Few questions. help would be appriciated...

[NoX]

Hey guys, what's up?
SH5 is my first subsim. actually, my first serious sim ever. I've done the "Tutorial", and I know how to navigate my submarine, and that's all.
I've started a new mission: sink 50k tons of carge in the British Waters, and then went to the open sea, and the game tells me to "(!) Patrol the designated area."
and to my questions:

1.how do I patrol an area? i've sailed around the marked point for a long, long time, and the game still tells me to partol the designated area.

2. in order to sink 50k tons of cargo, I should find Merchant ships first. how to do that?? I see little red squares on the map. and when I'm moving towards them the squares get brighter and move aswell, and till I get to those ships, they're long gone.
is there any special way to find ships and get to them before they run away?can u ambush merchant ships?

3.Lucky me, I've accidentally found about 6 or 8 ships sailing close to each other. there are 2 warships, and the rest are merchants. I got closer to them, and tried to attack them the way I learned in the tutorial. somehow, all of the 8 torpedos I shot at them, missed! what am I doing wrong? and what is TDC? please let me emphasize- in somepoint during this short battle, I was very, very close to one of the ships. so close I could see her fullsize with no periscope, we were parallel to each other, and my torpedo still missed... in short, how to hit with the torpedo??? it's not simple as it was in the tutorial level.

4.In this situation, when my sub and the merchant ship were so close and parallel, I've told one of my crew to deck the flak gun, well he did, but why he didn't he shoot at the ship which was so close to us? i've tried to shoot at it myself. but It seems like that bullets aren't even tickeling her! (assuming they hit her at all...). So, how do I use those deck guns? are they any useful?

5. I would love to get some general tips and other important stuff I should know from veteran boat hunters. and how do u engage 8 (or 6) ships?

I know I asked a lot here, I really hope u would take 5 minutes to read this and answer me, since this game seems awesome and its too bad I'm stuck in it for a long time now (I tried to find answers to my questions online before, without any success). thanks in advance, for any help.

P.S: is there some part of the game when u will encounter enemy submarine?

[THE_MASK]

First things first . Have you installed any mods ?

[NoX]

No. I haven't.

[Hooch]

firstly get some mods, especially campaign lite.
patrol the area is not patrol but to seek out shipping to sink the required tonnage. There is no time requirement (if you check the dates its almost 10 months )

[tonschk]

Originally Posted by NoX

and what is TDC? ?

The Torpedo Data Computer (TDC) ..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_Data_Computer

[THE_MASK]

Step 1/ grab the mod enabler .
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=171237
Step 2/ grab some mods .
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166093
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=171973
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...highlight=lite
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...ighlight=magic
How to start in any campaign .
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...light=campaign

[dog_333]

Hey Nox,

Welcome to subsim!

Suggestion:

Go to Youtube.com, and do a search for "Silent Hunter 5 tutorial".

This one might help you out first:



Come on back here, and check out the WONDERFUL mods that are available to you once you get a feel for the game.

Good luck,

Rich

[Takeda Shingen]

The Cliff's Notes version of torpedo engagments is that you want to shoot at where the boat will be at point of impact, not where it is. For this, I prefer to use the 3 minute rule to plot the position that my torpedo and ship will meet. That is, speed x 10=distance traveled in 3 minutes. That will be the last step, which will allow me to position my boat and set the gyro for the shot.

Of course, you'll need range and AOB before you use that. Getting that data is not so quickly explained, so you should deffinently look at some of the TDC tutorials in the sticky here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=164131

[NoX]

Hey,
first, I thank you for the warm welcoming, the help and the fast replies.
I've downloaded the modes you told me to get, and I'll install them soon.
I also watched the youtube video that you posted here about how to use the auto TDC. I want to try it, but for that I need to find a merchant ship.how to do that? I see red squares and then I sail to them (on the fastest speed there is), and when I get there I stand alone in the middle of the ocean, with no ship to sink.. and sometimes when I sail I see grey\blue lines going out of the symbol of my submarine on the navigation map, I try to follow that lead but that also get me nowhere. I've been sailing from July to October and still didn't find a single merchant. any solutions??

About the auto TDC- I didnt exactly understood how to connect the dots. is the number 3 near my sub should be ON the number 3 on the ship I wanna sink? I'm going to try the tutorials on youtube to find an answer to that...

[Trevally.]

Those red squares are ships and are updated on your map when you receive a radio messege.
When they do you can click on your boat and set a waypiont.
As you are moving your waypiont you can see a faint red square move from the one on the map. Set you waypiont to just in front of the faint red square and travel there at standard speed.

[Krauter]

Hey NoX Welcome to Subsim first of all

No to answer some of your questions you need to understand that being a submarine/uboat captain is a constantly evolving battle. You always learn new tactics and learn new tips and tricks.

1:Patrolling an area is, just what it sounds like, patrolling an area. In general it consists of alot of time spend driving searches through an area (I generally select 50km around 'point' or objective my Flotilla guy gave me).

To find that out, go to your Navigation Map (top right corner, the wheel icon). No, find where your sub is and where you want to go. To manually get there, you can just select a heading with the compass (provided you have a Mod that lets you use the compass..) OR you can click your sub and drive yourself there.

