I'm sure this is ridiculous: so what should I do?

[cavvie]

Ok, I'm mostly a lurker, I'll admit. So first, I tip my hat to those who've given me so many threads to live by. (e.g. I've been following Beery's operations since RB3D. Now there's a class act).

Ok, my specs--game-wise:
SH4-1.4 - no mods.
100% realism except I allow external camera and I have stabilized gunsights.
- I've been working up to greater and greater difficulty. Many thanks to the generous tutorials here.

My campaign:
June, 1943, my second tour in the USS Balao (forward gun and a forward 40mm AA plus rear twin 20mm AA). My first tour with manual targetting and no map updates. I was assigned to patro off the Philipines. As was expected I came across a convoy enroute just before I hit the Celebes Sea. Being careful and being discerning, I sunk a Huge Ocean Liner and ducked back towards my patrol area.

Ok, so as I'm passing into the Sulu sea I notice a convoy is heading right towards the narrow straigh I'm in. Better lie in wait!

At dawn I manage to miss all my shots except one which hits a mid-size freighter by accident. First Question: When I'm tussling in the middle of a mass of ships, how can I get my torps to just fire wherever I'm pointing my TBT or periscope?

As a result of being frustrated--related to the above question--and slightly tipsy, I save my game and decide to at least finish this encounter by sinking the guy that I've injured. BTW, I was kind of ticked that I had blown off everything between his hull and propellers and yet he was still moving.

So I surfaced and had an amazing experience, albeit, I presume, incredibly unrealistic.

To keep a long story short, I surfaced ahead of the 3 escorts that were seeking me and watched as they approached from behind and rubbed be from the side. Between my crew manning the deck gun and me switching between the AA guns I noticed some interesting things:

1. You can mow down individual sailors on enemy vessels with AA guns. I felt bad but, hey, they were trying to hurt me.

2. Maybe I lucked out (I assume that enemy ship's crew skills are randomized), but I managed to sink all three destroyers and then have my way with 3 other (and actually more skilled) merchant vessels.

In the end, I turned around with my 50,000 tons (out of ammo-not torps) and headed home w/ my boat looking like swiss cheese. I got another submarine medal and my first medal of valor . I'm about to fix my crew (randomly rotate and such) to get ready for the next patrol... although I'm ready for this successful career to end.

------------------
As hard-core as it was, I'm pretty sure what I did was pretty unrealistic. Then again, I was able to do it. I'm always interesting in immersion and to a certain degree that relates to realism. I'm not ready to pay for 1.5 yet so this post, in addition to an attempt at entertainment, is a solicition for mod suggestions. Obviously I'm torn between TM and RFB because the former leads to realism through discretion and the other through immersion (at least, that's what my research indicates-see my drift?).


I like simulations because they're realistic but I appreciate immersion because that almost has a RPG feel. i.e. I'm a captain, this is my boat, that's my crew...ooh, he deserves this award.

Oh yeah: That was my 8th patrol. Shouldn't they be retiring me or was that removed from 1.4?

I'm worried I'm about to start ranting so I'll shut now and see what kind of responses, if any, come in. Salute!

[THE_MASK]

Try playing without the external camera for your next patrol , now thats immersion . I bet the first time you submerge you will go , hang on i cannot see anything . Then all of a sudden you will realise your depth under keel button , instruments , periscope , crew , hydrophones , etc are your best friends .

[kylesplanet]

Well certainly surfacing around three DD's would be sure death in real life. The stock deck gun is much more strong than it should be. RFB and TM are both wonderful and you will like both. RFB is what I'm currently playing and it is terrific. TM is much more difficult than stock and you will find surfacing near a destroyer is certainly a bad idea.

You will be happy with either. May I also recommend RSRD for the realistic traffic. It makes it much less a shooting gallery and a challenge to find targets.

As far as retirement, it was modified in 1.4 at the request of many. Complete your objectives and you will keep sailing but sometimes you'll be offered a desk job and if you turn it down, you can keep sailing but lose renown.

[V.C. Sniper]

100% realism except external camera and stabilized gunsights is NOT 100% realism.

[gimpy117]

Originally Posted by V.C. Sniper

100% realism except external camera and stabilized gunsights is NOT 100% realism.

[sarcasm] i don't understand[/sarcasm]

[JoeCorrado]

Originally Posted by V.C. Sniper

100% realism except external camera and stabilized gunsights is NOT 100% realism.

Uh... Silent Hunter is NOT real, it's a game.

No matter what the percentage says. :rotfl:


/ sarcasm

[cavvie]

Originally Posted by V.C. Sniper

100% realism except external camera and stabilized gunsights is NOT 100% realism.

I agree completely. If you had read my sentence carefully you might have noticed that I said, to use your emphasis:

"100% realism EXCEPT ... etc."

So, as I said, we're in complete agreement.


Sober: you're right. I remember playing SH3 w/out ext. camera the the experience was amazing. I'm working my way back to that level. Having been away from the whole subsim genre for awhile I'm having to acclimate myself back to such deprivation (I mean, immersion ). I don't have the best system but it's so hard to forgo even the opportunity to see beautiful sights. At this point, the hardest part of not having ext. camera isn't for information gathering, it's just not being able to watch my fish move in for the kill.

Anyway, I finally died for the first time. Guess those Japanese got lucky for once. I had to blow ballast into the middle of th convoy. Those destroyers were able to get me because their merchant marines showed`em how to target. Of course, the reason that happened in the first place was because I was being too cocky. Serves me right.

I'm still perfecting my manual targeting skills. I've actually found that my first shot is right on and then I spread the other shots too far out because I'm insecure about that first shot. So what I end up with is a limping 7000 ton freighter and an alerted convoy!

I think I'm done w/ this campaign, especially since they don't seem to want me to retire. Gonna try using some mods: I need to refresh my JGSME skills...oh the good'ole days (BTW: I bought SH4 a week ago).

Correct me if I'm wrong, is RFB based off of something Beery started? TM has it's draw but because of Beery I think I'll try out RFB first. I've already done some searching and I'm already concerned that I can't find 1.4 versions of many of the major mods. I'll ask around the appropriate forum though if nobody wants to throw a bone here.

Nice talking to folkds....although, I'd swear this can't be my 2nd post. I must've made some comments back on the SH3 forums in the past half decade....

[THE_MASK]

Good talking to you . cheers bloke .

[-Pv-]

I'm puzzled after all the time in the sim and the experience gained, you want to duck out on the compaign before ending the war? You get more fun toys to play with if you stick with it.
-Pv-

[cavvie]

Well first, I was playing stock. Kinda turns into a grind, especially on the 9th patrol. I wanted to move onto a mod (am now sampling RFB + NSM + RSRD and loving it) but didn't couldn't do so in the middle of a campaign.