"nice rack"ing up unrealistically huge tonnage

[somedude88]

I keep getting 25,000 to 50,000 GRT per patrol depending on the boat, xii or ix (especially the ix, giving you 4 xtra torps makes all the difference) and I'm not reloading the game after mistakes so that all my sinking attempts are successful.

The thing is, I noticed the uboat aces list on my desk and went to wiki to learn the tonnage records of uboat aces. And I keep blowing those records out of the water by the end of an officers career (I have the option where the career ends after set number of patrols and days) and it feels unrealistic and wrong on some respectful level that some armchair general half their age can outtonnage the greatest the kreigsmarine had to offer.

I know that sh3 intentionally puts out x10 more ships at sea than were historically accurate so that kaleuns don't go weeks without meeting an enemy contact like irl, and that if you do destroy an entire fleets worths of merchant ships, their overall numbers don't actually dwindle, realistically making it harder to find the rest of the surviving merchant fleet.

So I'm asking the community, is there a mod that will decrease my GRT per patrol to more realistic levels? Make it very hard to beat the best aces of the deep?

[Herr-Berbunch]

Are you using any mods at the moment?

• Try to ignore radio contacts about single merchant and intercept only convoys and task forces. Attack single merchants only if they're detected by your crew.
• Fire more than one eel on one target regardless of failure probability so torpedoes will run out sooner.
• In case of a storm (I mean 15 m/s wind and heavy fog) think about your crew and suspend hunting i.e. dive to 50 m and move with Ahead Slow until O2 level hits the minimum then proceed on the surface till batteries are recharged and dive again. Do it as long as the storm lasts. If you've got a contact don't attack, just shadow it or let it sail away.
• If you don't play on maximum difficulty, change the realism settings towards 100%.
• Start a campaign after '43 since escorts are heavier to evade then plus radar and aircraft make life harder.

Hope I could help a bit. Fette Beute!

[Sailor Steve]

As Herr-Berbunch asked, are you using mods? Different mods can make a difference in the amount of traffic and the way it's routed. You might also try this little tool to adjust the amount of radio reports you recieve.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=3780

[somedude88]

just a few gwx3 gold mods and sh3 commander.

is there a mod that decrease the sea traffic to more historical levels?

[HW3]

Not that I'm aware of.

[Gargamel]

I think traffic is close to historic levels, they just missed a lot. Some patrols returned after firing every eel, not one sinking, a lot due to duds. By the time they worked out the problems, the ASW efforts by the Allies was enough to start giving them trouble.

Wait a while ingame till the escorts start getting gooooood. What once was a juicy target, now becomes a fortress of death.

[HW3]

We also have the advantage of hind sight. We know where the convoys usually ran and where they were headed. Our navigation is flawless while the u-boats were often not where they thought they were due to bad weather and no sun shots for days on end.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

I think traffic is close to historic levels, they just missed a lot. Some patrols returned after firing every eel, not one sinking, a lot due to duds. By the time they worked out the problems, the ASW efforts by the Allies was enough to start giving them trouble.

Wait a while ingame till the escorts start getting gooooood. What once was a juicy target, now becomes a fortress of death.

Originally Posted by HW3

We also have the advantage of hind sight. We know where the convoys usually ran and where they were headed. Our navigation is flawless while the u-boats were often not where they thought they were due to bad weather and no sun shots for days on end.

Rgr that plus the fact everything is replenished/replaced in the SH3 world.

[Night60700]

Originally Posted by allievo

• Try to ignore radio contacts about single merchant and intercept only convoys and task forces. Attack single merchants only if they're detected by your crew.
• Fire more than one eel on one target regardless of failure probability so torpedoes will run out sooner.
• In case of a storm (I mean 15 m/s wind and heavy fog) think about your crew and suspend hunting i.e. dive to 50 m and move with Ahead Slow until O2 level hits the minimum then proceed on the surface till batteries are recharged and dive again. Do it as long as the storm lasts. If you've got a contact don't attack, just shadow it or let it sail away.
• If you don't play on maximum difficulty, change the realism settings towards 100%.
• Start a campaign after '43 since escorts are heavier to evade then plus radar and aircraft make life harder.

