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Silent Hunter III Community Manual
Best link I could find was http://web.archive.org/web/200710122...itle=Main_Page
so I'm going to try and copy most of the text into a thread. Here are some of the ones I've placed in this thread Contents Shortcut Keys Realism Settings Game Modes Naval Academy Single Missions Career Renown Promotions Medals U-boat Numbers U-boat Emblems/Insignias Career Timeline Navigation Sonar / Radar / Radio Crew Management Locating Targets Hunting Grounds Intercepting Targets Attacking Targets Automatic Targeting Manual Targeting |
Shortcut keys
Not all of the Shortcut keys are mentioned in the game manual. Table of contents [hide] 1 Quick Keys 2 U-boat controls 3 Weapon management and attacks 4 Camera controls 5 Miscellaneous Quick Keys Quick keys for moving to different positions or screens in your U-boat F1 - Help screen (in all Stations) F2 - Command room (note that Shift+F2 gives you a "free camera" view of the command room). Periscopes F3 - Attack periscope PgUp - Raise gradually Ctrl-PgUp - Raise fully PgDown - Lower gradually Ctrl-PgDn - Lower fully Tab - Zoom in and out (1.5x - 6x) also mouse wheel L - Lock target KP0 - Take a step back and look at the periscope column. O - Observation periscope Insert - Raise gradually Ctrl-Insert - Raise fully Delete - Lower gradually Ctrl-Delete - Lower fully Tab - Zoom in and out (1x - 4x) also mouse wheel L - Lock target On the surface F4 - Bridge (on the surface only) Tab - Toggle between Bridge and Binoculars also mouse wheel B - Binoculars (on the surface only) Tab - Toggle between Bridge and Binoculars also mouse wheel U - UZO (on the surface only) L - Lock target F5 - Navigation map F6 - TDC I - Weapons management F7 - Crew and damage management Radio F9 - Radio room R - Radio M - View sent and received radio messages H - Hydrophone F8 - View your mission orders Guns F10 - Deck gun station (on the surface only) F11 - Flak gun station (on the surface only) F - Main Flak gun (on the surface only) G - Secondary Flak gun (on the surface only) T - Secondary Flak gun 2 (on the surface only) K - Captain's log F12 - External free camera view Shift-F2 - Internal free camera view U-boat controls For controlling your U-boat Speed control 1 to 5 - Ahead slow, one third, standard, full and flank respectively 6 to 9 - Back slow, one third, standard, and emergency respectively ~ - All stop Direction control [ - Hard a' port ] - Hard a' starboard ' - Rudder adminships = - Set heading to current optics view Depth control D - Dive S - Surface A - Maintain depth C - Crash dive E - Blow ballast (Emergency Surface) P - Periscope depth ; - Snorkel depth Miscellaneous Z - Toggle Silent Running mode X - Toggle snorkel up and down Ctrl + F8 - Shown the frame rate. Weapon management and attacks Stations U - UZO (on the surface only) F3 - Attack periscope (use PgUp to raise, PgDn to lower, Ctrl-PgUp to raise fast, Ctrl-PgDn to lower fast) F6 - TDC I - Weapons management H - Hydrophone Targetting . - Next unit , - Previous unit L - Lock view to target N - View recognition manual Torpedo attacks Q - Open selected torpedo tube(s) W - Close open tube(s) Y - Cycle tubes Enter - Fire torpedo Gun attacks Space - select deck-gun target Miscellaneous J - Deploy decoys Camera controls For use in the internal (Shift-F2) or external (F12) free-camera views Up-arrow - camera forward Down-arrow - camera backwards Left-arrow - camera left Right-arrow - camera right KP7 - camera up KP1 - camera down Left-Shift - hold down to speed up camera movement Ctrl-Shift - hold down to slow down camera movement Ctrl-left-arrow - camera left alongside Ctrl-right-arrow - camera right alongside Miscellaneous Options Menu Enlarge Options Menu Sound settings Enlarge Sound settings Music On/Off Enlarge Music On/Off Esc - Options Sound Settings Music On/Off Video Settings Time compression Numpad + - Increase time compression Numpad - - Decrease time compression Backspace - Pause Ctrl + Enter - Sets Time compression back to 1 (Normal Speed) time compression Event camera V - Maximise/restore the Event camera / - Hide the Event camera - View your U-boat from your target Navigation Ctrl-LeftClick - Centre (center) your U-boat at the selected point on the navigation map Miscellaneous Ctrl-P - From patch 1.1, disable the particle system to fix the nvidia particle bug Shift-PageUp/PageDn - Increase or decrease the software anti-aliasing (Glare system) Numlock - In multiplay only, use Numlock to start chat, type your text, then hit ENTER. But be careful: if you hit ENTER 2 times, you fire a fish! Ctrl-F11 - Take a screenshot. Shift-F11 - Toggle taking continuous screenshots Ctrl-F8 - Show frame-rate (FPS) at top of screen Numberpad Del (decimal point) - Show/hide interface (for screenshots) Ctrl-Numberpad Del - Remove the orange marker from the ocean surface when submerged |
Realism Settings
Realism Settings control the difficulty of the game. In order to select your Realism level, begin a Single Mission or start a patrol in Career Mode. Before clicking Start, click Change Realism. Realism cannot be changed during a mission or patrol. Once set from either a single mission or career patrol, the realism options selected will be used for all subsequent patrols of any type. That is, the realism settings are not stored separately for the academy, single missions and career patrol types. To set realism for the naval academy, start a career or a single mission, change the realism there, and then "back out" of the screens until back at the main menu, then choose the naval academy. Realism Settings Please note that when playing at 100% Realism, you must return to base by keeping enough fuel in store to traverse back to within 25km of your home port. Once you are within 25km, press Escape and select the option to "Dock at [Port]". Limited batteries - When selected, the batteries that power your sub's electric engines are limited. This, in turn, limits the amount of time you can stay submerged before the batteries must be recharged. (5%) Limited compressed air - When selected, your sub uses an amount of compressed air to suface, blowing air to the ballast tanks. If you exhaust your supply, you will no longer be able to surface again. You must surface your sub periodically to resupply your sub with compressed air. Also if your compressor is damaged no more compressed-air will be available. (1%) Limited O2 - When selected, you must surface your sub periodically to resupply your sub with fresh air. (6%) Limited fuel - When selected, your sub has limited fuel, and, therefore, limited range. You must return to base before your fuel supply is exhausted. There are no refueling subs in the game. You will get a warning during a patrol when you have used 50% of your fuel. (6%) Realistic vulnerability - When selected, your sub is more easily damaged. (5%) Realistic repair time - When selected, damage repairs will take longer. (8%) Realistic ship sinking time - When selected, ships that you attack will take longer to sink. (2%) Manual targeting system - When selected, you must enter the appropriate information into the TDC when firing torpedoes. You can not simply point the UZO or periscope at a target and fire. You can still request a solution from your Weapons Officer, unless the No Weapons Officer assistance option below is also disabled. (15%) No map contact update - When selected, hydrophone and visual contacts will not appear on the navigation map. Radio contacts, however, will periodically appear on the map. (12%) Realistics sensors - When selected, the effectiveness of your hydrophones and radar is reduced. (6%) Dud torpedoes - When selected, your torpedoes will periodically malfunction. Malfunctioning torpedoes may either detonate too early, or not detonate at all. (4%) Realistic reload - When selected, it will take a considerable amount of time to reload your torpedo tubes. (6%) No event camera - When selected, the event camera is disabled. You will not see special events such as torpedo impacts or ships sinking. (3%) No external view - When selected, the external camera (hotkey F12) is disabled. (8%) No stabilize view - When selected, your targeting optics (ie. the UZO or the attack periscope) will bob realistically on the waves. This will make targeting in rough seas much more difficult. (5%) No noise meter - When selected, the noise meter, which gives an indication of how detectable your u-boat is at the moment, will be disabled. (2%) No Weapon Officer assistance - When selected, the Weapon Officer will not identify targets or calculate firing solutions for you. You must determine range, speed, and AOB by yourself. (6%) |
Naval Academy
The Naval Academy teaches the essentials of submarine navigation and warfare. There are five "courses" offered in the Academy: Navigation, Naval Artillery (use of Deck Gun), Flak Artillery (use of Flak Gun), Torpedos, and Convoy Attack. You can get a maximum of 1500 renown by completing the training exams. Since each exam is worth upwards of 500 points, it is unnecessary to complete the entire academy if you are just going back for the renown bonus. Exam renown is applied to the beginning of every new career you start, so it will not help your existing saved careers. The exam screen interface can be a bit confusing. There is a bug / oversight where you will not get credit if you start a mission with the word "training" highlighted. You MUST highlight "exam" before you start the mission. Some people play the training missions dozens of times before they finally head to the forums to find out why they didn't get credit. Well, now you know better! Exams can be done an unlimited number of times, so don't despair if you get a bad grade your first time out. To complete a mission, finish your objectives and then press ESC. The game will accuse you of "abandoning the mission", but don't worry. "Abandoning the mission" just means that you're done, not that you lost. The next screen after you say "yes" will give you the option to "return to base" or "continue". Tips: Navigation tutorial: your headings don't need to be exact. Use the = key to order heading-to-view (i.e. "go where I'm looking";) this feature was missing from the game when the tutorial was designed, but was added later in a patch. The message "once on the surface your mission is complete!" is misleading, so don't just surface and think you're done. Wait for a "congratulations" message before you really exit. As a rule, press the "M" key