Immersive techniques for the true subsimmer!

[bstanko6]

Unsure. I haven’t tested enough. But if it does and for sake of immersion, the depth setting would be too low for any logical attack. If it’s a patch I would believe it would be in effect.

[Tonci87]

Well you see, the guy who created the generic patcher created some of those patches simply because he could, and also in the hope that they might become useful in the future.

I see it like this. The game can only display 15m/s waves. If the patch does something to decrease the safe torpedo depth at higher wind speeds, then at a 60m/s wind speed I would be having premature explosions while looking at 15m/s waves. That would ruin my immersion a bit.
This is why I´m not using that patch.

[Lanzfeld]

But....

If 60 m/s DOES effect the reliability then I wouldn’t be launching any torpedos at ships in 60 m/s winds when I definitely would be in 15 m/s wind.

A ship with a 7 meter draft is a sure target at 15 m/s but at 60 m/s it is NOT according to the formulas.

I don’t really care about the graphics of it all.

This might need testing.

[bstanko6]

As turbulent as the North Atlantic is, I do use the patch and yes, as hard as it may be, I leave ships alone for immersion!

[bstanko6]

Breaking the Fortress

This is an awesome mission. I have done it too many times to count in SH3 and 5.

I will advise those of you who are willing to play this mission through SH5, using the utmost immersive detail possible, the way Prien did it. Consider me your mission advisor for the Scapa Flow attack!

DO NOT GO FURTHER IF YOU WISH TO TRY THE MISSION WITHOUT ASSISTANCE!

On October 8 1939 at 1100 hours Prien left Kiel for his mission. Of course, we cannot always decide when we can undertake this mission, but this is Prien's date.

He never attacked a single ship on his route to Scapa. His mission was to avoid contact at all costs with any aircraft or ship, friend or enemy. His need for secrecy was of utmost importance. The boat was grounded during daylight hours, and only surfaced and moved at night.

For immersion purposes, I do not attack ships while en route to Scapa, I remain radio silent the whole way there, and dive at dawn.

There are 3 entrances to Scapa; Holm Sound, Hoy Sound, and Hoxa Sound. You must consider the options before choosing though: Holm is located East, is least guarded, but is lined with mines and 2 coastal batteries, and several block ships, making this the most intense route in. Hoy is located at the furthest West, placing your U-Boat in a shipping lane as you go around the Flow to get there with more chances on being spotted, and is used by green destroyer crews for navigational training. This may put the most cunning U-Boat commander to the test to keep his boat quiet. Finally, Hoxa Sound is South, and is a highway of Royal Navy warships. It would take a pretty serious commander, with ice in his blood to navigate here!

Prien, along with Grossadmiral Doenitz carefully planned this mission for 2 weeks. It was Doenitz one chance to show Hitler, that U-Boat warfare was the only way to win this war. Prien had chosen Holm Sound. Reconnaissance photos were poor due to English weather, and the Holm Sound blockships were not readily seen until Prien saw them personally the night he entered.

Holm Sound mines and coastal batteries in SH5 are not mentioned by Prien in his KTB logs. I usually go the path of immersion and enter here. I use my obs scope underwater to look for mines. I asked my grandfather a while back if it was possible to see these mines underwater. Being a Chief in the USN pig boats, he advised me "mines are conspicuous things in the water. If you are shallow enough, and the moon is bright enough, it's possible." Now he was a radioman, but I take his word any day. So I use my scope underwater without fear of breaking immersion.

Prien enters Scapa, does several rounds in the Flow identifying his target, the Renown Battlecruiser. Prien notices a car with its headlights on, shining at him. It then turns away and takes off at high speed. Not knowing if he had been spotted, Prien assumes he is on a clock, and needs to get his work done.

Scapa Flow is basically dead once you are in. Most of the warships inside are "asleep" and will let you freely skim around at your own free will. However, there are 2 battleships inside. The Renown is one, and if you hit one, over time the other will come to life and fire upon you. There are some destroyers that will make their way in as well. Do the deed, and get out!

