Big Tip: Use Map Contacts

[karamazovnew]

I've never used Map Contacts in SH3 or SH4. So I thought I'd go 100% with SH5. BIG MISTAKE

- Mast Values are wrong.
- Draft Values are wrong (or the 3d models, not sure which).
- The AOB has a little bug and does strange things when you use the stadimeter.
- No Gyro displayed.
- Blind deck crew.
- Deaf Sound man and no possibility of reporting contacts continuously.

However, with Map Contacts On, the game is actually ok. Changing course with the minimap now makes more sense, you can see the speed, range and easily calculate the AOB. You can also see where your torpedoes go so you don't need to use External views and Event Camera to figure out why you missed. Overall I'm now getting a more fluid gameplay and I suggest you all try the combination of Manual Targeting and Map Contacts.

It will allow you to Focus on the game's OTHER bugs

[himlaviz]

I did the same, usually play without map contacts on the map in SH3.

Focus on learning the new stuff in SH5 and try to have a good time, with time and patches I am sure one can go back to 100%

[Turm]

I've made the same mistake on my first patrol (100% minus external cam), so will be turning on map contacts once I'm back in port. It's just too much hard work at the moment!

I don't like 'giving in' and using easier difficulty levels, but it's probably justified in this case. Thanks for the tip - I think you've convinced me to give in

[Bosje]

besides, turning map contacts off makes the game a lot less realistic, so it's not actually 100% at all
you wouldnt be painstakingly drawing all those lines yourself in real life, there are crewmen to do that for you, it's just that the map contacts reveal far too much information which makes it tempting to turn them off altogether

[SabreHawk]

I've always used map contacts on since SH3, and realisim is at about 38% I think if I remember.

No im not into this 100% stuff, I like to relax and enjoy my game.

And yes as the Captain I aint supposed to be doing everything, I dont remember the Captain in Das Boot working all that hard at that sort of thing, that's what his crew was for.
In fact I only remember seeing him at the map table a couple times in the entire film.

Can someone explain how the difficulty settings works ? There is an option to tick and untick functions you want to have when setting realism, but when you try to begin career you don't have that option to choose except: easy, medium, hard, realistic. So frankly there is no custom option to make your own choices of realism.. ?

[lorka42]

when in bunker, you can hit escape and go to options and change things there.

[Turm]

Originally Posted by Bosje

besides, turning map contacts off makes the game a lot less realistic, so it's not actually 100% at all
you wouldnt be painstakingly drawing all those lines yourself in real life, there are crewmen to do that for you, it's just that the map contacts reveal far too much information which makes it tempting to turn them off altogether

Yes, I wouldn't draw the lines myself, but then I wouldn't ever man the hydrophone either, but I do that due to game limitations and lack of info from the sonarman when under attack. It's the same reason I have a higher work load when flight simming, as I never have a co-pilot or flight engineer to do certain tasks. In combat sims I don't have a bombardier either. In any case, I enjoy taking on all the roles to a degree

Part of the sense of satisfaction for me comes from challenging myself to learn new skills and use them successfully, hence why I prefer map contacts turned off and 'doing it all myself'. Not totally realistic, but that's not necessarily what I'm striving for. I'm looking for good realism in each aspect of submarine warfare (plotting, targeting, etc.), rather than a totally realistic captain-only experience. Each to their own, of course!

As gutted said on the last page, map contacts practically take all chance of missing out of the game, and as you said yourself, they give too much information.

With SH3 and OLC's GUI, I had a pretty high hit rate even from medium ranges and at awkward angles. I could probably do okay with SH5 if the stadimeter would work properly (well, if the ship dimensions were defined properly) and the crew were more useful. Oh, and if map plots were saved between games...

Although I might succumb to using map contacts on my next patrol, I guess that means I'll see all the sensor information too, like passive & visual range of targets - I don't think they fall under separate difficulty settings. That will make it incredibly easy to evade detection... having map contacts is one thing, but having all that information is another matter entirely.

I would much prefer that my own observations resulted in contacts being drawn on the map (automatically, by the crew) for indicative purposes or with some randomised inaccuracy, but without all the detailed and exact information provided as we currently see (heading, speed and so on).

There need to be more scalable options in that area - about what kind of information is shown by the map contacts. Oh, now there's an idea nobody could have ever thought of

You know, rather than map contacts counting for X% of realism (say 10%), each specific piece of data could count separately. 2% reduction if you have speed shown, 2% if you have the heading on, 5% if you have all the sensor information... you get the idea. The "map contacts on" option would just be the master switch to toggle them all on/off.

Ah, why am I singing to the choir anyway?

[karamazovnew]

I understand what all of you are saying. I feel the same way and I wouldn't play the game like this if it didn't have so many bugs. I don't mind calculating things manually, it's just that atm the game has a few bugs and design choices that limit our SH3+SH4 tactics. Map Contacts just gets things moving into the right direction again.

And by the way I've noticed something very interesting. The sonar actually displays very well. It updates all contacts in a circular pattern and it leaves gaps at the front and rear of the sub. It's quite nice. as for the sensor circles, I'm sure we can edit those colors to make them transparent. But they're a great tool to figure out how the game sees you. I just wish they wouldn't disappear when you go below a certain depth.

Also, clicking on a visual contact selects it. Maybe clicking a sound line would allow you to focus on it?

[Vreith]

Not sure if this is the right topic, but
I don't mind map contacts, i know the edge such as playing sh3 forwarding to a N/E position or more so the Grid used by kreigs back then

But one issue that im yet to find out, did try the "shadowing" as they did back in the day regularly reporting a large convoy I SIGHTED, in a mission i would of attacked, but i finished all my mission objectives way before time, well 2 months before, raking up a battleship in my kills, but here's the thing, i reported my shadowing every 2 hours or so, did this for a day, seeing if any other u-boats in near vicinity could catch in on the unguarded kills. but i heard nothing from Berlin/kreig HQ about the other boys getting my msg nor anyone showing up for a couple of days, so just started after shadowing for couple of days. before they got to far into the atlantic.

Sure enough being 1st 3rd of 1940 not as many u-boats scoutn around, but SURLEY 1 could of contacted saying will try to get in? etc etc.
but nothing.

I beg the question, why send my position away for enemy even tho enig not cracked by then to just be left alone and the whole wolf pack theory being pointless, i was hopping for boon in rank/skill points to dist from this but it seems a novelty

In anycase anyone else had these issues or does wolf-pack strat work with reporting at least once for them???



Also hi all new to the forums n all, didn't play SH4 but played SH3 late when in bargain bin for 20 AUD , best bargain buy i ever made, i now buy SHV and feel it could of had more polishing

Cheers
V