Ahh SH3, what a special game it is to me. I originally got it from a friend who was throwing it out and I asked if I could have it. I remember the dinosaur of a PC I had at the time was at it's limits so it wasn't a great experience to start with. Then I built my first PC and loaded it back up and started playing again, but by then I'd discovered the world of modding and that led me here to Subsim, exactly 10 years and 10 days ago. I never had any interest in submarines or naval warfare at all before this point but as I sat until the early hours of the morning perusing the mod threads I came across GWX and promptly downloaded it. It was a while before I played as I was so engrossed in the documentation that came with it, a true work of excellence by all involved. At this point the modding bug bit and I found myself languishing in 'Mod Soup', not always successfully of course which led me to delve in and start editing and merging files to get an install that would load, not an easy task. It's why my location over on the left there is what it is.
I actually spent more time tweaking and editing than playing and I too, like Sailor Steve have never finished a career. I could never quite leave it alone, with new mods appearing every visit to Subsim I was doomed to restart over and over. The game just grabbed me and I wanted to make it as good as I could but it wouldn't have been possible without the talented people here who are so willing to help or spend hours perfecting mods that made my game what it was. Once I discovered SH3Commander it was on a whole new level and I was checking uboat.net to see the history of the boats I was playing with and making sure I used the correct emblems, I became quite the perfectionist, and now have quite an extensive knowledge of the War of the Atlantic.
As the game aged I looked to SH4 and Uboat Missions but it wasn't the same for some reason, like a lot of people say, it just didn't get the love SH3 did. Then SH5 was nearing release and I was stoked, giddy even about SH3 with next gen graphics. Oh what a travesty..... But, eventually it became an enjoyable sim again thanks to the people here and I played that on and off for the next few years. Again though, it lacked, I think mainly in atmosphere and the feeling you get from being down in the depths getting pinged and DC'd by stubborn Brits. I played it far less than SH3 and I think the last time I booted it up I sat and looked at the screen before shutting it straight off again, the draw was gone.
Now up to date I looked into Uboat and while it's got potential, it isn't a 'sim' as such, not like SH3 modded, so I started digging through my stuff until I found the CD that I'd copied my entire SH3 install onto many years ago because I knew I'd tweaked it so hard that I'd never be able to replicate it again, and here I am, after a LOT of trial and error and adding/removing new/old mods with a working SH3 with all the bells and whistles I love. Graphics will always come second to gameplay, SH3 taught me that. I'll include my modlist below and I know there's some old stuff in it but I can't face anymore tinkering and there are probably many manual edits that I've long forgotten about. It works, and I'm going to finish a career!
Thanks to all that made this little nostalgia trip possible.