to view received radio messages, as they might contain further instructions. Torpedo tutorial: Put the periscope crosshairs over what you want to hit, and press "fire". The gyro-angle computations should be handled automatically for you, so just pretend the periscope is a sniper rifle and go nuts. If you are using the automatic target data gathering method, it is possible to sink all the ships without maneuvering your boat at all. To do this, you have to be quick on the trigger. Remember to press "Q" to open your tubes before you fire; otherwise your torps will fire a full three seconds after you pressed fire, and this could cause them to miss. In the game, you will want to become familiar with the F6 screen and learn what the different torpedo settings do. Spread angle only applies if you select "salvo fire" mode (T/S switch on the F6 screen), so don't worry about it screwing up your single shots. Torpedo speeds are "slow" by default, but if you choose "fast" on the F6 screen you'll probably be more accurate. As long as your target doesn't change course or speed, there's really no way to miss. Torps require 400-500m to arm; if you're too close they will just bounce off. Flak Gun tutorial: Generally, you'll want to man the flak gun yourself. Your gunners aren't too bright, and they'll shoot at things they can't hit. With enough patience, you CAN finish this tutorial. It is not necessary to maneuver your boat. In actual missions, however, you will almost always be maneuvering your boat while you are at the flak gun; and you will sometimes find the flak gun is more useful against tug boats and trawlers than it is against airplanes! Convoy tutorial: The leading escort destroyer does not maneuver, so you should be able to sink him with a single torpedo assuming you have automatic target data mode on. You can take out the armed trawler with your deck gun, if you don't mind living dangerously. After that, the convoy is all yours. When you shoot at the first destroyer, send three torps at the other ships too. Once the destroyer blows up, they'll start to zig-zag, and hitting with torpedos will become harder. |
Single Missions
Single missions is a variation of play allowing you to be a controllable entity in historical naval battles throughout World War II. The simulation aspect of this is balanced by your ability to choose any of the subs available throughout the war (Type II through Type XXI) and play these missions out to various ends. Unlike the career, you have specifically defined objectives throughout the various missions, and completing these should be your primary concern. Table of contents [hide] 1 Single Missions 1.1 Barham: Eastern Mediterranean, November 1941 1.2 Bismarck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_...hip_Bismarck): North Atlantic, May 1941 1.3 Courageous: North Atlantic, September 1939 1.4 Gibraltar: straits of Gibraltar, December 1941 1.5 Happy Times: North Atlantic, April 1940 1.6 Malta: Mediterranean sea, August 1942 1.7 Narvik: Norwegian waters, April 1940 1.8 Scapa Flow: North Atlantic, October 1939 1.9 U505: South Atlantic, June 1944 1.10 XXI: North sea, November 1944 Single Missions Barham: Eastern Mediterranean, November 1941 Briefing: You are oberleutnant zur see von Tiesenhausen, commander of the U-331. On the 25th of November, operating of the coast of Egypt and Libya, he spotted a group of 3 battleships and eight destroyers. These were the Queen Elizabeth, Barham and Valiant out of Alexandria in support of operations against Axis convoys. With a daring approach, Von Tiesenhausen launched a salvo of four torpedoes at the second battleship in the line. Although he came under attack immediately and thus was not able to witness it, he scored 3 hits and sunk his target. Primary objective: Sink any British capital ship. Bismarck: North Atlantic, May 1941 Briefing: Home fleet sent to hunt Bismarck. Current position of Bismarck grid BE. All U-boats in area move to engage any British warships. Primary objective: Intercept and sink any British capital ships. Courageous: North Atlantic, September 1939 Briefing: The most effective counter-measure against U-boats of early war was aircraft. Understanding this, the British Admiralty deployed its carriers to provide air patrols over the hunting grounds of the U-boat. On 17th September 1939, U-29 came upon one of those carriers - the HMS Courageous. By sinking it, he would prove the carriers vulnerability and thus win the open ocean for U-boats. Primary objective: Sink the Courageous. Gibraltar: straits of Gibraltar, December 1941 Briefing: Despite opposition from Admiral Doenitz - Who regarded this as a distraction from the main effort of war against mechant shipping, Germany sent over 60 U-boats into the mediterranean during the war. As the straits were under effective control of British Patrols, this was always a risky affair. An additional 19 U-boats were either lost or force to return, and no U-boats ever returned from inside the med. All were either sunk or scuttled by their crews. Primary objective: Sneak through the defenses and enter the mediterranean. Happy Times: North Atlantic, April 1940 Briefing: Its early in the war, in the U-boat 'Happy Times'. You are on the surface, in the vicinity of the Rockall Banks. Your watch officer has spotted a weakly escorted convoy dead ahead. The opportunity presents itself for a devastating attack, and the night is approaching. Convoys are scheduled to be picked up by escorts near the longitude of 12 west, so your window of opportunity is just 1 or 2 hours. Primary objective: Sink 25000 tons of merchant shipping. Malta: Mediterranean sea, August 1942 Briefing: Major convoy passing south of sicily. All U-boats head for CN25, CN26 and CN28. Report contact with convoy and engage. Primary objective: Engage merchant ships Narvik: Norwegian waters, April 1940 Briefing: As part of operation 'Weseruebung' the invasion of norway you have been tasked with the protection of forces landing at Narvik. On 10th of April, British destroyers have probed the fjord. Losing two of their own for two of our Zerstoerer, they have managed to destroy the troop carriers. Now, reinforced by a battleship, they are coming again. Primary objective: Sink the Warspite Scapa Flow: North Atlantic, October 1939 Briefing: You are NE of Scapa Flow, British naval base. Attempt to penetrate the base defenses. Sink any capital warship you may find. Good luck! Primary objective: Priority targets - British capital warships. U505: South Atlantic, June 1944 Briefing: On June the 4th, 1944 Taskforce 22.3 - A hunter killer group formed around the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal - was heading for Casablanca. Travelling northwards, they were expecting, based on ULTRA and radio direction finder intercepts, to encounter a submarine on the route. And they got it, closer than may have wanted. You are in a bad position, minutes away from destruction. But so is their carrier. Primary objective: Sink the USS Guadalcanal XXI: North sea, November 1944 Briefing: You are the first type XXI U-boat to reach operational status, ahead of the schedule. And you have just the prestige target to test the boat against a heavily escorted carrier task force. Primary objective: Sink the fleet carriers Secondary objective: Sink the escort carrier |
Career
The Career mode is also known as the "dynamic campaign." In career mode, you perform a series of patrols throughout the course of the war. Table of contents [hide] 1 Objectives 1.1 Career progression 1.2 Saving, reloading, and deleting careers 1.3 Repairing careers Objectives Unlike the single mission mode, you will not receive specific objectives, such as "sink the King George V battleship." All of your orders will be to patrol a specified grid square for 24 hours. The 24 hours do not have to be consecutive, so you can pursue ship contacts outside of the grid, and then return later to complete your patrol. After you patrol your assigned grid, you are then free to navigate freely wherever you please for as long as your fuel and torpedoes hold out. You are free to engage any enemy targets you encounter before, during, or after your patrol. You can terminate the patrol at any point and automatically return to base or, preferably, you can sail back to port, and terminate the patrol "in the harbour". Check the Career Timeline for the availability of U-boat types, weapons, ports, flotillas, and neutrality/enmity of nations. Career progression As you complete each patrol in your career, you will receive several things in reward for your successes. Renown - This is a measure of your fame. The more successful you are, the more renown you are awarded. You can use and renown earned as a form of currency to "buy" certain improvements for your U-Boat. These range from better crew, to equipment upgrades and even entirely new U-Boats. See the Career Timeline for lists of what is available and how much renown it costs. Successes which gain you renown include: Reaching your patrol area Patrolling that area for 24 hours Number of enemy ships sunk Tonnage of enemy ships sunk Aeroplanes shot down Loss of Renown - If you have any failures, these will deduct from your gained renown. Failures include: Sinking neutral ships Sinking axis ships Shooting friendly aeroplanes Wounded crew Killed crew Damage to your U-Boat Promotions - If you are particularly successful, you may be allowed to award promotions to members of your crew. If you have sufficient renown, you yourself may be promotoed. Medals - If you are particularly successful, you may be allowed to allocate medals to members of your crew. It is possible that you yourself may also receive such decorations. Qualifications - At the conclusion of each patrol, you will be able to allocate one "qualification badge" to any Officer or Non-commissioned Officer of your crew. For a list of available qualifications, see Crew Management. Saving, reloading, and deleting careers To save your career in a mission, hit the "ESC" key, you will then see a menu option to save your career. An important point: when you delete or load a saved game, it deletes ALL saved-games which are newer - this prevents you from "branching" your career. So be careful before deleting those old saved-games from early in your career! Repairing careers If your saved career gets corrupted in some way, the instructions at Restoring Corrupted Careers may help. Restoring Corrupted Careers If your career becomes corrupted for some reason (for example, installing a mod whilst not docked in port), it may be possible to fix the career files and not lose all of your hard work. jackcford at [subsim.com] has posted the following information [here] Despite knowing that I should only mod in port I screwed up a career by modding whilst at sea. I got around it by going to C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\SH3\data\cfg\Careers\YourName where 'YourName' was the lost career and renaming the folder to 'xYourName'. Next I set up the career again in SH3, exactly as before flotilla, base, Kapitan's name etc.. Sailed and saved the game then exited SH3. In C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\SH3\data\cfg\Careers\ now was the new career name folder and the one I had renamed by putting the x infront of it. Next I used a file compare utility (I use Beyond Compare) to compare the three files in the new career folder with the same files in the renamed career and copied all the 'differences' from the renamed career files to the new career files ~ you do this one file at a time. Next I copied all the other files and folders in the renamed career folder to the new career folder and BINGO I had my career back exactly as it was. There may be an easier way but this works. Obviously something gets screwed in one of those first three files and this process corrects it. Hope this helps? |
