Questions from a n00b
 

Hi all,

I just recently had the itch to reinstall SH III. I forgot how much fun this game is. I love the graphics, the atmosphere, everything about it. I'm still learning the strategies though. I had a few questions about the inner workings of the game to get me started.

What method do you use for a torpedo attack? I used to bounce a lot of torpedoes before I found the sweet spot to attack from. I like to pull up close to a ship in front either on the surface or periscope depth and just kill the engines and wait for them to pass in front of me. If I can hit them broadside at 300-400m I almost never miss. Any closer and the torpedoes just bounce off.

Which of the realism settings add the most difficulty? I like using unlimited fuel, and the one that makes it easier to spot ships. I want to play at a higher realism setting once I get a little better. I've read that the difficulty settings affect the medals you earn. Do they have any effect on your renown?

Lastly, which mods do you guys recommend? I looked through some of them, but there are a bunch of them out there.

Great game though. I dig it. :up:

As in real life, torpedoes need to travel a distance of 250-300 meters before the pistols arm. Any closer, and as you've seen, they'll bounce off. Personally, I try to take my shots inside 2000 meters, and as close to a 000 degree gyroangle (the angle the torpedo needs to turn after it leaves the tubes) as possible.

I have all of the realism settings checked except for "Gods eye view off", "no external view" and "no weapons officer assistance". I figure I'm the captain, I shouldn't be the one worrying about plotting the ships on the map and I like to have a little backup on my torpedo solutions. I like the external view for screenshots, but I don't use it to cheat (often!) This puts me at a realism setting of 72% I think, which does influence your renown. The formula used for calculating renown earned per ship sunk is (ship's renown value) X (realism %)

You can't beat GWX 3.0 for a total overhaul of darn near every aspect of the game. It adds so much that I wouldn't consider playing without it. I run SH3 Commander for career management. I also like the Longer Repair Times mod. Having more realistic repair times adds to the tension of being damaged. I also have Rubini's rocket fix installed, as it makes the rockets on late war planes a lot more deadly, and reduces the reliability of the radar warning reciever, which I think mirrors reality a bit closer than always knowing when a plane is coming.

Welcome aboard!

I follow a ship for a while, gathering all the data. Then position myself ahead of it, on course perpendicular to the ship's. Always fire at its broadside, zero gyro angle, as close as possible. During the night, surfaced, during the day submerged.



Torpedo needs to travel at least 300m to arm itself. If it hits something before, it will just bounce off.

The higher the settings, the higher the renown you get. And more medals.

GWX + SH3 Commander make a pretty good combination.

Welcome aboard! :arrgh!:

2000m? I usually miss a target from that range. Does having a better weapons officer help? Or do you do your own targeting manually? I got frustrated with all my misses and now I save my torpedoes for point-blank range. It doesn't help that the first sub only carries 5 or so torpedoes.

Can you confirm that the realism setting affects your renown? I would crank it up more if I knew it did that.

GWX was one of the mods I was looking at. I think I'll try that one first. What does the career manager do exactly? For the realism mods, I think I'll wait till I get better at the game.

Thanks for your help.

Thanks! Another question though, how do you handle evasive maneuvers? Do you dive deep and wait for them to leave, try and creep away, outrun them, or what?

Also, does it make any difference if you sink neutral ships? I've been targeting them and it doesn't seem to give any penalty.

Yes, it does make a difference. I'm not sure, but I think the renown awarded is identical to the percentage of difficulty. I cheat. I use the Weapons Officer, and leave external views on for the sheer beauty of it, but I set the cfg files so it still adds up to 99% (100%) means you can't 'teleport' home if you take rudder or engine damage.

GWX raises the bar for immersion, adding not only to the realism but also to the sights and sounds of travel to and from your patrol grid. Ships and airplanes in the harbors, US convoys escorted by blimps - you name it, they have it.

By "career manager", do you mean SH3 Commander? It is far and away the best tool made for the game, not only letting you adjust most of the game's parameters with a single click, but also giving you a realistic career with retirement possibilities, almost 2 billion possible crew names, names, crew number and cargo type to the ships you sink, and a whole slew of other things I can't think of right now.

