My Worst SH3 Moment

[g|-|0$t]

I just have to tell everyone about what happened last night. It was so completely awful that it has to be shared. Here's a little background info:

I just installed GWX after a couple months of playing a vanilla copy of SH3. I felt rather experienced in the environment and even though I have never used manual targeting I felt comfortable with the game and, especially early in the war, that I could survive out there in the cold north Atlantic.

I fired up my shiny new copy of SH3 with GWX and prepared to do battle. I saw the huge array of new single missions in the game and instead of starting a new campaign I decided to try my hand at one of them. Because I have never used the type XXI very extensively, I guess not many had the time to, I decided to play an XXI mission where a nearby port is being attacked by a large armada of allied ships. I pulled out of base in my awesomely huge and quick XXI. As I neared the port under attack, a couple miles to the Northwest of my position, I saw smoke on the horizon so I went to periscope depth to check it out. As I got closer I saw it was a German ship I realized the attacking armada was much farther out, as it was my only contact on my hydrophones and quickly surfaced. What I didn't realize is that in the half hour or so I approached this vessel to see what nation it was fight for I had entered into an area under heavy allied air cover. As soon as I surfaced I received word of airplane spotted. I wasn't quite used to any serious alarm due to enemy aircraft at this point in my career as a sub captain, for one because I was more used to playing in about 1940 where it was less of a threat overall, and I was used to stock SH3 where in 1944 I could routinely shoot down many allied planes without a single damaging blow sustained. Needless to say, I wasn't worried and this was a big mistake. I was quickly pounced on by 5 or so enemy bombers, I'm guessing B-24s although by the time the bombs started dropping I was diving and out of there. The first salvo of allied bombs destroyed my conning tower and my watchman, as well as flak gunners. The second hit in the aft, the third in the bow, and so on. In one pass my boat was as crippled. Flooding in three compartments, port diesel damaged, only managing 6 knots and slowing at flank speed. I was sinking fast so I thought well I have to surface this boat to even save any men. I surfaced and luckily, no planes were to be found. With damage control going into overdrive we managed to stop the flooding and pressed on. I wanted to hit this incoming barrage of allied warships with all this boat still had. I finally saw the first sign of smoke on the horizon again, this time clearly allied warships. I gave the order to dive to periscope depth and prepared for an assault on the assaulter. To my dismay, the earlier flooding had apparently crippled my boat to an extent I had not realized, as we continued dropping past 20 meters as ordered, only I didn't realize this. I didn't realize anything until I heard a horrible crunching sound as the bow of this magnificent boat came crashing into the ground of the shallow bay. 5 seconds later it was all over. All hands lost, not a single torpedo fired, and one sad embarrassed captain going down with his ship, all 40 meters. Terrible.

[VONHARRIS]

Welcome to hell.
There, you have learned a valuable lesson: Don't mess with planes in GWX.
And one more thing: Why did you surface a XXI?

[brabham85]

They've put a snorkel in this thing precisely for you keep the boat submerged...

[Tessa]

IF you want to take on planes its best to let the AI do the shooting for you, hitting planes (by yourself) is tenfold harder in GWX than vanilla. The AI flak gunner can be really good at times and knock planes down when they're still 1000m out. Swordfish are pretty safe to tackle, just need to maneuver away from their bombing run and the gunner will usually dispatch them pretty quickly (also if you keep finding yourself harassed by swordfish that means there's a flat top nearby that is ripe for the picking), most of the long range recon planes go down with a moderate amount of difficulty.

Only reason that should require you to surface in a XXI is if your attack periscope gets damaged, everything else can be accomplished with the snorkel up (unless that's damaged too).

[Schwieger]

Only time I take on planes are if they're Swordfish or if I'm running WSM3.0, lol.
They're too dangerous and you're never safe...

[desirableroasted]

Trying to work out what he is complaining about.

Looks to me that the game+mods are working 100%.

One of the nice things about it being a game: when you are sunk, it is a lesson. You get to play again and -- and this is key -- it was always your own fault that you were sunk. No other human out there with a better grasp of tactics or who is having a freakishly good day.

[Drewcifer]

Originally Posted by VONHARRIS

And one more thing: Why did you surface a XXI?

This.

[papa_smurf]

Well, to coin the phrase "Whoops!"

If you see any aircraft in GWX, just crash dive the heck out of there

[Feuer Frei!]

GWX sorts out the boys from the men.
The realism is awesome, the immersion factor upped 20 times.
You need your wits and all the skill as a Kaleun with this one.
GWX is what SH3 should have been out of the box.
Still the best sim around.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Feuer Frei!

GWX is what SH3 should have been out of the box.

Not even close. There are so many broken factors in SH3 that no mod can ever fix. Sorry to be contradictory, but I've seen that statement before and it has always grated on me. There are several supermods that are better in one way or another. That said, GWX strikes the best balance between them all, at least to my mind.

Still the best sim around.

That I'll agree with, at least for now.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Not even close. There are so many broken factors in SH3 that no mod can ever fix. Sorry to be contradictory, but I've seen that statement before and it has always grated on me. There are several supermods that are better in one way or another. That said, GWX strikes the best balance between them all, at least to my mind.


That I'll agree with, at least for now.

I think that this is right and wrong though Steve, I mean, Sh3 should have been (in a way) right out of the box like GWX. It adds so much more immersion, realism (the fact that GWX devs did their homework on what was supposed to be in game and such helps) and fun.

On another note, there are still many bugs with the game that GWX or any supermod for that matter couldnt fix, such as bottom hiding, your sound man being completely deaf and being able to actually hear things at 180* when you yourself man the Hydrophones. But we take what we can get right

[Sailor Steve]

Yes, we take what we can get, and we're grateful for it. But I've been listening to "GWX saved the world" for several years now, and while it (and others, the lack of mention of which really bugs me) go a long way, no, they don't make the game "what it should have been". The crew management still reeks (SH4 fixed that), ships still shoot at their own friends, and other things are still broken.

When I see a mod that fixes those, then I'll listen to prattle about "what it should have been".

I use GWX more than any other supermod, but blind fanboy praise is annoying, especially when it's not true.

[joea]

Originally Posted by Feuer Frei!

GWX sorts out the boys from the men.
The realism is awesome, the immersion factor upped 20 times.
You need your wits and all the skill as a Kaleun with this one.
GWX is what SH3 should have been out of the box.
Still the best sim around.

Can't help but echo that sentiment. Real meatgrinder as the war goes on.