Newbie Help - A little overwhelmed

[Akela]

Hello,

I've installed the game and the GWX3.0. I've started my first career mission which is to patrol sector "AN18" and I left the realism options alone so I'm at 34% realism. I've managed to find the navigation screen and plot way-points to AN18 and we are on our way there. However, I'm confused/concerned about a number of things, here are a few.

Navigation: I'm sure you know that the manual isn't very much help for a new player. I was able to find the basic stations but there isn't much information on how to use each station. I plotted waypoints on the map, but is there a way to move a way-point, or delete it?

Crew: I don't understand how to manage my crew. I'm not sure I need to at this difficulty level but when I started off on my mission every crew member was at a station. The first thing I did was put the bow torpedo crew off duty but that is only 5 guys. There are about 20 other guys maning the boat. How in the world am I supposed to keep everyone from getting fatigued if I can only rest 5 guys at a time?

What am I doing? My mission orders were to patrol AN18. It's August 2nd 1939 right now and I'm in the Skagerrak on my way to AN18. What the heck does "patrol" mean? Am I supposed to sink ships? I know that sounds like the stupid question of the year and maybe it is but is Germany even at war yet? Also, I've passed about 10 ships just getting out of the Skag which I completely ignored assuming they were German. Should I have been identifying them? Should I have sunk them if they were British even though I'm not at my patrol point yet? What about other nation's ships?

Sorry guys, I'm terribly confused right now. I'll try to read through the stickies here tomorrow and see if any of this is answered there.

Thanks,

Akela

Navigation:
To move a waypoint hold your cursor over the waypoint (until it turns red).
Hold the Left Click botton down while dragging the waypoint.

Crew:
The engineering types will move by themselves between the Diesel Compartment, and the Electric Motor Compartment. You only have to man one of these. Try to have enough Petty Officers in there to prevent engine failure with a fully exhausted crew (you gain nothing in these compartments by exceeding the minimum).

First patrol in august tells me that you have GWX installed.
The war with England does not begin until 3.SEP.39. Don't sink anything before that date. You can use this patrol as a "working up" period, to gain experience for yourself and crew.
(Count it as "Patrol 0".)

Get used to checking flags for nationality of posible targets.

Enjoy. And ask as many questions as you like. There is always someone willing to help.

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by Akela

...

Crew: I don't understand how to manage my crew. I'm not sure I need to at this difficulty level but when I started off on my mission every crew member was at a station. The first thing I did was put the bow torpedo crew off duty but that is only 5 guys. There are about 20 other guys maning the boat. How in the world am I supposed to keep everyone from getting fatigued if I can only rest 5 guys at a time?
...

First, use the SH3 manual as a mouse-mat. Then open the GWX manual and start reading what a true manual should look like. It should explain the crew fatigue effects in detail. And in the back is an appendix about how to perform the attack and use the periscope/UZO and TDC. But that's not what you asked. Just some pre-emptive advice.

With just 5 crew members off duty you should only pick and place those that are significantly tired. Leave those that are not yet fully rested for later. SH3 is quite a micromanage in this regard. You have to regularly check if they become too fatigued. You'll only notice when the engine compartments are too fatigued. The others compartments can be easily missed because they come without audible warning or a line in the message lis. When you install SH3 Commander then you can select different crew fatigue options (no fatigue at all or some other mod-based profile ) DON'T use the crew configuration buttons in the lower right part of the crew management screen. It's known to cause crashes. (see GWX manual page 26)

[raymond6751]

You can use this pre-war mission to learn the controls without somebody dropping depth charges on you. When ready, head for home.

To make or move waypoints you have to first click on the map tool that would create waypoints. As you mouse over them, info should appear about what they are.

Once you have the tool selected, you can move or place waypoints in the way described by the earlier message.

Another useful tool is the ruler. It lets you measure distances and even leave the measure line in place.

Bon Voyage

[frau kaleun]

You can also click on the "Eraser" tool in the NavMap and use it to delete select waypoints.