I go deep and silent. When you can hear the propellors overhead accelerate, you know they're about to drop, and also in GWX that they are now blind. That's the time to go to flank speed, turn hard and dive another 50 meters or so. Then silent again.

It should make a huge difference, subtracting the same renown you'd normally be given for the same ship. I changed mine so it gives zero, since most neutral sinkings were let slide, and inside a convoy they should be fair game, but aren't in SH3. That way I don't get penalized for sinking one, but don't gain any reward either.

Welcome Aboard Herr Kaluen!!! :arrgh!:

As a general rule, go as deep as you can and stay silent.
If you are in immediate danger of being hit by deptcharge, run at flank speed and change course, but return to silent running afterwards.
You can manually set your speed to 0kt. You'll still be moving slowly, but your engines will run at lowest possible RPM, to minimize the chance of detection.
Turning your smallest silhouette also helps.
A destroyer can't detect you when you are behind him (45 degrees to each side of its stern), so use that moments to get further away.


It does. You get negative renown, the value of which depends of a ship.

Welcome aboard Warispeace.

You may want to vist my Kielman webbie and read some of the articles there. ;)

Those both sound great. I'll try them out tonight.

Are there shortcut keys for the navigation tools, like ruler, course plotter, etc.? I looked on the ref. card and didn't see them.

Thanks for the help guys!

Somebody may help you there, but I can't. I hardly ever use the keys that are there, preferring to 'walk' to any station I want to use. I always go to the bridge by clicking on the Conning Tower hatch, then the Bridge hatch. For the Attack Scope I click my way up to the Tower, then to the Scope, then to the Lens. That way I'm more inclined to use the Observation Scope, just like they really did.

Silly me.

Sorry I'm no help there.

Are you using automatic targeting? If you're using auto targeting, your weapons officer is not needed. The computer automatically updates your firing solution for you. All you have to do is basically click and shoot. The gyroangle is your main worry when using automatic targeting. You ideally want a 000 gyroangle, +/- 5 degrees. When you have a ship in your UZO or periscope crosshairs, the little triangle above it is an indication of how likely your shot is to hit. A green triangle is ideal, yellow is iffy, and red means your shot has little chance to hit your target. The less your torpedoes have to turn once they leave the torpedo tubes, the more accurate they'll be.

Manual targeting is a whole nother animal altogether, and I'll defer to some of the excellent guides that people have put together on this site.

When you miss from a distance, how are you missing? Are your torpedoes behind your target? Too deep? In front? That's the first step to diagnosing what you're doing wrong, or not doing as the case may be.

Yes that is confirmed. Smarter people than me have torn apart the game files and our talented modders have reported that this is how the renown/realism values work.

SH3 Commander allows for career and crew management options. After each patrol, you can see a report of your sunk ships, including (historically accurate by ship class) names of ships sunk, casualties and cargo. You can also award medals outside of SH3's limits to your crew as you see fit, as well as alter crew names and composition. SH3 Commander also offers gameplay options like simulating mechanical breakdowns and sabotage, the ability to start a patrol outside of port and the ability to choose your type of U-boat and it's number, as well as your flotilla and start date of your career.

I've never noticed the indicator in the UZO, I'll have to look for it next time. What I do is try and line up my target at close range, usually a transport, at a 90° angle and lock on with the UZO. I get the solution from the weapon officer and fire. If I miss it is almost always just a few feet behind the keel. I haven't messed with any of the weapons setttings yet.

That Commander mod sounds great. I'll have to give it a try.

Huh, I didn't even notice. I'll start ignoring them then.

A-ha! Are you opening your torpedo tube doors before firing? Pressing the "Q" key will open the door to the selected tube. Not opening them before firing will delay your shot by a couple of seconds, throwing off your solution and causing you to.....*drum roll please* miss a few feet behind!

If opening the door to one tube at a time isn't good enough for you, (suppose you want to fire a salvo) you can open multiple tubes at once by going to the conning tower and flipping the switches there in the 3-D view.