Hope I could help a bit. Fette Beute!

Ok, Most subs found targets from radio contacts until later in the war.
More the one eel was fired because of the dud rate.
Storms didn't force anyone underwater if only for the need to navigate by sun and stars.
100% realism is not real. It's more like a super hard mode.
Start a campaign in 45 and you'll still beat their numbers.

The real reason is navigation. Before the age of GPS is was easy to get lost at sea. And it could be weeks between contact. The AI tonnage is based on those two factors. Yours isn't, so you will always have more tonnage.

[Kapt Z]

These are a few tricks I use to make my careers more 'realistic' tonnage wise. For type VII

Fire two torpedoes into the abyss as soon as out of range of home base. These signify 'misses' or duds because though I use manual targeting I also use the WO assistance which is way too reliable.

Use two torps for anything larger than 2000 tons. Lower that to 1000 tons if target is armed.

Run the diesels at 2/3 which is not optimal fuel efficiency speed and usually ends patrols at around 45 days even if torpedoes still left.

Stay in assigned grid or neighboring grids for entire patrol. Even if no ships sighted for weeks do not head straight for known sweet grids(This can be especially hard to resist on boring patrols)

Rarely if ever use external reloads unless off African coast or far into Atlantic away from convoy routes.

Do not respond to single ship contact reports.

Never attack harbors

Use SHCommander's 'malfunction/sabotage' feature and return to base if damage is too severe rather than reloading save which often 'repairs' the damage.

Use SHCommander's 'realistic career length' which often beaches your kaleun before his totals get too ridiculous.

Using these tricks has kept my average patrol totals to under 20,000 tons(unless I sink some large warships or tankers) and my careers usually end around 7 patrols with 150,000 tons.

[CCIP]

Yep, between the simulation issues and the hindsight, you'll always end up doing better. I would actually say that the #1 factor is purely a human one - a game can never completely simulate the uncertainty and fear, because you can't "really" die and once you know the game well enough, you can usually predict how the game and your enemy will behave in a certain situation, or what you will be able to get away with. The predictability combined with the player's ability to endlessly retry usually means that you can usually "beat" what the game throws at you, something that real submariners only ever got one chance at.

The best way to get around it is setting house rules. Every time I play, I develop both a list of things I'm allowed and not allowed to do, and a set of "random" restrictions that I'll use dice rolls to decide as I play. For example I'll roll dice to determine priority targets and the aggressiveness of my approach when attacking TFs, or whether I will pursue a random map contact or not, or where I will look for contacts after my main mission is over. It keeps the game much more interesting and unpredictable for me, and the net result is usually lower tonnage. I had a Type II career not long ago, for example, where in 10 patrols I only sunk three ships.

I just always treated SH3 as a solitaire experience game, not a competitive game. The more unpredictable a career is, the more fun. I honestly don't get why tonnage should be such a focus, especially in a game where you can never "win" the war anyway, no matter how well you do

[u crank]

Originally Posted by CCIP

I just always treated SH3 as a solitaire experience game, not a competitive game. The more unpredictable a career is, the more fun. I honestly don't get why tonnage should be such a focus, especially in a game where you can never "win" the war anyway, no matter how well you do

This is so true. I've played this game since it was released and I'm still amazed at how random the results will be. Mods help of course, but how you approach the game has everything to do with the type of game you will get.

Some of my game rules.

- Map contacts off. I use 1.4b Assisted Plotting Mod.

- Start 1943 or later.

- Manual targeting with OLC GUI 1.2.7. Weather, distance and time of day now become big factors. With auto targeting it was just too easy.

- And the most important one for me...survival. Using SH3 Commander realistic career length and playing with the safety of my crew and boat as my main concern, I don't take reckless chances. I want to survive. Don't tell BDU.

The more unpredictable a career is, the more fun.

The main reason I enjoy this sim so much.

[Luno]

Hey, they want you to survive too - those boats are expensive!

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by u crank

- Map contacts off. I use 1.4b Assisted Plotting Mod.

The Assisted Plotting Mod was designed to be used with Map Contact Updates ON. It removes the renown hit for that, and puts info on the map directly related to the marked target.