realism vs. pleasure of game

[raduz]

i play the sh3 "vanilla" version since 2 months, on 98 percent realism and till now i used to think it was difficult enough. however, it seems to me that some people here push the realism too far... i mean, i started to play the game with automatic targetting but then i saw there are players who only use the manual targeting. so i turned it off as i didnt want to sink the ships too easy. i also turned off the map contact update.

then i learned how to hunt the enemy using the bdu contacts. but again, i have seen players using just "all grey contacts" without the tail. so i installed the all grey contacts mod...

some time passed and i sent down a lot of british tonnage but then again, i learned that the skilled players doesnt ask the WO for precise range. so i stopped to use it.

then i learned it is possible to determinate the range and the speed of the enemy using the periscope and the range charts. so i used it a couple of days but then i realized i have the periscope stabilized. so i turned off the scope stabilization to make the range estimation more difficult, even impossible in bad weather or at long range.


then i started to use the hydrophone (i only use the passive sonar, not ping). thanks to the excellent tutorial by greyrider, cpt.nautilus and another one by dantenoc, i am now able (not always, off course) to intercept the ship traveling 34 km away using the RPM chart, to determine its course and speed and sink it using the scope just for ID and shot. plotting the enemys position, counting his rpm and often diving costs me a lot of time , however, i like it. but....

but... some people say : using the SO information about long/medium/short range is a cheat, it is not real because this way you learn the exact range to the contact! some other peple say: do not overuse the hydrophone! during the ww2, the majority of u-boats prey has been spotted not heard! install the gw mod to turn the RPM count off! ok... however, as far as i know, during the ww2, it really has been possible to determinate the speed of the ship using the RPM if you knew the ships class. on the other side, if i want to intercept the ship just visually, when i see it, it can see me too. it can start to do evasive manoeuvres. besides that, how am i supposed to determinate the range and the speed if i am not allowed to use RPM count,WO precise range assistance, weather is bad and the waves are so high you cant use the scope??

and thats not all yet. i saw the video tutorial by dantenoc (hardcore navigation) showing how to sail without seeing your position on the map. man... i appreciate it and i think the idea of faking the sextant approach is wonderful... but... i ask myself - should i turn off my position on the map? do you guys play it this way? i think that updating yours and the enemys position on the map in the same time must be extremely difficult and there has to be a lot of errors.

where are the limits between the reality (which will never be 100 percent as it is just a simulation) and the pleasure of game? i dont mind the high realism settings but we all know that one man (i mean the player) has to do the job that has been done by 30-40 people during the war... and this is completly unreal.

i just want to ask if there are "hardcore" kaleuns playing the SH3 without using the WO assistance, hydrophone for precise speed, without seeing the u-boat position on the map, on 100 percent realism of course, and if so, what approach do they use for determinate the range and the speed of the enemy? is it a pure estimation? or did i miss some special method? if there really are people like that, my hat off... i still have to learn a lot.



100k club member (but maybe only because of low realism settings)