Strange Cargo
 

So I was patrolling northern waters, intercepting convoys bound for the Soviet Union, when I discovered two of these ships inside a convoy. What's the deal with their explosive looking cargo? They picked up as warships on the hydrophones.

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/3400/oddcargo.jpg

That vessel is a minesweeper and the 'cargo' are paravanes....used to sweep mines:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paravane_(water_kite)

You can also see the buoys used to mark the swept channel as well. Very nice model, never using the external camera in the game I miss all these little details.

I prefer to use the external camars to do stuff. Sure its unrealistic, but it keeps me alive, and it keeps me from wasteing my time either diving or using a torpedo. You also gotta think the commanders of the subs had a better understanding of how loud they were under water so thats why I use the ship noise moniter. Also the radio man can't tell you if the radar contact is a ship or a plane, even if its moving close to you real fast. So I just press , to see if its a ship or a plane, and make my actions according to that. Also if I want to invade a port, I don't wanna go in and waste my time and possibly getting sunk on maybe a medium size merchant. Also its cool to see all the weird things on the ships.

Its also nice using the external camara because I am a shallow water sub commander, I invade ports a lot, its nice being able to see if your top is sticking up, or if you are running to close to the ground. Im sure over time and experiance I will learn to do it at 100 percent realism, but at the moment im running it at 60%. I might not want to get rid of the event camara because I like seeing my torpedos hit. Sometimes if I dont care I will just exit the camara and listen in the hydrophone for a hit or a miss.

I'm not knocking your style of play, just countering with my own I do have the external camera on, because it's fun to take screenshots. That said, I never use it for anything than that.

I don't use it, but then I feel I have a pretty good understanding of how much noise I'm making. I've also played a lot of sub sims and SH3 was the first one to ever have that. If I'm travelling at flank speed or loading torpedoes, I'm being noisy. If I'm travelling at 4 knots they may hear me, which I try to judge from what I know of their distance. If I'm making 2 knots and have Silent Running engaged, I'm being as quiet as possible and no Stealth Meter is going to help me.

For myself I would consider that cheating. If radar picks something up the decision is mine to make, and I prefer to make it unaided. Then again, I don't raid ports, since in the real war it only happened twice, and for me advance warning or looking before I go in just feels wrong.

Ah, but would you be a shallow-water commander in real life? For me that question is as much a part of the game as anything else. If I couldn't really know it, I don't want to in the game.

That's another thing that's new to SH3, and for me just never felt right. I can hear if a torpedo hit without using the hydrophones, as I never shoot from more than 1000 metres, 500 if I can judge it right. As for seeing them hit, I use the regular external view if it's important to me, mostly just to get a good shot of the torpedo wake approaching the target.

But, as I said at the start, that's just me. :sunny:

Thanks for the info Jimbuna. :salute:

paravane on the Texas.........
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...paravane_2.jpg

GWX Team learning about paravanes..........
(Note Tarjak pulling the bomb fuse!)
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...paravane_1.jpg

GWX Team being shown how big the last fish the Guide caught was....

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...paravane_3.jpg

Very nice! Never knew the "Texas" had them.

You didn't read my full report of the visit back in 2008? I talked all about Rusty and the Unusual Object.

I'm hurt. :cry:

Your welcome...here's a couple more of the same paravane:

http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/4098/p1000091q.jpg

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/2704/p1000092h.jpg

To be honest one thing I don't like about that ship model is how brightly colored the paravane equipment is. In wartime, wouldn't it have been mandatory to paint it in camo along with the rest of the ship?

It certainly does stand out. Not exactly the sort of message you want to send during wartime. :DL

One thing about the Texas?
Everywhere you went you saw "KEEP OFF" painted on things.
As you can see in the above postings.

I went through all the images I have so can not confirm that same message was painted on this area.
:hmmm:

But it's a good photo nonetheless!
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...6/texas042.jpg

I remember firing that 40mm quicker than Todd could reload :DL