Returning from 1st mission in GWX my observations
 

It has taken me a long time to get under way. Between basement flooding, vacations and a computer freeze issue I spent much time without any progress.

My 1st mission from Kiel was to patrol AN18 for at least 24 hours and return to base.

I guess my 1st observation was that besides the ships in the bay on the other side of the Kiel canal I did not see a single ship. I traveled all the way to AN18 and patroled for several days when I arrived there. The only thing I observed was heavy seas which didn't seem to let off.

The 1st question that comes to my mind is whether I have done things optimally to receive information of a ship or ships in the area. Excuse me for not knowing but does the Hydrophone only work when on surface or under water? When I'm on the surface I see the Hydrophone rotating as the sonar crew is automatically putting this to use. When I am submerged however is the only time I can inquire with the Hydrophone operator to do a sweep or pick other icons which are greyed out on the surface.

My other observation is that it was difficult to combat fatigue with the crew. I discovered that I needed to remove the Weapons officer right away from his alloted duties and rotate rest in and out between the officers. I also had difficulty keeping the U-boat moving as it was tough to have enough crew to keep it going. I ended up using the watch officer in the engine room and there was a lot of rotating in and out. I left the torpedo room completely unattended. With those type of adjustments I could stay ahead of fatigue.

Another thing I noticed was that the submerged time didn't last for very long. The battery would run low in very short order.

I also observed that even though there were bouts of bad weather there never was any rain. Does Silent Hunter not model patterns of rain?

Even with a lot of questions I have enjoyed the 1st patrol. I know that war hasn't broke out yet so I haven't been very much on edge. I should be able to return to port and receive my 2nd mission prior to the outbreak of the war.

Bad weather is the norm in SH3 and unless you install the "stop the rain" mod fix you'll just have to live with it. Try submerging every two hours and conductng a sonar sweep for 5 minutes, while turning through 360 degrees. You'll be able to "hear" a lot further than you can "see".

Crew fatigue can be worked-around if you install the SH3 Commander v3.1 "super-mod". You can turn-off crew fatigue completely. NO RL Kapitan had those micro-management details to worry about.

Hydrophones are underwater sound detectors. You will get the occasional contact report from your SO when in rough sea as the boat will dip below 10 metres now and then and the hydrophones might register a contact.

Battery goes flat quickly? When you dive reduce speed to "ahead slow". With a low speed setting your CO2 levels will force you to the surface long before the battery gives out.

Keep as many crew at rest when not actually in combat. The torpedo rooms only need to be crewed when firing or re-loading is taking place. As your crew gain experience, make sure you have at least two PO's (preferably 3 or 4 on big boats) with the "machinist" qualification, plus an officer with the same for emergencies. The engine room crew are the heart of the boat. The last thing you want to hear when trying to run from an angry destroyer is "Not enough crew in diesel/electric engines compartment, sir!":damn:

Hope this helps, KH.

Install 16km Atmosphere (included with the GWX). It will give you more realistic visibility, and a higher chance you spot a ship. As Kielhauler1961 already mentioned, make frequent dives to perform a hydrophone check, and do it yourself. Efficient sonar officer can hear propeler noise within 20-25km, but you will be able to hear it form 30km! Turn up the hydrophones volume (click on the top of the Ambient volume knob), and the volume of your PC speakers. Slowly turn the needle around.

Usually, patroling your assigned grid, you won't find many contacts. That's why we all have oour favorite hunting grounds we visit befor, after, or instead of assigned patrol area. Check the map provided with the game to see where are the convoy routes and areas with dence traffic.

Your crew will improve with time. Giviing medals and promotions seams to make more resiliant to fatigue. In the meantime, keep only necesary man on stations, and rest the others. Note that when you're at 64x TC and above, your men don't get tired, nor they recouperate, if in quarters. Fatigue only "works" in lower TC.

Indeed. On higher speed, your batteries will last about 50-100km, before they start loosing power. On ahead slow, you can run for days.

