What a patrol we had, Herr Kaleun!! (pics heavy)

[Abd_von_Mumit]

No. I cannot stop myself from posting all these screenshots and data. Would you? I bet you wouldn't, if you'd just completed two patrols with 275k tons and 4 HMS's sunk with 100% realism settings in GWX.

So… I am proud sinker of (my "personnel file"):
– HMS Royal Oak (Revenge Class), 31000 tons (my friend Guenther says he did it, but he's a certain lier when drunk),
– HMS Southampton (Southampton Class) , 10725 tons,
– HMS Rodney, 36000 tons,
– HMS Nelson (HMS Nelson), 36000 tons.

All these sunk in convoys (not ports), all of them by TII torpedoes, 11 metres deep, magnetic pistol. Southampton I hit with only 1 of 2 torpedoes I aimed to her. All the others sunk after hitting with 2 torpedoes. I managed to hit with 1 torpedo another Revenge Class next patrol, but it didn't sink, Dido Class with 2 torpedoes, didn't sink, and missed some 8 torpedoes to other battleships (they go bloody too fast...). Usually when I spot a battleship in a convoy, I stick to it and try not to waste torpedoes to other ships (it's not always possible to stop myself, though...).

Some boring screenshots you find below (Goebbles boys didn't do well, vomiting all the time as the weather was not very pleasant to them). My graphic card (nVidia MMX) works very bad with SH3, so I hardly ever make any screenshots. This time I provide 2 screens of HMS Rodney:


Last look at the target and LOS!




Target hit, Herr Kaleun. Could we start submerging, please... It can become quite hot in here. Please, Mumit, let's dive NOW!!!




We're going home, comra... er... boys! "It's a long way to...!"




Let's tell Papa Doenitz what we did ASAP! Where's the damn radioguy again?!



Patrol 1st logs:





O! No Ritterkreuz? Well... Couldn't I have one, please? Ok, ok! Deal. I can take the promotion instead, Papa, so that my crew can now legally call me their Kapitaenleutnant.




O... My crew got some medals too?! But... Papa... Are you sure they really deserve it? Just after the first patrol? Well... my first too... but you see... I shouldn't spoil them too fast, don't you think so?



My realism settings


Next patrol in next post, as there are too many pics to fit in one.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

And the second patrol logs. That one was much less successfull, mainly because we got to selfasured, I think, and missed with way too many torpedoes. Also the weather got even worse so we couldn't use our gun as much as desired. And the convoys didn't pass our way so often. But the last one came staight to us with it's juicy HMS.


Patrol logs, summary and crew medals:

[Mooncatt]

jeeezuz wow thats one hell of a patrol!!!!!!!
well done very impressive

[melnibonian]

wow what a patrol. Weld done mate

[Jimbuna]

Nice sig mooncatt

A nifty looking patrol there

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Thanks, guys. I'm really proud of it.

What does 'nifty' mean, by the way?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

Thanks, guys. I'm really proud of it.

What does 'nifty' mean, by the way?

Stylish, very good, fine, excellent, substantial, sizable, you can look it up here:
http://dictionary.reference.com/

@mooncatt

Hmmmm....Danlisa you say :hmm:
I've heard of him
It's just that your sig looks a little like mine
:rotfl:

[Mooncatt]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Nice sig mooncatt

A nifty looking patrol there

thanx Jim, Danlisa made it for me coz mine sucked really bad
so again thanx to Danlisa (sorry off topic)

[mr chris]

Impressive patrol there

[Brag]

Spectacular! Pop the champagne

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Third patrol, absolutely longest ever, is over (log), and that one was really successful one with 230k tons sunk, 100% hull integrity left and noone wounded or even sick. It's a pitty that my second watch officcer was wounded during a fight somewhere in a pub when docked at Thalia, so he had to stay on land. But the new one that we took aboard is a nice fellow and hopefuly he'll be good at his job.

