Done Playing For Awhile

[Sailor Steve]

I'm done with SH3 for awhile, and maybe forever.

I've now started my fourth new career in a row. Each time I sail out of port and go to my assigned grid. Each time the weather turns bad. Each time I find I'm too old and tired to play the hours required for the weather to turn good again. Each time I'm forced to save in the middle of a storm. And each time when I reload the game I'm underwater and in a death dive. Every single time. It never fails.

Too many headaches. I haven't played a real career in more than a year, and now it seems I can't.

SH4 is much smoother, and I've never had a problem like that. But SH4 is still very incomplete, at least on the Atlantic side. It doesn't have the things I most enjoy, mainly SH3 Commander. I'll still fiddle around with it, because it's so pretty, but it's not the same.

I'll still work on the Ship Names, because that's an obsession I can't quit. And I may be in the position to buy a new computer soon. We'll see what happens then.

Sorry to be negative, but I'm very tired and very frustrated right now.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I'm done with SH3 for awhile, and maybe forever.

I've now started my fourth new career in a row. Each time I sail out of port and go to my assigned grid. Each time the weather turns bad. Each time I find I'm too old and tired to play the hours required for the weather to turn good again. Each time I'm forced to save in the middle of a storm. And each time when I reload the game I'm underwater and in a death dive. Every single time. It never fails.

Too many headaches. I haven't played a real career in more than a year, and now it seems I can't.

SH4 is much smoother, and I've never had a problem like that. But SH4 is still very incomplete, at least on the Atlantic side. It doesn't have the things I most enjoy, mainly SH3 Commander. I'll still fiddle around with it, because it's so pretty, but it's not the same.

I'll still work on the Ship Names, because that's an obsession I can't quit. And I may be in the position to buy a new computer soon. We'll see what happens then.

Sorry to be negative, but I'm very tired and very frustrated right now.

Good luck!

[ryanglavin]

Well friend, join the club. I was about 15 seconds from losing my 890K career from corrupt files.
System reset thingy saved it.

I'm giving this game a break... I can't deal with the stress anymore, heh.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Vendor

Good luck!

Yeah, there is that! I ran into a little money today, so tomorrow I'm picking up my second one in three weeks, plus some other goodies. So I'm not all doom-and-gloom, just about the game.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Yeah, there is that! I ran into a little money today, so tomorrow I'm picking up my second one in three weeks, plus some other goodies. So I'm not all doom-and-gloom, just about the game.

as always ....

[Flaxpants]

Well I must be lucky then so far as I haven't encountered any of the problems you're having Steve. Admittedly I've only been playing the game for a few weeks but I've given it many hours of my time and so far it seems extremely stable. I installed a mod or two that seemed to affect the stability, so I took them off right away and the issues were fixed.
Sorry to hear you're on a downer with SH3- I'm on an upper!

[Tolkemec]

To Steve: I feel you. I had the same problems over and over again, losing a lot of careers (and I know it will happen again). The issue of the savegames is unforgivable in a retail game, and it's something I really am angry about. It is usually this issue that makes me lose interest in playing SH3, yet after a while (maybe as long as an year), I just come back to my old Type IIa again. I've been playing this game since 2006 I think (that was when I first wrote in subsim, asking for help as usual).

Now I am VERY careful with my saves (you know I save a lot, so I figure I am just ok being a rider of permastorms). Never got the death dive pbl though (fingers crossed).

Now before I save I put TC to 1024 to see if there is a frame drop, If there isn't, I go to the nav map, go to TC 1, hit esc, then come back to the navmap without saving, then hit esc again and save game, each time with a different name. Then I copy my SH3 folder in a SH3backup folder. Yeah, its kind of a ritual... still it is working fine.

Before knowing that the savegame was actually an issue (didn't know of the subsim www), I once saved a corrupt file hiting ALT+TAB multiple times while in the loading screen. Eventually (don't know why), It worked. It took a lot of patience and complete lack of computing skills, but I *really* was very happy. I think (SH3 never told me what hit me), I got bombed by a plane in a mediterranean night one hour later, losing all hands. Oh well...

To Flaxpants: You don't know the extent of your luck, Flaxpants... but you're tempting your karma! You're attracting the unwanted attention of the Macbeth Curse to your SH3... do it at your own risk :-)

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Flaxpants

Well I must be lucky then so far as I haven't encountered any of the problems you're having Steve. Admittedly I've only been playing the game for a few weeks but I've given it many hours of my time and so far it seems extremely stable. I installed a mod or two that seemed to affect the stability, so I took them off right away and the issues were fixed.
Sorry to hear you're on a downer with SH3- I'm on an upper!