Renown
Table of contents [hide] 1 Renown Basics 2 Renown and Realism 3 Renown per academy\objective 4 Renown per ship 5 Renown per aeroplane 6 Credits Renown Basics Renown is the measure of the success of your patrols in Career mode. You earn renown by: Reaching your patrol zone Patrolling for 24 hours Sinking enemy ships Shooting down enemy planes Returning to your base at patrol end, instead of using the ESCAPE key to "return to port" in mid-patrol. When you're within 30 kilometers of your base and hit the ESCAPE key, you will then be offered the option to "Dock at: base". You do not have to travel the last mile and dock in the U-boat pen. You lose renown by: Sinking friendly ships. Sinking a friendly ship will penalize your renown by a factor of ten times such a ship's renown value. Keep it up and SH3 will toss you out of the Kriegsmarine. Sinking neutral ships. Neutral ships will cost you the same renown amount that you would earn for sinking the equivalent enemy ship. Armed neutral ships will also begin firing on you. As with sinking friendly ships, sinking neutrals can lead to the end of your career in the Kriegsmarine. You do not lose renown for skipping your patrol grid square. It is just a place to earn points if you visit it. It is not required of you to go there or stay there. You will not see the renown you've earned in your current patrol until you've returned to base. Renown can be used to upgrade to a new type of U-boat, purchase upgraded conning towers, radios, or guns, or to enlist more experienced sailors and officers. The renown value for each ship can be found by looking at the .cfg file for the ship in the SilentHunterIII/data/Sea/shipname/ directory. Renown and Realism The renown you receive for sinking enemy ships is also affected by your Realism %. You will earn more renown for playing at a higher Realism %. The formula for calculating renown, per ship, is: base ship renown value (see below) * ( (0.75 * realism %) + 0.25 ). Therefore, At 100% realism, you will receive full renown credit for every ship that you sink and at 0% realism, you will receive 25% of the renown credit for every ship. Renown per academy\objective Scoring highest score on navigation training in academy = 500 Scoring highest score on deck gun training in academy = 1000 Scoring highest score on flak training in academy = 600 Scoring highest score on torpedo training in academy = 300 Scoring highest score on convoy attack training in academy = 1645 Reaching patrolgrid: = 500 Patroling patrolgrid for 24 hours = 200 Docking at home port = 100 Renown per ship Warships King George Battleship = 1500 Nelson Battleship = 1400 Revenge Battleship = 1100 Illustrious Carrier = 900 Hipper Carrier = 760 Bogue Carrier = 560 Casablanca Carrier = 420 AuxiliaryCruiser = 420 Fiji Class Cruiser = 430 Dido Class Cruiser = 225 Fletcher Destroyer = 150 Somers Destroyer = 140 Tribal Destroyer = 140 C & D Destroyer = 130 J Class Destroyer = 130 Soldati Destroyer = 130 Buckley Class Destroyer = 130 J.C. Butler Class Destroyer = 130 River Class Destroyer Escort = 130 Black Swan Frigate = 125 Evarts Destroyer = 120 Clemson Destroyer = 120 Hunt I Destroyer = 120 Hunt II Destroyer = 120 Hunt III Destroyer = 120 V&W Class Destroyer = 120 Flower Corvette = 120 Armed Trawler = 30 Elco Torpedoboat = 20 Merchants Passenger Liner = 870 Troop Transport = 390 T3 Tanker = 340 T2 Tanker = 320 C3 Cargo = 240 Victory Cargo = 230 Liberty Cargo = 220 Landing Ship Tank = 220 C2 Cargo = 190 Small Tanker = 125 Small Merchant = 70 Coastal Merchant = 60 TugBoat = 30 Trawler = 20 Small Coastal Vessel = 20 Fishingboat = 20 Renown per aeroplane Fighters Hurricane = 20 Bombers B24 = 100 Wellington = 70 Sunderland = 70 PBY = 70 Avenger = 50 Swordfish = 20 |
Promotions
Table of contents [hide] 1 Being Promoted 2 Awarding Promotions 3 American Promotions (In Order Of Rank) 4 German Promotions (In Order Of Rank) 5 Always showing German ranks 6 Sources Being Promoted To be promoted, you must accumulate sufficient renown. For your first promotion, you'll need to accumulate 5,000 renown. Your next promotion comes at 15,000 renown and the third promotion comes at 25,000 renown. The renown needed for a promotion is not the cumulative renown you've gathered through your career, but rather your current amount of renown. Awarding Promotions Promotions can be awarded to crew members at the conclusion of a mission, depending on mission performance. Promoting your crew will increase their hitpoints and efficiency. If an available promotion is not given before the next mission, then the opportunity will be lost. Use them or lose them! (Same thing with medals) Medals Medals are earned at the end of a successful patrol (i.e. you get home in one piece). The more successful the patrol, the more medals you earn to give out to your crew. It appears that medals are tied to how much renown is earned on that patrol, or rather stems from the same source (apparently a combination of hull integrity, tonnage sunk, and torpedo efficiency - someone who's examined the configuration files edit this line as necessary). The net effect of the medals appears to be an increase in morale and endurance for the receiving crewmember. The greater the honor, the greater the benefit on that crewmember. Giving an Iron Cross, for example, has a noticeable impact on the sailor's performance, while the U-Boat front clasp seems to do rather little. Obtaining Player Medals These are the numeric requirements for player medals based on renown earned from patrols. I'm not sure if there are other requirements, such as total tonnage or previous medals awarded. I'm also not sure if the renown requirements are based upon current total or career total. Iron Cross, 2nd Class - 3,000 Renown Iron Cross, 1st Class - 6,000 Renown Knight's Cross - 10,000 Renown Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves - 15,000 Renown Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords - 20,000 Renown Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds - 25,000 Renown All - 30,000 Renown ?I figure this means you will have been awarded every medal if you reach this point? Obtaining Crew Medals These requirements are per patrol. You may receive more than one of a certain medal based on your patrol tonnage total and the tonnage required for the medal. For example, the U-Boat Front Clasp requires at least 5,000 tons sunk at the end of a patrol. If you have 11,254 total tons sunk, you will receive 2 U-Boat Front Clasps. The only exception is the U-Boat War Badge which is based upon renown earned for a patrol. Starting with the Iron Cross 1st class, there is an additional requirement. You need to have handed out all lesser medals. Thus an Iron Cross 1st class will not be available to be awarded unless you have handed out an Iron Cross 2nd class in a earlier mission. U-Boat War Badge - 500 Renown U-Boat Front Clasp - 5,000 Tons Iron Cross, 2nd Class - 20,000 Tons Iron Cross, 1st Class - 30,000 Tons German Cross In Gold - 40,000 Tons Knight's Cross - 50,000 Tons Medals And Their Effects U-Boat Front Clasp - The recipient will receive a boost to resilience. Fatigue change? Iron Cross, 2nd Class - The recipient will receive an experience boost. In my case the boost was 81xp, but this may change based on rank or current experience. Fatigue change? Iron Cross, 1st Class - Unknown (edit) It fills the "resilience" bar to the top, so it's a better version of a Front Clasp. Not sure about affecting crew's fatigue in the future German Cross In Gold - Requires IC (2nd and 1st). Awarding a GCIG will result in the recipient becoming immune from fatigue. Knight's Cross - increase crew's effect on a compartment's operating efficiency U-boat Numbers When you begin your career, your U-boat is given a number randomly, as appropriate to the type of U-boat you have chosen. If you upgrade your U-boat during the campaign, you will keep the same U-boat number, even though your boat itself has changed. How to change your U-boat number If you wish to change your U-boat number, you can use mods such as SH3-Commander. Alternatively, you can do it simply with a text editor, such as NotePad, WordPad, or similar. To change your boat number at the beginning of a career, you have to do it after coming back to base. Once your first patrol is over, exit the game and open the Patrols_0.cfg file (it's in the My Documents/SH3/data/cfg/careers folder in the folder with the same name as your commander). This is a simple text file, so you can open it with Wordpad or any program that will save it as-is (i.e. without changing the .cfg suffix). All you have to do is look at the 25th line of text. This is the U-Boat's number. Just change it to the number you want and save the file. Do the same with the Log_0.cfg and the Patrols.cfg files (the boat number is easy to spot). Each patrol will now recognise your new number, as will your in-game crew compartment screen and every patrol log. For changing a U-Boat number half way through a career (e.g. if you transferred to a new boat), just alter the Patrols_0.cfg file (only the listing for the upcoming patrol) before you go on the first patrol in your new boat. |
