New SHIII

[Jonathan]

Hey guys,

I got started playing Silent hunter II and I thought that it was a good game..but this was years ago. I got the itch to start playing again, so I got my hands on Silent Hunter III and have been playing it religiously as much as I can given my schedule. Anyways, I found this forum and I wanted to introduce myself and ask you guys for advice on how I should go.

Right now, I play at "normal" 29% realism and I use the external camera and probably abuse it. I save the game pretty often...but that happened after I accidentally deleted my save game that was for a mission at the freaking southern point of Africa....gah. I started over in 1939 and I am crusing in style in my Type IIA...well, as stylish as a bathtub can get, and my current mission has me in AN16 raiding Scapa Flow for 24 hours...the Revenge is not there. I have been there was and put two torpedoes into it, but it did not sink.

Oh yeah, I have two medals...and I have given one seaman a promotion. Go my team.

[GoldenRivet]

good work, welcome aboard.

play with realism settings your comfortable with ... then when you feel better about your tactics and abilities graduate up to the next highest realism settings.

but thats the good thing abotu SH3 - its completely customizable.

[Umfuld]

Welcome

Ah, Scapa Flow. That brings back memories. I don't really have the patience to raid ports these days. And lack of patience is deadly in this game, mirite?


The best thing about SHIII is it's coming up on 3 years I've had this game and yet here you'll find no lack of people who still enjoy it and still find it challenging.

[Venatore]

Jonathan,

Welcome to Subsim. You will soon learn just how much this game has changed since it came out. There is a deep knowledge base lurking within these rooms so if in trouble ask (tactics, mods, why, how, when, who, what)

As for mods start looking, I recommend GWX and GWX patch. As for other mods there are many to select and all the modders here are a great asset to this forum.

A good place to learn the history of U-boat warfare is this place: http://uboat.net/

Once again welcome to the world of Subsim.

[Ivan Putski]

Welcome Jonathan, all kinds of mods, and help here.

[GoldenRivet]

Venatore is right about the mods, the mod community is one of the many things that keeps this game alive.

but personally i would recommend developing a deep appreciation for the game in its stock condition before installing any mods of any kind.

Once you think SH3 couldnt get any better, get GWX, SH3 Commander, Weather mod, and a few new skins.

then you have a real game on your hands.

There are some players out there who jumped right into GWX and started filing complaints right away... i blame it on the fact that they probably never played a single minute of stock sh3!

that behavior is the exact reason that my kids (one day) will have to become experts at

1. Atari pac-man, asteroids, and space invaders

graduate up to

2. Nintnendo and become masters at Mario brothers, silent service, donkey kong

graduate up to

3. Super NES - get good at a few SNES games

then

4. a few Xbox games

and then whatever console is the top of the line for their generation

the point im trying to make is that people who spent years putting up with games that are by todays standards - CRAP - but were good for us way back then have a deep appreciation for games out today like Half life 2 and Crysis etc.... if Crysis or something similar is your first gaming experience... you would be spoiled :rotfl:

[TarJak]

Wilkommen zum Subsim Herr Kaleun!

You sound like you are getting the hang of things. If you are comfortable with how you play don't get hung up with trying to play at a higher level of difficulty if you don't want to. Play at the level you are comfortable with.

You'll probably need more than two torps for a Battleship, although if you get a lucky hit which blows the magazine or fuel bunker you can get them with one.

Gute Jagd!

[Canovaro]

Hi and welcome!

[Jonathan]

Wow...a post after midnight and seven replies..this place must never sleep. And I am getting the hang of the game and I have actually been playing it for about a month. AS far as I know, I already made the upgrade to one later patch when I first installed the game, I think I am v1.4.

Also, I realized on one run into Scapa Flow that the Revenge Battleship can still fire all of her main guns even if she is listing heavily to port...too bad that was the LAST thing I ever realized because I went from there to "0 Living; 27 Dead'' and all that sad music.

Also, how do you guys feel about time compression? Is it a cheap way out?

[GoldenRivet]

without time compression this game would be a window into the insane.

there are players out there who limit themselves to 512 time compression or something slightly lower... and you tend to miss things when you zip from spot to spot at 1024X compression.

but unless you litterally have about an uninterupted week to dedicate to play - time compression is a MUST.

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Also, how do you guys feel about time compression? Is it a cheap way out?

Well, if you have the time for it... sailing around the planet at 1x time compression/realtime is cool... but it is not compatible with having a job and paying the bills, or keeping the wife/girlfriend happy.

In that respect it is not a cheat. Some realtime actual war patrols lasted up to three months. SH3 is just a game. It doesn't pay the bills.

All that being said... sailing at 1x compression gives you time to read, clean house, and other stuff. I enjoy 1x compression sailing because I find it relaxing... though it rarely mixes with my real life obligations. (Just speaking for myself, I've only gotten to PLAY SH3 rarely... been too busy working on it. When a test objective is completed... I move on to the next problem and the cycle repeats... at least until lately.)

I don't feel that using time compression should ever be viewed as a cheat though.

Once upon a time here, there were people that tried to convince the SH3 developers to NOT INCLUDE a "save game" option for the sake of "realism."

(No savegames... What a load of hogwash.) For those that play "hardcore" when you are dead you are dead. We won't reload a save-game to pull our bacon out of the fire. However, we will most certainly will save a game and come back to it to enjoy a long patrol over a few days in real time.

To each his own. You'll eventually choose a style that works best for you. When it starts to get boring... raise the difficulty/realism levels and start to learn how they did things in real life. Turning off that free camera... changes everything... and makes life a whole lot scarier!

[Umfuld]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Also, how do you guys feel about time compression? Is it a cheap way out?

It's not a cheap way out because enemy ships are MUCH more likely to detect you on time compression. Not to mention that you lose vital seconds (even minutes) in response time when your men spot something.

Basically if you are near an escort, even submerged, rigged for silent running, even if it's early in the war, they WILL detect you if you use time compression. Bet on it.
Probably my biggest complaint about the game. Because I don't really ever feel up for waiting, doing next to nothing, for hours at a time. (What can I say, I was part of the original MTV generation back in the early 80s )
But I don't think it's anything that could be changed, so there's nothing you can do I guess.

But if you have the time and patience to do every encounter real time it's pretty cool, I'll admit.


Also, about replies after midnight, I may be a night owl, but I think a very large % here are in Europe, so it's actually morning to them.

[Venatore]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

how do you guys feel about time compression? Is it a cheap way out?

It has it's uses, there was a guy who played an entire mission at x 1 speed slept & ate near the PC.

I use it when I want to get to a certain area to take pictures of a new mod I created (always looking for the perfect picture), so for me thats when I use it. As for playing it while in career mode, I can't answer that because I have to date never played a career, since the game came out all I've ever done is mod the game. I think I will start after the release of GWX 1.04.

[GoldenRivet]

i hear about "that guy" but does anyone know who he is?

i tell you what i would like is a full scale command room, complete with a few bunks mounted on a full motion platform.

Pack about 3 weeks of food and water, and play away!

that would be the ultimate in punishment! :rotfl:

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

i tell you what i would like is a full scale command room, complete with a few bunks mounted on a full motion platform.

Pack about 3 weeks of food and water, and play away!

that would be the ultimate in punishment! :rotfl:

Good Lord I hope you do not end up in the Type IIA...you'll starve, since I am sure that there is not 3 weeks of rations on that ship...let alone 3 months! That tiny bitsy cantina in the back so cute...it BELONGS in a dollhouse.