Is it just me?

[Paul Riley]

Originally Posted by washishu

Thanks Irish, I wasn't aware of that mod. I've gotten hold of it and will give it a go. Sounds like it could be the one for me.

Paul - I use the map most of the time. I've used the convoy routes map to cruise around the areas where the convoys from (for example) the Med diverge to go north or south. Still nothing. In fact, in all that time - don't know how many hours of playing but quite a lot over three months - in all that time I've not actually encountered one convoy; not one. Some independents and a couple of two- or three-ship groups from time to time, but no convoy.

And I accept all that about big sea-small ship and so-on, but it just gets real boring watching that circle trek across the screen. I'd rather spend the time pushing crayons up my nose like Homer Simpson.

Try and hang in there pal.I know what you mean though as I also spend many hours without much action sometimes.Take tonight for example.Since from about 4pm (I came off the game around 00:15) I have sunk 1 medium cargo.Most of the time is spent patrolling a given area,then moving on to more fruitful areas.
I really suggest,initially at least picking a port,and lurking say,20km out to sea.Some traffic should arrive every day or few days.If not move on,and repeat.This is how it was in real life,and dont forget the missed opportunities (for whatever reason),duds,premature detonations,rerouted shipping lanes,which must have been infuriating.
Really,hang in there,absorb as much info about the real UBoat war and the game as you can,you will be surprised how much can be implemented in your game

[washishu]

Ok, so maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. Got hold of the Contacts tool - thanks Irish for telling me about that. Set things up to generate more convoys and voila! first trip out, just off the north-west coast of Ireland I run into a large convoy. It was also heavily defended too - five escorts.

Two attacks over about 24 hours and then I got just a touch careless. Depth-charged and both rudders destroyed. The escorts eventually left me alone but all I could do was keep going ahead and, eventually, crash into Ireland, or teleport back to base which is a bit of a cheat really.

What's slightly puzzling is how the destroyer knew I was there and started pinging when I was sitting waiting at all stop and silent running. Makes me think that the AI is just too intelligent sometimes.

Also - I guess this could be another Is it just me? - there's a lot of talk about radio messages giving contact reports etc. Never had one of 'em. Not one. So there you go Sailor Steve, you can have another jab. Everybody to their own thing of course, as you say, but to say you like the boring bits!?. . . man, you're weird.

[sublynx]

Originally Posted by washishu

there's a lot of talk about radio messages giving contact reports etc. Never had one of 'em. Not one.

If you hang around a traffic grid like AM52 long enough, you should eventually get a radio contact report about a convoy. And when you find a convoy yourself you should get a contact report about it if you hang around long enough (while reloading, getting into position). I do this at a low TC, like 128, and get lots of radio contact reports. I don't know if the low TC is necessary for it to work, but I play with a laptop and I think the processor might be better calculating events when playing at a lower TC.

Originally Posted by washishu

So there you go Sailor Steve, you can have another jab. Everybody to their own thing of course, as you say, but to say you like the boring bits!?. . . man, you're weird.

Lol, I'm also of the opinion that not finding ships is kind of nice at times. The thing is, that when you hang around your patrol grid in 1943 and get constantly harassed by airplanes and don't see any ships anywhere - and then a convoy appears, you get quite a rush: at last some action, a chance to expend your torpedoes and get out of the range of the airplanes. I guess playing SH3 might make one a bit weird eventually

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by washishu

...man, you're weird.

Yes I am. But how rude of you to notice.

I was in the navy, and one of the things I miss most was the actual idle time, especially in port. I spent a lot of time visiting other ships. But my current predilection came later. I played AOD, and I played SH1. In both cases it was a game - rush, rush, rush, sink ships and get the patrol over. Then along came SH3 and I was the same way. Then along came the Kiel Canal mod and the Harbor Traffic mod. Then along came GWX and LSH3 and WAC, all of which added more and more cool goodies to look at. Now I enjoy the sights, which remind me very much of the real ones I remember.

No, I don't do 1x patrols, because I don't consider that realistic either. But I do go in and out of port at 1x, and I do tend to not use TC during the hunt or escape. I take my time and have fun and pretend it's all real. I go to my assigned grid and stay there, at least for a couple of weeks and even then a die roll tells me whether I've been reassigned or not.

You want weird? I just recently for the very first time set Commander for No Fatigue. I know it's not the captain's job to move the crew around, but with all those quals sitting there doing nothing while their equally qualified buddies did all the work just made me feel...well, weird. So I set it back to GWX 8-hour fatigue. Every four hours I come out of TC, move the crew around, head to the bridge and enjoy the weather for a couple of minutes, and then do it all over again.

For me, that's fun.