Couple of newbie questions.........

[alowen]

Hi all, ive recently been bought sh3 and subsequently upgraded my pc's videocard to enable me to play it......WOW what an amazing game. I loved sh2 but this is awesome.
However, i have a few questions that are bugging me :

1) What are the different colour triangles for when using the periscope during an attack, they vary from green to red and orange ???????

2) When i select my uzo station the screen lags like hell and i have to shoot torps submerged, is it only for night use ????????

3) As it is the game seems to run fine, but for a newbie what mods should i consider first to make the game even better ???????

Finally , in sh2 the scream of alarm sound effect when crash diving was excellent, just like das boot, but in sh3 i can only get a rather sombre, "crash dive" announced. Can i get it to or upload the alarm scream again ?????

Thanks in advance for any help on these.

Al

[Indiana_Jones]

Get GWX (grey wolves expansion). Wicked mode.

if you get that, for the "Alarm" sound, they use the one from "Das Boot"

-Indy

[_Seth_]

Hi mate! The triangles indicate if you are in a good firing position. Red = bad firing position, orange= well, you might hit.. Green= Fire one!!
The UZO Lag is due to something with the bowspray, if im not wrong...
And, if you DL GWX, the lag is gone, so is also the triangles. BTW: The crash-dive sound in GWX is just AWESOME.

Conclusion: Get GWX.

EDIT: Ahhhrg! Indiana beat me to it!!

[siber]

Hi alowen. I hope I can help answer your questions:

1: In your periscope view, the presence of triangles indicates the you're using auto-targetting. In this mode, all you've got to do is find a target in the scope and lock it and your weapons officer plots the torpedo solution, continually and automatically updating it. However, if your boat's pointing the wrong way (ie. the compass at the top of the scope is away from 0/360 degrees) the torpedo's going to have to turn around after being fired. Therefore, the colour of the triangle indicates how 'good' the shot solution provided by your weapons officer is. Red indicates that the torpedo will have to turn a lot after leaving the tube, Orange shows that it'll have to turn a bit, while Green means the ship's within about 10 degrees of the torpedo's direction once fired. Essentially, if you shoot when the triangle's red, the shot will more than likely miss. Orange shots have a better chance of hitting, while with a green triangle, a shot at that moment will probably hit the target. Note however that 'hitting the target' does not neccessarily mean that the torpedo will
detonate. It might go under the target's hull without exploding if it's running deep, or bounce off if the impact pistol doesn't work!

2: It's possible that your graphics card can't handle the spray simulated while moving waves break over your decks when using the UZO. There's a way to switch this spray off in UZO view which significantly improves performance - I think it's SHIFT+PgUp (or perhaps CTRL+PgUp - one raises the attack scope fully, the other turns off spray) but I hope someone else can confirm or correct me as I'm not entirely sure...

3: Personally, I'd recommend the GWX mod, but there are other supermods too, NGYM tonnage war etc. These bundle together lots of things, including a number of mods. If you're having problems with spray in UZO, I'd recommend HarbourLite mod - if only for the sake of your graphics card - to reduce lag in ports and also urge you be very careful if you install 16km vision - allows you to detect enemy vessels at longer range - as this slows my computer down enormously. Other than that, see other threads to see what others recommend.

Also, the "ALLLAAARM!!!!" cry you refer to is integral to GWX. If you install this supermod, you'll get it back!

Finally, I'd urge you to move on to more realistic settings - specifically disabling auto-targetting - as soon as you feel confident to try targetting yourself. You'll spend the first few torpedo loads firing eels off to a beach somewhere without hitting anything, but when you do start hitting ships, it's much more satisfying knowing that your calculated solution was correct. Together with this, install a supermod asap, before you get used to stock SHIII's AI. The supermods have beefed the AI up and it'll come as a shock if you're used to dumb vanilla!

EDIT: Argh! Seth AND Indiana beat me to it: Morale - don't write such long posts... lol!

[melnibonian]

If you want to see the game the way it was supose to be get GWX

Have a look at the manual http://files.filefront.com/GWX_MANUA.../fileinfo.html and if you like what you see click on the link under my signature or on the signature itself to download it for free

[Indiana_Jones]

Originally Posted by _Seth_

EDIT: Ahhhrg! Indiana beat me to it!!

lol sorry boys, I'm in a quick mood today, just got my motorcycle back from the workshop

-Indy

[TarJak]

The bowspray lag problem usually only affects nVidia cards. To get rid of the problem just hit CTRL+P when using the UZO.

Looks like you got answers to the others.

[danlisa]

Once you are settled/decided on your game/mod choice, make sure you play with German Sounds/Voices & English Text. FYI, the really cool sounds are all on the German setting.

[Jimbuna]

....AND DON'T FORGET SH3 COMMANDER!!

[irish1958]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

....AND DON'T FORGET SH3 COMMANDER!!

Don't leave home without it!

[alowen]

Thanks all, most helpful. Best try my hand at calculating solutions then :hmm:

ATB

Al

[alowen]

ahh, nearly forgot, when i opt to download a mod how does it work ?

Do i save it to something, or does it automaticly attach to the sh3 game ????

Thanks again.

Al

[danurve]

alowen; welcome to the forum.

Take a look at the community manual when you have a few minutes. It may help answer some questions about the game. It also has some information about Mods and their installation.

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by alowen

ahh, nearly forgot, when i opt to download a mod how does it work ?

Do i save it to something, or does it automaticly attach to the sh3 game ????

Thanks again.

Al

Almost all Super-Mods (WAC, GWX, NYGM) have a readme file. Read carefully through and follow the instructions. If you still have problems give us a shout

[alowen]

Thanks again.

Al