Career Timeline
Table of contents [hide] 1 Available U-Boats 2 Available Torpedoes 3 Component Upgrades 3.1 Deck Guns 3.2 Flak Guns 3.3 Conning Towers 3.4 Diesel Engine Superchargers 3.5 Batteries 3.6 Hydrophones 3.7 Sonar 3.8 Radar 3.9 Radar Warning Receiver 3.10 Sonar Decoys 3.11 Sonar Hull Coatings 3.12 Radar Hull Coatings 3.13 Emblems 4 Available Ports/Flotillas 5 Nation Status 6 Resources Available U-Boats For the performance differences between the various U-Boat types, please see the table in Submarines. In addition to the Renown Cost for each U-Boat type, there are also restrictions according the flotilla; that is, only certain U-Boat types are available to certain flotillas. Renown Cost Name Date 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 IIA July 1939 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 IID October 1939 500 500 500 500 500500 500 VIIB September 19392500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 VIIC April 1940 NA 3000 3000 3000 3000 3000 3000 VIIC/41 October 1943 NA NA NA NA 3000 3000 3000 VIIC/42 January 1944 NA NA NA NA NA 3000 3000 IXB October 1939 9000 7500 6500 5000 4000 3000 2000 IXC July 1941 NA NA 7500 6500 5000 4000 3000 IXC/40 October 1942 NA NA NA 7500 6500 5000 4000 IXD1 October 1941 NA NA 3500 ? ? ? ? IXD2 January 1943 NA NA NA NA 9000 6000 5000 XXI April 1944 NA NA NA NA NA 30000 30000 Available Torpedoes I'm not sure what the difference is between the prototype dates and the regular dates. Maybe something with accuracy or effectiveness. Name Prototype Date Regular Date Renown Cost T1 (G7a) None January 1939 0 T1 FaT1 (G7a) May 1941 October 1942 100 T1 LuT1 (G7a) March 1944 March 1944 350 T2 (G7e) None January 1939 0 T3 (G7e) May 1941 June 1942 0 T3 FaT2 (G7e) September 1942 March 1943 250 T3 LuT2 (G7e) September 1944 September 1944 450 T4 (G7es) November 1942 July 1943 500 T5 (G7es) January 1943 October 1943 800 T11 (G7es) November 1943 July 1944 1000 Component Upgrades Deck Guns Some U-Boats may be fitted with a deck gun. This weapon was used for sinking ships (or finishing off ships crippled by a torpedo, but still afloat) while the U-Boat was surfaced. Deck guns may only be used in calm weather. (Wind speed 6 metres per second or less.) The type of deck gun that is fitted depends on the U-Boat type and the type of conning tower fitted to that U-Boat. See the Conning Tower section, to see which calibre deck gun is permitted for a given configuration. Different types of ammunition are stowed for the deck gun at the beginning of each mission. These are: AP - Armor Piercing HE - High Explosive SS - Star Shell Ammo Name AP HE SS Date Renown Cost 8.8cm SK C/35 40 160 40 January 1939 0 10.5cm SK C/32 40 60 20 January 1939 0 Flak Guns Flak guns (Fliegerabwehrkanonen) are anti-aircraft guns. While their primary purpose is to fell enemy aircraft, they may also be used against very small surface targets (for example fishing trawlers). However, be warned that this is extremely ineffective and will require a lot of ammunition. The type of Flak gun that may be fitted depends on the type of conning tower used. Each gun is classified as "light" or "heavy" and requires an appropriate mounting platform. See the Conning Tower section to see how many Flak guns of each type may be installed. Note that the 2cm FK C/38 Flakzwilling XXI may only be used on Type XXI U-Boats. Flak guns may use one or two different types of ammunition: AP - Armor Piercing AA - Anti-Air The quantity of ammunition stowed for each Flak gun type is indicated below. Ammunition Name Type AP AA Date Renown Cost 2cm FK C/30 Light NA 1000 January 1939 0 2cm FK C/38 Light NA 1000 January 1943 0 2cm FK C/30 Flakzwilling Light NA 2000 July 1940 0 2cm FK C/38 Flakvierling Heavy NA 4000 May 1943 0 2cm FK C/38 Flakzwilling Light NA 2000 July 1943 0 2cm FK C/38 Flakzwilling Type XXI NA 2000 April 1944 0 3.7cm SK C/30 Heavy 400 800 January 1939 0 3.7cm FK M 42 Heavy 800 1200 December 1943 0 3.7cm FK M 42 Twin Heavy 1600 2400 December 1943 0 Conning Towers The different types of U-Boats may be fitted with different superstructures. Each conning tower may only fitted on the type of U-Boat indicated in the name. For example, a IID/2 tower may only be fitted on a Type II-D U-Boat. The choice of tower affects the number of deck gun and Flak installations that are fitted. Fitting a new tower may take up to two weeks. Name Date Deck Gun Heavy Flak Light Flak Renown Cost IIA/1 January 1939 none none 1 0 IID/1 October 1939 none none 1 0 IID/2 January 1943 none none 2 300 VIIB/1 January 1939 88mm none 1 0 VIIB/2 January 1942 88mm none 2 400 VIIC/1 April 1940 88mm none 1 0 VIIC/2 January 1942 88mm none 2 500 VIIC/3 January 1943 88mm 1 2 1000 VIIC/4 June 1943 none 3 none 1500 IX/1 October 1939 105mm 1 1 0 IX/2 January 1940 105mm none 2 500 IX/3 January 1942 105mm 1 2 1000 XXI/1 April 1944 none none 2 0 Note that the VIIC/4 tower is the so called "U-Flak" configuration. Also note that the Type XXI U-Boats may only use the Type XXI Flak guns as listed in the Flak Guns section. Diesel Engine Superchargers Name Speed Boost Date Renown Cost GWKapselgeblase x1.1 February 1939 500 MANBuchigeblase x1.2 January 1939 1500 Batteries These also depend on U-Boat type. Name Energy Bonus Date Renown Cost Sub AFA27MAK740 x1.0 January 1939 0 VII AFA27MAK800 x1.15 April 1940 600 VII AFA33MAL800 x1.30 October 1941 1500 VII AFA36MAK580 x1.0 January 1939 0 II AFA36MAK740 x1.0 January 1939 0 IX AFA44MAL570 x1.25 October 1939 500 ? AFA44MAL740 x1.25 October 1941 1500 IX Hydrophones These may depend on U-Boat type. Name Date Renown Cost GHG January 1939 0 KDB January 1939 300 BalkonGerat October 1943 750 Sonar These may depend on U-Boat type. Name Date Renown Cost S-Gerät April 1942 500 Nibelung October 1943 1000 Radar These may depend on U-Boat type. Name Date Renown Cost FuMO29GEMA February 1942 250 FuMO30 February 1943 750 FuMO61Hohentwiel March 1944 1000 FuMO64Hohentwiel March 1944 1200 FuMO391 August 1944 1500 Radar Warning Receiver These may depend on U-Boat type. Name Date Renown Cost FuMB1Metox August 1942 100 FuMB10Borkum November 1943 200 FuMB7Naxos December 1943 250 FuMB26Tunis May 1944 400 Sonar Decoys Name Date Renown Cost BoldType1 March 1942 250 BoldType2 May 1943 350 BoldType3 January 1944 450 BoldType4 October 1944 550 BoldType5 January 1945 650 Sonar Hull Coatings Name Date Renown Cost Alberich August 1941 1000 AlberichImproved February 1944 2000 Radar Hull Coatings Name Date Renown Cost Tarnmatte January 1944 1500 |
Emblems
Once you have completed a sufficient number of patrols, you may be entitled to paint the flotilla emblem or even an emblem of your own choosing on the side of your boat's conning tower. See U-boat Emblems/Insignias for more information. Available Ports/Flotillas The map shows the prinicple U-Boat bases. Note that not all of these are available in the standard version of Silent Hunter III. http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ual/SH3CM1.jpg The following table lists the Flottillen represented in Silent Hunter III, along with the bases used and the types of U-Boats available to that Flottille. Note that not all U-Boat types are immediately available, but a limited to the appropriate date. Note: Mods such as GWX & WAC adjust/correct 1st. flotilla base to Kiel not Wilhelmshaven (stock). Flottille Bases U-Boat types 1. 1939 - 1940: Wilhelmshaven 1940 - 1944: Brest IIA, IID, VIIB, VIIC 2. 1939 - 1940: Wilhelmshaven 1940 - 1944: Lorient VIIB, IXB, IXC 7. 1939 - 1940: Kiel 1940 - 1944: St. Nazaire 1944 - 1945: Bergen VIIB, VIIC, VIIC/41, XXI 10. 1941 - 1944: Lorient IXB, IXC 11. 1941 - 1945: Bergen VIIC, VIIC/41, XXI 12. 1942 - 1944: Bordeaux IXB, IXC 29. 1941 - 1943: La Spezia 1943 - 1944: Toulon VIIB, VIIC 33. 1944 - 1945: Flensburg VIIC, VIIC/41, IXB, IXC, XXI Nation Status To determine whether a particular nationality is a friend, an enemy or neutral, refer to the following list showing the status of each country at different times during the war. See also the Nationality Status Timeline. http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ual/SH3CM2.jpg Date format = YEAR/MONTH/DAY British |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/02-->| |<--1939/09/03-----Allies------1945/08/25-->| |<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| American |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1941/12/08-->| |<--1941/12/09-----Allies------1945/08/25-->| |<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| German |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/08/31-->| |<--1939/09/01-----Axis--------1945/05/09-->| |<--1945/05/09-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| Environmental (Seagulls and Icebergs) |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| Canadian |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/10-->| |<--1939/09/11-----Allies------1945/08/25-->| |<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| Australian |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/10-->| |<--1939/09/11-----Allies------1945/08/25-->| |<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| Italian |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1940/06/09-->| |<--1940/06/10-----Axis--------1943/09/03-->| |<--1943/09/03-----Neutral-----1943/10/13-->| |<--1943/10/13-----Allies------1945/05/07-->| |<--1945/05/07-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| SouthAfrica |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/10-->| |<--1939/09/11-----Allies------1945/08/25-->| |<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| Russia |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1941/06/21-->| |<--1941/06/22-----Allies------1945/08/25-->| |<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| Poland |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/01-->| |<--1939/09/02-----Allies------1945/08/25-->| |<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| Netherland |<--1940/05/10-----Neutral-----1939/09/09-->| |<--1940/05/11-----Allies------1945/12/31-->| France |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/02-->| |<--1939/09/03-----Allies------1940/06/25-->| |<--1940/06/26-----Neutral-----1944/08/25-->| |<--1944/08/26-----Allies------1945/12/31-->| FreeFrench |<--1938/01/01-----Allies------1945/12/31-->| Norway |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1940/04/10-->| |<--1940/04/11-----Allies------1945/12/31-->| NewZealand |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/10-->| |<--1939/09/11-----Allies------1945/08/25-->| |<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| Sweden |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->| Greece |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1940/11/12-->| |<--1940/11/13-----Allies------1945/12/31-->| Brasil |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1942/08/22-->| |<--1942/08/23-----Allies------1945/12/31-->| Romania |<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1940/07/05-->| |<--1940/07/06-----Axis--------1944/08/23-->| |<--1944/08/24-----Allies------1945/12/31-->| Japan |<--1936/10/25-----Axis--------1945/09/02-->| |
