Where are the different ships?

[perky416]

Hi Gargamel,

What you have just said makes GWX sound fantastic. Exactly what im after.

The main thing that bugged me was how hard it is to destroy ships. I know its probably more realistic however i love going around sinking merchants with my deck gun to save on torps.

I restarted my career and was re-doing the training, i only managed to sink 3 of the ships before i ran out of shells.

A few more things that i dont like are how the design of the subs has changed, a few examples:
1 - When i am in the command room, there is a big pole which looks like the periscope directly in front of my helmsman.
2 - On the bridge to the left there is something that looks like a hoop that restricts my view.
3 - When using my binoculars on the bridge, the headings at the top of the view have disappeared, and also when using the binoculars and your facing the fornt of the sub, when you look as far down as you can you can actually see the front, however in GWX you cant, i found this really helpful when steering towards enemy ships.

Do you know if there is a way to change these in GWX? As what you said makes me really want to play it.

Thanks

[Gereke]

I haven't looked around to see if there are ways to revert the cosmetic changes you dislike. Yeah the Radio Direction Finder (Hoop thingy) can obstruct your view, which can be a pill since you aren't able to walk around on the bridge to get it out of your way. If you give it some time you'll get used to it. When I first started using GWX it bugged me a little but now I don't even notice it.

Things like the bearing indicator in the binocs were removed for realism's sake. Again, something you'll get used to as you play. Especially if your knowledge of relative bearings improves. You'll start to just know off of the top of your head that a contact at bearing 040 is going to be off of your starboard bow. These are things that even if you're not a hard core "Full Switch 100% Difficulty" guy will improve your efficiency as a sub captain. Also don't forget that you can use the UZO for bearings as well.

The deck gun issue..

Again, a realism thing. In stock SH3 it's waaaaaay too easy to hit things with the deck gun, and it's annoying that you can't man the darn thing unless the seas are practically flat. GWX does make gunnery more difficult but it also allows you to man the gun in slightly less than ideal sea states- if you wish. As someone who has fired weapons off of a pitching, rolling small vessel it's not as easy as some might think- especially if you aren't using gyro stabilized equipment. The key to sinking vessels in a timely manner with the deck gun in GWX is to try to strike the waterline as much as you can to create flooding. You don't have to hammer away until you get the "She's going down!" message. Some well placed shots will cause enough flooding to where she'll go down eventually.

Again, it's something that with practice you'll get used to and get pretty good with after awhile. You also have to keep in mind that sometimes spending a torpedo really is the best way to go about sinking your quarry. Remember, that after a certain point in the war deck guns started to get removed from the U-boats altogether because they became a useless piece of hydrodynamic inefficiency.

I'm a little pressed for time, so I can't elaborate further but I'm sure that others will be along to help get you sorted out and on the way to working around the things that have come as a bit of a shock to you.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Gereke

Things like the bearing indicator in the binocs were removed for realism's sake. Again, something you'll get used to as you play. Especially if your knowledge of relative bearings improves. You'll start to just know off of the top of your head that a contact at bearing 040 is going to be off of your starboard bow. These are things that even if you're not a hard core "Full Switch 100% Difficulty" guy will improve your efficiency as a sub captain. Also don't forget that you can use the UZO for bearings as well.

This is the kind of thing that really does get easier over time.

And there's also a keyboard command that orders the boat to head for whatever you're looking at - someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's the = key. So you point your binocs (or the UZO or the periscope) at something and hit that key and your course will change to head straight for that spot.

Altho in the case of a moving ship, typically if you head straight for it when you spot it in that way, by the time you get there it will be somewhere else. Usually it's best to head for somewhere ahead of it on its projected course.

[desirableroasted]

Not replying directly to you, Gereke, but you hit on a couple of points that are worth elaboration.

Originally Posted by Gereke

Again, a realism thing. In stock SH3 it's waaaaaay too easy to hit things with the deck gun,

Not only is accuracy overdone in stock, so is the power of the shell .. which is why we get a joker coming by here a couple of times a year bragging about sinking battleships with a deck gun. GWX corrects that.

Also, in stock, every ship tends to blow up like a munitions freighter. A real ship would never sink that way, and GWX takes care of that, too, by insisting on flooding.

Originally Posted by Gereke

The key to sinking vessels in a timely manner with the deck gun in GWX is to try to strike the waterline as much as you can to create flooding.

Or below the waterline. You want to see a splash and just enough time to doubt yourself before you see a (very) brief flash. 3-4 of those, spaced out along the hull, should sink anything under 5K. You might have to wait a while, though, which is one more "reality" that GWX adds.

[perky416]

Arghhhhhh how the hell do you defend against airplanes in GWX? I cant even do the training mission lol. It seems as though my flak gun is a pea shooter, i havent shot 1 plane out of the sky, getting one of the crew to man the flak has only shot 1 plane down.
Iv tried it about 4 times and now i feel like throwing my monitor out of the window lol.

[Jimbuna]

I'll give it a good home....I'll send you my address via PM

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by perky416

Arghhhhhh how the hell do you defend against airplanes in GWX? I cant even do the training mission lol. It seems as though my flak gun is a pea shooter, i havent shot 1 plane out of the sky, getting one of the crew to man the flak has only shot 1 plane down.
Iv tried it about 4 times and now i feel like throwing my monitor out of the window lol.

I was wondering if you'd get to the AA test in GWX. That's quite an eye opener, huh?

One of the things that GWX does to make the game more realistic is up the ante considerably when it comes to enemy aircraft. In RL they were a u-boat's worst nightmare, and there's no way a u-boat could've successfully fended off that many attacking aircraft. The AA training mission was made much more difficult to prepare you for the reality you'd be facing in real combat.

