Your Silent Hunter Experience
 

I am just wondering for the whole community, what do you guys usually do for campaign as far as realism wise. Most of us are using 95-100 realism I'm sure but when you die, do you say thats it, career over, or start back from where you are? I know CTD's will kill your experience and you can't help them which is why I save periodically. Just wandering, list your settings/methods of how you do your patrols bellow.:yeah:

I leave it on 68% (threat meter and auto targeting, if I took those two off then it'd be around 85-90%.

For me it's more about the thrill of the stalk than about precisely calculating solutions, although one day I've promised myself I'll go over to manual targeting!

I play GWX3.0 with no other mods. I play 100% but with map contact updates. I try to limit running submerged to only once or twice a day, to limit the accuracy and range capabilty of the sonar effects. I stay in the the patrol area for at least a week, then go to another for at least a week, etc.. until fuel or torpedoes run out/low. Pursuing a convoy negates any area constraints. Only bring down exterior eels when winds are 6 or less and run slow speed. I also start over in 1939 when I die, the longest I have made it is early 1943.

I run at 80% realism. Have manual targeting unchecked, and I have external camera use enabled (for taking screen shots).

I play "Dead is Dead". I don't always start over at 1939 though, I start careers at different times throughout the war depending on my mood. Out of my careers starting in '39 the longest I've made it is to about mid '41.

Patrol wise I head to my designated square, hang out for awhile and if nothing comes my way I head to different hunting grounds. My favorite being the western approach to Gibraltar.

Right now I'm playing with the Warships 3.0 Mod (Also run GWX3.0/SH3Commander). It's a different kind of challenge trying to hunt solo merchants/convoys in the coastal waters with a Type 1934 or 1936 Destroyer. There is some satisfaction to making a high speed run at a convoy, throwing out a spread of torps, and maneuvering to avoid fighting more than 1 escort at a time. Live through that, and the Convoy is a buffet.. That is until the ships start being armed...

I play 100% realism with a little cheat to take screenshots and watch some action. It is a game after all.
I play by the DiD rule and of course I don't reload a game after an unsuccesful attack. I had some moments of glory and some very unlucky ones.
Reloading of external torpedoes only in clear weather conditions. If I am spotted by a plane I either engage it or dive but in this case I assume that the external torpedoes have been thrown to sea to escape so I don't use them. I am trying to keep the game as real as possible.
Under these conditions I have made it to November 1944 where I was sunk in a XXI in grid BF16.

I started playing SH3+GWX three weeks ago. I'm currently playing at 65%.
I do have manual targeting. Sometimes I let my WO do the calculating, sometimes I do it myself. This is also good advice for any player just starting SH3; if you uncheck autotargeting, you're realism goes up quite a bit, but if you check the last option, you can ask your weapons officer to make the calculations. It's (almost) just as easy as auto targeting, you get more renown, and you can choose anytime you encounter a ship to do the targeting yourself. Great way to learn. Besides that, it's also more realistic (and fun) if you have to ask your WO instead of using that annoying triangle.

I unchecked the noise meter. If a destroyer is closeby, you gotta be silent. period. No need for a noise meter imo.
I also have limited fuel, compressed air and batteries. Makes the game a lot more realistic, and the limited batteries calls for strategic choices when engaging submerged. A lot of fun without making the game too difficult.

Map contacts I still have on, seems like the game will become very very hard without it, though I haven't tried it yet. Same goes for camera stabilisation; haven't tried playing without it, but I like my cam nice 'n steady :)
The external cam I leave on also. Partly because I sometimes just want to enjoy the view of my sub, or enemies going down. But also because when I encounter a convoy submerged the web of hydrophone lines prevent me from getting a good idea which ship is where.
Realistic vulnerability: also checked. A U-boat was vulnerable, and the main goal is avoiding getting damaged altogether.
Lastly, I check realistic loading times. Bumps up realism a bit, so I get more renown, and it doesn't make the game that much harder.

My 2 cts.

Some times I play for fun 3% other times its 60%-70% and when I'm serious it's 100% and in all cases dead is dead.

Is there anything you recommend Mr David Cameron (DID) :|\\

That dipstick! :haha:

I play at 100%+ realism.

- No external torpedo reloads at high winds. In fact: sitting completely still.
- Regular status reports to BdU at midnight, during convoy chases and after significant events.
- No instant firing of deck gun.
- Torpedo maintenance: I won't bother during calm seas, but during heavy storms submerge every day to 'service' the torpedoes.
- Dive/trim checks at noon every day. Otherwise no submerging to check for hydrophone contacts.
- When the situation allows, hang about a bit after sinking a ship to provide aid to shipwrecked crew.
- Keeping a real life Kriegstagebuch where I record everything.

I do have map updates on and crew fatigue off, though.

Heh, seems to me your more at 99 percent realism for all those realistic checks, but crew fatigue and map contacts :03: Your crew must be like those Energizer batteries they just keep going, and going and going....:up:

Well here's what I do.

I have 100% Realism, except usualy I have stable periscope view(It's a mounted piece of equipment, not a device being physcially held FYI.) For me, dead is dead, this enforces me to make wise decisions and understand the consequence. I save periodaclly to deal with CTD, but if I screw up, then whats done is done. Never going back to anything, and always try to take care of the crew. Right now I'm on my 3rd patrol, for the first; the Diesel engines went kaput. :nope:. I currently run WAC 4.1 with SH3 Commander. Its different then GWX, for me WAC gives the most sense of realism and adventure. I actually sunk 2 destroyers, of course as you read above I suffered the concequences. :shifty:

Crew management is, AFAIK, impossible to do in any truly realistic manner when it comes to SH3 and fatigue.

On the one hand, to use a "no fatigue" model and possibly have the same man on duty 24/7 for an entire patrol with no ill effects is, obviously, completely unrealistic.

On the other hand, to use any fatigue model that requires you, as the boat's commander, to manually take a man who's on duty and move him to his quarters to get some rest is also completely unrealistic.

So it's not one of those things that can be factored into one's level of realism, IMO. There's just no truly "realistic" way to do it.

I like to get the "real" feeling, so it is 100%, manual targeting. No map contact updates. Dead is dead. Manual navigation (no sub on the map) and no use of the waypoint tool. Never man the deck or AA guns myself.
No external views ( I tried to leave it on only to take screenshots, but found out that in tricky situations I couldn't resist to have a quick look at where the damn Black Swan is... and anyway I already have hundreds of screenshots...lol ). Forcing you to no external view in my opinion is one of the greatest enhancers of "real feeling"
For crew fatigue I use the mod model I am playing. (with NYGM I usually rotate every 12 hours on patrol and every 4 hours in combat situations) TC limit 128 in enemy zones. All attacks at real time from spotting. Radio msg to Bdu every day around midnight together with the night shift of crew.
If I need to reload external torpedoes, I head to the coast and find a sheltered cove where I "anchor" for the duration of the operation.

For Your Information, it is solidly mounted to a highly unstable platform. Even at periscope depth the sub pitches and rolls in all but a dead calm sea. They were not gyro stabilized in any way. A hand-held device such as a pair of binoculars is actually more stable.

Oh, and I use stabilized views as well, because the periscope did have a split-prism unit available in SH4 but not SH3.