Returning from 1st mission in GWX my observations

[dalton74]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Another thing to bear in mind....your crew will not fatigue when in tc 32 or higher.

Hi all, i'm loving this game! But a few questions:

I'm having the same problem as Paulversisor64 the topic starter. (I don't see a single ship, it's very lonely).

Ok you say, when you speed up the time more than 32x you will miss ships?? Oef then the game will take ours to finish a career mission. Are you sure?

Explain me: why are the harbours empty? I don't see a single ship. In the SHIII without GWX, you will see "schnell boats" I don't see them. I have SHIII with GWX 2.1.

Can you help?
Thx

Have you enabled Black Sea or Indian Ocean campaign files in mods ?
ONLY use those if playing in the area

List installed mods pls

[danlisa]

Originally Posted by dalton74

Explain me: why are the harbours empty? I don't see a single ship. In the SHIII without GWX, you will see "schnell boats" I don't see them. I have SHIII with GWX 2.1.

Can you help?
Thx

What additional mods do you have enabled?:hmm:

If you are not getting any harbour traffic, I'll guess that you have enabled the optional Black Sea or Indian Ocean mods. If so, you have overwritten the Atlantic/Med campaign, so there will be no ships.

Edit - Crossed post!

Playing the game at anything under 256 TC (around traffic areas) is fine and you'll not miss many contacts. Only use higher TC to transit the Atlantic to the US, for example.

[dalton74]

Originally Posted by danlisa

What additional mods do you have enabled?:hmm:

If you are not getting any harbour traffic, I'll guess that you have enabled the optional Black Sea or Indian Ocean mods. If so, you have overwritten the Atlantic/Med campaign, so there will be no ships.

Edit - Crossed post!

Playing the game at anything under 256 TC (around traffic areas) is fine and you'll not miss many contacts. Only use higher TC to transit the Atlantic to the US, for example.

sorry for breaking in this threat:

Maybe i'm wrong but when I installed, GWX 2.0 and patch 2.1 the mod JSGME 2.0 came with it! When I click JSGME 2.0 I saw a lot of mods. I add them all. Is that wrong? Ill check to night. If I had the Black Sea or Indian Ocean mod enabled. Be continued.

[TarJak]

Welcome aboard. Yes if you enabled everything you have some conflicting mods that will change your experience significantly from what it should be.

That's what the manual is for. Give it a read so you know what mod in the GWX2.1 pack does what and which ones work together.

If you've added other mods on top of that then there may be other incompatibilities. They should all come with read mes to let you knwo what they do. If not I don't install them.

[Jimbuna]

@meduza

You should not get a bearing at 0 degrees.

@dalton74

If you have the merged campaign file enabled, there is no need to enable the Indian Ocean or Black Sea mods.

[Paulverisor64]

I have made it back from the 1st patrol in one piece. It is helpful that nobody was shooting at me.

On the way back I made several ship contacts. As some of these were made at a distance I tried tracking them down. I lost 2 of these ships before it dawned on me that the compass heading and bearing of the ship are 2 seperate things. I have a feeling that I'll have a slow start when the war begins. The tutorials set up a couple shooting at fish in a bowl scenarios; when the true to life type situations occur it will be very challenging.

On my way back it finally rained for the 1st time, and as a matter of fact it never stopped. Early on I thought the game didn't model rain because the thunder and lightning didn't include rain.

Perhaps I didn't do something correctly but on my way in the Kiel canal I chose the "Kiel Canal In" option and it layed out a pattern that most of the flags were not in the water in the canal. I thought that the button was going to be an automatic to the dock button. I ended up deleting all the waypoints and manually set them up.

When I arrived at Kiel it was past midnight and raining. The brass band earned their money as they played on while I fumbled around in confusion. I'm surprised they didn't A) get tired waiting and go home B) Stop playing and roll on the ground laughing C) Head for cover every band member for themself. I managed to get most of the compartments damaged and needing repairs. I don't know how close to sinking the U-boat I was but I played a considerable amount of bumper pool.

I just didn't know what I was supposed to do when I got there. I tried parking by another submarine. I tried docking at the far and near side of the dock. I tried manuevering my U-boat on top of the Kiel on the map. I didn't see a lit up motel like sign that said park it here. I finally stumbled on my way out of the situation as I was in the process of saving and exiting.

On to the next exciting adventure!

