My newbie suggestions about SH3

[SubConscious]

Hello all,

This may not be the right place for this kind of feedback, but I’ve been playing the stock version of SH3 (patched to 1.4) for the past couple of months. There are a few things that I’d love to see changed if another subsim is going to be released in the near future. Here’s a quick list:

1. More precise control over depth, direction, and speed. I hate fiddling with the dials and would prefer to be able to enter a specific value. In my opinion, this would be more realistic, as I have never heard of a ship captain giving an order “Come to somewhere in the vicinity of West-Southwest and dive to about 20 meters, give or take a few!”

2. It should be possible to run the electric engines while surfaced. There have been a few occasions in which I was running low on diesel fuel, so I’d intermittently run the electric engines to save fuel. Having to dive to do so seems inefficient and certainly unrealistic.

3. I’ve love to see greater control over the weapon loadout. I see that we can select different torpedoes, but we have no ability to select our deck gun ammunition. My personal preference would be to get rid of the star shells, as I never use them. I’d also opt for additional High Explosive rounds, as they seem to be more effective than Armor Piercing when attacking shipping. After all, if the enemy has armor plate, it probably has guns, too. It would be nice to have incendiary rounds for those big tankers, but I don’t know if they were ever used in history.

4. I really dislike enabling the automatic map plot of ships, as it provides too much information. I’d love to be able to use this feature, but tone down the power. For example, if there was an option to enable a map plot of ships that are in visual range, I’d use it readily, as I think this is a realistic feature. Perhaps gradations, such as map plots for visual, 2x visual, 4x visual, and unlimited would serve a wider range of players.

5. Adding an indicator for food rations would also be nice and would add another element of realism.

6. I’d really like to see better graphics, especially 3D damage effects on ships as well as the sub. This was probably the most disappointing feature of SH3 for me – seeing my well-placed torpedo hits appearing as greasy smudges on the hulls of my enemy, or the ships that broke in half with perfectly smooth lines at the break. The graphics in IL2 Sturmovik are so much better…

7. This is a minor issue, but I’d like the opportunity to move through the entire sub. Not that I need to, but just for the additional game immersion.

8. There were bunks in the bow and stern torpedo rooms of U-boats. If we could place crew there to rest, this would make life a bit easier and more realistic. It bothers me to see a crewman in a stern torpedo room that is devoid of torpedoes complaining about being exhausted when I know that there are bunks right there.

9. Another minor issue: I’d like to see the 20mm AA gun be capable of damaging and/or sinking enemy ships. Sure, they can blow the cargo off a ship (which apparently has no effect, even when it’s left to burn), but they can’t seem to penetrate the hulls. I’ve had situations in which the enemy ship has severely listed or overturned and I wanted to pump a few 20mm rounds into the hull to release the trapped air and allow it to sink, but this isn’t possible.

If these notes should be placed in a different thread / sticky, please let me know. Thanks!

<Edit> Changed the title of the thread from "Complaints" to "Suggestions" in keeping with a more positive outlook.

[Safe-Keeper]

Well, there will sadly not be any more patches for Silent Hunter III, so you'll be better off posting these at the SHIV forum. But in response:

1. More precise control over depth, direction, and speed. I hate fiddling with the dials and would prefer to be able to enter a specific value. In my opinion, this would be more realistic, as I have never heard of a ship captain giving an order “Come to somewhere in the vicinity of West-Southwest and dive to about 20 meters, give or take a few!”

2. It should be possible to run the electric engines while surfaced. There have been a few occasions in which I was running low on diesel fuel, so I’d intermittently run the electric engines to save fuel. Having to dive to do so seems inefficient and certainly unrealistic.

Someone told me that's not such an efficient way of doing it, actually, seeing you're running at half speed when recharging the batteries afterwards.

But anyway, yes, you should be able to run electric engines on the surface.

3. I’ve love to see greater control over the weapon loadout. I see that we can select different torpedoes, but we have no ability to select our deck gun ammunition. My personal preference would be to get rid of the star shells, as I never use them. I’d also opt for additional High Explosive rounds, as they seem to be more effective than Armor Piercing when attacking shipping. After all, if the enemy has armor plate, it probably has guns, too. It would be nice to have incendiary rounds for those big tankers, but I don’t know if they were ever used in history.

Customizing loud-out and cargo would be very welcome.