Navigation
The usual method for navigating your U-Boat is to plot a course on the navigation map. Alternately, you can set your heading manually, using the compass or rudder controls. Your course is always relative to North (Bearing 0 degrees). There are 360 degrees in a full circle, increasing as you go east. To summarise the main directions (in both English and German): Enlarge Bearing Course Abbr. Peilung Abk. 000 North N Nord N 022.5 North-North-East NNE Nord-Nord-Ost NNO 045 North-East NE Nord-Ost NO 067.5 East-North-East ENE Ost-Nord-Ost ONO 090 East E Ost O 112.5 East-South-East ESE Ost-Süd-Ost OSO 135 South-East SE Süd-Ost SO 157.5 South-South-East SSE Süd-Süd-Ost SSO 180 South S Süd S 202.5 South-South-West SSW Süd-Süd-West SSW 225 South-West SW Süd-West SW 247.5 West-South-West WSW West-Süd-West WSW 270 West W West W 292.5 West-North-West WNW West-Nord-West WNW 315 North-West NW Nord-West NW 337.5 North-North-West NNW Nord-Nord-West NNW If you click on the outside rim of the compass dial, then your U-Boat will turn towards this course (taking the shortest turn of the two possible directions). Navigating is generally done from the navigation map, found by pressing F5. Use the plotting tool to select way-points, thus indicating your desired course. Generally, this is the most precise way of navigating. However using the compass dial to set a course can also be useful under certain circumstances. As can controlling the rudder manually. As an example of the latter, if you wish to avoid aircraft, then simply setting the rudder hard to port or starboard (usually via the shortcut keys) is a very effective way of reacting to the incoming threat. Sonar / Radar / Radio Table of contents [hide] 1 Sonar 1.1 Anti-sonar coating 1.2 Bold sonar decoy 1.3 Sonarman (SO) 2 Radio and radar 2.1 Radio 2.2 Radar 2.3 Radar detector 2.4 Anti-radar coating 2.5 Radioman (RA) 2.6 Contact reports 2.7 Radar switch workaround Sonar The sonar is your ears and the only way of detecting ships when you are submerged beyond periscope depth, and the safest way to detect ships under poor weather conditions. Sound travels faster and further in water, making the sonar a very important instrument. The passive sonar device is standard equipment on U-boats and is very simple in operation; an array of transducers (microphones) are located around the fore dive planes. Any sound these pick up (such as the cavitation noise of a ship's screw) are amplified and can be heard when manning the hydrophone station. While using the hydrophone, click on the wheel or on the dial to pick up sound waves from another direction. There are several sources of sound you will encounter on your patrols. Most of them are naturally ships' screws (a constant thumping), but also sinking ships, underwater explosions, the screws of your torpedoes, and dud torpedoes (a loud metallic bang as the torpedo impacts, but does not detonate) can be heard. This obviously also means the screws of your own U-boat can be heard by yourself, adding to the ambient noise and creating a blind - literally deaf - spot around your aft. Ordering "All stop" or turning 20-30 degrees allows you to scan this area as well. Also keep in mind that the hydrophone works best when you are submerged. Using it while surfaced limits the range. When submerged, expect the range to be around 20kms, and 30 kms if you have the KDB installed. Anti-sonar coating Some time in to the war, you can acquire an anti sonar coating to your U-boat when in dock. This helps conceal your U-boat somewhat when being pinged by enemy sonar by absorbing some of the sound waves. Bold sonar decoy The Bold is ejected on the port side of your torpedo room and disrupts the water in this area for three minutes. This confuses enemy sonar operators, which may mistake the return echo from it to come from your U-boat. Remember the sonar of a surface vessel doesn't work as well with targets in shallow waters, so deploy the decoy at some depth. Sonarman (SO) This is the crew member relaying whatever information can be found out from using the hydrophone. When you are submerged, he notifies you whenever he discovers a ship and reports the following: type of ship (warship/merchant) its speed if it's closing in, moving away or keeping a constant distance to you which direction it's at the range (long/medium/short) The experience of the sonar operator affects how good he's at detecting ships. For best results, give him a radioman qualification. Clicking on the Sonarman icon in the lower left corner will give you access to the following menus Report Repeat last report Report on nearest contact This will make the SO reply either the absence of contacts, or the bearing of the nearest contact. Hydrophone Neither of these commands will result in an acknowledgement from the SO. Normal sweep The default method the SO uses to find contacts. Follow nearest sound contact Sonar Both these commands assumes you have selected and a target using the periscope (locking on to it is not required). Estimate range to contact Precise range to contact Radio Keeping in touch with BdU is what the radio is for. You can only transmit reports when you are surfaced, but you can receive messages even when you are submerged - as long as the equipment (including the antenna in the conning tower) is working. Remember to be careful about when and where you are transmitting. While everything you transmit and receive is encrypted and might not contain enough information to alert anyone who successfully decrypts your correspondence, your location can be calculated very precisely by the Allies using triangulation. It is generally safest to transmit right before you submerge, as the possibility of planes and/or warships being sent to your location is high. (See also Radioman below.) Radar The radar is an active detection instrument, much like the sonar. It transmits a radio wave and listens for an echo. Unlike modern mobile radars and stationery radar installations, the U-boat radar only covers a quite small arc in front of the boat. (In a 1944 IX-D2, this arc is 20 degrees each side of your course bearing or 40 degrees total - unknown if this active arc increases with radar upgrades.) As a result of this, you need to turn your U-boat around to sweep your surroundings. And because it is an active system, other units - such as enemy destroyers - can pick up your radar waves and find out your position. Radar works well in calm weather, but is less relibable in high waves and precipitation. Radar detector This utility allows you to know when a radar set is being operated in the vicinity (and pointed your way). The RA will announce the presence of radar waves the instant an enemy destroyer decides to sweep the area you are in. This doesn't necessarily mean you have been detected as high waves, inexperienced enemy radar operators with unfamiliar equipment may lead the enemy to believe he was seeing a wave instead of the conning tower of a U-boat. Anti-radar coating Similar to the anti-sonar coating, this is yet another upgrade that helps you remain undetected. It works by absorbing radar waves, or deflecting them in different angles. Radioman (RA) The radioman (RA) - or Funker (FU) in German - operates the radio, radar, radar warning equipment and gramaphone. Unless you have radar installed in your U-boat, the crew member working as RA doesn't need to be highly skilled or a qualified radioman. His only task is to receive and transmit messages. Clicking on the RA icon will present you with the following menu items. Report Report contacts Choosing this will make the RA repeat any contact report that has been received from BdU. Send contact report The RA will transmit a contact report to BdU if you have made visual contact with a convoy. You will receive confirmation from BdU some time after the contact has been sent (typically 1 to 4 hours). If you are close enough to Germany or territories currently occupied by Germany, fighter or bomber aircraft might be dispatched to your location. Note that once you have sent a report, additional reports will not be acknowledged until at least 12 hours has passed. Thus, if you are stalking a convoy, reporting its position as you follow it, then it only makes sense to send reports twice a day. You can tell if a report will be acknowledged, as only those reports are noted on the message note pad (Press keyboard shortcut "r"). Send patrol report If you have spent your torpedoes, you can send a patrol report to be ordered back to base. The number of torpedoes you have left, along with tonnage sunk will be sent to BdU. To view incomming radio messages press the keyboard "M" key. See also Shortcut keys. Radar This section only applies if you have a radar set installed in your U-boat. One sweep RA will perform one sweep with the radar, and then turn it off. Continuous sweep RA will continuously monitor the area in front of your U-boat. Turn off Click this to turn off your radar. This command does not seem to work reliably. See the radar switch workaround for more info. Gramophone For playing all your favourite wax records. See the Gramophone page for more info. Contact reports In addition to sending contact reports, you may also receive them from BdU whenever you are in range of convoys that have been discovered by friendly forces. They will typically contain the information of roughly where the convoy is (in which grid), a rough heading, its speed in knots, and the type of convoy - ranging from enemy task force to neutral convoy. It then becomes your task to track down the convoy and engage it. Radar switch workaround Many people have reported the command Turn off under the RA Radar menu to be totally or partially ineffective. This bug can be quite dangerous, as you are lured into a false sense of safety that the radar is off, while it's in fact acting like a homing beacon for any ship or aircraft equipped with a radar set to detect and track you on. There are two ways of switching off the radar, which will leave the radar switched off. Relieve the RA. Make sure there is no one manning the radio/radar set in the crew management screen. Click the off switch in the radio room Go to the radio room by right-clicking on the RA icon, then click the off switch located on the radar set. This will switch off the radar, and leave it switched off until you either man the radar again, or demand the RA to operate it. |