For almost a month and a half we did literally nothing. When passing Ireland managed to spot and sink two ships, and after that only vast spaces, water, iron can with us in and some more water. Nothing. Oh, and salt in the water too. That salt did something strange to our scope, like small crystals on the glass, that didn't want to go:




Thomsen, that came to port on our departure, is a lucky guy. He can play with his wife on his retirement while we get driven mad in the ocean of time passing:




After reaching our patrol grid EJ66 we found some fish there and after a week headed back to base. In the last moment decided to spent also some time around Dakar port, but the only thing we spotted there was this annoyingly noisy and - for God sake! - friendly neutral bugger:



After a month of sinking nothing we managed to close to Gibraltar. And on May 1st the slaughter began... Yes! We had to slow down because of our torpedo tubes getting to hot. God showed his mercy and awarded us with a legion of Large Merchants going to and fro with slow speed and none, absolutely none of them was neutral! Yes, Frogeaters and Five o'Clocks, time of your rule in Gibraltar is definitely over!

Some screens follow:

The map:


Report to Papa (I suppose he'd like to know where his favourite-almost-son-captain spenat last two months):


And some paper work I must do everytime after coming back to port (sooooo boring...):





My Ritterkreuz got a bit heavy with these oak leaves and swords (did the knights wear their swords on their necks? I really doubt it.), but looks quite stylish and I think Thomsen will shoot himself when he sees it.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Our fourth patrol (heading from Thalia at Cadiz back to home base in Wilhelmshaven) started very unlucky. I hope it's not a bad omen... A convoy contact was reported by BdU, so we headed straight to meet it. After approach we submerged and tried to get as close as possible, but we were spotted by a destroyer (a periscpe in a pitch black night), managed to fire only one torpedo from a long distance (missed) and immediately crash dived. That night we lost the escorts and WERE FOUND AGAIN three times. Three times we were depth charged for quite a long time and had hard time trying to evade them. But the luck was on our side again - they managed to hit us thrice, but the hull integrity is still 100% (sic!) and only periscopes and guns were partially destroyed. When we eventually surfaced in the morning, succeeded in all repairs and the boat is again flawless and floating... But the very first patrol night was quite terrifying.

I think they got angry for the previous patrol and now they'll do their best to find us at any cost. Considering leaving the area immediately... But the Large Merchants are such a temptation... Still thinking, officers drink and the crew is so silent... no jokes, no laughing, only fear in their eyes. We need a spectacular success to break the bad omen.

[CWorth]

Hmmm..something is really funky in your screens looking through the scope.

Ahhh I see it....no water is showing and you can see the entire boat almost flying in mid air and not just the upper section above the water line as you would see while looking through the scope.

What kind of video card do you have?I have not seen this graphics issue in some time.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Originally Posted by CWorth

Hmmm..something is really funky in your screens looking through the scope.

Ahhh I see it....no water is showing and you can see the entire boat almost flying in mid air and not just the upper section above the water line as you would see while looking through the scope.

What kind of video card do you have?I have not seen this graphics issue in some time.

It's known nVidia MMX card bug. I never see the water. I think it makes my game quite easier, cause I see ships sooner than others do, but there is nothing I could do about it. It's also the reason I hardly ever take any screenshots, as they look ugly and unrealistic. It also makes very difficult to see if a ship is sinking or not, cause you always see whole the siluette (spelling wrong, but I dn't know the proper).

But that has another very interesting side effect - as my computer doesn't have to render the water, it uses much, very much less of its CPU/RAM and is able to run the game. If I had a good card, I could not play the game, as then my computer would never run it. So if any of you has too weak machine, just buy nVidia MMX card and you'll finally get it.

PS Luckily when under water it's not transparent, it's only the surface that is invisible. So when I am submerged I can't see ****, and that is as it should be. Last patrol I experimented with water clarity and played once with '20' setting (very clear) and that's funny - at night while raising the scope I see the ship _better_ before its eye surfaces (the underwater ship part, of course) than over surface, if it's night. But I came back to '0' setting (water becomes like mud) so that it never tempts me to abuse this bug.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

I posted an idea for skilled modders to make the water surface for MMX-bugged players not transparent. You'll find it here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...525#post397525
Please post there if you feel it's a good idea or if you suffer from the same bug.

PS And for all who wish to suggest I'd rather buy a new graphics card and a new machine - I absolutely can't afford it, so it's not a solution for me.