Hello all.. new SH3 player..

[GC1CEO]

Hello everybody, I just got SH3 a week ago and been learning the game. I have been playing sub sims all the way back to 1984's GATO. I haven't actually played a historical sub sim since Wolf Pack, mostly 688i and then Sub Command. Its quite refreshing to see how far the realism in the Silent Hunter series has gone, first game also I think you could command a Type II U-Boat.

I finally got the hang of things while going through the Naval Academy, took me a few days to get through Torpedoes and Convoy Attack. Remembering bits about gyroangles, etc.

After a few attempts at a career, figuring out what to do exactly, I finally am in the middle of my 2nd patrol on my first REAL career. I haven't sunk anything too impressive yet, just small stuff like Small Merchants/Coastal Merchants. I have been overflown once or twice on my 1st patrol but nothing else happened.

I'm still operating on less then 100 percent realism, I am handling with automatic targetting as I dont feel comfortable to be able to manually target quickly enough (but have practiced some). My big annoyance with the map tools is theres no time marker, wish there was some way to make labels on the maps so I can mark times with various contacts, would make manual targetting to determine course/speed much easier instead of trying to be precise with a stopwatch.

Does anybody have a good career guide, or a post that has a lot of really good career/patrol tips. Most of what I have read so far has just given bits and pieces and doesn't answer things like are shipping lanes simulated in the game or does the game just drop a few rare merchant ships here and there and I have only encountered small merchant ships so far, where are the large ones and is it worth it to try and hit one of the enemy harbors to try and bag me a docked warship or two.

Also curious on the AI, does the AI just use very fixed courses or will it set courses to any possible degree (will it set a course of 2-3 degrees versus only being N, ENE, NE, etc).

AI's ability to detect you is also something else I'm a bit confused by, how do I know they have detected me if they are a merchant. When I encounter merchants they are already at their top speed of 9 knots or so, should I just think they have detected me if they start to zigzag. What is the safest maximum visual range where I can detect them but they probably can't detect me, etc.

Also does the AI like radio for help/reinforcements, for help if a merchant knows its being attacked will it radio for warships or airplanes to come its way or is their appearance merely a matter of pre-determined courses and such.