Newbie Help - A little overwhelmed

[raymond6751]

You can use this pre-war mission to learn the controls without somebody dropping depth charges on you. When ready, head for home.

To make or move waypoints you have to first click on the map tool that would create waypoints. As you mouse over them, info should appear about what they are.

Once you have the tool selected, you can move or place waypoints in the way described by the earlier message.

Another useful tool is the ruler. It lets you measure distances and even leave the measure line in place.

Bon Voyage

[frau kaleun]

You can also click on the "Eraser" tool in the NavMap and use it to delete select waypoints.

First, use the SH3 manual as a mouse-mat. Then open the GWX manual and start reading what a true manual should look like.

And don't feel bad about not figuring out every little trick of how to do things, some folks play for years and don't realize where all the tricks and shortcuts are until someone else mentions one in here. SH3 has a pretty steep learning curve. As already noted, you can use your pre-war August '39 patrol (or the Naval Academy tutorials) to get the hang of things.

The crew fatigue issue can be a real PITA, especially since in RL a commander would not be expected to micromanage his men to that degree - the watch/duty schedules would be assigned and stuck to, there'd be no need to tuck dudes into their bunks when they got tired, lol. And even if there were that duty would probably fall to the bosun or whoever was responsible for day-to-day discipline among the enlisted men.

At some point if you want to give SH3 Commander a try (it's a wonderful standalone program for managing many aspects of the game, your career, and your crew) you can use it to "turn off" fatigue or choose from several different fatigue models. Some folks like the aspect of managing the crew more closely in-game, so it's up to you.

[Herr-Berbunch]

You don't have to rigidly stick to the patrol areas given, you can go pretty much where you like with no loss of renown - just remember that if you go into the Atlantic early on (August) there are no French ports open to you so you need enough fuel to go over the top of Scotland to return home - after Sep 3, channel bad! (Or press Esc)

My personal preference is 'no fatigue model' using Commander, like Frau said it's not your job to micromanage your crew!

Enjoy it, it isn't the easiest game to just pick-up and play, but it is worthwhile and it's nice not to have such frantic activity all the time.

One last thing - you do know to order the Nav to follow your planned route? We've all done it, several times, and even knowing we did it (or didn't do it) it doesn't stop us from doing it again. Nothing worse than plotting your route out of the harbour, set your engines ahead and plough into a quay or some land!!!

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

One last thing - you do know to order the Nav to follow your planned route? We've all done it, several times, and even knowing we did it (or didn't do it) it doesn't stop us from doing it again. Nothing worse than plotting your route out of the harbour, set your engines ahead and plough into a quay or some land!!!

Also be aware that when you are plotting a course in the vicinity of land, you should zoom in pretty close to do so.

Let's just say that some of the shorelines that look all nice and even when you're zoomed out a bit, are in reality all jagged and whatnot in ways that can only be seen when you zoom in on them, or when you run aground on them because there's a spit of land that juts out into the spot you plotted your course over top of without zooming in close enough to notice it. (For maximum thrills I suggest doing this and then ordering flank speed and retiring to your bunk for a nap.)

[flag4]

...reading all the advice just makes me want to play more!

@ frau kaleun - by the way frau, that photo of your printed manual is amazing - I WANT ONE TOO, but the cost....

it must be lovely to be able to flick thru when you need.

@ Akela:

As Id seen below some one said that jumping feet first into the game is quite hard, I'd have to disagree and say its the best thing you can do. Just like learning a language, immersion into the game is the best way to learn. What I mean by this is plan to go through quite a few Kaleuns(German for Captain incase you didnt know) at first. By this I mean, intentionally try to get them killed, do risky manuevers, hunt in risky areas (We all hate the Gibraltor strait and the English Channel). In this respect, you'll learn real quickly what to do and what not to do realisitcally (If your into playing the game very realistically like a 1940's German U-boat Kaleun would do. I did this when first playing (Along with asking. ALOT of questions and btw reading the GWX manual helps alot too, theres some pretty handy stuff in there, I'd also suggest reading the newbie bag of tricks sticky, its very helpful) and I can pretty easily say that within about 2 weeks, I had gotten most every control and tactic down pretty well (Yes Im not perfect, but I had learned everything well enough to play and enjoy the game alot)

But even after all of that, asking questions is the best you can do. Id have to say you now belong to one of the friendliest forums I've ever found on the internet (No I'm not kissing your guy's butts ) so dont be afraid to ask questions, even if you think its stupid.

Welcom Aboard! and Good Hunting Herr Kaleun

Now Sink Em All!

[Tessa]

Granted am tired as hell and about to hit the sack, one suggestion I didn't notice (or might have posted in a previous thread) was to go through the training accademy. Jumping feet first into the game is admirable, though you can get some of the basic game ideas down through the five different training exams (sadly the one you seem to be having the most difficulty with - navigation, the test is a bit buggy so its hard to complete every objective; despite that you can still pass the test and get an excellent for score). At first the game can be overwhelming in what you have to do just to keep your boat going where you want it to, in just a few weeks it'll become second nature and will be hungry to start focussing on tactics and learning good places to hunt.

Happy hunting

[timmy41]

I suggest reading through the GWX manual, its very well written and actually interesting to read. From it youll learn all the basics, even of attack and evasion. its ~600 pages but youll blow through it quickly, its not mini-sized font and there are lots of diagrams and pictures.

Originally Posted by raymond6751

To make or move waypoints you have to first click on the map tool that would create waypoints. As you mouse over them, info should appear about what they are.

Thanks for covering my ommision. I play so much that my brain does much on "autopilot" without conciouse thought.

[Alky]

One trick I didn't see mentioned here was when plotting a course with several waypoints and suddenly you get a contact close by, you can use the eraser tool to remove the plotted course, but holding "shift" while using it will remove all the waypoints at once so that you don't have spend time deleting individually while your contact waits for your torpedo

[Akela]

Thank you for all the advice, I will try these things today when I finish working.

FWIW, I did go through the Naval Acadamy missions (probably should have said that) so the one thing I think I can do is plot an intercept course and fire a torpedo. It's just that once you start your first mission you realize that's 10% of the game.

I'm going to read through the Grey Wolves manual today (in my cabin, don't want the crew to see me) and get back up on deck later today.

Thank you all!