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GWX FEATURES: Below is a summary of major features and fixes from GWX 1.0, GWX 2.0 and GWX 2.1 — all included in GWX3 GOLD.
Optional Mods
16km Atmosphere — the radius of the 3D-rendered world in stock Silent Hunter 3 is 8km: objects beyond this distance are invisible to the player although the game still tracks their movement and status. This option increases the radius of the 3D world to 16km.
Alternative Flotillas — replaces the 11th U-boat Flotilla based in Norway with the 3rd U-boat Flotilla based in La Rochelle, France from October 1941 until September 1944, when the 3rd Flotilla historically deactivated and its U-boats left La Rochelle for Norway. The 11th Flotilla becomes available in Bergen, Norway upon deactivation of the 3rd U-boat Flotilla.
Enhanced Damage Effects — adds several effects intended to better simulate the effects on surface ships of hits by bombs, gunfire, and torpedoes, including:
Additonal and improved sound effects
Oil slicks and trails
Fires and Explosions — improved fire and smoke effects, large secondary explosions, more below-water explosion effects and bubbles as ships sink...
Black Sea Campaign — specific campaign files for the 30th Flotilla in the Black Sea
Indian Ocean Campaign — specific campaign files for the 10th Flotilla in the Far East
Integrated Orders — adds clickable icons to the screen so that the keyboard is no longer required, although all keyboard commands will still function normally (includes pre-set courses for Kiel Canal Inbound and Kiel Canal Outbound)
Open Hatch Mod for Type VII, IX, and XXI U-boats — opens the watertight hatch between the control room and the area with the Captain's quarters, the radio room, and the hydrophone room. You can see through the open watertight door into the next compartment. You can use the [Shift]+F2 key combination to walk through the open hatch between the two areas and observe the activities of the crewmen at their posts.
New Game Behaviors
U-boat Starting Locations — Stock Silent Hunter III U-boats always start their missions at dockside at a U-boat base. GWX modifies some U-boat flotillas so that you will start your patrol inside a U-boat pen.
Steering and Handling — causes your U-boat to react to its environment more naturally than in stock Silent Hunter III.
Engine Upgrades — top speeds (with and without superchargers) reduced to historical values
Fuel Capacity — the maximum range of each U-boat class has been increased to compensate for the SH3's world map being larger than in real life (so now Type IX boats can make a return trip to the U.S. coast)
Surface Ship Gunnery — improvements include:
More accurate gunnery from surface ships
Convoys fire star shells as soon as they suspect your presence
Convoys use all available combined firepower against you (including AA guns) if they spot your U-boat
U-boat Gunnery — improvements include:
Ability to spot aircraft is inhibited by visibility conditions and size of aircraft
Destabilized gun sight views will rock up and down as your U-boat pitches and rolls.
Hits by deck guns cause about 50% less damage.
Shell hits above a target's waterline will not cause significant damage compared to shots below the waterline, which cause the ship to flood.
Increase attack scope magnification — your attack periscope now has a maximum magnification of 10X rather than 6X to better simulate the actual capabilities of real-world 6X optics versus that of pixelated computer graphics
Type VIIC/4 'U-Flak' Conning Tower — The VIIC/4 ('U-Flak') conning tower is available to players in GWX starting in June 1943.
Crew Fatigue — an intuitive approach to managing crew fatigue and stress, while limiting the need to intervene in the daily operation of the U-boat.
Damage Model — ships in GWX can sink in three ways:
From flooding inside a ship that exceeds a critical level
From a critical hit that causes the complete destruction of one or more compartments
Losing too much overall structural integrity
Rotating KDB Hydrophone Receiver — adds rotation to the KDB on the forward hull so it rotates whenever the U-boat is submerged.
Rotating Radar and Radio Direction Finding Antennas — rotates the radar antenna
Late War Sensors — two new sensor antennas:
FuMB-3 Bali: All type VII and Type IX U-boats and their variants mount this antenna on their schnorchel starting in October 1944 as part of the FuMB-29 Bali-Anlage.
FuMB-37 Leros: All Type XXI U-boats mount this antenna atop their schnorchel starting in January 1945.
U-boat Upgrades — upgrade availability dates have been modified for better historical accuracy
Realism Enhancements
Grey ship icons — GWX uses the grey ship icons to force you to identify with absolute certainty whether your target is hostile, neutral, or friendly
Uniforms — GWX allows your crew to adhere to real-life behavior by giving players the option to have the medals and awards given to your crew to appear in their record books in base, but not while at sea
Hull Integrity Display — GWX does not display this value, so you will need to act more cautiously if you are damaged or you exceed your safe depth, since you cannot know for sure how much more damage you can sustain before sinking.
Covert Supply Ships and U-boat Tankers
GWX implements covert supply ships and Type XIV U-boat tankers as German ports, with the name of the ship or the U-boat written in blue on the navigation map.
Additional Charts, Handbooks, and Tools
Stopwatch repeater — all GWX views can repeat the stopwatch readout display shown in the periscope and UZO views.
Engineer's Report — GWX makes the engineer's report available at any time via a slide-out gauge.
Enhanced Navigation Compass — allows players to navigate their U-boat using a slide-out-activated, enhanced, high-precision navigation compass as well as the small navigation compass at the bottom right side of the screen in stock Silent Hunter III.
Nomograph — added to the navigation map (a nomograph is used to relate quantities in such a way that the value of an unknown quantity can be approximately determined given the values of the other related quantities).
