and attempt to cripple Britain through starving supplies...which you won't do by sinking destroyers.

But each to their own. It's not my place to dictate.

Bring on the NYGM Tonnage War Mod!!! :up:

Yes, you're dead on right about motivation for playing. Right now the best sub i've ever been out to sea in is a VIIB and i'm dying to get my hands on something that I can go a bit further with do a bit more damage.

Having said that, it's not a bad sub, certainly a big step up from the small IIA I started in.

Regardless of reknown - as was said above - for me personally there's a special satisfaction that comes with taking down something that on another day could be sending you to the bottom of the ocean. :yep:

If the convoy is moving in different directions, ie scattering then sooner or later they will all return to their original course and speed. What I do in that instance is to plot an end around intercept course in order to get ahead of the convoy again like this:

1) Firstly I get the convoys mean course and speed. Do this by marking off range and bearing for one particular ship a couple of times to get an accurate course reading, ususlly I use the lead escort. Generally it doesn't matter what ship you use, as they all follow the same course and speed, I use the lead escort since they are easier to pick out of the crowd. It's a lot easier to spot a single Black Swan frigate than a specific C2 in a convoy full of them!! :ping:

2) Then using the Nomograph, work out how far the convoy will travel in a specific time frame, I usually work it out for two or three hours. Quite a lot of the convoys I encounter are travelling at between 7 or 9 knots, and over a two hour period will travel 20-25NM.

3) Now you know a) the convoys course and b) how far it will travel in two hours. Using this information it's easy to plot the convoy's estimated position in two hours time, so it's time to surface and ahead flank around to the estimated position, reloading your externals along the way.

This doesn't work if the convoy reaches it's transit point and changes it's mean course. If that happens you have to start at square one again and work out everything from scratch again. :damn:


Hope this helps!! :ping: :arrgh!: :ping:

Thanks for the reply. I guess that's whats so good about finally getting an XXI. 6 bow torpedo tubes to fire off all at once (without reloading) against those convoys. :up:

As one of the n00bs, I can say that I've actually been reading here now for some 6-8 months and only posted a few times in that, so I'm not a recently gifted christmas player. I think one of my first questions was when I was having a problem iwth video drivers (all my officers, crew were grey blobs) but since then, haven't seen a need to comment on much, though I did help Trenken.

I've started playing again more recently because the 81.98 drivers allow me to play all my games with good performance, including SH3. I'm already up to my 25th patrol in march of 1942. I'm still sailing a VIIC. I've also been using the RUB 1.45, SH3Commander, Merchant skins, Milk Cows and some gramophone stuff. This forum is invaluable as a resource, though the search feature needs a little work.

There are a LOT of links for FAQs, which I refer to often. I'm still learning how to set the acoustic torpedoes (They don't seem to activate and track). I miss the 'fly by wire' torpedoes from 688(i) (and the sonar, and the deeper dives) but I also have SH2 installed and I can recall playing Silent Service on my old commodore 128. Sh3 is definately the better of any of the sub games I've played. This forum makes it even better.

Well that's not very sporting of the English GO GET THEM IT'S WAR :up:

I'm a n00b .... can't we all just get along :D

just to let you guys know, your help is appreciated. Cheers!

Because we all hate you and keep telling them you're out to assassinate Churchill!

I'm a newcomer to SH3 as well, but questions like the ones above (if in fact that kind of thing is really asked) are quite annoying even to my virgin eyes. Why? Because if you read the manual and watch the tutorial vids you have everything you need to know to GET STARTED. Then a combination of playing (practice) and coming here to look for common questions will get you through.

SH3 has the benefit of an extremely slow pace, which means you can read while you play. Print out FAQs and pertinent questions and take them with you into the bunk of your Type VIIB while on a long patrol. Your men will alert you if there's a sighting. Best of all, this is the kind of game which benefits from increased research into the subject (unlike most games where the entire body of knowledge found in the game is all you need to excell). My new favorite Saturday afternoon pasttime is parking my virtual arse in the captain's cabin, sitting my real arse in the chair and leaning back, reading from WOLF PACK by Gordon Williamson with occasional entries from "Sailor Steve's Patrol Logs". And the best part of all, as captain, *I* decide if I want those wartime pop tunes blaring through the boat, or silence.

"How do I fire a torpedo?" and "Where's the steering wheel" smacks of a casual gamer ... NOT a hobbyist, which is what you need to be to succeed in this game and enjoy it to its fullest extent.

BTW, I'm so new I'm still looking for my first campaign kill. Plenty in my examination and single missions, but the "hunter" part of Silent Hunter still eludes me a bit.

MQ

If you're interested in some more good reading on the subject, try this one out:
http://uboat.net/books/covers/englis...s_handbook.jpg

Click the picture for a link.

Where can I get my poodle clipped in Downey?(Frank Zappa and the mothers "Filmore East")

:|\ sorry had to do it :|\

WOW! Like a gift from heaven. Thank you. Good site, that, also.

Since posting, I did in fact sink my first campaign vessel. 9 of them in fact, totalling 43k. I take no credit. BdU in its great wisdom sent me to AM18 where miraculously a large convoy was on the way out as I was on the way in. It was a shooting gallery. Even the captain of a freshly installed copy of SH3, looking for the steering wheel and trying to figure out how to fire the torpedos couldn't help but pick off two or three. The convoy's lone destroyer escort was inept at best. I ran out of shells and started using the anti-aircraft shells. They seem to do damage, by the way. I ran out of all but one torpedo which I saved for the mandatory 24 hour patrol and the trip home. Fired it at a coastal merchant somewhere north of Scapa Flow and missed. Returned home.

Boy, was I ever disappointed to find myself with double the tonnage of the second highest "ace" and receive little more than a thousand renown. It's all but used up after recruiting a couple replacement officers. I hope renown grows exponentially as you gain fame and etch a couple more patrol notches on your belt. Regardless, best game I ever played. If they made this for the age of sail I think I might quit my job and die in front of the monitor after 72 hours of straight play.

I will get that book. Thanks again. It will stay next to me at all times.

MQ

Tool!

:rotfl:

:lurk:

hey we used to play zombiewolf in my band decades ago :D

Let he who lives in the glass house...
 

Only newbees post foolish questions and comments!

Not!

For every question posted here, there might be 50 people who just wondered the same thing. One answer helps them all. For those who aren't familiar with forum operations or the internet - some patience is needed.

Maybe the search engine isn't perfect, but it must search through all the good answers plus all the complaints and comments too. Contribute useful information only and the data base will be smaller! :sunny:

I always get confused on the album the cartoon says zombieWOOF.
I always thought it was The Zombiewolf.
You play the axe as good as "FZ"? :|\

Zomby Woof, that is, actually.. :P I haven't touched the instrument, especially an electric for years and I don't think my fingers remeber proper rectal movement without hard rehabilitation but talking about Zomby Woof, it's not hairly ya aint havta be Mike Kennelly and all :know: