i said i would!

[Mooncatt]

installed gwx last night and i said id post what i thought so here goes...
it is amazing thats the only thing i can say to describe it, it has completly changed everything. it doesnt take that long to load either for me 30 secs maybe.
i have lost a few fps in the harbour i used to get bout 25fps thats dropped to like 20fps but no biggy.
i run p4 3.0ghz processor
1.5gig ram ddr 400mhz
x700 pro 256mb sapphire hybrid agp
asus p5p500 mobo (not very good)
i can easily overclock if i wanna boost the fps back up a little.
i started by doing some of the single missions which are great i spent like 2-3hrs doing these before i decided to start a career, this is how it went...

so i started at the start 1939 in sept at wilhelmshaven with a VIIB i forget my grid but it was at lorient. i thought coz it was the start of the war i would risk the channel DUH!!! STUPID IDEA i didnt expect nothing to be there that early in the war...oh how wrong i was :rotfl:
id just entered the channel and got 4 contacts all DD`s so dived to 20m and silent running 3 knts. as i got further in i picked up more DD`s and a few tramps but they were too far away to warrant any kind of pursuit due to the amount of DD`s about.
i did come accross one tramp that would pass my bow at about 1500m so i fired 2 fish both hit but no cigar, i thought this has changed coz it only took 1 fish in sh3 stock to sink one of those. i wasted no more fish and finished her with deck gun, of course by now all those DD`s id got past were heading at full speed to my location but i went as deep as poss silent running again and i managed to slip away. i patrolled my grid but i was by now a little drunk so decided i wasnt gonna go any further or i would end up doing stupid things like trying to raid a harbour so i saved there and will continue tonight.
i love all the new sounds that have been put in all the new skins for the ships and even the little touches like smoke coming off the deck gun when firing i dont remember that being in stock. so far i havent seen many ships probably due to the fact that i havent been far enough and it is only the start of the war.

so questions....
1. these radio messages e.g do not attack any French shipping only in self defense.
do i have to stick to these orders or are they just for immersion. e.g would i lose renown for attacking a French steamer thats unarmed??
2. DD`s can detect you at 3knts but the boat wont rise upwards so run 2knts at PD depth but then the boat rises out of the water. how do you avoid this happening cant dive much deeper or you cant see out of the periscope.
3. why does it take 2+ fish just to sink a tramp steamer?? whats a BB gonna be like to sink?? in single mission i did i fired 5 fish at an aircraft carrier did even slow it down or make her list in the slightest!!
4. whats with all the ports over in Australia an stuff can i go there and sink ships too?? and what kind of boat would i need to get there its a long way!
5. in the indian ocean on the nav map there are lots of kind of dotted lines what are these for?
sorry for the bombardment of questions its just such a big change from stock!!
thanx again to JasonSagert for making this possible for me to play
and thanx to the GWX team for creating such an awesome mod

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Originally Posted by mooncatt

so questions....
1. these radio messages e.g do not attack any French shipping only in self defense.
do i have to stick to these orders or are they just for immersion. e.g would i lose renown for attacking a French steamer thats unarmed??
2. DD`s can detect you at 3knts but the boat wont rise upwards so run 2knts at PD depth but then the boat rises out of the water. how do you avoid this happening cant dive much deeper or you cant see out of the periscope.
3. why does it take 2+ fish just to sink a tramp steamer?? whats a BB gonna be like to sink?? in single mission i did i fired 5 fish at an aircraft carrier did even slow it down or make her list in the slightest!!
4. whats with all the ports over in Australia an stuff can i go there and sink ships too?? and what kind of boat would i need to get there its a long way!
5. in the indian ocean on the nav map there are lots of kind of dotted lines what are these for?
sorry for the bombardment of questions its just such a big change from stock!!
thanx again to JasonSagert for making this possible for me to play
and thanx to the GWX team for creating such an awesome mod

1. You have to, as they are orders... Immersion only, unfortunately.
2. Order 2 m below wished depth.
3. Leave them, look for bigger targets. And remember that sinking times got BIG longer, so the ship could sink after 1 hit, but it can take him like 6 hours...
4. IXB + some resupplying on the trip.
5. No idea.

