My map contact update dilema...

Benzin1973 · 04-20-17, 08:48 PM

This isnt really a question, more like a "reflection", i would like to hear your toughts on this...

Steam sais ibe played 531 hrs of Silent Hunter 3. Add to that the hours ibe played without launching the game from steam and therefore steam doesnt count them, (after patching with hsie fixes the game no longer needs steam to run), and the real number of hours ibe played the game are probably near 1k.

All this game time has given me experience, even using the harder mods like NYGM or GWX, i havent died in ??? i dont even remember, i never load a game, and i can hit pretty much anything i want, as long as its under 3.5km (by getting targeting data from plotting), i can plot perfect intercept courses to radio contacts, and conduct "textbook" 90º attacks.

Yep, i can do all this things. -Provided- the "No map contact updates" is Not checked.

All other realism setting dont make a huge difference to me, i can (and usually do) keep them off without major problems. But the second i disable map contact updates, my tonnage drops to about 30% its usual, i find myself almost ramming the ships (or ending up too far to shoot at them) and some times when i get chased by destroyers i only escape by the hair on a bold frogs head.

Ibe allways justified myself to have map updates on with "its just a convenience to avoid tedious plotting". But i have realized that all this time ibe played with map updates on, has made me so dependant on it, that now it seems i cant play without it. it seems my whole "style" of play and tactics are somehow totally dependant on those squares being there on the map.
Now i honestly admit, i really had no idea of how much of an impact map updates makes in the game. To me it now seems this feature should account for like 90% of the "realism value".

So i disabled the map updates some time ago, and im slowly getting better. And yes full manual plotting is tedious, not to mention i need to have my calculator handy to convert relative to true bearings, but im slowly getting better at it.

Of course the captains on those uboats dint have a magic-self updating map with them! so now that its gone, im playing more realistically! right?
But then i realize, the way to plot the targets course is dependant on asking my WO for nearest visual contact, so he gives me the range & heading (or i dont know another way at least). But in real life, how would he be able to give me that information?
So isnt this just as unrealistic as having map updates on???

Sure, as long as the targets are not too far away (say under 5-6 km) i can id them, get the course, and use the stadimeter or RAOBF disk to get the range myself, but there is just no way i can see a ship well enough to get this information when he is 18km away. Not even with MaGUIs 12X zoom periscope. So i have to rely on the WO to "magically" tell me.

So i wonder, how in the world did real uboats captains did it!?

04-20-17, 08:48 PM	#1
Benzin1973 Engineer Join Date: May 2016 Posts: 217 Downloads: 151 Uploads: 0	My map contact update dilema... This isnt really a question, more like a "reflection", i would like to hear your toughts on this... Steam sais ibe played 531 hrs of Silent Hunter 3. Add to that the hours ibe played without launching the game from steam and therefore steam doesnt count them, (after patching with hsie fixes the game no longer needs steam to run), and the real number of hours ibe played the game are probably near 1k. All this game time has given me experience, even using the harder mods like NYGM or GWX, i havent died in ??? i dont even remember, i never load a game, and i can hit pretty much anything i want, as long as its under 3.5km (by getting targeting data from plotting), i can plot perfect intercept courses to radio contacts, and conduct "textbook" 90º attacks. Yep, i can do all this things. -Provided- the "No map contact updates" is Not checked. All other realism setting dont make a huge difference to me, i can (and usually do) keep them off without major problems. But the second i disable map contact updates, my tonnage drops to about 30% its usual, i find myself almost ramming the ships (or ending up too far to shoot at them) and some times when i get chased by destroyers i only escape by the hair on a bold frogs head. Ibe allways justified myself to have map updates on with "its just a convenience to avoid tedious plotting". But i have realized that all this time ibe played with map updates on, has made me so dependant on it, that now it seems i cant play without it. it seems my whole "style" of play and tactics are somehow totally dependant on those squares being there on the map. Now i honestly admit, i really had no idea of how much of an impact map updates makes in the game. To me it now seems this feature should account for like 90% of the "realism value". So i disabled the map updates some time ago, and im slowly getting better. And yes full manual plotting is tedious, not to mention i need to have my calculator handy to convert relative to true bearings, but im slowly getting better at it. Of course the captains on those uboats dint have a magic-self updating map with them! so now that its gone, im playing more realistically! right? But then i realize, the way to plot the targets course is dependant on asking my WO for nearest visual contact, so he gives me the range & heading (or i dont know another way at least). But in real life, how would he be able to give me that information? So isnt this just as unrealistic as having map updates on??? Sure, as long as the targets are not too far away (say under 5-6 km) i can id them, get the course, and use the stadimeter or RAOBF disk to get the range myself, but there is just no way i can see a ship well enough to get this information when he is 18km away. Not even with MaGUIs 12X zoom periscope. So i have to rely on the WO to "magically" tell me. So i wonder, how in the world did real uboats captains did it!? Last edited by Benzin1973; 04-20-17 at 09:13 PM. Reason: accidentally hit the save button before finished!