What do you guys do for patrols??

If you read one of my threads I had a great start to a career one time with a type IIA and sunk 2 nice merchants then I made to my patrol zone (right east of dover maybe 100km and spotted a destroyer TF of 3 coming perpendicular to me, so I sat at 3km out perp. to their course and had my TDC all done auto and when the first Destroyers Smoke stack (C&D class I believe) I let fly 3 torps, problem was, they were set to magnetic, and I forgot my W/A officer doesnt set the depth all 3 went harmlessley under him in broad daylight, and they were steam. even though as soon as I had fired I turned tail and tried creeping away, TC screwed me and I hit a small shelf my ballasts went bad and I surfaced, got hit a few times by deck guns and was in such bad damage that I couldnt move (My diesels were destroyed and my electrics were in just as bad of shape) by the time my repair crews came even close to fixing the engines and ballast, I was DC'd baaaad day which I blame on Bernard

PS: is the renown addition you added a mod?? because if so i may like to have it seeing as Im having a hard time getting any renown, its really turning me off to starting in the First Flotilla in 1939 (That and Kiel, I hate the canal and the position of it just because it takes SOOOOO long to get to my grid then back to base thanks to "Ship Spotted" or "Contact bearing XXX every two seconds )

[JokerOfFate]

frau kaleun,
I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you don't like? It was luck that they got you.

fastfed,
I think its better than going to the patrol grid every patrol just to make money, sinking ships is a fun and easy way to make money.

USNSRCaseySmith, theres nothing much on the east side at all.
My advice migrate east.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Draka

Which way do you feel is what YOU want out of SH3?

After playing for a while and getting the feel of it, I decided that what I really wanted was to have fun, blow up enemy shipping, and be amply rewarded for it.

For me this meant modding the realism config data so that no matter what options I choose, I always play at 99% realism. This means I can choose whatever realism options I want and still be rewarded as much as possible without losing the ability to teleport back to base... something I don't ever do anyway, since it would foul up my patrol logs and that would be an element of "non-realism" that would not be fun for me personally.

I think without the modding that I'd be playing at between 65-70% at the moment... I've added in more realism options as I've gotten more confident, and my plan is that when any current set of options becomes so easy that it's not fun any more, I'll change them up and make it a little harder.

The remainder of any "realism" involved (or not) comes from choosing to do things in a particular way, ways that the game itself leaves up to each player. Want to cruise around at p-depth with your 'scope up at flank speed? The game will let you, but in RL the 'scope couldn't withstand it. Want to load externals in the pitch dark at ahead full in a choppy sea? The game will let you, but in RL no responsible commander would ever attempt such a thing. Want to take up command of a u-boat in August 1939 and still be out there in a frontboot in May 1945? The game will let you, provided you survive that long, but in RL you would've been promoted off your boat and given a job on land long before the war ended.

If you hang around here you will no doubt find out a lot of stuff about what was possible and how things were done in RL - some of them may change how you play, some may not, and some you may remember and adhere to one day but not the next. It's all up to you.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by USNSRCaseySmith

PS: is the renown addition you added a mod??

There is a mod that adds it back into a GWX install, however it does this by overwriting the basic.cfg file which means that any other changes made to it manually or by other mods are also overwritten if you use it.

Consequently, I don't let any mod overwrite the basic.cfg, I just edit it manually if a particular mod requires it to be changed.

The basic.cfg is in the /data/cfg directory of your game folder, and the section that needs to be changed is the third one down that looks like this:

[RENOWN]
RenownReachGridObjCompleted=0
RenownPatrolGridObjCompleted=0
CompletedPatrol=0
NEUTRAL=-1
ALLIED=1
AXIS=-10
WrongShipSunk=-5000
FirstRankRenown=100
SecondRankRenown=350
EndCampaign=-5000

That would be the GWX version, where the value for the first two lines is set at '0' - thus removing the renown awarded for reaching one's patrol grid and completing the 24-hour patrol respectively.

Change the first line under [RENOWN] to

RenownReachGridObjCompleted=500

and the second to

RenownPatrolGridObjCompleted=200

This restores the stock renown awards.

Don't bother assigning a value to the next line, which was supposed to reward renown for returning all the way to base at the end of a patrol. That feature never worked, not even in stock.

Lol editing the files is above my knowledge level but I appreciate the suggestion/ help if you could please maybe check out my mod conflicts post and if you could help me out with that?? Im havin a bit of trouble getting a few to work

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by fastfed

YEP!! It really sucks!! I don't go to my "grid area" any more either.. I don't know why the GWX team couldn't of added (XXX renown for getting to grid, XX renown for 24 hour patrol, and XXX renown for making it home)

I think GWX started out as a few people getting together to create something that reflected the way they, personally, wanted to play SH3. A lot of it had to do with making it more realistic and historically accurate, but with something like renown that didn't exist in any analogous quantifiable way in RL - it was probably just a matter of personal choice. And it's easily moddable, just a matter of changing a couple lines in the basic.cfg file. You can give yourself as little or as much renown as you like for completing those objectives, or none at all. The GWX team chose none, but it's not set in stone for every player.