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by mooncatt

so questions....
1. these radio messages e.g do not attack any French shipping only in self defense.
do i have to stick to these orders or are they just for immersion. e.g would i lose renown for attacking a French steamer thats unarmed??
2. DD`s can detect you at 3knts but the boat wont rise upwards so run 2knts at PD depth but then the boat rises out of the water. how do you avoid this happening cant dive much deeper or you cant see out of the periscope.
3. why does it take 2+ fish just to sink a tramp steamer?? whats a BB gonna be like to sink?? in single mission i did i fired 5 fish at an aircraft carrier did even slow it down or make her list in the slightest!!
4. whats with all the ports over in Australia an stuff can i go there and sink ships too?? and what kind of boat would i need to get there its a long way!
5. in the indian ocean on the nav map there are lots of kind of dotted lines what are these for?
sorry for the bombardment of questions its just such a big change from stock!!
thanx again to JasonSagert for making this possible for me to play
and thanx to the GWX team for creating such an awesome mod

First of all I'm happy you finally got your GWX and you enjoy it.
Now answers:
1. The messages are historic and eye-candy. They have nothing to do with you or your renown. From the 3rd of September you can sink as many French and British you like.
2. To avoid exposing your boat always set the depth a bit lower that what you want. e.g. PD at 15-16m and you should be OK
3. I don't agree with you. Tramp Steamers usually go down within an hour with one torpedo. Larger ships need more hits but usually any BB or CV should go down with 5 hits. I guess you were just unlucky.
4. You can go to Australia from the bases in the far east. From 1943 onwards you can join the Penang flotilla with IXC and IXD2.
5. These are the patrol areas. You will not get renown for them though as they did not exist in the original game. I would suggest you check the manual and the flotilla news (if you press F1 during game play)

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Originally Posted by melnibonian

3. I don't agree with you. Tramp Steamers usually go down within an hour with one torpedo. Larger ships need more hits but usually any BB or CV should go down with 5 hits. I guess you were just unlucky.

:|

Strange... If 'BB' means "battleship', all the 3 of them I sunk went down quite quickly after hitting with only 2 torpedoes (magnetic below the keel). And almost every Large Merchant I sunk (~12k tonns) goes down with 1 hit (but it usually lasts long, like 1-5 hours). Is it just luck?

[Mooncatt]

nah its probably me just doing it wrong thats all lol

[stabiz]

I dont think you did anything wrong (besides goint into DER KANAL), I just think you were unlucky. I never fire more than one torpedo at a DD or DE, they usually go BOOM.

[Mooncatt]

another strange thing happend i forgot to mention..
in single mission i took some damage there were no other ships around so i surfaced. but everytime i put men on watch they died straight away. any ideas???

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

Strange... If 'BB' means "battleship', all the 3 of them I sunk went down quite quickly after hitting with only 2 torpedoes (magnetic below the keel). And almost every Large Merchant I sunk (~12k tonns) goes down with 1 hit (but it usually lasts long, like 1-5 hours). Is it just luck?

I agree with you. This is the kind of behaviour I see in GWX as well. I said to mooncatt that he might have been unlucky because he used 5 torpedoes for a Battleship and 2 for a tramp steamer.

[WOD]

Originally Posted by mooncatt

3. why does it take 2+ fish just to sink a tramp steamer?? whats a BB gonna be like to sink?? in single mission i did i fired 5 fish at an aircraft carrier did even slow it down or make her list in the slightest!!

Nearly all ships can be "1 Shot killed" I think. Depends on the point where u hit them.
My tactic is always to aim on the bow....Steam eels...magnetic....half a meter below the keels.

When the ship is hit....then it will take some time til it´s flooded with water...maybe 2 or more hours or a bit less. With that kind of tactic I attacked 1 convoy west of gibraltar. Fired all torps....every torp on a different ship (only large merchants, whale factories, pyro ammu freighter)....always aimed on bow. all eels hit the bow. Then dove deep and evaded at the back of the convoy. All 6 hitted ships sunk in 2 hours or less. Expect the pyro ship...that one sunk immediatly.

