SH3 Newbie Guide, FAQs, Tactics & Tips, Links, & other helpful stuff - Page 29

firefighter26 · 05-27-10, 04:20 PM

I just started playing SH3; the lone copy of it has been on sale at my local game store for months, decided to finally picked it up.

I am not sure if I have come across a few glitches or if the game is working as it is designed too. I have a few mods installed, Real Uboat and SH3:World (going to download GWX 3.0 as everyone here seems to use it). This is what I have run into on a few tours (career mode)

1) Manning the AA/Flak Gun.

The boat I have, in career mode, has a AA mount (Type VIIB U-boat). When on the surface, close to daylight hours, I want to have the AA gun manned and ready, just in case. However, whenever I ask the watch officer to man the gun, some of my watch crew disappear from the conning tower. When I manually try to reassign them, my AA gun person automatically gets removed.

I could understand if there was an explanation that only so many people can be on deck at a time, but there isn't. 2-3 from the watch crew vs 1 AA gunner doesn't seem like a good trade (still have to keep watch)... well, unless I am actually being attacked by an aircraft!

Is there a way to keep a full watch crew and have the AA gun manned? I have more than enough crew members to fill both positions.

2) Watch Crew not reporting visual contacts.

Cruising up the coast of Norway on the surface, I was checking the various stations. On the bridge, which had a fully manned watch crew, including a watch qualified officer and senior. Doing my 360 and spot a fast moving destroyer bearing down on us. Cash dive, all ahead flank! Get to depth, ask the sonar to report nearest contact. Sonar reports no sound contacts. Slow the boat to give him a better chance to listen. 10-15 minutes go by, still no contact.

Up to periscope depth, do my 360 and the destroyer is on the same course, heading away. Ok, its dark. Maybe he didn't see me. Wait a bit, and surface to continue on my way.

Up on the bridge, double check that my watch crew is manned and again, the officer an senior are watch qualified. I can still see the destroyer moving away. Watch reports no visual contacts. About 10 minutes later, the destroyer is well off now, barely visible on the horizon when the watch officer reports it as a contact.

Makes me wonder how many merchants I have missed contact with...

3) the little boxes that appear randomly on my map. They appear to be hinting about where ships are, but there is no way anyone from my crew could have put them there as they are outside sonar and visual contact range. Is this that "gods eye" mapping option from the realism setting?

It can be pretty distracting, but in light of not trusting my watch crew and sonar operator (see #1) is seems to be a necessary evil to enable it.

I have a few more questions, but I'll leave it at these three for now.

I am definitely enjoying SH3 and I am glad I finally picked it up!

dfscott · 05-27-10, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by firefighter26

3) the little boxes that appear randomly on my map. They appear to be hinting about where ships are, but there is no way anyone from my crew could have put them there as they are outside sonar and visual contact range. Is this that "gods eye" mapping option from the realism setting?

It can be pretty distracting, but in light of not trusting my watch crew and sonar operator (see #1) is seems to be a necessary evil to enable it.

I have a few more questions, but I'll leave it at these three for now.

I am definitely enjoying SH3 and I am glad I finally picked it up!

I've never understood the whole "can't watch while manning the guns" either. I'm also not sure what's going on with #2.

But I can help with #3 -- those are contacts that are radioed to you from BDU. The idea is that other ships and/or aircraft have spotted ships and are letting you know. You usually won't get a message, but apparently your radio man relays the info to your navigator, who plots it on the map. They're key to having a successful patrol since they allow you to "see" outside your limited area.

Oh, and welcome, Herr Kaleun!

frau kaleun · 05-27-10, 07:09 PM

Ahoy and welcome, firefighter26!

Item #1 is normal behavior for the game and you will find the same applies in GWX. The watch crew IS your gun crew and vice versa - when you order the guns manned the game will have whoever is already "up top" do the job and the limit seems to be 1 officer and 4 POs/ratings up top at any given time. I do believe I've been able to have both the flak and deck guns manned at the same time, but that's about as much flexibility as there seems to be with it.

Re #3, sometimes you will find that if a convoy or task force appears on the map you will find a message about it has come in if you check your message logs. (I've noticed that this also gets reported to me by the appropriate crewman but if I'm running in TC it won't drop back to real time and give me an audible alert so usually the icon on the map is what first gets my attention.) Single ships, however, just seem to appear without any special notice being given other than the map icon, as you've already noticed.

