Back at the game - need tips

[Kapt Z]

My compromise is to choose 'manual targeting' and use weapons officer assistance for the target solutions. Feels like my tracking party is working the solutions while I(the CO) am steering the boat into the best attack position.

You lose the solution every time you move your scope or UZO off the target so you need to constantly ask for new solutions. This keeps you from getting complacent.

Even with these solutions you can still miss...

[ubootmate]

is catching up quickly!

1.) I downloaded Living Silent Hunter V 2015 and it is running just fine.
2.) I play at 98% realism (only WO active but not for torpedo solutions but just for identification of targets because I hate flipping through these clumsy recognition booklets trying to identify what ship it might be.


And after doing all the training missions easy and with excellence I have to admit: I just might be a downright lousy commander under heavy realism settings and maybe I should look to play something else more suited to my skill set.

I just started a new career and are halfway through my first patrol and I can't do ****.
Nothing.
I even received TWO seperate radio messages from headquarters reporting two small convoys (one in Kattegat the other in Skagerak area), both going slow (5 knots and 7 knots respectively) as a welcome present.
But I could not find any of them despite having them in viewing range numerous times. They were just gone in a hurry. I couldn't even get near them to at least try shooting a torpedo at them with manual solution.
You have an estimated general course and speed and I can't even get in a position to have a chance for an attack.
Bad, just very bad!

I seem to mix up viewing and bearing, I don't know. It is a completely different game without any help but obviously one I cannot master at my present state of knowledge.



I will to at least try to get to my assigned patrol grid so I can complete the ordered mission but by the way this is going, I start to lose enthusiasm fast.



I even used the trick to hunt by sonar and indeed identified ship sound but after submerging and racing to the picked up 310 degrees direction where the noise came from I found NOTHING, NIENTE, NADA. 7 hours All ahead flank for nothing at all.

This might become my shortest war career in SH3 ever...



Frustrated greetings from Ubootmate

PS: At least some nice sound bits from "das Boot" and way more radio traffic make this complete waste of time a little more worthwhile...
Great game - terrible player - bad pairing.

[ubootmate]

Originally Posted by Kapt Z

My compromise is to choose 'manual targeting' and use weapons officer assistance for the target solutions. Feels like my tracking party is working the solutions while I(the CO) am steering the boat into the best attack position.

You lose the solution every time you move your scope or UZO off the target so you need to constantly ask for new solutions. This keeps you from getting complacent.

Even with these solutions you can still miss...

My big problem really is that the (attack) map no longer has the ships, the angle and everything. It was manually doable with that help. You could aim and see how long the torpedo traveled, how much lead you had to give and could even adjust the torpedo speed so if you fire more than one torpedo they hit at roughly the same time. Now you don't even have the enemy ship in the map at all. You can only shoot by sight (UZO or preiscope) but you have no distance, no angle no nothing... You have a contact reported (sound or visual or radio message) thats it.

I can't even tell the distance anymore...
Accurate I know, because it was that way back then in reality but I can't really operate effectively with this little information so far...

I am completely useless at the moment and so is my boat!

[ubootmate]

Originally Posted by bstanko6

My videos are good for SH3 and 5! There is so much more to this game at 100% realism! Good luck!

Well, all of your videos I watched the last days DO NOT translate into my gameplay at all.
Not your fault - your vids are great.
I might be just too dumb to do anything with the precious information you gave to people like me who are eager to take it to the next level.
But I think my career playing on realistic settings might be over sooner rather than later and therefore the game in grand total because on easy settings like 63% it is no longer a challenge for me.


I even wrote down some of your formula and little wits and tricks, but without any success.


I can detect some ships within the 45 km circle by sonar which my sonar operator cannot like you revealed but that is basically it.

But even if I do find them I can't close in or catch up, let alone overtake them to get into a position to attack.
I have no clue about distance, bearing, heading, speed and whatnot.
I have everything written down from your vids but I can't use it or properly to make it work once I have a contact going.
They just slip away before I can do anything.
I can't imaging firing a torpedo without any clue at all if I can't even navigate and manoeuver to a possible attack position which is easy with all the TDS lock and map acutalisation but seemingly impossible for me without it....

Sad, just sad but reality is reality!

[Kapt Z]

Originally Posted by ubootmate

My big problem really is that the (attack) map no longer has the ships, the angle and everything. It was manually doable with that help. You could aim and see how long the torpedo traveled, how much lead you had to give and could even adjust the torpedo speed so if you fire more than one torpedo they hit at roughly the same time. Now you don't even have the enemy ship in the map at all. You can only shoot by sight (UZO or preiscope) but you have no distance, no angle no nothing... You have a contact reported (sound or visual or radio message) thats it.

I can't even tell the distance anymore...
Accurate I know, because it was that way back then in reality but I can't really operate effectively with this little information so far...

I am completely useless at the moment and so is my boat!

Can you put 'map contacts' back on? If you are feeling overwhelmed the first thing I would suggest is dialing back some of the 'realism' settings and then work your way up again.