First, use the SH3 manual as a mouse-mat. Then open the GWX manual and start reading what a true manual should look like.

And don't feel bad about not figuring out every little trick of how to do things, some folks play for years and don't realize where all the tricks and shortcuts are until someone else mentions one in here. SH3 has a pretty steep learning curve. As already noted, you can use your pre-war August '39 patrol (or the Naval Academy tutorials) to get the hang of things.

The crew fatigue issue can be a real PITA, especially since in RL a commander would not be expected to micromanage his men to that degree - the watch/duty schedules would be assigned and stuck to, there'd be no need to tuck dudes into their bunks when they got tired, lol. And even if there were that duty would probably fall to the bosun or whoever was responsible for day-to-day discipline among the enlisted men.

At some point if you want to give SH3 Commander a try (it's a wonderful standalone program for managing many aspects of the game, your career, and your crew) you can use it to "turn off" fatigue or choose from several different fatigue models. Some folks like the aspect of managing the crew more closely in-game, so it's up to you.

[Herr-Berbunch]

You don't have to rigidly stick to the patrol areas given, you can go pretty much where you like with no loss of renown - just remember that if you go into the Atlantic early on (August) there are no French ports open to you so you need enough fuel to go over the top of Scotland to return home - after Sep 3, channel bad! (Or press Esc)

My personal preference is 'no fatigue model' using Commander, like Frau said it's not your job to micromanage your crew!

Enjoy it, it isn't the easiest game to just pick-up and play, but it is worthwhile and it's nice not to have such frantic activity all the time.

One last thing - you do know to order the Nav to follow your planned route? We've all done it, several times, and even knowing we did it (or didn't do it) it doesn't stop us from doing it again. Nothing worse than plotting your route out of the harbour, set your engines ahead and plough into a quay or some land!!!

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

One last thing - you do know to order the Nav to follow your planned route? We've all done it, several times, and even knowing we did it (or didn't do it) it doesn't stop us from doing it again. Nothing worse than plotting your route out of the harbour, set your engines ahead and plough into a quay or some land!!!

Also be aware that when you are plotting a course in the vicinity of land, you should zoom in pretty close to do so.

Let's just say that some of the shorelines that look all nice and even when you're zoomed out a bit, are in reality all jagged and whatnot in ways that can only be seen when you zoom in on them, or when you run aground on them because there's a spit of land that juts out into the spot you plotted your course over top of without zooming in close enough to notice it. (For maximum thrills I suggest doing this and then ordering flank speed and retiring to your bunk for a nap.)

[Tessa]

Granted am tired as hell and about to hit the sack, one suggestion I didn't notice (or might have posted in a previous thread) was to go through the training accademy. Jumping feet first into the game is admirable, though you can get some of the basic game ideas down through the five different training exams (sadly the one you seem to be having the most difficulty with - navigation, the test is a bit buggy so its hard to complete every objective; despite that you can still pass the test and get an excellent for score). At first the game can be overwhelming in what you have to do just to keep your boat going where you want it to, in just a few weeks it'll become second nature and will be hungry to start focussing on tactics and learning good places to hunt.

Happy hunting

[timmy41]

I suggest reading through the GWX manual, its very well written and actually interesting to read. From it youll learn all the basics, even of attack and evasion. its ~600 pages but youll blow through it quickly, its not mini-sized font and there are lots of diagrams and pictures.

Originally Posted by raymond6751

To make or move waypoints you have to first click on the map tool that would create waypoints. As you mouse over them, info should appear about what they are.

Thanks for covering my ommision. I play so much that my brain does much on "autopilot" without conciouse thought.

[Alky]

One trick I didn't see mentioned here was when plotting a course with several waypoints and suddenly you get a contact close by, you can use the eraser tool to remove the plotted course, but holding "shift" while using it will remove all the waypoints at once so that you don't have spend time deleting individually while your contact waits for your torpedo

[Akela]

Thank you for all the advice, I will try these things today when I finish working.