Crew Management
Basics Crew management is an important part of the game. Each crew member has a level of endurance that continually decreases while he is on station. The less endurance a crew member has, the more inefficient he is at his job. For example, a tired sonar operator is more likely to miss sound targets than one who is fully rested. Note that the red exclamation mark looks more threatening than it is. The only thing that happens is that the crewman gets less efficient - he won't die or something of that sort. I've been very nasty to some crewman on purpose, and I have never seen the endurance line go below 30-40%. To recover endurance, assign the crew member to quarters. Higher ranking crew members have more endurance and can stay on station longer. Higher ranking crew members also take longer to recuperate; rotate your officers often to keep them healthy. A junior officer can be used as the "whipping boy" to boost efficiency in a compartment while the more senior officers sleep. The junior officer still provides a boost no matter how fatigued he is and he won't mutiny. Certain medals will reduce or eliminate a crewman's fatigue. It is also possible to modify the game files to remove the fatigue system completely if desired. Time Compression Crew endurance is frozen when running with any time compression greater than 32 (i.e. 64 and up). While this means that your crew will not become fatigued during this time, it also means that crew in quarters will not recover any endurance. Crew Deployment Some crew members have small yellow icons under their sprite. This means he´s good at certain tasks. Below is a list of available qualifications (with the German name given in brackets): Watchman (Wachgänger) Gunner (Schütze) Flakgunner (Flakschütze) Radioman/Sonarman (Funker) Helmsman (Steuermanm) Machinist (Maschinist) Torpedoman (Torpedoschütze) Medic (Sanitäter) Repair (Mechaniker) When crew are deployed to certain areas of the U-Boat, the "efficiency bar" will change to indicate the current performance of that area. The "efficiency bar" is black when there are no crew deployed to fully green, when it is at maximum efficiency. Placing a "qualified" crew member in the appropriate area will increase the efficiency of that area far more than placing just any crew there. This is in the same way that placing an officier (with more experience) will help more than a lowly sailor. The type of "qualification" an area requires is shown by the small yellow icon next to the area name. Note that it doesn't make sense to give an officer the "Radioman/Sonarman" qualification, as officers may not be placed in the radioroom (only petty officers and sailors); accordingly, the game does not allow it. Each time the crew returns from a mission, there will typically be one additional "qualification" to allocate. |
Locating Targets
Locating targets can be done in several ways. You can be appraised of ship and convoy positions via radio, you can locate ships using the hydrophone or radar, or you can rely on your watch crew to locate targets visually. Table of contents [hide] 1 Radio messages 2 Watch Crew 3 Hydrophones 3.1 Hydrophone range 3.2 Contact reporting 3.3 Manual Operation 4 Radar 4.1 Manual operation 4.2 Detecting a contact 5 See Also 6 Credits Radio messages Periodically you may receive radio messages from BdU advising of single contacts or convoys in your area. These messages will not generally appear in your radio log (except for convoy sightings), but will result in a contact marker being placed on the Navigation Map. This is a square box for a merchant ship, or a diamond shaped one for a warship. The icon includes a "tail" which represents the wake of the ship and can be used to find the course. Clicking on the contact will show various information: The time of the report The type of contact. Usually this will simply say "Ship" The approximate course of the contact (e.g., SW, ENE etc) The approximate speed of the contact The possible speed ranges are given below: Slow: 1-6 kts Medium: 7-14 kts Fast: 15-24 kts Very Fast: 25+ kts Most merchant contacts will be reported at either slow or medium speed. In general, runing an intercept based on a speed of 6kts for slow, and 10kts for medium will enable you to find your target. Note that although the course given is an approximation, the "tail" shown on the contact icon is a very accurate measure of the course. If you are careful, you can plot a course within a few degrees of the real course using the ruler tool on the map. Watch Crew When running on the surface, your watch crew will automatically report contacts that are in visual range. A contact icon, identical to that shown above for a Radio Contact, will be shown on the map and the contact bearing will be shown in a message from your crew. A commonly asked question is whether there's any benefit to manually moving your watch officer (WO), when surfaced, to his position on the conning tower, especially when the watch crew is already rated at or near maximum efficiency. The answer is that with the WO in his watch position, you will be informed of the bearing and distance of spotted ships. Without him, you will simple receive a "ship spotted" message with no additional information. Hydrophones Hydrophone range Hydrophones are, in essence, underwater microphones. They allow you to detect targets from approximately 20km away. In order to use the hydrophones, your sub must be submerged. Note that your hydrophone range is affected by several factors: Speed of the U-Boat - Ideally, you should be running at Ahead Slow or even All Stop to maximise your hydrophone range. Depth of the U-Boat - Ideally, you should be between periscope deep (11-12 meters) and 25 meters; but also you can obtain best results at 50 meters & 70 meters; maybe thermal layers? Contact reporting If you have a crew member assigned to the sonar room, he will report hydrophone contacts to you. If your realism settings do not include "No map contact update" these contacts will be indicated by black lines extending from your sub in the direction of the contact. The length of the line represents an approximate distance to the target. Note that currently in patch 1.3 a bug exists whereby sonar contacts are not reported. Solved in patch 1.4b. The contact lines will, however, still appear on your map and time compression will be dropped to 8x if you are running higher compression at the moment of contact. Manual Operation To operate the hydrophone manually, sit at the hydrophone station (hotkey H) and rotate the dial by clicking around the perimeter. As the needle rotates around the dial, listen for the sounds of ship engines. The loundness of the sound is an indication of the range of the target. Be aware that if your own U-boat has its electic motors operating, then you will hear screw noise at 180°. This is your own vessel! You can avoid this by changing to All Stop when you wish to listen with your hydrophones. Radar Manual operation To operate the radar manually, use the switches and the wheel. The upper left switch is power on/off. The sweep/focus changes it from automatic search to manual search. In sweep mode, the wheel rotates continuously. In focus mode, you can click on the wheel much like the sonar station wheel to turn it clockwise or counterclockwise. The range switch changes it from short range band (left) to long range band (right). The display has both range scales marked in hundreds of meters, and the rollover numbers at the bottom left will give you exact range in meters to a contact that is picked up. Detecting a contact The display is an oscilloscope. When you find a contact, the display will have a spike. The vertical location of the spike on the occilloscope indicates a rough range to the target. The little display in the bottom left will give you the exact range to the target. To find the bearing, you're supposed to read the numbers on the dial behind the wheel (radar wheel), but a bug causes the numbers to be reversed. The radioman will call out the correct bearing, but the numbers are backwards. The FuMO29 only covers a few degrees span to the front of the boat, but that wheel will still turn a complete circle, even though it can't possibly pick up anything for most of that time. You'll be better off just doing it manually when you're really looking for something. Once you get the FuMO30, it mounts the antenna on a rotating mount, so you get full coverage that way. Because the radar is on by default when you load a saved game, you must manually turn it off. If you return to the station, it will automatically turn on again. Hunting Grounds Table of contents [hide] 1 The Supercavitation shipping lane 2 The Alyebard areas 3 Mediterranean hunting grounds 4 U-Flak hunting grounds 5 Cyprus 6 Hagers Hage 7 Drumbeat 8 Moored capital ships (spoiler) The Supercavitation shipping lane Added by Supercavitation, ICQ 13007026, 29 April 2005 If you are having troubles locating targets, try this out. This helper assumes you are sailing from the western coast - aka occupied France - from Brest, Lorient, St. Nazaire, etc. and that you are utilizing Silent Hunter with the 1.2 patch with no mods. I am not aware of any mods that interfere with this strategy but you never know. Receive your orders and exfiltrate the sub pen. Plot a course for grid BF 13. Upon reaching BF 13, run a diagonal course between BF 13 and BF 15, repeatedly. This is a major pipe of merchant and convoy travel that remains throughout the game years. You will continually receive updates via your map screen (F5) and every 12 hours you can submerge and usually detect a lone merchant or possibly even a full convoy if you aren't too busy cleaning up the updates you receive. It is not uncommon to patrol this area and exhaust your torpedos in two to three days, to say nothing of your deck gun. Enemy aircraft will appear to cover this area usually after 1941 but if you stay sharp they are a minimal threat. In fact, they appear less often in BF 15, making it a perfect