Zero Realism

[Camaero]

Never. I am in this stuff for a realistic experience! (Or at least as close to one as I can get)

[KevinB]

The lowest I've played is 50%. I'm currently working my way up slowly and am at current 62%.

[Venatore]

o% only to take snapshots of my skins, so I'm not interupted, and If I need to go to a good snapshot location I can travel the world to get it.

BUT

When I captian U-657, I never play under 89%.

[peterloo]

NEVER. I started with 30% realism, then 50% realism. Now 70% realism (with God eye mode on, regular contact report, and auto TDC done by the game itself)

[Tijn]

Originally Posted by Corsair

The two things which took me a long time to get rid of were the WO assist and the map contact updates. Now the manual plotting and targeting are the things I find most interesting... Am now trying my first manual navigation patrol (no sub icon on the map) Having great fun, will make a post about it when I get back home. (If I find Salamis again...)

Can you tell me more about manual navigation? I'm would like to know about this, because it isn't a standard option in GWX, or is it?

[Jusa_Finn]

I played 0% realism possibly when started playing SH2.:hmm:

[fabel]

I've started with normal (34%) and slowly worked it up. I think that normal is very good to begin with.

[AVGWarhawk]

I started with using all the bells and whistles offered but that became boring really quick. I simply turned off everything with exception of WO assist and outside viewing.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Originally Posted by Corsair

Now the manual plotting and targeting are the things I find most interesting...

Same here, fully agreed.

Originally Posted by Corsair

Am now trying my first manual navigation patrol (no sub icon on the map) Having great fun, will make a post about it when I get back home. (If I find Salamis again...)

But this sounds like real hard core! I'd like to read your log from the trip, and read about the methods you used.

[LeafsFan]

As an avid AOTD player many eons ago, It set SH3 up so that it emulated AOTD for me.

HB

[GT182]

Nope, never. Set at 51% first time I played SHIII. It's at 54% now with GWX. Haven't figured out manual targeting yet, but that's what my Weapons Officer gets paid to do, same with the Navigator. And I like my camera views too. Like everyone else that has them on, it's the only way to catch some great screens shots of your career.

[swuboo]

Right after I first installed the game, I played at 96%. Nothing but WO. Lack of anything else wasn't really a problem because I already understood it all; mainly from reading Das Boot.

As long as someone else could aim my eels for me, I didn't really need unlimited anything, external views, or help on whether I should still be fleeing destroyers. Even on 96%, TC compression limits and the body language of the crew are crutches I am not entirely comfortable with.

I've been playing SHIII since the week before GWX released; and GWX since the day it released. I'm still not capable of aiming my own torpedoes, but as a firm believer in trial by fire, I started my fifth patrol in my current career this very morning at 100%. With a nomograph mod to help, I hope to hit a ship this patrol. If I don't, I don't. Que sera sera, y'know?

[Cap.Palla]

It's almost a month i play at 90% and i found the right combination for me ... unluckily i'll never be able to sunk 100K ....but i sunk a Illustrious class as u can see below

[Corsair]

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

Same here, fully agreed.

But this sounds like real hard core! I'd like to read your log from the trip, and read about the methods you used.

The methods used have been discussed on several threads and a good approach is to watch on You Tube the 2 vids named "Dantenoc's Hardcore Navigation in SH3"

The idea is that standard SH3 nav is like today's GPS nav : your position is shown in real time on your GPS map screen, you assign waypoints, and your GPS connected to the autopilot follows them.
In WW2 it was a little different ( even later, I started open sea sailing in the 70s and the only thing we had was radio-goniometry before the Loran-C which was not covering all of Europe)

First thing is to have "no map contact updates" so that sound contact lines don't show your position and tweak the zoom level at which sub icon is displayed, so that you can only view your position at the minimum zoom, which is then useless. You also have to replace your bearing overlay file by a transparent one. Of course no use of the plotting tool, as the origin of the line gives your position away.

When in view from land you make coastal navigation - more difficult than IRL because less features to take bearings on but enough to make "island hopping" in the Aegean...
When not in view from land, you simulate use of sextant to have a fix either on sun or polar star. I do it at sunrise, 12h00, sundown and midnight. After checking I can see the sun or the polar star, I use the Ctrl-click function to bring my sub position under the cursor at max zoom and mark it. Using this method, I have never been more than 3 kms from where I thought I was.
When weather doesn't allow it (cloudy, fog...) you have to make an estimate on the map based on bearing/speed/time. I have been now for about 4 days in heavy winds/heavy fog/clouds (in the Med !!) and am doing manual estimate. So far didn't collide with land ...

Main problem comes from the inability of your qualified helmsmen to keep the boat on course when surfaced. The waves tend to bring your boat off course (realistic) but your guys are unable to bring it back (less realistic). The heavier the wind/sea, the more drift. Means that when you crank up TC - max 64 for me -, you have to keep an eye on compass (my 6 dials mod is helpful) and bring manually on course from time to time. By nice weather not difficult, by high winds better submerge most of the time and only surface to reload batteries.

I'm glad it's keeping me busy because on the "shooting side" it's a no-joy. I had beautiful weather for 11 days but didn't see or hear anything... Now I am in a good spot (Sicily/Malta/Lampedusa) region, I hear contacts all the time but can't do anything with the weather - rough sea - visibility 300m.
I was thinking of riding it out in Lampedusa and wait for better times, but like in real life find it safer to stay at sea rather than trying to make it to port with no visibility and some doubts on my exact position...

Having real life navigation experience, I like it and it reminds me when in IL2 I first turned out the "minimap path" and had to navigate. Problem in SH3 is that harbour control doesn't give you a "vector to homeplate"...

[Cap.Palla]

I'd like to play as you do Corsair but i don't know how to use sextant ...is there any thread that explain how to use it? -and- How can i hide the u-boot plotted course on map? -and- really when there is heavy wind/sea you go out of course? I never noticed it.....