That kind worked on a task force too (same patrol)....1 Illustrious Carrier....1 BB....3 Cruisers...12 DDs ( )....But to be on the save side I fired 2 eels on every big ship....always aimed on the bow....from the 2 on every big thing 1 missed...but the other 2 hit...1 on each one....1,5 hours later the carrier sunk...fired one of my aft torps on the bow of the BB again...this time no magnetic cause its bow was deeper in the water then the normal keel depth...hit...half an hour later the BB sunk. (5 hours later my boat sunk after depthcharged by 5 of the DDs in 170m with 2 full hits...one on the bow torp room and one on the conning tower...but that´s another story)

For me the "bow hit tactic" is the best...ok takes a while til they will sink but...they´ll sink in 95% (I think)

If I only have had luck, ok but this worked so far in every patrol in this career til now (Dec 42). Although I think with the sinking of the BB with two and the Carrier with one torp I really have had luck....for a few hours *grrr* (but the game was luckily saved maybe 130 kms before I have spottet the task force so I know where they are at which time and which course....Battlecry: REVENGE

Greetz & happy hunting.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Originally Posted by WOD

but the game was luckily saved maybe 130 kms before I have spottet the task force so I know where they are at which time and which course....Battlecry: REVENGE

Isn't that knowledge a bit useless as you start stinking a little at the bottom?

In the real it happened that big ships were sunk with just one torpedo hit. Such was for example with Ark Royal carrier sunk east of Gibraltar. His death was a long lasting one, but the rescue crew didn't manage to keep her floating till she reaches the port.

But that's just one story. I'm curious what was the every day practice. Did the u-boots launch one torpedo at a ship? I doubt it. But how many did they fire? Two? Three? More? How did they estimate, what is the optimal option? How long did they wait to see if the ship sinks before launching another torpedo (of course if there was possibility to wait)? Was there a limit - ships that small that no captain would waste his torpedo to sink them?

All these questions come when I try to make my gameplay more real... But every hour spent playing I realize that my knowledge is so tiny, and will never grow up much, that it's never going to be any real at all...

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

But that's just one story. I'm curious what was the every day practice. Did the u-boots launch one torpedo at a ship? I doubt it. But how many did they fire? Two? Three? More? How did they estimate, what is the optimal option? How long did they wait to see if the ship sinks before launching another torpedo (of course if there was possibility to wait)? Was there a limit - ships that small that no captain would waste his torpedo to sink them?

All these questions come when I try to make my gameplay more real... But every hour spent playing I realize that my knowledge is so tiny, and will never grow up much, that it's never going to be any real at all...

Usually U-Boat captains were firing salvos to compencate for inacuracies in the solution and the changes of the ship's course. Usually big ships took a couple of torpedoes to go down and smaller ones only one or even a few rounds from the deck gun. In the book 'Iron Coffins' they talk about 1-2 torpedoes per target depending on how big it was. Usually the salvo was between 2-4 torpedoes depending on the distance from the target and the target's speed. Generaly speaking though GWX has a quite ballanced damage model.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Maybe you're right, but how come then the big tonnage sank?

Maybe now it's the AI that should be improved significantly? For example the merchants shold alter their course immediately and start running away when they spot an u-boot. What they actually do is just aiming the lights on you and zig-zagink, and that is, from my experience, much to little to make the Kaleun nervous.

[Sailor Steve]

As far as setting the depth at 15-16 meters, this I think is one of the biggest flaws I've heard from GWX players. If the boat rises at all at slow speeds, it should keep on rising, not just a couple of meters. the point is not to use silent running at periscope depth.

In this respect NYGM's 'Anti-Hummingbird Mod' is much more realistic.

[Mooncatt]

@ von mummet not much else a merchant could do tbh. even at full speed a little ol merchant couldnt outrun a u-boat

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

Maybe you're right, but how come then the big tonnage sank?