Glad to hear it!

Originally Posted by Panser

What exactly is the nature of the death dive, an uncontrolled dive that even blowing ballast can't save?

Exactly. You're very careful to save on the surface, nowhere near land, no ships anywhere around, and when you load the the game you are submerged and headed for the bottom at flanks speed.

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

I hope you'll still pop into the SH3 threads to offer your experience and advice, wisdom and wit

Oh I'll never leave Subsim. Even when I was homeless and couldn't play at all I was still here every day, posting from the library. This is only about playing, not about modding or posting.

[Kapt Z]

Sorry to see you go Steve. Know what you mean, though.

My old machine just barely ran SH3 and even then it couldn't handle GWX and I had pretty much given up on the game entirely about a year or so ago. Then we finally bought a new computer and now SH3 is brand new again! I can run GWX and a bunch of mods no problem, no graphics issues, no save issues, unbelievable difference!

I'll get SH4 someday, but with all the complaints I hear about SH5 I could play SH3 for years to come.

Good luck in the Pacific and give my regards to the IJN.

I can entirely understand. Oddly enough, bugged saves and lost careers are what stop me from playing SH4, and got me playing SH3. Have a good rest, you've obviously earned it!

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Kapt Z

Good luck in the Pacific and give my regards to the IJN.

No Pacific, no IJN. Strictly OM and one each of the three types of u-boats. It will take me forever to reach 1942, and my compulsive nature demands that I play in a strict chronological order.

Originally Posted by Vendor

other than time, money, or other circumstances,what would you do then..

Well, I could have bought an entirely new computer today, but, silly me, I spent the money on a second bass (far different from the first one, but just as good), a pair of speaker cabinets so our two guitar players could hear each other better on stage, and a bunch of peripherals. I could buy a computer tomorrow, but I'm actually thinking of a car. I haven't had one in five years. Or finally getting my poor old Kawasaki up and running again. I could still buy a computer Friday, but there is no way I'm missing this year's Subsim Meet. Saturday I'll be broke again.

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you'll eventually find a way to come back and enjoy the game.

I think I'll enjoy the game just fine, Except it will be SH4 rather than SH3. And who knows - that computer may be along sooner than I think.

I doubt it though. We still need a couple of new floor monitors and I'd like a crossover cabinet myself.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Strictly OM and one each of the three types of u-boats.

And here I thought you were gonna give 9D2 a whirl. I have to say, one reason i released what i have so far as a beta was too see how many people are really interested in it. Not that many are. I may just axe the project, or fold what's been done so far into TMO so it doesn't go to waste. Doing so may also help reduce the need for dual installs.

As for SH3. I have many fond memories playing this game, but the one thing that kills it for me, above all else, is the load time. Call it a personal pet peeve, but that super long load time bugs the hell out of me. Tantamount to scraping nails on a blackboard. It's like watching a web browser thats not responding, suddenly catch up to what it was loading 5 minutes after you clicked on a flash riddled web site. (single core cpu here at work)

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

And here I thought you were gonna give 9D2 a whirl. I have to say, one reason i released what i have so far as a beta was too see how many people are really interested in it. Not that many are. I may just axe the project, or fold what's been done so far into TMO so it doesn't go to waste. Doing so may also help reduce the need for dual installs.

I've already looked at it, and it's awesome. But as I said, I'm a little on the obsessive-compulsive side, and I have to start at the beginning of the war. I can't help myself. But I'll get to it, that I promise. It may take awhile though.

I'll tell you what. Since I'm still trying to set up mods for my OM career, I'll go ahead an try a 9D2 career immediately. It's not like I can't go back and start over anytime I want. I wasn't trying to dis you at all, and I know how hard it can be to pour your heart into something and have it be ignored. I have been playing music for 45 years now.

Sometimes I just forget about things from one day to the next.

As for SH3. I have many fond memories playing this game, but the one thing that kills it for me, above all else, is the load time. Call it a personal pet peeve, but that super long load time bugs the hell out of me. Tantamount to scraping nails on a blackboard. It's like watching a web browser thats not responding, suddenly catch up to what it was loading 5 minutes after you clicked on a flash riddled web site. (single core cpu here at work)

Different strokes for different folks. I can live with the load times, but only because I can spend that time talking to myself about other things that are always buzzing around my head. What makes me grind my teeth is waiting five minutes for it to load and then having the experience I described above.

[Ducimus]

Honestly, It won't break my heart in the slightest if nobody touch's it. Let's me off the hook for having to support another mod.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I'm done with SH3 for awhile, and maybe forever.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you'll eventually find a way to come back and enjoy the game.