Aha... If I have the time, I'll try to remember to keep the Scapa flow ones elite.

Would be a good idea to get a list of "super-units" to keep at elite level - you know, H/K groups, important port defenders, and so on.

Thanks for the clarification anyway Gizzmoe.

:up:

Well, *I* have time to make all those changes, so if you want I´ll do it while you change the last few things in IUb. Just let me know if you want the Light or Heavy version.

In the real war, from what I can gather, most early war crews were so absurdly poor that U-boats could indeed do almost anything. The horrible preparedness of Allied DD and DE crews, combined with the lack of any reliable detection equipment was basically why that period was known as 'The Happy Times'. The movie 'The Cruel Sea' shows this very well.

U-boats should have it virtually all their own way well into 1941.

The problem with the game's DD/DE AI is that there are basically only two settings. The 0, 1 and 2 settings produce AI that is all but completely useless, while settings of 3 and 4 make for destroyers that can't be evaded. So I think that removing the 0 AI won't do much anyway.

Nah, tis ok. I'll do the elites for scapa flow alright - its just I'm pressed for time this weekend.

Anyway, got to go, thanks for the offer though.

You say the same about changing units from 4 to 3, but I think it´s worth a try. There must be some kind of difference, even if it´s only very subtle...

I'm not saying don't try. I'm just saying don't be too disappointed if it doesn't achieve much.

I´m 100% sure that it doesn´t do much... :)

Has someone already tried to find out the exact differences between the crew ratings? If not I will do some tests over the weekend.

Wasn't there a "Second Happy Times" during the war for the U-boats? I thought I had read it somewhere or saw a program on A&E about "wolfpacks" and it had stated something about a second happy times, when merchants and cargo vessels ran their Nav lights or a lot of ship lighting while underway, mostly off the US coast and down into the Carribean do to some sort of major shipping accident? Guess the Americans had thought that the war was too far away that they could run Nav lighting? Also, it stated that this "second happy times' was especially easy for the Germans to sink ships out in the middle of the Atlantic since there was little to no air support. I think that it stated as well that US DDs and escorts were kept at a minimal and novice crews were used on the US East Coast since America had thought Germany did not have the reach to get to the States with the U-boat?

Yes. That was during the first six months of 1942.

Is it possible to change the length of time an escort will search for a uboat? I read somewhere that there is a default 15mins (?) search after it has lost contact, before it goes away. If the later war escorts could be made to prolong their search time, and HK groups have really long search times, this would reflect the fact that late in the war, success against the uboats was often accomplished by forcing them down for a day and a half or so, until lack of O2 or psychological pressure forced the uboat to the surface.

Regards

SH3 probably does not accurately simulate HK groups, no matter how long they are made to search for u-boats. Be it 15 minutes or 48 hours, they don't know how to "track" their targets. I'm betting RDF and other search techniques are not implemented in SH3, aside from DD's sometimes showing up whenever you use the radio.

Yes, the default time is 15 minutes, in RUb it´s 40 minutes. You can change the time in data\cfg\sim.cfg, look for [AI detection].

JScones announced that the next version of SH3 Commander includes a search time randomizer!