As he made his way out of the Flow through Holm Sound at approximately 0215 hours, he bottomed the boat for the rest of the morning until next sunset. He heard depth charge explosions and engines racing about all day and night.

When you make the trek out of Scapa, I do notice a bit more heavy traffic just East of here. I bottom the boat as well, and take a safer approach to travel at night. It is a long game to play like this but it sure feels good to get that battleship!

Hope you enjoy the mission. My source was google, and u-boat archive.com.

[Lanzfeld]

Maybe someone can do a simple test. I am not home so I cannot do it myself.

Somebody that has 60 m/s wind activated in the game (and actually experiencing that) can try shooting a bunch of torpedoes at 15 m depth. (.25 * 60) and see if there is a large failure rate (45%?) or if the game is treating it like 15 m/s wind and you have a 15%? Failure rate.


Would love to know if it’s implemented

[DieReeperbahn]

Originally Posted by bstanko6

@abaileyatd...

Awesome thank you for your addition. Yes there are the white buoys we need to stay away from when navigating and yes they have bell tones.

As far as lighthouses and light ships I was going to save those for a coastal navigation video I was going to make. But yes they are navigation points.

You did make a great point, I can’t remember if this is all ports but I do know Wilhelmshaven is wrong in the lights. It’s back wards! The red buoys should be switched with the green ones! I did not think of that but you are right.

And no the AI ships are basically scripted and do their own thing. Which is why commanders should be on the bridge when navigating harbors even with harbor pilot activated. I don’t know how many times I had to break hard to port/starboard because of this. Thank you!

Maybe all of the commanders here at subsim could chime in and tell us if the harbor buoys are wrong in different ports?

It seems only North America and a few harbours in the east actually follow RRR. Everywhere else in the world is opposite. It's like the Brits always driving on the wrong side of the road!

Great thread, BTW.

[XenonSurf]

TDW Generic Patcher (last version 168):
A lot of people here think this is just a mod, but it's far from that.

From its readme notes, the TDW Generic Patcher has been done to patch the most horrendous malfunctions in SH5 and to make the game ready for modding. It should not be changed by any means, rather use separate mods if you want to achieve something special (like higher wind speeds, more performing deck guns, torpedo behavior etc.). Essentially, the values set in this Generic Patcher may not be those you like, but they are those which will make the game work correctly.
Everyone ever wondering what flaws are in the stockgame 1.2 should read the entire patcher readme (v.168) to know.

You can do some changes in it however, like enabling the intro sequence or such stuff, but why should you...Keep it well as it is and don't mess with it


@Lanzfeld,
for the journal you need or TWoS installed or a modlist with the NewUIs 7_5_0 which contains the journal stuff. What you do: you save the journal in-game with a name and reload it each time you load a save. That's it, it will save messages, supermaks and navigation fixes. Destroyed shipmarks are sometimes saved but these are broken, even in WoS.

[Lanzfeld]

Thank you XenonSurf. I did figure this out. Even the destroyed ship marks bug.

[bstanko6]

Warning! Extreme Nerdery ahead... you’ve been warned!

[Markus Witt]

I just completed a patrol in TWOS. During this patrol I kept a log in the style of the real logbooks used and I tracked my progress on a gridmap.
It's a bit of work but quite good for the immersion. It slows the game down and it makes you think twice before making any decisions because of the work you put into it. Can't post the log as the file is too big.

[bstanko6]

Where did you get the grid map?

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by bstanko6

Where did you get the grid map?

Looks like the AOD map.

[Markus Witt]

Originally Posted by bstanko6

Where did you get the grid map?

You can find it in the download section.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=4833

[Markus Witt]

Here is a sample page of the log I kept. It's just an Excel sheet but unfortunately the file is too large to post. I can recommend to keep your own log. It's a bit of work but it slows the game down and adds to the immersion.