Now, select the Compass tool on the left side of the map, click on the objective point or as close to it as you can. Now drag it out so it's the size you want, 50km in this case.

Now, plot a course around and around (spirals are good) and search the area. If you have TDWs Mod enabled you'll have access to shipping charts which will show you the best areas to patrol (not 'best' per se, but just where more merchants are bound to go).

As a rule (for me anyways) I only stay in one 50km area for only 72 hours. After that I find a new area and start again. Note though that you're going to want to periodically stop and dive to a depth lower then 12 Meters to check your hydrophones.

2: The map can be confusing, and it took me a little while to get confortable with the radio contacts. When you're looking at the Map and you see all these red icons (squares [merchants], diamonds [warships], triangles [planes], and circles [submarines]) you'll notice that some are far, and others are close.

If you see an icon appear close to you (square preferably) then click your sub and plot a course along its direction of travel. As you're dragging your plotter along, you'll notice that the red square is moving. This means that, if you stay at the speed/heading you're at, and he stays at the speed/heading he's at, when you reach the end of your plot line, you'll both be in the general area that the map shows. To utilise this effectivly, plot a course so that, when you reach the end of the course, you're both fairly close. This will help you find merchants alot easier.

3:When you see 6-8 or more ships sailing together, this is a convoy. This is a defence measure against you. Now, sometimes you'll find that there are no warships around, this is good. Other times (especially late in the war) there will be more and more destroyers escorting the convoys. To use the number system in the game, you basically want to align the dots. preferably the 1 or the 2s. So on your map, you select a torpedo speed and rotate your periscope so that on yur map the 1 on the line extending from your sub matches the 1 extending from the ship your attacking. Same for the 2 or 3.

As for the other 'auto' TDC, make sure your TDC is OFF. Lock onto a ship (crosshair over the ship and SPACE). No it will say tracking new target. UNLOCK the target and now when you put the crosshair over the target, it will computer everything for you.Point your scope where you want the torpedos to hit and fire.

Please note, if your closer then 400m the torpedos will not arm themselves and you have effectivly blown your cover. Because your torpedos dont arm themselves, they dont blow up. So make sure to attack from 500M+ (inside of 1000M is best).

4:When you surface close to a merchant ship, hop onto the bridge and go to your binoculars. Aim them at the ship and push space and you should see a little triangle appear under the ship. This means your crew is targetting them with the deck gun. They will take care of the rest. Please note this does not work with the UZO (the binoculars that are centered on the bridge, but just the ones you 'carry').

5: I would love to give you some tips and tricks but seeing how this post is really long just PM me on this forum for any help or questions you need. To attack 5-6 ships simultaneously is difficult but possible. Just be patient with the auto TDC and lock them up. Using manual is harder but alot more rewarding Just take your time and enable options that you think will help you get the basics down
Also, there are submarines in the game (enemy and friendly) just hard to find is all
Cheers, and good Hunting !

Krauter

[Krauter]

Sorry for the double post but check these out for a lot of help for Mods selection!

Mod loadout/order to help find some popular Mods:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=249

Generic Mod Enabler:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=169092

Must have Mods (in my opinion):

Great User Interface. One of the (two) most popular UI Mods for Sh5:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166093

Another good interface, though I don't use it it's also popular:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=173147

Churchs Keyboard Commands; adds the majority of the missing commands to the game:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=163444

Capthelms Audio Mod; Awesome sound Mod:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=163530

Automated Scripts to help you do some tasks:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=173805

Mighty Fine Crew Mod; helps improve your crew (morale) and adds some animation:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=163591

Uboat Historical Specs (UHS); good Mod that fixes some bugs with the U-boat and makes the submarine more realistic:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=168012

Adds the historical Flags (Swastika included.. dont download if you dont want it):
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=162671

SteelVikings Interior Mod; wonderfull interior Mod to spice up your submarine:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=171415

More Crew Commands Dialogue:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166236

Environment Mod 3.2; good Environment Mod (may make your game CTD):
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166178

SteelVikings ShadowImprovement (will help your framerate):
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=171982

SteelVikings Underwater Mod:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=173150

BARF 1.3; nice fix to the Health of the ships and their behaviour:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=164953

IRAI (V. 0.20 currently) is good for AI tweaks, but if your just starting out I'd stay away from it:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=171973

Feared Hunters 2.0 another good Ai Mod, not as hard as IRAI:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=167682

Uboat Killer Ai Mod, Not as hard as IRAI or Feared Hunters:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=165886

[dog_333]

Hey Nox,


I just wanted to add, in regard to those red squares showing up and then disappearing ....that happens a lot with me too. Dont worry about that. You dont have to run after everyone that you see. Just keep an eye out for the red squares that are somewhat coming YOUR way, and try to intersept them. Your Uboat is not that fast so think of yourself more like a spider that is waiting for a fly. Dont waste your precious energy. Let them come to you!!!

I see that there was some advice to you about running in a circular patrol pattern around your designated patrol area. That is good. I tend to make zig-zag patterns, but i think it is more or less a personal preference.

Like I said, think of youself like a spider waiting for a fly, and then STRIK FAST and hard!!!

Rich