FWIW, I did go through the Naval Acadamy missions (probably should have said that) so the one thing I think I can do is plot an intercept course and fire a torpedo. It's just that once you start your first mission you realize that's 10% of the game.

I'm going to read through the Grey Wolves manual today (in my cabin, don't want the crew to see me) and get back up on deck later today.

Thank you all!

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Akela

Hello,

I've installed the game and the GWX3.0. I've started my first career mission which is to patrol sector "AN18" and I left the realism options alone so I'm at 34% realism. I've managed to find the navigation screen and plot way-points to AN18 and we are on our way there. However, I'm confused/concerned about a number of things, here are a few.

Navigation: I'm sure you know that the manual isn't very much help for a new player. I was able to find the basic stations but there isn't much information on how to use each station. I plotted waypoints on the map, but is there a way to move a way-point, or delete it?

Crew: I don't understand how to manage my crew. I'm not sure I need to at this difficulty level but when I started off on my mission every crew member was at a station. The first thing I did was put the bow torpedo crew off duty but that is only 5 guys. There are about 20 other guys maning the boat. How in the world am I supposed to keep everyone from getting fatigued if I can only rest 5 guys at a time?

What am I doing? My mission orders were to patrol AN18. It's August 2nd 1939 right now and I'm in the Skagerrak on my way to AN18. What the heck does "patrol" mean? Am I supposed to sink ships? I know that sounds like the stupid question of the year and maybe it is but is Germany even at war yet? Also, I've passed about 10 ships just getting out of the Skag which I completely ignored assuming they were German. Should I have been identifying them? Should I have sunk them if they were British even though I'm not at my patrol point yet? What about other nation's ships?

Sorry guys, I'm terribly confused right now. I'll try to read through the stickies here tomorrow and see if any of this is answered there.

Thanks,

Akela

Using GWX3.0 and SH3Commander (set at 15 days between patrols).....select the 7th/13th Flotilla out of Konigsberg.

Use the ships in the harbour for target practice (we have given you a little extra renown to offset the 'hit' you will take for attacking neutrals).

On the fourth day you will receive a radio message recalling you to base.

Press the 'Esc' key and teleport back.

Apply for a transfer to another Flotilla and your next patrol will commence on 19th August allowing you to sail to your assigned grid prior to the commencement of hostilities on 3rd September (as was the case in RL).

SINK EM ALL!!

[musides]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Using GWX3.0 and SH3Commander (set at 15 days between patrols).....select the 7th/13th Flotilla out of Konigsberg.

What precisely is the advantage of SH3? I've read the mod page, but I'm not entirely clear what the mod does.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by musides

What precisely is the advantage of SH3? I've read the mod page, but I'm not entirely clear what the mod does.

If you mean SH3 Commander, it's not really a mod - it's a stand-alone program that gives you an easy way to select/deselect/adjust a lot of different gameplay options, which it then "mods" into the game for you in one fell swoop when you use it to load SH3.

It also lets you create and manage a career and crew in ways that the game alone just doesn't offer. You can generate a new career there and Commander will generate not only a name but a picture and background personal data for your commander. You can then pick a month/year starting date for your career, a starting flotilla, a type/number for your boat.

When you're done with a patrol and exit the game you can open Commander and update your personnel file, that creates a file showing your career history to date which can be printed out. You can review your patrol logs, and if you've selected "use real ship names" in Commander's options, you'll find that updating your personnel file triggered Commander to flesh out the patrol log supplied by the game with data for the ships you've sunk - real historical ship names, cargo they carried, how many crew.

You can also use Commander to award qualifications, medals/badges, and promotions to crewman beyond what the game will allow in the personnel interface there. And print out a list of your entire crew. If you've checked "simulate realistic crew transfers," when you start a patrol you may get a popup telling you that one of your officers has been transferred out and replaced by a different guy, or that your Bosun went AWOL, or that your radio operator was killed by partisans.

There are also many other things you can do with Commander once you get a feel for how it works and what's possible - you can use it to apply mods only in certain date ranges, or to randomize various aspects of the game that you'd like to tinker with... in short it's just WAY COOL.