As I said above, I put it back in simply because it gave me a solid reason to obey my initial patrol orders, something the game doesn't otherwise require, and lessens the temptation to go rogue once I leave base. Others have made the argument that one should even increase the rewards as the war progresses, since just reaching one's grid and surviving for any length of time became more and more difficult as Allied technology improved and ASW tactics turned many a crew's first patrol into their last.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by USNSRCaseySmith

Lol editing the files is above my knowledge level but I appreciate the suggestion/ help if you could please maybe check out my mod conflicts post and if you could help me out with that?? Im havin a bit of trouble getting a few to work

Well you can just use the mod for it and enable it with JSGME, but you'll have to remember that any other mod that overwrites the same file will undo the changes it made. Provided you always use JSGME, you'll get a warning about it if enabling another mod is going to interfere with it and if so you can just stop right there and then ask here for assistance if it comes to that.

You can find the Renown Replacement mod here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1182

I didn't even know it was possible to mod a game until I started reading the forums here.

I did look at the mod conflict thread, but I'm not familiar with some of the mods you mentioned so I couldn't say if that particular combination would cause the problems you were having. The one thing you can always try if you think you're having a mod conflict, is to end whatever patrol you're on and then disable them one by one, loading the game and starting up maybe a single mission or one of the tutorials to see if the problem has gone away. If and when it does, you'll know that the mod you just disabled was conflicting with one of the other mods you're still running. You'll still have to figure out why, but it will narrow down what you have to look at in order to do that.

Edit: CRAP LOOK AT THE TIME I have to go to bed. Thank goodness I'm off tomorrow.*


*And I don't have to go to work either.

[Draka]

Renown - that is one of the things I was referring to. As Frau Kaleun just said, it is not something that can be measured, or in any real way USED in a historical setting. For myself, I have gotten to the point that I choose to find a Kaleun I like or think I can do better than, give myself his starting rank and the crew and equipment of his ship, and go to his assigned patrol area - and go from there. Awards I give based on RL criteria, rank ditto - as you can tell I am one of the hard-core ones!

But just to make myself a tad more human - I STILL haven't really gotten the hang of manual TDC - and in reality that was actually the job of the I WO and his crew - the Kaleun gave the input but didn't actually run the TDC etc, so I kinda justify my lack of knowledge there. So I still have auto-targetting on most of the time.

Of course, I am fully aware that I SHOULD know how as every Kaleun was once a I WO!!!

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Draka

Renown - that is one of the things I was referring to. As Frau Kaleun just said, it is not something that can be measured, or in any real way USED in a historical setting. For myself, I have gotten to the point that I choose to find a Kaleun I like or think I can do better than, give myself his starting rank and the crew and equipment of his ship, and go to his assigned patrol area - and go from there. Awards I give based on RL criteria, rank ditto - as you can tell I am one of the hard-core ones!

I've tinkered with the values required for medals and such, because I felt I was getting them too soon to be "realistic" - which basically just means that it felt "wrong" to be getting something for what seemed like too little in the way of accomplishment given what I typically accomplish per patrol with the realism options where they are right now. I mean, I finished my last patrol in August 1940 and the game gave me swords AND diamonds to my KC with oak leaves and I'm like, lolwut?

I went into my career files and took them away once I exited the game, but I'll probably get them again if I do anything worthwhile at all on the current patrol. So I will either adjust all the values upwards again for my next career, or else amp up the realism a bit.

Of course, I am fully aware that I SHOULD know how as every Kaleun was once a I WO!!!

Not true, when I joined up they gave me my own boat right off. What can I say... they just knew.

EDIT: Okay it's like 3 AM here, STOP MAKING ME POST THINGS.

Aye

[desirableroasted]

Originally Posted by fastfed

YEP!! It really sucks!! I don't go to my "grid area" any more either.. I don't know why the GWX team couldn't of added (XXX renown for getting to grid, XX renown for 24 hour patrol, and XXX renown for making it home)

1) The stock game engine never gave you points for getting home.

2) GWX doesn't give points for the reasons stated in the GWX manual.

3) You can always mod it if you have to have the points.

[Capt. Morgan]

Originally Posted by fastfed

YEP!! It really sucks!! I don't go to my "grid area" any more either.. I don't know why the GWX team couldn't of added (XXX renown for getting to grid, XX renown for 24 hour patrol, and XXX renown for making it home)

You can restore it yourself, just edit your data\cfg\basic.cfg file and give yourself as much as you want (wait 'till you're back in harbor though). GWX removed the renown to be fair to players in the Indian Ocean who can't get renown because SH3 can't assign patrol grids there.

I figure being a kreigsmarine officer means obeying orders, so I go where ever they send me. There's a tool I use that comes with NYGM (sh-patrol.exe) that will assign me to other grids afterwards - in accordance with my sub type, date and flotilla. Donitz kept his fleet on a short leash - too bad the allies could read most of his radio orders.

As to The Channel, I believe one of the immersion messages that you recieve in late '39 are orders avoid The Channel under any circumstances. Certainly by early '40 the channel, the entire east coast of Britain, and the northern and southern entrances to the Irish Sea are heavily mined and that is modeled in GWX.

I concur with Frau K. In wartime it takes a lot more player-time to pass through The Channel than to simply go around.