Where are the different ships?
 

Hi Guys,

Iv been playing SH3 for about a week now and i absolutely love it. However im getting bored of sinking destroyers and merchants.

I see in the identification book that there are any types of enemy ships, however all i have ever seen are merchants, loads of destroyers, a couple of torpedo boats and 1 cruiser.

Im starting to wonder where all the other ships are. Iv attacked nearly every post around the UK and cant find anything different.

Im currently in June 1940, does the date have anything to do with it?

Thanks.

First... have you installed any of the megamods?

These will increase the traffic to historically accurate levels, and increase the number of historical operations that took place. The Invasion of norway in the spring of '40 is a biggy if you want some serious ships.

And if you want to find bigger ships, open the mission editor, open the scripted layer and set it to the time your at. The run it at a decent speed, you'll see the scripted Task Forces and what not go across your screen.

Hi Gargamel,

I was thinking of installing SH3 commander, is that the sort of mod you are talking about?

Thanks

two words. GWX 3.0 and Sh3 Commander 3.2.0. all you need and will love :yeah:

Yes, Casey is right. If you want the bare bones, just go with GWX and SH3. SH3 is a stand alone program that makes playing the game a lot more fun. GWX (and other megamods, GWX isn't the only one, but the most well Known) is an actual mod that changes the game into what it should have been when released by Ubi. Check the downloads section for links to both.

But you have to remember, There were only a handful of German warships of the size your are talking, and maybe a couple dozen British. You do see more carriers in later years. You can go whole careers with never seeing a ship over 10k tons. Then you will have patrols when you just don't have enough torpedoes available to sink all the large ships you see (Forgot who it was during the war, someobody will know, but he had one of the RN carriers lined up in a perfect solution, alone with no escorts, and had no torpedoes left). So even with the mod upgrades, you may not see an increase in ship traffic. Even though, with the mods, it has been increased, it's big ocean, and you're a tiny little boat.

Thanks for the suggestions, iv just installed both mods, time to check them out :)

Hi guys,

After trying GWX iv decided its not for me. After getting used to stock SH3 some of the differences in GWX have started to bug me.

Iv read on google that in stock SH3 the bigger ships such as carriers and battleships etc start appearing late 1940.

Does anybody know if this is true?

Thanks.

Well I know that big ships, warships and merchants appear early in the war in GWX......


You will see more ships overall, increased variety of ships, More bases, etc with GWX than without. You will also find more warships in harbors with GWX, as they are scripted to historical accuracy.

How you play the game is upto you. But I've almost never heard of anybody liking SH3 w/o any mods over a modded version. (unless of course your machine can't handle it).


What exactly don't you like about GWX? Lot's of the features that were 'removed' to facilitate accuracy can be easily returned with some simple tweaks.

Yes, it would help if you elaborated as to why GWX isn't working out to your liking. It is a big change from the stock game, but honestly if you give it more than a day you might start to appreciate what it brings to the table. (Speaking from the standpoint it's not a issue with not having enough hardware horsepower to handle it)

Hi Gargamel,

What you have just said makes GWX sound fantastic. Exactly what im after.

The main thing that bugged me was how hard it is to destroy ships. I know its probably more realistic however i love going around sinking merchants with my deck gun to save on torps.

I restarted my career and was re-doing the training, i only managed to sink 3 of the ships before i ran out of shells.

A few more things that i dont like are how the design of the subs has changed, a few examples:
1 - When i am in the command room, there is a big pole which looks like the periscope directly in front of my helmsman.
2 - On the bridge to the left there is something that looks like a hoop that restricts my view.
3 - When using my binoculars on the bridge, the headings at the top of the view have disappeared, and also when using the binoculars and your facing the fornt of the sub, when you look as far down as you can you can actually see the front, however in GWX you cant, i found this really helpful when steering towards enemy ships.

Do you know if there is a way to change these in GWX? As what you said makes me really want to play it.

