SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Question for the DiD players: How long did you survive?

Steeltrap · 12-23-08, 06:33 PM

I don't find racking up absurdly high tonnage totals all that satisfying (but that's NOT a criticism of those who do!).

One of the things I minimise is the use of the deck gun. I never use it without having hit a target with a torp unless the target is too small to warrant a torp (by which I mean around 1,000t or smaller). The fact is the DG remains far too powerful when compared with actual reports - even small vessels would regularly take 50+ hits to sink, but SHIII allows you to kill them with fewer than 20.

A few other things:

- I never attack escorts. Again, the fact is u-boats very rarely fired on escorts. They were tricky targets even from ideal ambush (they're small, and their shallow drafts make them hard to hit with unreliable torps), and sinking one didn't really make much difference to the campaign. Playing DiD but then allowing your u-boat to snipe escorts then wipe out a convoy with the DG is, to me, pretty pointless (find me examples of that happening in the Atlantic war and I might revise that view....).

- I always crash dive when aircraft are sighted, unless they are right on top of me when sighted (and that hasn't happened yet).

Another reason for the massive totals is that ships are too numerous AND too big. If you look at the displacements of most merchants sunk, they are considerably lower than the average you'll manage in SHIII. This, naturally enough, inflates tonnages. Multiply too many targets and too great a tonnage per target and you get results (patrol tonnages) far in excess of what is 'realistic'.

My own view is if you don't address those things, DiD is rather meaningless.

12-23-08, 06:33 PM	#6
Steeltrap Grey Wolf Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 818 Downloads: 3 Uploads: 0	I don't find racking up absurdly high tonnage totals all that satisfying (but that's NOT a criticism of those who do!). One of the things I minimise is the use of the deck gun. I never use it without having hit a target with a torp unless the target is too small to warrant a torp (by which I mean around 1,000t or smaller). The fact is the DG remains far too powerful when compared with actual reports - even small vessels would regularly take 50+ hits to sink, but SHIII allows you to kill them with fewer than 20. A few other things: - I never attack escorts. Again, the fact is u-boats very rarely fired on escorts. They were tricky targets even from ideal ambush (they're small, and their shallow drafts make them hard to hit with unreliable torps), and sinking one didn't really make much difference to the campaign. Playing DiD but then allowing your u-boat to snipe escorts then wipe out a convoy with the DG is, to me, pretty pointless (find me examples of that happening in the Atlantic war and I might revise that view....). - I always crash dive when aircraft are sighted, unless they are right on top of me when sighted (and that hasn't happened yet). Another reason for the massive totals is that ships are too numerous AND too big. If you look at the displacements of most merchants sunk, they are considerably lower than the average you'll manage in SHIII. This, naturally enough, inflates tonnages. Multiply too many targets and too great a tonnage per target and you get results (patrol tonnages) far in excess of what is 'realistic'. My own view is if you don't address those things, DiD is rather meaningless.