Who said that U-Boats were scoring huge tonnage? Kapitan zur See Wolfgang Luth scored 226,671 tons in 16 patrols which gives an average of 14000 tons per patrol, and we're talking about the second best U-Boat Captain of the war. Early in the war where most of the high tonnage was achieved loads of ships were sunk by gun fire as well. In general though the amount of tonnage we score in SH3/GWX is totally unrealistic as any commander would not score 40, 50 or even 60000 tons in each patrol, and I am not talking about sharing targets in convoys, targets that got damaged but not destroyed, unsuccesfull attacks etc.

Also on the question of how many torpedoes they were firing on large ships, this is what I found in uboat.net:
Empress of Britain
Steam passenger ship 42.348 tons
On 28 October, two of three torpedoes fired by U-32, which followed the convoy for almost 24 hours, struck the Empress of Britain and sank her northwest of Bloody Foreland, Co. Donegal. 25 crew members and 20 passengers were lost.

Strathallan
Troop transport 23.722 tons
At 02.23 hours on 21 Dec, 1942, U-562 fired a spread of four torpedoes at the convoy KMF-5 about 40 miles north of Oran and heard two detonations after 65 seconds and another after 5 minutes 50 seconds. However, only the ship of the convoy commodore, the Strathallan (Master John Henry Biggs CBE), was hit by one torpedo which struck on port side in the engine room. The explosion killed two engineer officers and two Indian crewmen on watch below, damaged the bulkhead separating the engine and boiler rooms and fractured a tank causing oil to enter the boiler room. The ship immediately developed a 15° list to port and the master ordered the nurses and troops to abandon ship in calm seas in the four motor boats, 16 lifeboats and rafts. All got away, except one lifeboat that had been damaged by the explosion and another that could not be launched due to the list. After it became clear that the ship would not sink fast, the evacuation was stopped and the troops ordered to the starboard side to help the stability. The about 1300 survivors in the boats and on rafts were picked up in the morning by HMS Verity (D 63) (Lt J.C. Rushbrooke DSC) and taken to Oran.

Orcades
Troop transport 23.456 tons
At 10.28 hours on 10 Oct, 1942, the unescorted Orcades (Master Charles Fox) was torpedoed by U-172 about 280 miles northwest of Capetown. The U-boat had to fire five more torpedoes at 10.45, 10.54 (a dud), 12.49, 12.50 and 12.54 hours until the ship sank at 13.00 hours. 28 crew members, two gunners and 18 passengers were lost. The master, 289 crew members, 34 gunners and 693 passengers were picked up by the Polish merchant Narwik (Master Zawarda) and landed at Capetown on 12 October.

Terje Viken
Whale factory ship 20.638 tons
At 05.05 hours on 7 Mar, 1941, Terje Viken (Master O. Borchgrevink) in convoy OB-293 was hit by two torpedoes southeast of Iceland. This must have been U-47 (Prien), which is reported missing since this attack. At 05.50 hours, the ship was missed by a spread of three torpedoes from U-70 (Matz), but at the same time U-99 fired a torpedo that hit on the port side and the crew abandoned ship. Later a part of the crew reboarded the ship and tried to save her, but she capsized at 18.55 hours. On 14 March, the wreck was scuttled by gunfire of a British salvage tug. Two crew members were lost. The master, 99 crew members and five gunners were picked up by HMS Hurricane (H 06) (LtCdr H.C. Simms) and landed at Greenock. At the time of her loss, the Terje Viken had been the largest whaling factory ship in the world.

Duchess of Atholl
Steam passenger ship 20.119 tons
At 08.19 hours on 10 Oct, 1942, the unescorted Duchess of Atholl (Master Arthur Henry Allinson Moore) was hit by one of two torpedoes fired by U-178 about 200 miles east-northeast of Ascension. At 08.37 hours, a second spread of two torpedoes were fired of which one hit. Another torpedo fired at 09.18 hours missed, but a coup de grâce fired three minutes later struck. The vessel sank slowly until finally disappearing at 11.25 hours.

I think it proves the point. The list is really huge but they all follow the same trend. A salvo was fired, some torpedoes missed and usually between 1-3 hits did the job.