4. I really dislike enabling the automatic map plot of ships, as it provides too much information. I’d love to be able to use this feature, but tone down the power. For example, if there was an option to enable a map plot of ships that are in visual range, I’d use it readily, as I think this is a realistic feature. Perhaps gradations, such as map plots for visual, 2x visual, 4x visual, and unlimited would serve a wider range of players.

Not a bad idea.

5. Adding an indicator for food rations would also be nice and would add another element of realism.

Also been suggested already, but I agree 100%. Add food, spare parts, fresh water (or maybe that'd go under food?), and perhaps some other things such as medical supplies?

6. I’d really like to see better graphics, especially 3D damage effects on ships as well as the sub. This was probably the most disappointing feature of SH3 for me – seeing my well-placed torpedo hits appearing as greasy smudges on the hulls of my enemy, or the ships that broke in half with perfectly smooth lines at the break. The graphics in IL2 Sturmovik are so much better…

I've often thought about how awesome it'd be to have ships modelled with interior 3D compartments and actually letting you punch holes through them and watch water rush in.

If it's too much of a CPU drain, though, I don't want it.

7. This is a minor issue, but I’d like the opportunity to move through the entire sub. Not that I need to, but just for the additional game immersion.

You're not the only one (don't suggest this one in the SHIV forums, as 10000 people have done so already).

8. There were bunks in the bow and stern torpedo rooms of U-boats. If we could place crew there to rest, this would make life a bit easier and more realistic. It bothers me to see a crewman in a stern torpedo room that is devoid of torpedoes complaining about being exhausted when I know that there are bunks right there.

Not such a bad idea. I never thought about that!

9. Another minor issue: I’d like to see the 20mm AA gun be capable of damaging and/or sinking enemy ships. Sure, they can blow the cargo off a ship (which apparently has no effect, even when it’s left to burn), but they can’t seem to penetrate the hulls. I’ve had situations in which the enemy ship has severely listed or overturned and I wanted to pump a few 20mm rounds into the hull to release the trapped air and allow it to sink, but this isn’t possible.

I won't reply to this one as I have no idea how historically accurate it is.

Nothing wrong with a new set of complaints; everybody has them. I'll try to answer as many as I can.

1. Some others have voiced the same or similar objections. Being able to type in exact values would be nice. In the meantime there is the "6-Dials Simfeeling Mod", which give very large slide-out gauges which make it much easier to click on the right lines.

2. Agreed on the electrics while surfaced. Again, you're not the first and won't be the last. On the other hand, the purpose of using the motors while surfaced was to be quieter when attacking on the surface. Conservation of energy is universal; using the electric motors doesn't save fuel-it just postpones the usage.

3. As far as I've been able to discover, U-boats didn't carry any AP or Starshells, only HE. You can correct this by going to the Basic file in the CFG folder. Down near the bottom, right after the 'Coning Tower' listings are the ammunition listings.
The 10.5cm can be changed to:
AP: 0
HE: 160
SS: 0

And the 8.8cm can be changed to:
AP: 0
HE: 220
SS: 0

Actually they can be changed to anything you like, but those are close to correct.

4. If you use the RUB, GW or NYGM mods you will have the option to have a map that shows NOTHING, until you mark it with the Periscope or UZO. Then you will only see a circle showing the information of the marked ship. Much more realistic.

5. Yes, a food level indicator would be nice.

6. Some mods do make the damage look better, but making actual holes in the ship through which the interior can be seen would require months of extra work and be much more CPU intinsive.

7. As stated by Safe-Keeper, many others have asked for this.

8. One simple remedy for this is to use the mod which turns fatigue off altogether. Many have called the fatigue system unrealistic, and they have a point (several, in fact).

9. I don't know of any cases where it can be confirmed that ships were sunk by light arms fire, but a 20mm should be able to go through a 1/2-inch steel hull plate without too much trouble. I think small boats can be sunk with AA fire, but I'm not sure.

[zzsteven]

2. I would prefer being able to operate the deisels individually, but that has been brought up numerous times already.

zz

[SubConscious]

In retrospect, I probably should have entitled this thread as "Suggestions" rather than complaints. I find it's typically better to be proactive than whiney, but I clearly was suffering from a caffiene deficiency when I posted this.

Thank you for the feedback and the suggestions (especially changing the load-out of the deck gun ammo!). Good point on the use of the electric engines - it does only postpone the energy drain, but I have found that I can extend my range several hundred KM this way. Granted, I'm crawling into Kiel on fumes most of the time, so I'm obviously pushing limits as it is.

Thanks for the comments!

[HunterICX]

I miss Wolfpacks in game...