Weather Woes
 

*heard amidst the sounds of retching from men too tired to see straight*

When is this accursed weather going to lift? Three weeks, we've been out, and ever since that first night, it has been raining and foggy. (Precipitations: Heavy, Fog: Heavy). I'm not altogether sure we still have a bow, since I haven't seen it in weeks.

Seriously, WTH is up with stock SHIII weather? I've had wind changes, and wind direction changes, but with all the heavy rain I've driven through in this last patrol, I'm fairly certain I could take a direct path back to Wilhelmshaven over Europe, rather than around it.

I've missed now on at least five different convoys, including being at the convergence point outside of Gibraltar when two convoys were passing nearby, but the weather limited visibility so much that spotting and identifying a target happened at 300m or less... hard to get an eel away with any effectiveness when you have such little time to do everything all at once.

Well, at least with weather this bad, I needn't worry about fighters. But Bernard's going to have a lot of deck-swabbing to do down below.

The weather system in SH3 is an PITA.:yep:

You may have more luck with SH3Weather, it should be available in the MODS section.

Just so you know. IIRC the weather in SH3 has a randomly calculated chance of changing every 48hrs (game time) but if you save & reload that internal timer is reset and you start again.

From experience, the weather seems to change more often when you spend lengthy amounts of time submerged. This is just my observation and I'm sure there is no hard data to back it up. However, I find that if I'm stuck in prolonged heavy rain, fog, seas then diving usually helps.

Appreciate the advice, Dan. Have SH3Weather in conjunction with SH# Commander - Seems to me it (SH#W) only affects the start of a patrol... is this correct?

I thought as you do for awhile; stuck in the worst gale in over a hundred years? Head to 50m and when you come up, all will be well. However, in this case, Posiedon's conspiring with the weather gods/goddesses/lesser-deities/demonspawn-from-hell to make my patrol miserable, and it's working.

You're right, PITA seems an accurate description of the situation.

Thanks again!

The only pattern that looks consistent to me is the sea state's usually better when you're leaving your home port and when you're returning -- though once the fog was so thick coming home, I was glad we have lighthouses!

I have seen a lot of bad weather also. Maybe it's because I begin some careers in the winter?? I tried a Med run not long ago and the weather was brutal. Maybe trying SH3 weather could help improve conditions or choosing a different month to begin.

I had set my SH3 Commander to "seasonal" and have since changed to 2x wave height. My deck crew would be submerged at times....have no clue what the wave patterns will look like now but I'll give it a go and see.

Cheers

I hope you guys have bettr luck than I've had. Closest I've come to sinking anything this trip was ramming a coastal merchie that Bernard didn't report until we were under it.

That is a BAD sound.

I think I left Willy and am returning to Waterworld... w/o Bernard- he's been offered a role as a guy named Kevin Costner...

Lots of bad weather on my end, too. I use SH3 Commander and always pick seasonal. Lousy, lousy weather during the winter. Sometimes you can hear the vomit sloshing back and forth in the bilge my men are so seasick....

Don't forget that your weather change probability counter resets everytime you save your game, so the best way to get it to change for the better is to play for a while without saving and when the weather is more to your taste save the game so it stays that way for at least the next few days.:sunny:

Either that or play in the Med.:D

Thanks for the info, TarJak... I tried getting to the Med, but the Straits of Gibraltar were quite busy, and I latched onto a couple of convoys in the neighborhood... the thrill of the hunt took over, and instead of going INTO the Med, I wound up heading back into the Atlantic.

I'm learning, though. :D