sh3 noob needs help

[sharkbit]

Welcome aboard!

I thought that I read somewhere that all warships and merchants were listed together under each country in the recognition manual. I have only tried the torpedo training so far and have not been able to bring up any merchants in the recogition manual, just the warships. Where do you find the merchants at?

There's a seperate recog manual for the merchants. Page thru the different nationalities.

The second question deals with calculating the speed of the ship. I locked the scope on the target and clicked the timer icon and I can let it run 10 sec to 1 min and when I click the left mouse button, the timer stops but there is no speed indicated in the notepad. What am I doing wrong?

I'm assuming you're doing manual targeting using the notepad. I believe you click on "SPEED" on the note pad and time the ship as it passes through the vertical crosshair on the scope/UZO. You then have to send it to the TDC. I believe you have to get range and AOB first for this to work.
I've never really used the notepad method, so I can't say for sure though.

I've always used the 3:15 rule for getting speed information. distance traveled (in meters) in 3 minutes 15 seconds divided by 100=speed in knots.(EX: 700 meters in 3:15=7 knots)

3) Is there a go to Battle Stations button as in SH4 that puts the crew on alert?

No. I'm new to SH4(been playing SH3 for a couple of years), but I like that little feature in SH4. Not as exciting as hitting the "C" key and crash diving in SH3 though. Love the alarm bells.

Once you get your feet wet with stock, I highly recommend getting one of the supermods-GWX, NYGM, WAC. I play with with GWX Gold and love it. Also get SH3Commander. An add on program that makes the immersion factor a little better.