gridsquare to recharge batteries in. It is possible to radio contacts in to BdU from here and see Luftwaffe attacks, but they happen about 1 in 7 tries. You can exhaust your torpedo load here and continue onward to your patrol grid, having utilized a minimum of diesel fuel, provided you never exceed Ahead Standard for long periods of time. This area is minimally policed by the Allies. You will rarely encounter a lone corvette or destroyer. There are depths of + 100 meters in this area, making for good escape. You are close to home port. :) Supercavitation The Alyebard areas Added by Alyebard, 19 May 2005 Also the AM 51, AM 52 gridsquares are a good places to hunt convoys inbound to the North Channel (between Ireland and Scotland) You will receive updates in your map screen (F5), also if you are not so impatient every two or three days you can detect a big convoy. And deeps are good enought, more than 1000 meters. AM 53 is a good place, but is more patrolled by the enemy and have shallow waters. And this area is avalaible from bases in Germany and from France Alyebard Added by rls669: The southeast corner of AM53 is a major choke point and is loaded with convoys. It's not uncommon to be in contact with two convoys at once here. Naval and air traffic is very heavy here and water is shallow, so risk is as great as the potential reward. Mediterranean hunting grounds Well, there are two bottlenecks in the Mediterranian. One is obviously the Gibraltar strait and the other is between Sicily and the North of Africa. Every convoy, taskforce or lone merchant will be forced to pass a few km from you. U-Flak hunting grounds Around Scapa Flow seems to be pretty good - all but the channel to the south. There seems to be a lot of biplanes and a smaller number of hurricanes. In my experinces I have found BF13(yes the hot spot) to be loaded with aircraft later in the war(Suderlands and Huracanes). There are calm seas almost all of the time. And I have not seen many DD's. Good Luck and Good Hunting, Wilhelm. Cyprus If you have enough patience for a little and somewhat dangerous trip, it may eventually pay off with tons of unprotected merchant ships. The place is Cyprus, a small island to the south of Turkey (that sorta looks like a pointy shoe. Departing from somewhere on the French coast, you'll have to pass the treacherous straights of Gibraltar, after which it is across mideterrenean to the east most part of the sea. Simply set your trajectory to move around the island in a circle (clockwise seems to work best) and you will bump into tons of unprotected sea traffic. Since most of it is an enclosed location, weather is always great for both spotting and using deck gun. After about 3-4 days of patrols, I usually score about 7-8 merchants and not a single destroyer or an aircraft in the area. Cyprus was an English colony in WW2, so most of the merchants there are from either England or Canada. If you get bored, you can even try to score some hits near Alexandria, but that place is usually highly protected. The road to Cyprus is probably the most challenging part. The easiest way to cross Gibraltar is to go deep and quiet. Set your depth to 200 (max depth is around 300 there) and rig for silent running and none of those destroyers will touch you. If you happen to hear a merchant closing in, I suggest ingnoring it because even if you do sink it, you will have about 5-6 destroyers depth charging you for an hour. Hagers Hage In the Arctic, there are convoys that travel from Canada, Iceland and Britain, taking a route over the top of Norway and on to Russian ports (such as Murmansk). The infamous Convoy PQ17 took such a route. This hunting ground is ideal for U-Boat activity, as it is generally out of range of allied air-cover, and there is a chance of support from other German forces. Both Kriegsmarine surface ships and the Luftwaffe patrol the area. Thus, if you send a radio report of a convoy sighting, you may receive some support. A good place to pick up the trail of a convoy is just south of Jan Mayen island. They generally head eastwards (although returning westward convoys are also known) and pass halfway between Bjørnøya (=Bear Island) and Fastlandet (= the Norwegian mainland). If you use SH3 Commander (or some other program that allows you to set your patrol grid), then AE37 is a good place to get started. Air-support from the Luftwaffe is limited in range. To get an idea of how far out you can expect support, draw a circle on the map, centered on grid AF93, and with a radius 1500km. The Luftwaffe operate in force between just after the invasion of Norway (mid-1940) until the end of 1942. "Hagers Hage" is Norwegian and means "Hager's Garden". It is named after Paul Hager who has posted countless articles, patrol reports and screenshots on the SH3 Forums about tracking down Arctic Convoys. Although he didn't write this section, he was the main inspiration and driving force in opening up this theatre, as represented in the game, and deserves the credit. Drumbeat After December 11 1941 the US East coast is rich for the harvest. Sail up and down from New York to Cape Hattras(the cape south of Norfork) along the 20 meter line. At the begining of the conflict the U.S destroyers will be no match for you but this area will become more dangrous as late 42 early 43. Happy Hunting ;) Moored capital ships (spoiler) Below are the dates and locations of moored capital ships, extracted from the game data files and listed in chronological order. Note that the dates only seem approximate. 1939/09/15 - 1939/10/10, Auxiliary Cruiser, Scapa Flow 1939/10/04 - 1939/10/14, Battleship Revenge, Scapa Flow 1939/11/01 - 1940/01/05, Battleship Nelson, Loch Ewe 1939/11/05 - 1939/12/05, Battleship Revenge, Loch Ewe 1940/03/01 - 1940/05/01, Auxiliary Cruiser, Scapa Flow 1940/03/07 - 1940/04/25, Aircraft Carrier Illustrious, Scapa Flow 1940/04/01 - 1940/06/01, Auxiliary Cruiser, Scapa Flow 1940/05/17 - 1945/01/01, Fiji Light Cruiser, Loch Ewe 1940/05/24 - 1940/06/30, Dido Light Cruiser, Scapa Flow 1940/12/11 - 1940/12/31, Battleship King George V, Scapa Flow 1941/02/01 - 1941/02/17, Auxiliary Cruiser, Scapa Flow 1941/02/10 - 1941/03/20, Auxiliary Cruiser, Scapa Flow 1941/03/15 - 1945/04/30, Fiji Light Cruiser, Scapa Flow 1942/02/03 - 1942/02/28, Battleship King George V, Scapa Flow 1942/02/15 - 1943/09/03, Aircraft Carrier Illustrious, Loch Ewe |
Intercepting Targets
Learning to Intercept targets is crucial for success in Silent Hunter III. Table of contents [hide] 1 Introduction 2 Plotting the target's course and speed 3 Finding the intercept point 4 Example intercept 5 Running a Box Pattern Intercept 6 Example box pattern intercept 7 Claren's Easy Course-to-Target Plotting Method 8 See also 9 Other resources 9.1 Silent Hunter III specific 9.2 Historical Introduction The goal of a good intercept is to get you into firing range (500-700 meters) with the ship passing right in front of you. Ideally, your boat should be at exactly 90° to the path of the target facing it as it passes by. This allows you to fire fire your torpedos at 0° Gyro angle. Gyro angles within 10° of 0 work well. Beyond that, your torpedo may fail, or hit at a bad angle. Ensuring that your range is within the 500-700m range, directly abeam of the target, will make your limited supplies of torpedos much more effective. Plotting the target's course and speed In order to reach an ideal intercept position, you need to know the target's speed and heading. Both can be determined by submerging at low speed or stopped and taking several hydrophone readings. Note that you must have the No map contact update realism setting disabled for this to work. You should take several hydrophone readings over time. Zoom in on the end of the black or grey sonar contact line and put an X with the marker there. Ensure that you are zoomed in far enough to see the grid lines, or you won't get a very accurate position fix. Even so, you will be off. The farther the contact, the larger the error. The error will always be one of range, the bearing is accurate. You should note the exact time of each mark that you make, to be able to later determine the target speed. If possible, try to make each mark at an interval of 3 minutes and 15 seconds. This allows you to use the 3 minute rule to easily calculate the target's speed. In any case, you must know the elapsed time between your marks if you want to know the speed of the target. With hydrophone readings, the updates come about every minute. If you ask the sonarman to follow the nearest contact, they come every 15 seconds or so. So keep in mind the 3 minute rule will be a rough estimate of speed. If you are moving and the target is moving, you can just turn time compression to 64 and eyeball it. You can say pretty fast if the target is moving much faster than you. Getting an exact speed with timing is much faster in game time and will allow you to intecept fast moving targets more often. Fast, for merchants anyway. Once you have at least 3 marks on the map that are about kilometer or more apart, use the ruler to draw a line from the first one through the last one. This is the ships estimated course. The ships real course will be +/- 5° and +/- 500 meters at 15 Kilometers. Keep in mind this course is an estimate and plan to update it accordingly. You can now calculate your targets speed (distance = rate x time), or using the 3 minute rule. Finding the intercept point A line from your ship that meets the target's course line at 90° is the closest intercept course you have to the target's course. If the target is more or less coming at you, just plot a course that takes you right into its path, minus about 500 meters. Using the target's calculated speed you can determine approximately when the target will arrive near your intercept point. Ensure that your U-boat has enough speed to reach that point well before the target! It is important not to take a diagonal path compared to the targets course. This will not leave you in a good firing position and you will waste many torpedoes. Once you get the hang of it, you may want to take a diagonal path to get you further ahead of the target, then make your turn to 90° at the end. Example intercept http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ual/SH3CM3.jpg Sub starts (A) and takes several readings on target (C). Gray lines represent sonar readings. Sub moves to intercept location (B) and arrives early. Target arrives at (D) as sub is settling into position and getting