Don't worry, you'll see enough rain. :D
There will be patrols with rain and poor visibility from beginning to end. I was lucky in my two last patrols, having sunny weather and no wind all the time.
Weather is a bit wierd in SH3, but the GWX improved it greatly.

Another question would be were you using high time compression? (>128x). If so then you are less likely to see targets because of the way that TC is handled in game.

I find that when on the search for ships 128x is as high as you would want to go otherwise you run the risk of getting jumped by DD's and completely missing whole convoys of targets.

Another thing to bear in mind....your crew will not fatigue when in tc 32 or higher.

Hi all, i'm loving this game! But a few questions:

I'm having the same problem as Paulversisor64 the topic starter. (I don't see a single ship, it's very lonely).

Ok you say, when you speed up the time more than 32x you will miss ships?? Oef then the game will take ours to finish a career mission. Are you sure?

Explain me: why are the harbours empty? I don't see a single ship. In the SHIII without GWX, you will see "schnell boats" I don't see them. I have SHIII with GWX 2.1.

Can you help?
Thx

Have you enabled Black Sea or Indian Ocean campaign files in mods ?
ONLY use those if playing in the area

List installed mods pls

What additional mods do you have enabled?:hmm:

If you are not getting any harbour traffic, I'll guess that you have enabled the optional Black Sea or Indian Ocean mods. If so, you have overwritten the Atlantic/Med campaign, so there will be no ships.

Edit - Crossed post!

Playing the game at anything under 256 TC (around traffic areas) is fine and you'll not miss many contacts. Only use higher TC to transit the Atlantic to the US, for example.

128 perhaps ??
On mine at 32 and 64 crew is very quickly tired.
Must make strong coffee !

With SH3Commander you can indirectly change the max TC at which crew fatigue decrease and increase, by increasing the TC for 3d textures.

I increased it to 256 and now the crew fatigue fluctuates at that speed. :up:

Hum, I did not know.

Is it here ??

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/414...board01db1.jpg

Thank you for giving me a better understanding of how things work on the U-boat.

I've manually used the hydrophone but not very successfully in the early going. I appreciate the advice of how best to use this.

When I was submerged I was travelling at standard speed which obviously was my problem. I was wondering how a person would have a prayer in the later war years if it wasn't possible to stay submerged much more than an hour.

I do have the 16KM atmosphere upgrade installed. I think the weather itself is knocking down the visability.

I didn't know that you could eliminate fatigue by travelling at higher speeds. The highest TC I used was 32. I'm not completely annoyed with the personel turnover it's sometimes just hard to keep up with. Even though I could eliminate fatigue I think most of the time I will be travelling at slower TC.

I did notice the improvement in efficiency when the machinist occupyed the diesel room. That is a good point to look for qualified machinists for the crew.

I am glad that I asked my questions. I wish you all success!

Turn up the hydrophones volume (click on the top of the Ambient volume knob), and the volume of your PC speakers. Slowly turn the needle around.

I am curious about how the hydrophone volume gets adjusted. I found the volume knob. What I have noticed is that I hear the U-boat motor when I hold the left mouse button down and move it accross the knob the sound is gone when I move it back. I'm assuming that when I hear the motor that the hydrophone ambient level is turned on.

If this is the case I am assuming that I would want to turn the U-boat off during the time I want to listen on the hydrophone to remove the background noise.

Are my assumptions correct?

More simple: stop engines.

;)

PS: don't forget that normaly, hydrophone can't not earing on 360°. Read in SH3 windows, when you are on 'equipment'.

The knob has only two positions, up and down. Clicking on the upper part turns it up, and this is the position in which you want it to be. During the hydrophone check, completely stop your engines!

I'm not sure, but I think that your engine noise doesn't bother the sonar man, as it seems that he can detect a contact regardless of your speed. Does anyone has any info on this? :hmm:

Be noted that the volume knob returns to its "down" position each time you reload the game, so you have to turn it up again.

Hope this helps.