Patrol contacts?

[Platapus]

Unfortunately, not seeing nutton is part of the submarine simulation experience.

It does stynk at times.

[Wreford-Brown]

Don't forget that hydrophone range is affected by the quality of the crewman you have manning the hydrophones. The first qualification I give is to the sonarmen to increase their detection range. If this is your first war patrol then you may miss things due to your 'inexperienced' crew.

[Pisces]

Make a circle on the map with radius 34km (max hydro range) and compare that to the KM grids. It's still a needle in the haystack that you can perceive. It's better than just relying on visual detection, but don't expect things to get much more busy than normal. The seas are still a boring place.

Personally I rely much more on contact report icons placed on the map. Convoys are reported in radiomessages, and the crew-message panel. But single units or small groups only appear silently on the map. So you'll have to keep an eye on it.

I also increased the range in which they are reported to me: SH3_gamefolder\data\cfg\contacts.cfg

Display Range To Opportunity Radio Contacts=750	;[>0] kilometers
Display Range To Important Radio Contacts=750	;[>0] kilometers

Normally GWX has it on 250 km iirc. But I suspect the radio would be able to receive much further than that. And I want to make the decision of whether I am in range to intercept them, not BDU.

Aside from that, high time compression can make nearby units skip-jump over your 3d-bubble. Or jump really deep inside of it, with catastrophic results. (if it is a DD) Don't go full TC. Using it to prevent boredom might actually be counterproductive in this instance.

[RConch]

I accept crappy patrols because that is part of the realism. I run at 90% realism. If you research how many boats actually sank a ship on patrol, you will find it to be a very low percentage of the number of boats built and sent off. It is even less for those that sank more than 5 ships in their entire career.
Most boats were destroyed without even confronting a convoy or a single merchant by aircraft.

[nutworld]

Originally Posted by Pisces

Make a circle on the map with radius 34km (max hydro range) and compare that to the KM grids. It's still a needle in the haystack that you can perceive. It's better than just relying on visual detection, but don't expect things to get much more busy than normal. The seas are still a boring place.

Personally I rely much more on contact report icons placed on the map. Convoys are reported in radiomessages, and the crew-message panel. But single units or small groups only appear silently on the map. So you'll have to keep an eye on it.

I also increased the range in which they are reported to me: SH3_gamefolder\data\cfg\contacts.cfg

Display Range To Opportunity Radio Contacts=750    ;[>0] kilometers
Display Range To Important Radio Contacts=750    ;[>0] kilometers

Normally GWX has it on 250 km iirc. But I suspect the radio would be able to receive much further than that. And I want to make the decision of whether I am in range to intercept them, not BDU.

Aside from that, high time compression can make nearby units skip-jump over your 3d-bubble. Or jump really deep inside of it, with catastrophic results. (if it is a DD) Don't go full TC. Using it to prevent boredom might actually be counterproductive in this instance.

I have never edited my cfg files, I have located them but don't know what program to use to edit....

Thanks for the suggestion.

[nutworld]

Thanks eveyrone for the words of encouragement and helping to set my mind at ease that I'm not a complete moron for not finding the whole britsh fleet on this patrol.

As I stated earlier in this thread, I don't expect that it would be like shooting fish in a barrel, but using the SH III Convoy map and my two previous pre-war patrols where I did some pleasure sailing around the waters of England looking for where I might find targets on later patrols, I suspected BF 16 might be a decent place to start.

@ Rconch- Being a bit of a historian I suspected what you were saying was true and there were many subs who didn't have any success at all in sinking a lot of tonnage due to various things like time and the success of the allies by late in the war with new technology.

@ Wreford-Brown- Yes thanks to the advise of you and many others, I too give my first qualification to my radio room crew to increase their range. I have a Stabsbootsman with his qualification badge and 152 exp on my hydrophones and a qualified Matrosengefreiter with 2 exp on my radio in my radio room, just to increase the odds that I find a contact in these vast seas. Both crewmen have been with me on my previous 2 pre-war patrols, so hopefully this (now 23 days and counting ) patrol will aid them.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by nutworld

I too give my first qualification to my radio room crew to increase their range.

With SH3 Commander you can hand out all the quals you want in one move, as well as medals and badges. Before you start to think this might be unhistorical, I'll tell you (as a former radioman myself) that there is no such thing as an unqualified petty officer. Newly minted sailors may be randomly assigned (in the U.S. Navy we were trained and assigned to our future departments from the start), I'm not sure how the Kriegsmarine did it. By the time you were a third-class PO you were known by your qualification. All petty officers by nature are trained in their skill. The bottom line is that every PO on your boat should have that badge and the skills that go with it. SH3C lets you do that.

[nutworld]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Before you start to think this might be unhistorical, I'll tell you (as a former radioman myself) that there is no such thing as an unqualified petty officer. Newly minted sailors may be randomly assigned (in the U.S. Navy we were trained and assigned to our future departments from the start), I'm not sure how the Kriegsmarine did it. By the time you were a third-class PO you were known by your qualification. All petty officers by nature are trained in their skill.

I use Commander to do any promotions/ Quals Steve. It's a great program.

And yes you are very true, once you became a PO in the Navy you'd BETTER know your stuff. If you didn't you weren't going very far, except in distance ON the boat, not up the ranks.

SH3 Ship's Serviceman, USS D. D. Eisehnower CVN-69; 1990-1994

[Wreford-Brown]

Originally Posted by Pisces

Make a circle on the map with radius 34km (max hydro range)...

This is great advice

At the beginning of every patrol I run a hydrophone check by listening to one of the German ships around port and marking when I lose contact with it. This tells me what the maximum detection range of my hydrophones are with my current crew and allows me to draw a circle with x radius inside which I know I'll detect ships.

If I'm having a bad patrol I'll draw the circle, drop the eastern end of it on the Straits of Gibraltar and sit on the dot in the middle to wait for a convoy.

Originally Posted by nutworld

I have never edited my cfg files, I have located them but don't know what program to use to edit....

Thanks for the suggestion.

Try Notepad.