U-boat Compass Rose on Small-Scale Navigation Maps — the U-boat's symbol on small-scale map in GWX displays a compass rose grid that allows you to see immediately the relative bearing of map objects and sensor contact lines.
Charts for the Navigation Map — additional charts include:
Atlantic Operational Map
Mine and submarine nets at U-boat bases
Conversion table: nautical miles per hour (knots) to kilometers per hour
Conversion table: nautical miles per hour (knots) to meters per minute
Attack Periscope, Observation Periscope, and UZO view — You can pull down the stopwatch receiver and a flag recognition quick reference sheet from the upper left-hand corner of the Attack Periscope, Observation Periscope, and UZO views.
Torpedo Graphics
GWX uses different colors to allow players to distinguish different types of torpedoes more easily (note - these are not the same colors used by real-life torpedoes).
Revisions to the Renown System
Initial Renown Points — Stock Silent Hunter III granted renown points for completing training missions, with a maximum of 1500 points prior to starting your first patrol. GWX gives you 1500 renown points to start your career without having to take the training missions.
Renown Points for Reaching Patrol Areas — GWX will award renown only for sinking enemy ships and shooting down enemy aircraft, with penalties for sinking friendly or neutral ships and shooting down friendly or neutral aircraft. This means GWX will no longer award renown for reaching and patrolling your patrol area.
Renown Points for Returning to Base — GWX removes the renown awarded for returning to base since a stock game bug prevented players from earning this renown.
New and Re-modeled Warships and Submarines
Order of Battle changes — historical additions/removals of ship classes from various countries
Additions include:
New battleships
New heavy & light cruisers
New frigates, destroyers, corvettes, minesweepers & torpedo boats
New non-player (AI-controlled) submarines
New Naval Auxiliary & Non-combatant Ships
Order of Battle changes — historical additions/removals of ship classes from various countries
Many new additions, including:
Fleet replenishment ship classes
New troop ships and amphibious assault ship classes
Hospital ships
New merchant ship classes
New passenger ship classes
New tanker classes
Sailing boats with fluttering/animated sails & other small vessels
Illuminated ships from neutral nations
New & Re-modeled Aircraft
Order of Battle changes — historical additions/removals of aircraft from various countries
ALL aircraft have been re-modeled and re-skinned in high detail, including:
Scout planes, patrol planes, airships and even an early helicopter
Maritime patrol bombers, medium bombers, heavy bombers, dive bombers, torpedo bombers & fighter-bombers
New features on aircraft models include transparent glass, pilot/crew models, accurate armaments and more detailed weathered textures.
New Artwork
GWX adds historically accurate ship paint schemes, based on photographs made during the war and other records.
New Weapons
Aircraft rockets — 3-inch (76.2mm) & 5-inch (127mm) HVAR "Holy Moses" rockets
New aircraft machine guns — light machine guns, heavy machine guns, and 20mm automatic cannon
Leigh Light — powerful night searchlight fitted to Vickers Wellington, PBY Catalina, and Liberator maritime patrol bombers
Minelaying Equipment — players can create minelayers in GWX missions and the GWX campaign by assigning Minen (mines) as a destroyer's loadout using the Silent Hunter III Mission Editor.
New Nations, Flags, and Aircraft Markings
GWX adds a number of nations, each with its national flag, merchant flag, or a combination of merchant flag and naval flag.
Terrain and Environmental Modifications
Terrain Modifications:
Heligoland
Scapa Flow
Kiel Canal
Suez Canal
Panama Canal
Environmental Modifications:
Barrage Balloons
Block ships / Shipwrecks
Buoys
Bridges
Dolphins
Lighthouses
Maunsell Forts
Möltenort U-boat Memorial
Piers
Shore-based anti-aircraft guns
Whales
New Campaign Items
Campaign Start Date — historically, U-boats began moving to their wartime patrol areas starting around August 15, 1939, so GWX has advanced the start of the campaign to August 1, 1939 to allow players to reach their historical patrol areas before the war begins.
U-boat Base Defenses — minefields, anti-submarine nets, and hazards to navigation (shipwrecks and/or blockships) now enhance the defenses of U-boat bases.
Expanded U-boat Flotilla Operations — GWX adds several historical flotillas and theaters of operation, including bases in the Indian Ocean, Norway, Greece and the Black Sea.
Scripted Campaign Enhancements — such as The Mediterranean War, Operation Weserübung, Operation Dynamo, Operation Neptune (the naval component of Operation Overlord), Operation Berlin, Operation Rheinübung, Operation Cerberus, Operation Rösselsprung, Operation Sizilien, the campaign to sink the Tirpitz and many more, including historical convoy battles…
New Single & Multiplayer Missions
Historically-based missions and hypothetical missions in the following theaters:
Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, and Baltic Sea
Arctic and Norway
Mediterranean Sea
Indian and Pacific Oceans
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Glad to se Subsim.com is still going after all these years. Haven't been around for a while and SH3 was the last PC game I bought. Ancient laptop and all that, so I'm pleased it still runs
I just installed GWX and it's made SH3 a whole new sim! Not only are graphics are superb but the technical aspects are unreal! I'm back to studying the manual to get my head wrapped around them.
A hearty Bravo Zulu to the Grey Wolves team for all their hard work!
I just wanted to say how much I LOVE GWX! I just joined this community and I am way super impressed. I haven't played the base version of SH3 in a good 5 years and that was with a faster computer, but lower graphics. Just got a 2nd best gaming laptop and am running Alex's take of GWX. Just leaving harbor is a treat! This is so amazing! I feel I've taken right-angles to our universe and I'm posting to a mirror one.
