SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Thoughts from a recently new player in multiplayer

I love this game!

That said, it's quite obvious that there's a lot of new players about, some of whom, (including myself recently!) are clueless to the point of being a menace when they join a boat.

I thought I'd put some observations and thoughts down "on paper", which may be of use to some of you just embarking on the game... The points below only apply to when you join someone elses lobby and boat. If you start your own lobby, preferably locking it so others don't think they're entering a normal game, then you can experiment with gunnery duels v Tribal class destroyers without inconveniencing anyone!

The roles - and you:

There are 5 different roles in game, to whit: Captain, Navigator, Radio/Hydrophone operator, Dive Officer and Helmsman. I have ranked these in order of difficulty mastering, with Captain being the hardest - to do well. Do the tutorials available online, preferably as you start to learn each new role.

1. My first advice is to use "Discord" to be able to talk to other crew of your U-boat. Without Discord you can learn the roles, but it takes much much longer than if you use it.

2. Make it known that you are completely new, so if you make a mistake, people will generally encourage and help, rather than get cross.

3. That said, "playing with valves and controls" or shooting the deck-gun without clearance so to do, is likely to not make you deeply popular. So touch nothing, until you fully understand when and how to use it. Ask questions. You'll find established players very helpful, provided they understand you're new! On the other hand, teaching yourself about the perils of crash-diving with an open hatch is likely to have the reverse effect.

4. Choose a pronounceable and memorable handle. "Fidd" is good, "2343qfh9p" is not!

5. Learn one job at a time, ideally starting with helm. In many ways this is the top advice I'd give. The reason for this is that it gives you a manageable learning curve, and whilst you're doing one job well, you are also making mates who in all likelihood will then happily invest the time required to teach you the next job on the ladder.

As you do the role you've learned, you'll also be hearing the routines and methods used by other players in other jobs, which will make those easier to learn in time. In short, don't be in a tearing rush to try and learn all jobs simultaneously.

6. Learn when to be quiet on discord. The captain does all manner of mental arithmetic and other "witchcraft" in order to fire the torpedoes accurately. If you're noisily relating something whilst he is doing this, you will not be flavour of the month! "When" to 'button it' on discord is a matter of judgement, partly from whether others are holding conversations about nothing-in-particular, and with experience, when you know an attack is being prosecuted. In general, if the captain is free and easy in his conversation, it's probably fine to jabber on Discord, when his orders become terse, best on balance to stick to immediately relevant topics, ie those related to your job on the boat and nothing else.

7. lastly, on a lobby with several U-boats in operation, ideally each captain will be communicating with the others to control which boat fires when, as if a ship is hit, or a submarine is detected, then the convoy "alerts", and any torpedoes en-route will likely miss. So, if you're joining a lobby with lots of players, the standard of proficiency and self-discipline of the various boats and their crew, (You!) - becomes more important.

If you have further advice - for I'm bound to have missed some, please add it here, or give your point of view if you differ with my "imho" views. :Kaleun_Cheers: