Getting frustrated, no idea whats going on
 

I am new to SH, and particularly SH5... I have been trying to play for the past week. I managed to get past the first mission, sinking 50k of ships and find my way to wil...whatever. Now I am totally clueless. I have the missions for blockade up north of england and sinking 100k tons southeast... I go there, occasionally find a ship or two, they are really hard to sink, I am out of ammo quickly, I feel like I have no idea how to play. I watched a video of someone else and he had his deck gun firing without him in it. I didn't know that was possible. I'm so lost on everything in this game it's ridiculous. I can't seem to find a good thorough walkthrough or tutorial anywhere. Am I supposed to try to attack one ship and go all the way back to base? Even if so that would be fine, but I can't even get back to base without randomly sinking halfway there. I plot my course, and obviously do time compression so I'm not staring at nothing for 3 years. Halfway back, the game starts lagging and then I'm sunk and it doesn't explain why. Every time. I know this game can be good if I just understood what the **** was going on 10% of the time.

Hey man....sounds like my first Aces of the Deep exiperance about 20 years ago....(holy crap Im getting old!!). Anyway...Unlike SH3...SH5 stock is a bit of a joke around these parts...good graphics...but honestly very very buggy...even after two patches.

My first bit of advise....take it slow!!! and dont quit!! You will be frustrated a little bit...but thats a bit of growing pains of learing to Sim.

Time Compression can be a double edge scharwtz in SH5. I never ever get above 128 TC when I'm within range of enemy aircraft...never above 256 in enemy waters...and never above 512 (only in safe waters) ever. If you go to max TC and the game starts lagging...its a sign that the game Spawned an Enemy close to your position and you could be F'ed. What I'm assuming is your TC is killing you by not stopping in time for you to evade.....but i'm not knowledgeable enought on SH5 TC to give you a clear anwser.

MODS...or Modifications. This game almost requires them to be playable and to quell frustrations of an unfinished product and to extend the longevity and playability of the game. Check out the MODS section on how to start MODing your game. I was a computer dummy and I figured it out starting with SH3. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=190656

Half the fun of this game is mastering how to fight your boat...and some times you win...some times you dont....I'd try a bit of trail and error. There is a lot of good reading on this sight on how to master the craft of being a Stealthy Captain. But it takes a bit of time and commitment but its worth it. But the bottom line again is...Stock is broken...even with 2 patches!

You should have a look in the mods section. As Finch mentioned the basic setup for SH5 is pretty bad. You can download torpedo/ damage mods that will make sinking the ships more realistic (So you won't have to torpedo a tug boat 3 times) and won't waste all your ammo :P

Since you're early on in the campaign, the good news is for the most part the ships you need to sink generally can be found in the area's marked on the map. I'd suggest steaming around the patrol area until you find an unescorted convoy (in '39 they were pretty much all without escorts). That way you can get up close and get some deck gun practice as well.

Anyways, don't give up, and have a look at some of the great mods the some of the wonderful members have given us here! Good luck!

Thanks guys, I did get some mods while waiting for a response.

Critical hits Torpedos
critical hits
salvo spread angle (which doesn't seem to work)
morale mod
realistic ammo amount for aa and deck guns
newUI 0 2 0 by TDW


One of those (i think the UI) is causing CTD fairly often... which frustrates me, as well. I wanted the UI I keep seeing in everyone's videos, because it seems to enable a lot more stuff I can't find (like auto-following periscope and such) and this UI I'm using now, there are no tooltips for the buttons at the bottom, though I've figured out most of them by just clicking and seeing what happens.

Can someone recommend the UI mod they use, and any others I should have besides what is listed?


edit: apparently I ended up with the SH4 style UI, and I want SH5 enhanced. Trying to find the right download link for that now.

edit 2: I think I got it now... sheesh. lol hopefully this doesn't also cause CTDs.

Scrap those mods .

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=190656

Thanks, picking up from that list... I installed Steelvikings interior, fx update, sub hyd fix, torpedo speed, and the most recent NewUI... I now don't have anything for a damage fix, though. I'll have to look again.

Damage fix = FX update , damage from fires .

awesome.

Now if I can whine about one more thing I can't seem to figure out:

When I try manual TDC, everything seems to be fine except AOB... I have to set it way ahead of the ship and estimate how long it will take for the torps to travel, no matter how much I read and watch videos, I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong.

edit: And I think I got that part now, too... I was using the AOB (manually set) degrees as if the ship in the image was mine, not the enemy.... silly me.

New noob question for anyone that might be able to answer: My ship when surfaced, seems to go between a depth of 4 and 7 meters, and I can see water coming over the top of the ship pretty regularly. Is this normal in deeper water?

The depth thing on your BOAT (hehe)... is normal...actually just got back from a patrol where I was going under every 30 seconds......high wind = high waves.

I have Critical hits torps....but I'm thinking of scrapping that one as I just sant almost 80k Tons on one patrol...thats just way too much..and not realistic in my option. I like the sinking by flooding and fire...but I think it needs tweeking. I dont like the stock 'hit points' damage model. or ships that dont slow down once hit and flooding. Anyway...I'm glad its working out for you....I'm about to edit my UI user options file....you should give that a look when you feel comfortable.

lol, ship was the first word that came to mind, I didn't even think about it. Thanks for the post.

Thanks for helping all us newbies.

also when plotting a course you need to zoom in close because there are tiny islands in the game that only show up in max zoom and you can run aground in time compression without realising it.

to avoid this just plot a course that avoids ANY white areas of the map even if you dont see land there it could be a sand bar or something