Surfacing from Lurking

[Tom]

You get a set amount of renown for reaching the patrol zone (200), staying there (200), and getting home (100).

The renown you get for sinking ships depends on your difficulty setting. The lower your difficulty, the less renown you get. If I've understood the sytem correctly, with 100% difficulty, you would get something like 340 for a large tanker, 60 for a tramp steamer, and 120 for a destroyer. With only 50% difficulty you'd get only 1/2 of the above numbers.

My advice is to save your torpedoes for cargo ships, and avoid shooting destroyers, except maybe in self defense.

First of all, destroyers are difficult to hit with a torpedo, unless you catch them unaware and use electric torpedoes. If they see the wake of a steam torpedo, they are fast to turn and change speed, causing you to miss. And if they know you're there, they often don't come to you in a straight path. And, most importantly, unless you hit them, they will depth charge you, and you usually will be uncomfortably close to the surface on their first pass.

Second, the same torpedo will put a lot more merchant tonnage beneath the waves.

So, usually it is best to just avoid destroyers and other escorts. Any warship larger than 10 000 tons is very much worth sinking, however.

I can think of a couple of exceptions though, where I would consider attacking escorts:

If I find a ligthly escorted (1 or 2 escorts) convoy, I might take the escorts out first, in order to freely destroy the merchants. Of course, this mostly makes sense with a type VII or IX, not a type II.

Also, if I find a single merchant escorted by a single escort in shallow water, I might destroy the escort first to ensure my own escape. More than one escort and shallow water is a big no no for me.

As for torpedo economy, many merchants will often sink with one well placed torpedo. For example, try to aim beneath the first mast, and then wait for 30 minutes. If the ship shows no clear signs of sinking, shoot another one slightly forward of midships (so that both hits are at the same end of the ship).

If the merchant is large and another shot might prove difficult due to escorts,bad weather or high target speed, I find it best to shoot two torpedoes and not risk losing the ship alltogether.

[GoldenRivet]

one other thing i forgot to mention, if you are sending more than two torpedoes at a large merchant ship, you might consider abandoning this practice as two is generally more than enough to get the job done.

remember to adjust your spread angle to account for the range, the smaller the spread the better... you dont want one torpedo going astern and one passing out ahead BOTH missing the target.

smaller merchants will usually only require one torpedo, medium cargos and larger - play it safe and send two shots.

[Brag]

Welcome aboard this nest of ruffians, Howdog. You may want to check out my webbie where a lot of tactics for SH3 & GWX are discussed.

[TarJak]

Wilkommen zum Subsim Herr Kaleun,
One thing you should note is that your 24hrs in the patrol grid is cumulative during your patrol. You can leave the grid as many times as you like and still get your full renown for this objective, as long as the total amount of time spent in the grid is equal to or greater than 24hrs.

Gute Jagd!

[Zero Niner]

Howndog: A bit OT, but are you the same person who did Morrowind mods, together with CanadianIce?

If so, I *love* your Better Bodies mod.

[HOWNDOG]

Originally Posted by Zero Niner

Howndog: A bit OT, but are you the same person who did Morrowind mods, together with CanadianIce?

If so, I *love* your Better Bodies mod.

Yup (but we didn't do the actual body) and thx. CI is my wife.


I'm currently running around 54% realism and have found that (especially with the type II) that looking for unescorted stragglers to be quite effective. As the wolf would. It saves alot of playing possum which can be a real issue with the small crew that has trouble manning all stations effectively even when not under stress.

The 24hr thing being cumalative will definately help me as I've taken a few risks trying to stay in the grid (both while chasing ships or being chased)

Thanks all for the help. I will check out those tips on the web and be more patient with the launches but that saying "one bird in hand is better than two in the trees" always itches my finger.


HD


ps.
The working Kiel canal is the greatest thing since saurkraut and sausage.

[HOWNDOG]

Originally Posted by Brag

Welcome aboard this nest of ruffians, Howdog. You may want to check out my webbie where a lot of tactics for SH3 & GWX are discussed.

...now that I look I see that I've already snooped. Some very interesting tips there, one or two I've already planned to use as soon as I can get back into the boot.

thx
HD

[Captain Nemo]

Originally Posted by Tom

If I've understood the sytem correctly, with 100% difficulty, you would get something like 340 for a large tanker, 60 for a tramp steamer, and 120 for a destroyer. With only 50% difficulty you'd get only 1/2 of the above numbers.

Not quite, you're right in that at 100% difficulty you get full renown but at lower realism settings it is not as straight forward as that. For example:

0% realism = 25% of the renown value
25% realism = 43.75% of the renown value
50% realism = 62.5% of the renown value
75% realism = 81.25% of the renown value
100% realism = 100% of the renown value

The reason its done this way is because if you decide to play at 0% realism you still earn renown. I have devised a small spreadsheet in Excel that works it out for you.

Nemo

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Captain Nemo

Not quite, you're right in that at 100% difficulty you get full renown but at lower realism settings it is not as straight forward as that. For example:

0% realism = 25% of the renown value
25% realism = 43.75% of the renown value
50% realism = 62.5% of the renown value
75% realism = 81.25% of the renown value
100% realism = 100% of the renown value

The reason its done this way is because if you decide to play at 0% realism you still earn renown. I have devised a small spreadsheet in Excel that works it out for you.

Nemo

Oh, ok, that makes sense. My mistake, not checking the figures before posting. So the correct formula is:

renown = (25% + 3/4 * realism_setting) * ship_value

[HOWNDOG]

Well they're killing my little tub in the Dover straits. Everytime I go through it's worse and I'm still in 1940. Why don't the German ships go in there and clean it out!

Are there any Depth charts available for SH3? Particularily the English channel? I can't run. Can't hide. Can't fight back......and I sure as hell don't/can't go around.

thx
HD

[Zero Niner]

A bit late but...

STAY OUT OF DER KANAL!!!

[danlisa]

Originally Posted by Zero Niner

A bit late but...

STAY OUT OF DER KANAL!!!

That pretty much covers it.

If you feel you must run the Channel, for a challenge or something, stay close to the North Coast of France, you have the best chance of getting through there. Also, submerged 3kts + silent running during the day & surfaced at night at your best economical speed. Do not run at high TC when surfaced, you'll have the enemy on you before you know it.

BTW, it's only going to get harder.:rotfl:

It's much safer and actually quicker to go around the top of Scapa Flow.

[HOWNDOG]

I was afraid you'd tell me that.Gotta go at least once more as I'm on the way home and have not the fuel to go around at this time. Let's hope the crew changed the batteries........HD