bad weather, or: to shoot or not to shoot

Hi everyone,

I've recently started playing SHIII again. With GWX2 and OLC off course.
And I must say, bad weather has now become a major pain in the ass. Wich, having been a fisherman on the Norht Atlantic know from experience, it realy is in real life. My question for you guys is: if you spot a target in horrible weather conditions, do you attack, or save your fish?

The reason I ask is I'm natuaraly inclined to attack and shoot at everything that happens to wonder in front of my scope. But, in bad weather targeting becomes a lot harder and I seem to waste a lot of torpedos. (I don't have any problems in good weather conditions though, and regulary hit targets.)

So: to shoot or not to shoot? That is the question!

P.s., anybody know what they used to do in real life?

[predavolk]

Silent Hunter 3 has unrealistic weather, IMO, especially with regards to visibility. You just don't get that much rain, at that intensity, for that long, IMO, in the North Atlantic. Heavy seas, sure, but the visibility is better than 3-400M! Still, it's there, so how do you deal with it?

Chart a good approach by going underwater, listening, marking his course, and setting an ambush. Preset (manually) the TDC as much as possible. Generally speaking, I'll guess the speed (6 slow, 8 medium, fast 11), set the range for 350M (towards the limits of visibility), and set the AoB at 90 degrees one side or the other. Torpedoes are set (usually fast, impact, 2M), and the weapon's officer is in place with the tube open (WO helps it from closing as you switch screens IIRC). That way, when the target appears, I can shoot with a minimum set up.

In really bad weather, the target is 300-400M just when they start to fade out of sight, so you really have to make sure that you're set up for a fast attack. Wait too long, and you either lose the target, or you get too close for your torpedos to hit it (if that happens, I usually try to sail past it and shoot a stern tube at it). If the target starts evasive maneuvering, I forget about it unless it's 5,000+ tons (medium cargo or bigger). Hitting the smaller ships, in a storm, while they're dodging, is too tough for me, so I don't bother wasting the torpedoes. Another tip is to look for their smoke. Oddly enough, you can see it before you can see the ship. Oh, and always attack from the surface when possible, for the obvious spotting and aiming benefits. Finally, if you have a good estimate on their speed and range, shooting at the front of the ship is a guaranteed one-shot, one-kill method in heavy seas.

When you do this in a convoy, be sure to set to running at high speeds after seeing your first ship as convoy escorts will be converging on your position at high speed with guns blazing!

[Sailor Steve]

If by bad weather you mean extremely heavy weather and waves, then no, they didn't attack in those conditions. Torpedoes were totally unreliable. In fact, according to Nicholas Monsarrat, convoy commanders felt that the weather was more dangerous than any possible u-boat attack, so in very bad weather the convoy would actually heave to (turn into the wind and stop).

[GoldenRivet]

I had to give up on about 7 or 8 thousand total tons due to bad weather preventing my attack on this past patrol... annoying. but its all part of the experience.

I recommed you try OLCs Environment mod... among many things, it includes a weather fix within the mod. no major change to the weather system in general... but i have noticed that the weather seems to change from good to bad and from bad to good more frequently, but thats about all.

[CptGrayWolf]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

If by bad weather you mean extremely heavy weather and waves, then no, they didn't attack in those conditions. Torpedoes were totally unreliable. In fact, according to Nicholas Monsarrat, convoy commanders felt that the weather was more dangerous than any possible u-boat attack, so in very bad weather the convoy would actually heave to (turn into the wind and stop).

Interesting Steve

[Jimbuna]

A lot of research has gone into the weather for the forthcoming GWX2.1 release. This was announced a few weeks ago.....and speaking personally I think there are signs of improvement.

In RL a U-boat skipper would submerge his boat in order that the crew could be fed and rested.

The weather took it's toll on the operational effectiveness of both hunter and hunted alike.

[Phaedrus]

The weather is a trade off I think...


Real North Atlantic would not have the torrential down pour rain-for-4-days experience we currently have, but it would have more fog, with even less visibility.

In some cases the bow of the boat wouldn't be visible from the conning tower... from what I've read, anyway.

From my experience the weather is pretty bad from september through march.
Lots of wind, lots of rain. But no non stop, days on end, 0 visibility rain.
Rain would start and stop, off course visibility would drop during the rain. But it wouldnt rain 24/7. And visibilty was actualy pretty good during storms! Lots of wind equals no fog.

