[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by siber

I play GWX2.1 at 100% realism - an no external camera! - with OLC's GUI and environment to give taller waves (and less visibility).

I'm working on getting all my mods in order, and having it the way I want it, before starting any new careers, but when I do I plan to learn the hard way and also play at 100%. I don't use OLC-GUI, as I'm a big fan of the 6-Dials Simfeeling mod, which won't work with it. It will, however, work with the earlier U-Jagd Tools mod, which is similar but not as advanced.

I always exit the game and restart upon returning to port, letting SH3Commander randomly transfer crewmen etc. I'll head for my assigned patrol grid, remaining there for 24hrs, before heading on a search pattern nearby if targets are not found. In order to try to achieve a realistic tonnage per patrol, I take no notice of single ships presented on the map, presuming that the majority of these would not be reported IRL. Convoys reported via the map I will pursue.

I too use SH3 Commander. I spend the entire patrol in my assigned grid, only wandering if a convoy is reported close by. As for radio contacts, I used to use the 20/20 mod, which reduced single ships to 20% of the original, and reduced radio contacts by the same amount. I don't know if GWX has anything like that as part of its routine, but I only pay attention to contacts that are very close by.

I try to use one torpedo for each level (small, medium, large) of merchant size, and I also never attack destroyers. At 100% I assume that becomes a very bad idea anyway. Also, I don't try to dogfight with them like I did back in the days of Silent Service and SH1. After my attack I go deep and slow, and think about trying to keep those little sprites alive.

p.s. I doubt very much I'll ever have time to play without any time compression to simulate the boredom. I take that as read... and really can't be bothered to try it myself...

I love the graphic additions in GWX, and I usually travel through the harbors at 1x, but once at sea I use time compression. I'm trying not to go over 128x or at most 256x. I don't remember which one is the level that minimizes air attacks. I try to stay slow enough that they will attack. Personally, I don't believe that playing at 1x is more realistic, simply because you have to either let it run while you do something else, or save it each time and only spend real time when you can, so end up taking a year to do one patrol. But that's just my opinion, so it's only my reason for not playing that way; I'm not suggesting that anyone else not do it if that's what they want.