Frustration is part of the game, no doubt about it! I had a patrol last week that lasted 45 game days and we did not encounter a SINGLE enemy vessel! Very realistic, but what a slog at 128tc!

[Hooston]

I gave up with LSH because it was too easy
The first mistake I made when I started with this game was confusing relative and absolute bearings.
The course of your boat is presented as an absolute bearing. i.e. the angle relative to true North
However the periscope and the hydrophone work in relative bearings, i.e. the angle relative to where the submarine's bow is pointing. When the crew see a target they call out its relative bearing.
The angle on the bow is the direction of your submarine as seen by the target and is relative to the course of the target
If you plot everything on the map it all becomes clear. It's probably a good idea to practice with map contacts on. There's an angle tool you can use to draw a line at an angle relative to another line, such as your course. With practice you can use all the various attack disks or even do it in your head.

With regard to the crew automation there isn't really a satisfactory solution. SH3 has three options:
(1) Auto target - lock on and fire.This is too easy
(2) Lock on and click the buttons to ask the weapons officer to do the aiming by setting up the TDC for the current periscope position. This should be most realistic but the weapons officer is waaay too good and it's just like option 1. In a similar fashion the navigator can draw the targets on the plot and the soundman can draw little lines but they do it perfectly.
(3) Do everything yourself. This means you are doing several people's jobs but does get rid of your unrealistic superhuman assistants. As time goes on you need less and less plotting on the map and you have time to strike some suitably rugged poses as the targets move smoothly into position.

[ubootmate]

..all the realism is fine but this is getting ridicolous.
19 contacts so far in my first patrol!
NINETEEN - with 3 of them small convoys with exact course and speed via radio message from BdU - targets handed out on a silver platter - but I barely have seen some of the ships on my watch periscope as tiny little dots before they vanished for good.

I get tons of hydrophone contacts by myself (45 km zone) as well as from my sonar operator (20km with ship type description).
Once I set course even on the surface at full speed the targets dissapear for good even those you were coming towards my position.
As soon as my operator reports a hydrophone contact I race down to listen to for myself and suddenly its gone or there is a signal but form a totally different direction.
No matter what I do I don't get ANYTHING.
Not one single target so close I could follow them or even overtake them.
I even engaged an aircraft just to be able to shoot at any enemy unit no matter if the boat gets bombed or not.

I will fullfill the patrol grid and then I drive around until our Diesel runs out...
Nothing else to do.
I have a feeling that this experiment is leading nowhere.
Kudos to all you people who have success playing at this realism settings.

I am incapable to do it.
Period!

[ubootmate]

Originally Posted by Hooston

The first mistake I made when I started with this game was confusing relative and absolute bearings.

I have no idea why it was so easy to navigate before and why it is impossible to navigate now!
The 4th convoy from radio message.
Easy 6 knots heading SSW!
I CANNOT navigate properly by just watching the lead freighter in periscope.
At one point the ship is just running away from me, no matter what I do.
Plus I have no idea where this single ship is in relation to me!
My course is straight East - simple 90 degrees!
I should be pointing straight in the side of the convoy who should be passing me and should show me their backboard side when they pass.
In periscope the lead freighter is in 358 degrees.
Where is this ship in relation to me?

I don't get it.
There is little dial with compass degrees in the lower part of the map I could use if I could only turn or flip it....
I am getting mad and this BS is really draining all fun out of this game.
Unable to navigate, nothing going...nice evening spend for naught!

[ubootmate]

..it was fun while it lasted!
Well actually it wasn't.


I invested considerable time and effort and for very little (if any at all) in return. I have to admit I was fascinated by the idea of playing this game close to real conditions but it turns out only few might be able to do so.
Since I obviously am not of the the few lucky ones I might as well do something else with my precious life time.

I managed to at least come close to 2 ships near the coast and even fired 2 torpedoes at each one of them but all four did miss the target.
Since I had no camera active I couldn't even tell how bad or how close those misses were and so learning from it is close to impossible.
Well nightfall, heavy seas and having not the slightest idea how far and how fast those ships were made sure chances were very slim to score a hit anyway.

After realizing that my bow is always 0 it is still hard to make something useful out of the numbers you get from your crew since there is no tool to adjust "ship in 267" given the fact that you go in direction 127 (which is 0) so 267 is everywhere just not close to 267 on your map.

While I barely started managing to manoeuver I am still light years away from having any realistic chance to get into position and score a clean hit on a blurred vessel in the periscope where I have no idea how fast it is going, which exact course it is following and what exact angle it has on my ship.

No wonder I didn't produce anything meaningful!

The option of playing again with map activated or TDS computed torpedo solutions is not an option - I mastered it time and again.

So I thank you all for your help, support and encouragement and hope you have a better grasp and more success than I had (which shouldn't be too hard to do) playing this game at high end realism!


I'm outa here!


Greetings from

Ubootmate