Thanks

Sorry you must have posted as i was replying to Gargamel, iv just posted my main reasons for not liking it. My machine can handle GWX, its just that iv got so used to the stock that the change has shocked me a bit. If the things iv listed can be changed back how they are in the stock version im sure id love GWX.

I haven't looked around to see if there are ways to revert the cosmetic changes you dislike. Yeah the Radio Direction Finder (Hoop thingy) can obstruct your view, which can be a pill since you aren't able to walk around on the bridge to get it out of your way. If you give it some time you'll get used to it. When I first started using GWX it bugged me a little but now I don't even notice it.

Things like the bearing indicator in the binocs were removed for realism's sake. Again, something you'll get used to as you play. Especially if your knowledge of relative bearings improves. You'll start to just know off of the top of your head that a contact at bearing 040 is going to be off of your starboard bow. These are things that even if you're not a hard core "Full Switch 100% Difficulty" guy will improve your efficiency as a sub captain. Also don't forget that you can use the UZO for bearings as well.

The deck gun issue..

Again, a realism thing. In stock SH3 it's waaaaaay too easy to hit things with the deck gun, and it's annoying that you can't man the darn thing unless the seas are practically flat. GWX does make gunnery more difficult but it also allows you to man the gun in slightly less than ideal sea states- if you wish. As someone who has fired weapons off of a pitching, rolling small vessel it's not as easy as some might think- especially if you aren't using gyro stabilized equipment. The key to sinking vessels in a timely manner with the deck gun in GWX is to try to strike the waterline as much as you can to create flooding. You don't have to hammer away until you get the "She's going down!" message. Some well placed shots will cause enough flooding to where she'll go down eventually.

Again, it's something that with practice you'll get used to and get pretty good with after awhile. You also have to keep in mind that sometimes spending a torpedo really is the best way to go about sinking your quarry. Remember, that after a certain point in the war deck guns started to get removed from the U-boats altogether because they became a useless piece of hydrodynamic inefficiency.

I'm a little pressed for time, so I can't elaborate further but I'm sure that others will be along to help get you sorted out and on the way to working around the things that have come as a bit of a shock to you. :yeah:

You play the game how you like it mate. :up:

Did you aim at the waterline (or order your crew to do so)? In early war patrols I routinely sink ships with the deck gun and only once have I run out of ammo. They will sink much faster if you put holes in them at the waterline. OTOH I also use the Additional Ammo mod to increase my loadout of shells, but this is one of those things that is incredibly easy to tweak if you want to get more bang for your buck.

Don't know which boat you're in, but in my Type VII, that's the observation (sky) periscope. Which is both useful and necessary and is exactly where it should be.

Radio direction finder IIRC. When you look through your binocs it won't be there. Which some people dislike as it's not realistic enough. :O:

I'm actually with you on this one, in fact if there's a way to get them back that's easy and doesn't mess with the rest of the Gui, I'm all ears. I don't like that I can't tell when I've made a full circular sweep of the horizon on binocs, since if I were truly standing on the bridge of a ship I would know whether I was looking directly ahead or off to port or starboard or out over the stern even with my binocs up. The bearing hashmarks in the binocs view would be the best way to replicate that IMO.

If you have the bearing of the enemy ship (which, if you've sighted it from the bridge, your WO should be able to give you) all you have to do to steer towards it (or ideally some spot ahead of it) is to click the desired bearing on the compass. And GWX does not skimp when it comes to the compass, you gotta give it that. :D

:yep:

This is the kind of thing that really does get easier over time.

And there's also a keyboard command that orders the boat to head for whatever you're looking at - someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's the = key. So you point your binocs (or the UZO or the periscope) at something and hit that key and your course will change to head straight for that spot.

Altho in the case of a moving ship, typically if you head straight for it when you spot it in that way, by the time you get there it will be somewhere else. Usually it's best to head for somewhere ahead of it on its projected course.