Silent Hunter III Community Manual

[Svonne]

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

[Svonne]

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

[Svonne]

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%)

[Svonne]

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.

[Svonne]

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

[Svonne]

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?