64 is the sweet spot!

[jscharpf]

I think I've found the magic time compression setting..(at least for me)

64!

Go faster and you risk getting bad weather and never getting rid of it. You also risk bad things like crashing into stuff.

I've found that if I never go higher than 64 Time Compression, I can almost complete an entire tour without seeing rough water. Not sure why but it works in both GWX and LSH.

With 64X it is fast enough so I can get to my destination fairly quickly (1 minute per hour not too bad), but also not too fast that I end up crashing into things or .. as stated above, I run into bad weather that never goes away.

Also it lets me leave fatigue turned on in the game so that when I'm in a battle my guys tire out so there is some crew management, but going to 64X prevents them from losing or gaining fatigue. I can get to my destination with rested crew then manage their fatigue. Gives me the best of both worlds.

So what I do is get my mission started, get out into the ocean and set it for 64X. For some this may be WAY too slow, but for me it allows me to do other things while listening to the music of the era, even walk away for a bit.. also when an enemy appears, there seems to be more of a chance for my crew to react than when I'm at higher compressions. There are few surprises and I don't run into friendly ships by mistake.

I'll say it again.. the weather is beautiful lol! Nice smooth seas..


Wondering what your opinions are and I'm ready to get shot in the head


Jeff

[Doolar]

I agree. for me ( this is only my opinion ) I will never go beyond 64x except when i'm spent and returning to port , and then only 128x. I like to keep thing slow and don't want things to pop up on me too fast. I play about 2 or so days of game time a nite of my time. So no rush. But anyway, I agree with ya and if it takes me a week of my time to get to a patrol area , so be it. This way I got time to react , maneuver , and use manual targeting to kill ships. Oh yea , I never exceed 4x when in combat either. Again just my opinion.

[irish1958]

I haven't tried your strategy yet, but my understanding of the way SHIII handles weather shouldn't be related to time compression. I'll check it out on my next patrol if I can get my windows 8 to cooperate.

[Tupolev]

I'd love to play this way myself, but I tend to worry about corrupted saves.

I imagine myself reacting terribly to a week of RL and a fantastic patrol lost to a crashing save game.

You guys have that issue at all??

T

[irish1958]

Yes. Ever since I went to Windows 8.
But the game was developed almost ten years age for windows98/XP.

[jscharpf]

I don't have any problems with losing games but I also save probably 4-8 times at various intervals so I always have a save to go back on. If something should happen where I can't reload a game, then I just step back one save. I have yet to lose much doing this.

I have no idea why 64X seems to keep the weather clear. I understand it should have nothing to do with it. All I know for sure is that in the past when I was using 512 or higher compression I almost ALWAYS had bad weather and it was getting really annoying. Now I almost NEVER have bad weather ... Maybe coincidence.

[Aras]

I leave my TC either to 64 or 128. Which season you are on your current campaign ?

[jscharpf]

I'm starting over, trying out a few new mods. I want to add a little more detail to normal dials and gauges. For this reason I'm back in 1939 stuck in the dock until I get the mods sorted lol..

[desirableroasted]

High TC can certainly seem to cause problems with weather, but smarter people who understand the nuts and bolts of the program swear it doesn't. Personally, I do not quite buy it either, but that's what they say...

And it can certainly screw up your day if you run across a destroyer in moderate visibility. At 256TC, 1 second of real time = over 4 minutes of game time that you may or may not lose depending on the skill of your watch crew.

One trick, if you simply must cross some water at higher TC, is to set SHIII Commander to automatically set TC to 0 when a plane or ship is spotted. But since TC goes to 0 then whenever a ship is detected, it can be quite frustrating when waiting for a convoy to approach underwater.... every time your sonar team reacquires a target, the game stops.

[Aras]

Don’t forget that TC higher than 128 cause spawning, meaning vessels and aircrafts will jump from a point to another, as a result your watch crew may miss them or spot them late. Like :

TC = 1 ______________
TC = 128 ____________
TC = 256 ___ ____ ___
TC = 512 __ __ __
etc ..

[jscharpf]

Thanks for the responses! Great information.
I wasn't aware of what you are saying, Aras, but this makes sense now.
Anytime I did use 512 TC it seemed like I had a hard time finding anything, or I would drop out of TC RIGHT NEXT TO A SHIP! By then it was too late because he was already taking evasive action, so I'm not good at surface shooting ;

However, when I stay at or below 64 I more frequently run into ships or at least get more sightings.

now I guess I know why!

Thanks again for the information! Time to start a campaign over and I think I'll take a shot at 100 pct

[Gustav Schiebert]

Just a side point, I find after three or four hours of real navigation at 128 TC (my preferred max), it makes the 'Destroyer sighted!' all the more exciting when it finally does happen...