The real issue during storms is waves. Big waves. Imagine cresting a wave, the bow's starting to drop and in front of you, you'd see nothing but water and behing you, nothing but sky. The biggest waves during storms in SH..? Well, that's what it would like on an only slightly windy day! (But I know those are just the limitations of the game.) Visibility, even during storms was almost always good to excellent.

There is a lot of fog during early spring. Mostly it'd be almost wind still then.
Boy, I always loved the way the sea looked on days like that. It'd look like slightly wrinkled silk sheets, and you couldnt tell the sea from the sky.

But that's just how I remember it.
Funny thing is though, during three years at sea, I can't remember once experiencing thunder at sea. Guess the Atlantic and North Sea arent that hot and humid.

[Phaedrus]

" Icebergs are common in the Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, and the northwestern Atlantic Ocean from February to August and have been spotted as far south as Bermuda and the Madeira Islands. Ships are subject to superstructure icing in extreme northern Atlantic from October to May. Persistent fog can be a maritime hazard from May to September, as can hurricanes north of the equator (May to December). "

Thats courtesy of Wikipedia.
(Say what you want, its good for useless info. No other website on the net can you begin a search for "Merlin engines" and then 12 pages, and 30 minutes later find yourself of a different page reading about sea lions or something else ridiculous.)

So fun question of the day, what did a U-boat do about icing?

Just submerge and let the salinity of the water dissolve it?

I imagine it would have been interesting for the Chief to trim and maintain the boat's depth with an additional 500 lbs of ice on the tower lines.

[Subject]

Originally Posted by Bulleye

So: to shoot or not to shoot? That is the question!

Wow! are you in trouble when Uncle Karl hear that!

From Paragraph 78 in The Book:

78.) A rough state of the sea restricts the use of submarines as a weapon of war:

a) as regards the underwater use of torpedoes: as soon as the underwater steering gear can no
longer be controlled at periscope depth. In the case of small submarines, the dividing line will
be sea No. 5 or 6, for medium and large boats, sea No. 6 or 7, approximately.

b) As regards the surface use of torpedoes: the dividing line in this case is reached in
somewhat less rough conditions than apply to the underwater use of torpedoes, on account of
the unfavorable influence of the rough sea on the maneuverability of the vessel on the
surface.

c) as regards the use of gunnery: as soon as it becomes impossible to man the gun.

And now we're here... We may or may not remember Paragraph 79?

79.) If the operations are carried out at a depth of 20 m and less, the loss of the submarine
must be reckoned with, once it has been detected. But in such cases also, as has been
demonstrated by the experience gained in wartime, difficult situations due to pursuit by the
enemy may well be mastered, if the commander acts cleverly and coolly, and the crew
remains steadfast ("U 9" in the spring of 1940, "U 123," "U 333" in the spring of 1942).

Submarines should not in general be used at depths of less than 16 m.

Got'cha! Copy that! General depth not less than 16 meters!
We can do that!

[Subject]

Originally Posted by Phaedrus

(Say what you want, its good for useless info. No other website on the net can you begin a search for "Merlin engines" and then 12 pages, and 30 minutes later find yourself of a different page reading about sea lions or something else ridiculous.)

:hmm: Microsoft Search maybe?
Actually it's way better! 99% of what it returns are completely unrelated to what you searched...

Originally Posted by Phaedrus

So fun question of the day, what did a U-boat do about icing?

Just submerge and let the salinity of the water dissolve it?

Crew on deck with axes.

Originally Posted by Phaedrus

I imagine it would have been interesting for the Chief to trim and maintain the boat's depth with an additional 500 lbs of ice on the tower lines.

It do give you positive boyancy. So no big deal.

[Elmer Kosterman]

I've had some good success on recent patrols in bad weather. First, if I got a contact report, I knew the target wasn't neutral without having to identify it. Second, I tried to get the best estimate of target course and speed from the report and from the hydrophone. I then set mayself up about 500 meters from the projected course at periscope depth, programmed the torpedo computer, and listened. If the target came into view across my bow, great (sometimes I had to go back full to get a shot off). Otherwise I used the hydrophen and fired two torpedos when the sound contact was dead ahead.
The accuracy was surprising. I even got a hit on a C-3 with a torpedo whose door I forgot to open beforehand. Unfortunately, I had to leave her crippled because it was my last fish, and I had no deck gun.