[Kielhauler1961]

Perhaps I didn't do something correctly but on my way in the Kiel canal I chose the "Kiel Canal In" option and it layed out a pattern that most of the flags were not in the water in the canal. I thought that the button was going to be an automatic to the dock button. I ended up deleting all the waypoints and manually set them up.

If you don't click exactly on the centre of the "Kiel Canal In" point, it can give you a run-aground course. Same when you're leaving the dock going the other way, plot the course before you even start the engines. Remember that German beer is quite strong...

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by Paulverisor64

On the way back I made several ship contacts. As some of these were made at a distance I tried tracking them down. I lost 2 of these ships before it dawned on me that the compass heading and bearing of the ship are 2 seperate things. I have a feeling that I'll have a slow start when the war begins. The tutorials set up a couple shooting at fish in a bowl scenarios; when the true to life type situations occur it will be very challenging.

Yup, add your course and the hydrophone/periscope bearing together and subtract 360 degrees if over 360 degrees, that is the course ("true bearing") towards the contact. But you want to lead that direction a bit (trial and error) as he moves sideways. Increase your lead until he appears to stay on the same true bearing. That means you must do "sprint-listen-adjust course" every 15 min/halve hour or longer.

Also, you DON'T want to intercept him submerged, your electric engines are far to slow. Surface and flank or better "all ahead" (almost as fast but better mileage).

As for the Kiel canal, I remember somebody said to place a waypoint on the Kiel inbound point (before pressing the "Kiel inbound" order) instead of physically moving over it. Haven't tried it yet though.

[Leandros]

One thing to consider if you sense a lack of obvious sonar contacts is the personell presently at job at the the sonar/radio stations. If these are tired, or not specialists, they might not give you a feedback at all. Even when you request it specifically. It is a good thing to designate special sonar operators. My priority for these designations (only one additional per performed mission) is torpedo (reloading time), machinist (to move at all) and sonar. You get better performance if you let the officers qualify first. Of course, in SH3 Commander you can get around this by adding such specialities freely to the whole crew. Which some might find a little "cheety".....

Also, to designate repair specialists can be very rewarding. It makes wonders when you get hit to have a good repair crew. Has saved me a lot of times.....

[Jimbuna]

Also remember that Officers can have 3 qualifications, Petty Officers 1 (giving any more will make no difference) and crew get no benefit at all from qualifications.

[Paulverisor64]

Thank you for the advice concerning specialists. There were many times that I had the sonar position filled by a crew member with no experience. When I docked I gave out the machinist qualification to one of my crew. Hopefully this will minimize the go and stop situations.

Another note. This time out of the Kiel I used the preset Out of Kiel icon and I didn't have a course that ran aground. The starting spot was definately critical.

I had a bad surprize when I saved the game after the Kiel Canal. I discovered that the date was well beyond the start of WWII. So much for getting set ahead of time for hunting. I did not factor in the amount of time that gets added when at dock.

[Steeltrap]

The fatigue is one of the most annoying parts of SHIII. It's one area in which SH4 is a vast improvement (having a watch bill where your crew 'rotates' automatically is realistic and removes all the highly annoying moving of crew).

I find it so annoying and unrealistic that I always use 'no fatigue' via SH3 commander. Not realistic, either, but I find the issue of micro-managing my crew to be such an impediment I just couldn't be bothered with it. It's exaggerated further by the, in my opinion, unreasonably bad weather - your crew is fatigued more quickly when on the surface in bad weather.

Yes, you can change the fatigue cut in through SH3 commander (as has been explained). The trouble is your crew also won't recover from fatigue when you are at TC levels where fatigue doesn't accumulate, so you're on a downward slope once you start getting any fatigue.

As I said, I find it all so irritating I just disable fatigue. If it 'added' to the experience, or were better managed, I would leave it, but it isn't - so I don't!

[Sailor Steve]

Can't argue with that logic. But I do - not with you but with myself. I tried No Fatigue and I just kept having this nagging feeling I was cheating somehow. So I leave it on. But you're right, the SH4 crew management is much more realistic, and easier as well.

[Drakken]

Originally Posted by Steeltrap

Yes, you can change the fatigue cut in through SH3 commander (as has been explained). The trouble is your crew also won't recover from fatigue when you are at TC levels where fatigue doesn't accumulate, so you're on a downward slope once you start getting any fatigue.

Set the TC for "3D view" and "texture rendering" to 256 via SH3Commander, and the crew fatigue will fluctuate at that TC. By consensus, 256 TC is the optimal TC for time speed versus aircraft and ship contacts.