Hedgehog in action (19 pics, ~500 kb)
 

My first attempt at posting screenshots. Sorry for the large number (had a hard time deciding which ones to post), but they're quite small. The entire sequence is taken in a few seconds.

I'm in Sept. 1944 in a XXI, and I was going from Bergen to BE31 when I got picked up by a destroyer escort way out in the sea west of Ireland.

Visibility was good as you can see, but winds was 15 m/s. I first made myself ready to spend one of my three XI Zaun torps on this, but decided to save them for more 'useful' purposes (I saved and quit after taking the shots, so I don't know what to expect).

This is the first time I've seen the hedgehog in action. I'll let the pics speak for themselves (mostly):


http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image005.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image006.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image009.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image010.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image011.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image012.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image013.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image014.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image015.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image016.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image017.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image019.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image020.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image021.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image022.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image025.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image026.jpg

As the ship passed over the 'pigs' it had just dropped, it fired additional depth charges both from the sides and from the rear:
http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image028.jpg

http://home.online.no/~bjoohe/sh3/hedge/image030.jpg


... and as you can see from the last pic the DD escort was far away from me, so I was never in any danger (I think!).

I followed the hedgehogs further down with the ext. camera (but it got quite dark!), and they didn't explode, but simply vanished after a while. I think this was their purpose - to only detonate if they hit anything. They do look like small torpedoes, eh?

Pigs in the water! :o :ping:

I love the graphics in SH3. If you crank up the brightness (at least I have to) you can even see the detailed floorboard on that warship. Great details.

Regards,

Nopileo

Cool pics! :up:

:o
Amazing!
Your graphics are also looking impressive.
What card do you use?
Is that 4x antialiasing or higher?

250 meters is not bad too. I´m afraid of going that deep.
My best was 230.
Edit:
i missed that you´re on a type21...

Nice! Haven't seen it in action yet so thanks for the pics!
And you are right, the looks of this game are simply amazing! :sunny:

Thanks!

My card is an ATI X800 Pro, and I have all settings to max. This means 6x anti-aliasing, 16x anisotropic filtering, and MipMap and TrueForm set to max.

I recently upgraded from a NVidia 4800SE something, and compared to that everything looks wonderful, and framerate in port is about 25 compared to about 15 with the NVidia.

At sea (like these shots) I'am always at max, which is 85 fps with my rather old monitor...

And this was the first time I tried to go this deep. Just tried it as an experiment since I was going to exit the game anyway, so I was actually at 260 meters. I still got the 'We're too deep,sir!' messages at about 170 meters like with the other subs, but I think this is programmed into the game. In the interior view of the XXI the depth gauge goes to 400 meters, so I could probably have gone deeper. I just pressed the 'end of the dial' on the small dial in this case.

Awesome awesome awesome awesome pictures!!! And, you know. Good job by the dev team, too. :rotfl:

The hedgehog rounds have impact detonators, I believe. Which is why a hit by one of them really screwed things up. If a destroyer sees a detonation by one of the hedgehogs, he knows he made an impression.

I hate those little beggars... :gulp:

Cordialement, Duke of Earl

Those were great...I havent seen hedgehogs up close....and the water looks amazing! I have the ATI x700pro (CPI) ordered on an AMD 64, I'm hoping it looks half as good as that! I love this game!

Holy smokes those are some really cool pics!

DEEEEEEEPER!!!!!!! YES DEEEEEEEEEEEEPER CHIEF!!!!!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

those are great shots indeed... i think i'll play my next career with the external camera enabled... i luv the 100%, but i'd like to catch some of those action shots... just to see what those damn allies are doin :-j

but i sure hope i'm never close enough to have a barrage like that headed my way :-j


--Mike

You and me both, Mike. I've never seen them close like that, had always been too busy trying to scoot away from the scene to really look at what was going on.

Excellent screenshots, Nopileo! They look fantastic!

I was worried there would be some pics of Ron Jeremy.
:rotfl:

:rotfl: I had to google him up, as I had no idea who that was. From an interview found here: http://www.askmen.com/toys/interview...interview.html

"From there, the man they now call the "hedgehog" has become ubiquitous, to the point that AVN (Adult Video News) named him the Top Porn Star of All-Time, no small feat indeed."

Anyway glad you liked them guys. Thanks for the kind words.

I've promised myself many times that I should stop using the external cam, but it's so hard to give up. I tried one patrol without it, and I suffered from heavy withdrawal cramps the entire trip... :damn: :P

Those hedgehogs will mess you up if you are near them.

But the good thing is, that even if one of them hits you, you can still save your boat. They arent as powerfull as DCs.

Really nice series.

How did you get so many shots ? Freeze frame ? Or were you getting hammered :yep:

Hedgehogs (Anti-Submarine Mortar) in this game are not historically correct as they go off even if they make no contact. Historically, they would only explode on contact so that they would work at any depth. The idea was, they would be able to be dropped on a sub that was being held in sonar contact (the Hedgehogs would only explode on contact so no depth had to be set). Exploding depth charges would cause such a sound disruption that contact with a sub could be lost for a period of time. Hedgehogs would be demoralizing when they would not go off. Regular depth charges would at least go off at a preset depth.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog_(weapon)

The Squid, on the other hand, did have a preset depth and replaced the Hedgehog. Maybe this weapon is a Squid?

Steamwake: Yes, I paused the game and pressed the Del key to remove the 'Game paused' screen. Then I tried to find some good angles. The good thing about the external camera is that you can pan anywhere you want even if the game is paused. So some of these shots are actually from the same split second, only taken from different angles.

kholemann: Like I mentioned in the original post the hedgehogs didn't explode, but the depth charges that were launched a few seconds later did. Those are the explosions seen on the pics. Thanks for the info though!

I have just continued the patrol, where I encountered a convoy with only tankers! I'm preparing to make a new 'photo story' from that soon, but I need to calm down a bit first. It was the most fun and excitement I've had so far in SH3... :yep: But I can tell as much that I got hammered with more hedgehogs and depth charges... :o But I did survive, even without reloading a single time (turning around to avoid cold stares from the realism buffs... ;) ).

Stay tuned! :ping:

The Squid was a far deadlier weapon owing to its much faster reload rate. My father served on RCN ships during the war and he raved about the Squid, he said it was fascinating to watch the automated reload system.

anyone any pictures of 'the squid' *visualises people posting pictures of octopi*