Need help with a couple of things

[Stratos]

I'm on my first patrol, is early Septebmer 1939 and so far I get 3 merchants for 13000 tons in my type VII sub, is that good enough for a patrol? I ask cause I have no torpedos left, well I have two torpedos externally attached to the sub, but have no idea of how to load them. can someone help with this?
Also when I try to man the deck gun is empty!! No shells there so is useless, is that normal? Being at the beggining of the war some merchants will be a easy prey with the cannon, but I can't shoot it!!
Also I loaded SH commander, shouldn't this utility create a "life" for you? You know place of born, a bit of history??
Thank's

P.S. I'M USING GWX3.0 GOLD

[danurve]

Well if your [I] screen says you have externals, to load them make sure you have some crew (quals help speed) in the forward / aft compartments and use your mouse to drag the external into the holding spots, not the ready tubes. Then the crew will take over.
When you go to F10 double click on the shell and the crew should take over and load the gun. Maybe check your [I] screen to see if auto load is on too.
Commander can create a carrer, auto-select a name in the first screen. Look on the left side for create a new carrer.

[GoldenRivet]

The procedure for loading externals is easy

1. Ensure that there are a sufficient number of crew in the bow and stern torpedo compartments

2. Ensure that you are NOT rigged for silent running

3. Surface the boat

4. click the weapons officer and then click is torpedo loadout icon

5. click and drag one of the external torpedoes to an internal storage space (not a tube)

6. the external torpedo will "grey out" and when you mouse over it a timer will appear showing the approximate time to carry out the operation

7. the torpedo will load when it is transferred from external to internal storage

8. if you dive, the process will stop and must be started over again.

====

About the deck gun, shells were not carried in the chamber ready for firing the minute you surfaced... so you must click the shell icon on the lower right side of the screen to tell your crew to commence loading of shells, the counter will start once the first shell is loaded.

[melnibonian]

OK let's start with the easy parts.

1. To load the external torpedoes go to the weapon menu window and drag the external torpedo to the internal (empty) tubes. It will start loading after a few seconds.

2. The deck gun is not empty. You just need to load it manualy. To do that just click on the shell next to it.

3. With respect to your tonnage it is respectable and very realistic, although the amount of ships sunk depends on experience and realism level. Keep patroling out there and you will get better and better.

If you have any more questions give us a shout

[Stratos]

Ok for the torpedoes, but for the gun, the small shell on the lower right corner says zero! That's why I can't load the gun. In the wepaons manage screen says I have two boxes with 110 shells each of 88mm HE. But they are not available when I man the gun

[Threesixtyci]

Inside the manual for GWX, it tells you about the shells. They removed all the shells in the game except for the HE shell. the problem is that the game defaults to the AP shell, and being that GWX removed all the other shells, you have 0 of those. The manual goes on and tells you what you have to do to load the HE shell. Basicly...you put a crew on the deck gun, push F10, click on the HE shell with your mouse cursor, and your good for the rest of the patrol; otherwise the gun stays empty.

As for firing the deck gun, you need to put crew member on the gun, before you can fire it, manually or automaticly.... And putting crew members on the gun, removes them from the tower; minus the officer guy.

As for the history of your character and SH3 commander, that gets created after your first patol. On the pulldown menu, the first option, creates a webpage with all that miscellaneous info....

[Gunnar]

A tonnage of 13000t is very good for a patrol, especially for a 'novice' commmander.

I can't remember where I read it (maybe Station X by Michael Smith) or on an internet site, but I seem to recall that U340's first patrol resulted in no tonnage. Her total for her second patrol was one rubber dingy!

She was then scuttled on her third patrol by her Commanding officer!!

So all in all, I would think 13000t is a more than fair haul!!

[Sailor Steve]

Since most of the other questions have been answered, I'll just address this one:

Originally Posted by Stratos

Also I loaded SH commander, shouldn't this utility create a "life" for you? You know place of born, a bit of history??

Before you load up the game, start up Commander. On the bottom right is the link called 'Actions'. Click on that one, then click on 'Personel File' (or something close). You'll see your picture and all the details of your early life, as well as links to your crew, your patrols, and your tonnage score relative to real-life kaleuns of the same time-frame. These last only work when the patrol is finished, but the personal stuff can be viewed at any time.