final readings on exact course. Running a Box Pattern Intercept If you can't make it into the ships path in time or the target is moving away from you, you need to run a box pattern to get where you need to be. Mark out a course that is exactly parallel to your target's course. Make sure that this course is at least 2KM from the targets course at night or in bad weather. Go at least 5 KM out in clear weather during the day to stay beyond visual range. Surface your boat and make flank speed along this course until you have enough lead to get into position and be submerged when the target arrives. You should stop once in a while and submerge to confirm that the target is still on course. It might take you a full day or more running at top speed on the surface to outflank the target. That's what flank speed is for. It might also be impossible to overake the target, even at top speed. In that case, dive and set ahead slow the opposite direction along the targets course and hope it's a well travel sea lane. Example box pattern intercept http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ual/SH3CM4.jpg Sub (A) can't directly intercept target (b) so it runs a box intecept to arrive at (C) before the target. Don't forget to submerge to get sonar readings an confirm the target is still on course. --SaintD 11:28, 12 May 2005 (EEST) Claren's Easy Course-to-Target Plotting Method Note from Dantenoc: --This method produced faulty results, and has been replaced with the correct procedure... I had previously left it alone and had only posted a link to the revised method, but a lot of people kept reading the incorrect version. Sorry Claren... you allmost had it but you switched around two of the triangles' legs :) --End of note And now for the new and improved revised version. For the short explanation, only read what's on top of the images (after the "Step X:" title and before the picture). For a more complete explanation read the rest also. Step 1: The setup One of the biggest reasons for the early success of the u-boat was coordinated intel received from BdU. The germans had broken the british radio codes and regularly intercepted messages that allowed them to know the whereabouts of the enemy boats and convoys. Other sources of such privileged information included sightings by other U-boats and Luftwaffe airplanes, who reported their findings back to headquarters. Silent Hunter III simulates this by ocationaly marking ship icons in your nav-map even though they're way out of your range. If you can succesfully tap into that information, you'll soon become Germany's top U-boat ace without much effort :) So let's get on with it. Your U-boat, located at point 1, receives a contact report of a ship located at point 2. Take notice of the contact's speed and heading, which you can obtain by clicking on him on the nav-map. http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ual/SH3CM5.jpg Slow means around 6 knots, medium means about 9 knots, and fast... well, I never bother with those (why? because they're probably warships and Doenitz wants you to concentrate on merchant shiping). Obviously, in cases like these, when the contact is so far away, there's absolutely no point in racing toward the contacts reported location... he won't be there any more by the time you get there. No, rather, our hope is to intercept the ship at some point 3 were we'll both meet. In other words, go to the spot where he is going to be by the time you get there. Now the big question is: where exactly IS that spot?!?! Step two: To figure out where the "Intercept point" is, start by clicking on your ship with the protractor tool (marked as P1 on the image), then click on the contact (marked as P2 in the image), and then drag the second leg of the protractor tool off into the direction where the contact is heading. Your nav-map should look like this: http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ual/SH3CM6.jpg Step three: Using the ruler start measuring from the contact's position of into the direction where it's heading. Measure a distance representative of it's speed. In this example the contact was reported as slow, so I measure 6 kms to represent 6 knots. Your nav-map should look like this: http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ual/SH3CM7.jpg Note that the distance of 6kms used is merely a mnemonic representation of the contact's speed of 6 knots, It has nothing to do with the actual 11.118 kilometers that the ship will travel in one hour at that speed, or anything like that. You could have just as easily used any other scale to represent speed... like for example: 10 kms for every 1 knot, or 0.1 kms for every 1 knot or even weird scales like 2.5 kilometers for every 1 knot. The trick here is to pick a scale that you are most comfortable with and to STICK WITH IT. As long as you are consistent in your scale choice you should have no problems whatsoever. |
Step four:
Using the compas, draw a circle centered at the end of the measurement you just did (labeled P3b in the image). The radius of this circle should be your intercept speed. In this example, I think I have a good angle of aproach, and don't feel like wasting too much fuel, so I leave the circle's radius at 12kms, representing the 12 knots to wich I'll speed up to to intercept the target. Take special notice of where the circle intercepts the leg of the protractor that goes from your ship to the contact (labeled P1b in the image). Your nav-map should look like this: http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ual/SH3CM8.jpg Two points of interest here. First; you can choose whatever intercept speed that you desire (within reason). If the contact is coming somewhat towards you, and isn't too far away to begin with, you can intercept very easily with an economical 9knots speed for your U-boat. If the contact is heading away from you, or is too far, or is moving very quickly, you will most likely want to use a quicker speed, but never, ever use flank speed... it's just a waste of fuel when used in long range maneuvers like this. The second point of interest is the use of the circle to measure your U-boat's speed instead of a ruler. The reason for this is simple: you're supoused to measure this distance along the course that you will take to intercept the contact... but how can you do that if we haven't figured out yet what that course will be?... luckily the circle's radius measures distances IN EVERY DIRECTION (all around) and that's why we use it. Also, rember to be consistent in your scale choice, by using the same scale as the one you used to measure the contact's speed. If your drawn circle is so small that it does'nt make a P1b point in your diagram (i.e.: it does'nt touch the line between your U-boat and the contact) then that means that the intercept speed you have chosen is too slow, and you'll never be able to catch the contact. Chose a faster speed thus making a bigger circle. Also, on very rare ocations, when the contact's speed is superior to your's (but an intercept is still possible), the circle might touch the U-boat/contact line in TWO places. In that case, the point of interes (P1b) is the the closest one to your U-boat. Step 5: With another protractor tool, click at the center of the circle (P3b), then the point where the circle intercects the line that goes from your U-boat to the contact (P1b), and from there click in the direction of the contact. TAKE NOTICE OF THIS IMPORTANT ANGLE... Lets call it Angle A. Your nav-map should look like this: http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ual/SH3CM9.jpg The easiest way to do the last leg of this protractor would have been to actually click on the contact for the third (last) click. However, this is not really needed... al we care about is the angle that is being formed and that will remain the same if you click exactly on the contact or in any other point that is in the same exact direction. Step 6: Using yet another protractor tool, click on the vicinity of the contact (if you can't click exactly on the contact because of all the overlaping protactors, then simply click somwhere along the line formed by your U-boat and the contact), then on your u-boat, and then drag the second leg of the protractor so that it PERFECTLY REPLICATES ANGLE A. That's it, your done: Point Three, indicated by the thick black arrow in the image below is where the target is going to be just at the moment of interception... SO START HEADING FOR IT, HER KALEUN!!! http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...al/SH3CM10.jpg Here's the magic of trigonometry at work. The little triangle you made in figure 5 (points P1b, P2 and P3b) solves the problem of interpecting the target IF your U-boat where positioned perfectly for a one hour interception course (it would have to start at P1b). Our situation isn't as ideal of course, but pitagoras says that what holds true for little triangle holds true for big ones, as long as all their inner angles are the same. So, if your intercept took two hours instead of the one hour represented by the small triangle, your solution triangle would be bigger by a factor of two, and your U-boat would have to start at a point twice as far away from the contact as point P1b, but you'd still have the SAME INNER ANGLES in your solution triangle as in the little one. In our case it will take X amount of hours (unknown as of yet) to intercept, so our solution triangle would be bigger by a factor of X (which we don't know) and our U-boat would have to start from our present location (which is great for us) and our solution triangle would still have the all the same inner angles (which we DO know) as the little one... that's why we replicate angle A with our last protractor. Keep in mind that the result may not allways be so perfect that you end up ramming the enemy ship. Theoreticaly it should, but there are several limiting factors to this method: 1)Being a grafical solution, it depends greatly on your ability to draw correctly and exactly, with very high precision. Each mistake done with the drawings whill lead you to a less than perfect result (use high zoom-ins on the nav-map to mimize this potential for error) 2)The data provided to you was vage and imprecise in nature (the targets speed and heading) 3)Enemy ships don't travel in a straight line forever, so you have to intercept them before they make any significant course changes, otherwise you'll miss them. |
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