What level of realism do you regularly play?

[Zedwardson]

I aim for a fun, realistic game, and right now I am at 43 percent, but I could easily bump it up as

1) I should turn off unlimited fuel, as my patrols are generally short.

Basicily, I have the Auto-ID (I pretend that its the weapon officer going though the book and IDing the ship) and external camera (to do screenshots, and to watch if my eels hit on big ships.) and I have the "Alert" to give me hints on how exposed I am (I say that is the XO giving me warnings)

However, I play with all externals and other long term storage as Type 1 Steam torps, never reload the externals except in "deck gun weather" where I am on the surface at slow speed and cannot dive.

Since I am starting to get the hang of the game, after my current guy gets KIA or survives the war, I will be limiting my fuel and have the "realistic sink time" and perhaps "Realistic torp load time"

Originally Posted by Snestorm

Don't carry external reloads

Out of curiosity, why is that?

[Sucrose]

100% all the way for me. Anything less just feels wrong. It makes the game so much more exhilarating that way.

Sometimes I'll turn on the external camera while screwing around with new mods or whatever, but never while I'm on campaign. As a result, I always end up hanging around with my periscope sticking out of the water for far too long so I can stare at the pretty explosions and burning ships, and then I get spotted and shot to pieces.

I'm not a very good kaleun...

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD, Sucrose!

Originally Posted by Hans Uberman

Out of curiosity, why is that?

Most boats did not carry them early war.
Example: "Expended all torpedoes. There were 12 in all." Otto Kretchmer U99.
Hardegen U123 carried no externals during Operation Drumbeat.

Late war: Only the IXD2 bound for distant waters carried them (as in resupply for Operation Monsoon boats).
Late war VIICs did not even carry the 2 internal "extra reserve" torpedoes.
(8 bow + 2 stern = 10 in all)

But, the biggest reason I do it, is it gives me more historicaly correct tonnage, and it makes me earn it. Each boat gets it's own carreer, which in terms of tonnage generaly comes within realistic numbers. (I try to retrace historical patrol routes).

It can be interesting to have something like a IX(A) competing with a VIIB.
(Without external reloads, each carries 12 torpedoes!)

For me personaly, it's just about how late into the war I can survive DID from war's start.
(If I retire a boat to school status, the next boat starts with 0 GRT.)

[sharkbit]

IRL aircraft played a huge role. With the ever present air patrols, especially after the Atlantic Gap was closed and patrols were present there as well, sitting on the surface loading externals was probably a high risk bet with boat and crew. Probably better to save the weight for more useful payload.

I wonder how many boats were caught on the surface by aircraft while reloading externals?

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by sharkbit

I wonder how many boats were caught on the surface by aircraft while reloading externals?

That I don't know, but aircraft were responsible for the majority of U-Boat sinkings during the war.

I've been patrolling deeper in the Atlantic, and far away from land, so I don't think the external reloads are nearly the risk that they might be closer to England and later in the war. I may just abandon their use for the sake of realism later, if I am put more on the defensive near home. I like your idea for added realism! Thanks.

[timmy41]

Ive decided to turn external view on again, simply because I like getting screenshots so much. although I only limit myself to using it in situation when it would not give me any information I do not already know, like say, the sinking of a single ship I already have a visual on.

Originally Posted by timmy41

Ive decided to turn external view on again, simply because I like getting screenshots so much. although I only limit myself to using it in situation when it would not give me any information I do not already know, like say, the sinking of a single ship I already have a visual on.

It's nice to have memories to keep track of what you've done in past patrols. This is why I altered the realism settings so I can use the external camera without losing any percentage. I only use it to immortalize some of the scenery I've visited and occasional killshots. Self-control handles the rest, and validates my editing the settings.

[Sucrose]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

WELCOME ABOARD, Sucrose!

Thank you Sailor Steve!

Actually I lied about using 100% realism. I just remembered that I was using one of those assisted plotting mods that let me play on 100% with map contacts enabled at the same time. I just turned it off though.

It's so much more difficult now even though I'm only in August 1940. Also, I made it even harder for myself by editing the en_menu.txt and turning off the watch officer's superhuman range-finding abilities.

[Simdude]

I run GWX 3.0 and it says i'm at 81%...i use map updates and non-manual TDC. But that seems realistic, considering i don't have a crew in my living room that can manually pencil in map positions, or quickly do all the math for the TDC and range finding while i'm busy commanding the boat. If i had a buddy who hung out and helped me during my patrols, i'd probably go 100% realism.

[20000 Leagues]

I've altered the cfg to give me 100% because I use the Nav Officer and Map Updates. The reason I do that is because it seems more realistic to me to have members of my crew do their jobs instead of me doing everything. Despite that, I still plot my own courses for interception and calculate my own solutions for trickier targets. Such as going nose to nose with a DD or a zig-zagging ship.

[Red Heat]

When i talk about U-boot im talking about SH3 GWX 3.0 the best simulator about W.W. II. I don't care about sh4 or 5. And when i play sh3 i use to settings to 80-90% real why i don't play at 100%? Because its only a game...and i like to have fun when i play. To much difficulty spoil my Zen status when im in patrol!

[Rambler241]

I run at 60% - sounds low, but I just have auto targetting, map updates, stabilised view and external view turned on. The latter is to increase the "fun" aspect, like viewing attacking planes to see how your flack gunner is performing. I think there's a tradeoff between realism and what you're very unrealistically forced to do, like swapping fatigued crew around the boat, which in RL officers and WOs would handle. Also tracking distant (and sometimes not-so-distant) sonar contacts because your sonar man has very strict limitations on what he'll report.

I work hard at sonar tracking, and sinking targets with the deck gun - I expect a bit of slack in other areas of skill and responsibility to balance the whole.