Star Shells?
 

Please forgive my ignorance, I am new to this game and still trying to figure everything out.

I am wondering what Star Shells are used for. I know they appear to be some kind of flare, but do they also damage ships? In what case would I want to use them?

I thought maybe they are used to illuminate targets at night for the Deck Gun but can they be used offensively as well?

Any help welcome, thanks!

PS I tried running a search but couldn't really find any useful info on this, sorry if the answer is to be found here somewhere.

Star shells are for illumination only. In reality, they could cause a fire on board ship if hit in the right spot, but I don't know if SH3 models that or not; probably not. Escorts and merchants will use them to see you at night, or at least to force you to dive. After a ship is hit, they already know you're out there. The only question is "where?".

Before you light up that convoy, remember, if you can see the enemy, they can see you too.

With SH3 + GWX, your deck gun has only HE rounds available; the useless starshells and armor piercing rounds are deleted.

Thanks for the reply, Raptor. I wasn't sure what they were, so that clears things up. I surfaced to engage a Coastal Merchant today and ran out of AP and HE shells, so switched to Star. A fire did indeed break out on board from using them, but I was aiming at the waterline mostly and she wouldn't sink, though I spent all 40 rounds hitting it.

You need to get close enough so you can see the whites of their eyes, you'll use a lot less ammo that way. :DL Also make sure your deck gun guy is a qualified gunner. Helps with accuracy a lot I find.

Just to add: you can hit ships with them and start a fire, I've done it at least once. Problem is if you miss even slightly, the ship is now very well hidden. And they don't do much damage anyways. (It's called 'trying to sink a ship with the last few shells')

can Star Shellls be left out of loadout in port?
 

Now that I'm driving (however badly) a Type IXb boat with the 105mm gun, I've got a *lot less* cannon shells to use. Is there a way in SH3 to change my gun ammo loadout before leaving harbor, just like I do with my torps? Since there isn't nearly as much room for gun ammo as on the Type VII boats, I'd rather allocate my resources the way I'd like. I'm finding that, even with near-perfect aim, I can sink more than about 2 merchants without running out of HE & AP front gun ammo.

can Star Shellls be left out of loadout in port?
 

In the the stock version, I'm sure that you don't have that choice, you get a ration of star shells, AP and HE.

As for the the stock + GWX, both the star shells and AP shell (if I remember this correctly) are left out completely leaving a full inventory for HE shells.

Can Star Shells be left out of the loadout?
 

Edit your stock SH3 file accordingly (GWX does this for you by default).


There are TWO sets of values you must change in /SilentHunterIII/data/Cfg/Basic.cfg/
Make these values anything you want; 250 and 3000 are the GWX defaults


Located after [Torpedo_Type10] and before [Color_0]

[SUBMARINE_AMMOLIMITS1] ;105mm
MaxAmmoPerSlot=250

[SUBMARINE_AMMOLIMITS2] ;88mm
MaxAmmoPerSlot=250

[SUBMARINE_AMMOLIMITS3] ;37mm
MaxAmmoPerSlot=3000

[SUBMARINE_AMMOLIMITS4] ;20mm
;MaxAmmoPerSlot=3000
MaxAmmoPerSlot=3000




Located further down, after [Conning_Type12] almost at the end of the file

[AMMO_TYPE0];10.5cm SK C/32
Idx=0
Year=1939
Month=1
;AP=40 <= these are the stock SH3 default values
;HE=160


;SS=20
AP=0 <= these are the default values in GWX
HE=250
SS=0
Renown=0

[AMMO_TYPE1];8.8cm SK C/35
Idx=1
Year=1939
Month=1
;AP=40 <= these are the stock SH3 default values
;HE=160
;SS=40
AP=0 <= these are the default values in GWX
HE=250
SS=0
Renown=0


[AMMO_TYPE2] thru [AMMO_TYPE10] are for the AA guns. Change values if you wish. GWX default is 3000.

The 105mm rounds packs more punch and you will have to use less rounds to sink ships then you have to with the 88mm, therefore while at sea, you won't experience it as a shortage of ammo in the long run as you will use fewer rounds per ship you sink :).

What i would like to see?

The German 150mm "Kanone 18" mounted on the sub... Just imagine firing that beast broadside, with every shot you take the sub is turned upside down by the recoil and then floats back up on it's keel again to take another shot after the crew's panic and disarray has lost it's grip :D

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ian_winter.jpg

Is it possible to have more then 250 rounds of ammo in GWX 3.0? I find that 250 just isn't enough.

Yes, it's possible. You can load just about as much as you want.

In real life, no. 110 rounds was pushing it for the 10.5cm. I have 200 rounds and justify it by saying there is less hypothetical storage for food, meaning shorter patrols. The rate I go through munitions restricts patrol lengths anyway. Also, Bernard's bunk is full of shells too.

Achtung Rootbeer:

See my 2nd post (above) regarding editing loadout. Change 250 to whatever you want.


A u-boat made a lousy gun platform, even in calm seas. Once the merchants are armed, it can be suicide to try to gun them down. Most boats never fired their cannon except for training.

That's only a 6" gun. Three of the US 'V' boats (Narwhal, Nautilus and Argonaut) carried two of them.
http://www.valoratsea.com/narwhal.htm

Were the 20mm AA rounds really only AP? That seems highly inefficient...why not HE?

They DID have HE rounds for the 2cm. In fact, the loadout was typically 3 HE per AP round.

Why this isn't modeled, I have no idea.