It's not impossible to shoot one down, or even two or three early in the war, depending on what type of plane it is and what weapons it has at its disposal... and how organized their attack plan is. And provided you are alerted to their presence in time. At least in the game, it can be done.

But most folks will tell you that the smartest thing to do when an enemy aircraft is around is dive as quickly as possible and hope they didn't spot you. Expecially as the war progresses and they are more likely to be equipped with radar and hunting you on purpose. By then they will know where you are long before you can see them coming, and when the come they will do so with both barrels blazin', so to speak.

[Schwieger]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I was wondering if you'd get to the AA test in GWX. That's quite an eye opener, huh?

One of the things that GWX does to make the game more realistic is up the ante considerably when it comes to enemy aircraft. In RL they were a u-boat's worst nightmare, and there's no way a u-boat could've successfully fended off that many attacking aircraft. The AA training mission was made much more difficult to prepare you for the reality you'd be facing in real combat.

It's not impossible to shoot one down, or even two or three early in the war, depending on what type of plane it is and what weapons it has at its disposal... and how organized their attack plan is. And provided you are alerted to their presence in time. At least in the game, it can be done.

But most folks will tell you that the smartest thing to do when an enemy aircraft is around is dive as quickly as possible and hope they didn't spot you. Expecially as the war progresses and they are more likely to be equipped with radar and hunting you on purpose. By then they will know where you are long before you can see them coming, and when the come they will do so with both barrels blazin', so to speak.

I didn't even seriously bother with the AA training mission. Loaded up WSM 3.0 and let the Graf Spee shoot down the planes

But on a more serious note, the planes are a real menace. Nowhere is safe... been killed a few miles outside of port by them before where its not exactly safe to "crash" dive

[eryan762mm]

in stock sh3 i rarely saw any large ships, rarely...when i put in gwx3, after a few patrols, i was sailing north of england, hugging the coast, and then i spotted two battleships, two! totally unescorted, i managed to sink both of them and get away...idk if it was just a freak accident i managed to find em, but all i know is gwx has drastically increased my sightings of larger military vessels

[the.terrabyte.pirate]

Originally Posted by perky416

Arghhhhhh how the hell do you defend against airplanes in GWX? I cant even do the training mission lol. It seems as though my flak gun is a pea shooter, i havent shot 1 plane out of the sky, getting one of the crew to man the flak has only shot 1 plane down.
Iv tried it about 4 times and now i feel like throwing my monitor out of the window lol.

My trick was to let my deck officer and a rating man the gun, set to target all aircraft incoming only. I concentrated of steering the boat in mad, sharp turns at high speed to avoid the bombs and bullets. By manning the gun yourself you find the boat tends to go in nice predictable straight lines, and your men turn into aircraft fodder.

I passed... barely, but didn't lose a man.

[Gereke]

Originally Posted by desirableroasted

Not replying directly to you, Gereke, but you hit on a couple of points that are worth elaboration.

I appreciate the elaboration. I was pressed for time when I wrote my response so couldn't be as complete in my explanations as I would have liked to.


One thing I'd like to add about deck gun use as well, is general insights about it's use.

If one thinks about when it's appropriate to use the deck gun, it's at times when there is very little risk to the overall well being of the U-boat. Meaning you're attacking an unarmed freighter and there is little chance of being attacked from the sky or by a escort ship you didn't know was just over the horizon.

So there isn't anything wrong with closing the range gap between you and your target to improve the precision of your shooting. Meaning, don't be afraid to close to 800m. You'll waste less ammunition due to misses and your probability of getting those below water line hits is going to be much higher. After all, you're attacking a single (or multiple) unarmed merchant ship. There isn't any risk so long as you don't collide with it. Basically, it's unnecessary and wasteful to make the engagement from a stand off distance.

Deck gun is great in an early war scenario, but there will come a point (even while using lower difficulty settings) that it is nothing less than suicide. So don't become too reliant on it. Focus on it for what it is... a secondary weapon.

A fun little game anecdote about deck gun usage. I used my deck gun to sink a freighter just off the coast of Iceland, in the approach area to Reykjavik. Just as it sank below the waves I was attacked by an aircraft and barely escaped being sent down to the locker. After I submerged I got a message from my hydrophone operator that a warship was in the area.. Medium range. I did a quick 'scope scan and sure enough, a Destroyer was hunting for me. Hindsight being what it is, I had taken a risk by choosing the deck gun over a submerged attack with a torpedo. I was lucky that my career didn't come to a wasteful end because I wanted to save a torpedo.

[perky416]

Thanks for all the info.

Iv decided to go with GWX, however i installed it after completing the training missions .

Thanks for telling me how to get the bearings back in the binocs, i can edit the files no problem.

Im going to be trying to replace the GWX uboat skins with those from the stock game, as although they GWZ ones are more realistic, it isnt that important to me, i was more comfortable with how they looked before i installed the mod.

[perky416]

Hi people me again

Iv just been playing GWX however after iv gotten into it it has started running slower on my machine.

Is there a mod that simply increases the amount of bigger ships (i.e. battleships, carriers etc...) early on in the career rather than modding everything else.

I actually do love the stock version however better ships to sink would make it much more fun.

Thanks.

[Gargamel]

You can either use the mission editor to find out exactly where things are going to be, or use the spy sat mod to find out where every thing is right now.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

You can either use the mission editor to find out exactly where things are going to be, or use the spy sat mod to find out where every thing is right now.

Correctumondo.