I'm not sure about #2 either... I've never picked up a visual contact myself that my WO didn't also see and report on immediately. I don't know anything about the mods you're using so have no clue what effect they might have on this... is your watch crew not reporting anything at all, do they miss everything, or is it just an apparently random ship here and there that you can see and they don't? I know I've had ships that I could pick up through the UZO in bad visibility even though the WO had "lost" it and was reporting no visual contacts when asked. But that was always after he initially saw it and reported it.

Lord_magerius · 05-27-10, 08:49 PM

I've had #2 happen to me a couple of times, though as it's usually been when I've thought "oh, I should be intercepting such and such now, lets have a look out on the bridge" Probably too far away for my watch crew to see, given atmospheric conditions and the way SH3 works. The only time I've had it bad was when intercepting a convoy in the fog, no hydrophone contact for over 2 hours. I ordered the crew to surface the boat so we could plot a new intercept at full speed. 20 minutes later, "We're taking damage" I went up to the bridge and there I saw the A&B class 50m to port firing away merrily upon us. The watch crew still didn't confirm it as I sat there and awaited my fate, though none of them were killed during the attack.

And ahoy Kaleun Firefighter26

firefighter26 · 05-27-10, 09:27 PM

Yeah, the lack of visual contact concerned me. The destroyer was pretty much on a collision course! However, if the AI didn't see it, I wonder if it would have just passed right over/by me. Oh well, I wasn't going to stick around to find out!

I am really enjoying SH3 thus far. The GWX pack sounds very interesting, though I will have to do a complete re-install of the game. I'll probably do that some time down the road; I'd like to finish my current, and 1st, career!

Further on in the journey, I was cruising at PD when all of a sudden the event camera kicked on showing a plane making a dive bombing run. I was already at PD, but I crash dived and went to flank anyway. Heard a bunch of explosions overhead. Circled out of the area, back to PD to have a look around. Not far off is a tanker low at the stern. No sign of the plane, so I took a solution and finished it off with single torpedo at long range.

I didn't get credit for the kill during the cruise though, so I assume it was still "afloat" when I fired, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get a solution on it. But during the torpedo travel time the computer decided it had finally sunk.

Oh well, there will be more tankers, I am sure!

frau kaleun · 05-27-10, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by firefighter26

Further on in the journey, I was cruising at PD when all of a sudden the event camera kicked on showing a plane making a dive bombing run. I was already at PD, but I crash dived and went to flank anyway. Heard a bunch of explosions overhead. Circled out of the area, back to PD to have a look around. Not far off is a tanker low at the stern. No sign of the plane, so I took a solution and finished it off with single torpedo at long range.

I didn't get credit for the kill during the cruise though, so I assume it was still "afloat" when I fired, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get a solution on it. But during the torpedo travel time the computer decided it had finally sunk.

Chalk one up for the Luftwaffe, then.

firefighter26 · 05-28-10, 12:58 PM

Target Identification:

I am playing in the early stages of 1939, so unlimited submarine warfare has not been called for. I was tracking a coastal freighter in the western approaches. It was just starting to become light out, so I kept my distance and moved down its projected course to where I figured it would be. Once I got there, I went to periscope depth and waited for her.

I wanted a good clean shot so I made sure I lined up nicely to present a large profile to shoot at (having wasted two torpedoes the night before at attempted stern shots that narrowly missed the mark). Something didn't look right, so held off and waited.

She got really close. Danger close as far I was concerned as it was now light out. In the light I could plainly make out the Norwegian flag. I checked my messages. Had orders for open hostilities against British ships at sea; and another telling me to avoid British Capital ships unless in self defense. A third message said to be on guard for possible action from French ships.

Nothing about Norwegian shipping. So I went deep and let her move away. I did, however, zig zag across her course and found a nice C3 Cargo ship flying British colours later that day.

So, other than for my own willingness to play by the 'rules' does taking the time to identify the nationality of a ship play any significance later in the game? perhaps at a higher realism level, or with different Mods?

dfscott · 05-28-10, 03:54 PM

Ignoring that guy was smart -- sinking neutrals is generally bad.

In general, you only want to be sinking enemies -- enemies sunk will give you renown, while sinking neutral and friends will cost you renown (and can cause ships of that nation to treat you as hostile!). It can be tricky since it's often based on the date -- an enemy early in the war (e.g., France) can turn into a friend later, and then an enemy again!

If you're using map contacts and no special mods (such as GWX), the ships will show up on your map color-coded: red=enemy, blue=friend, green=neutral. In that case, you'll know right away if the target is a good one and won't have to worry about flags.

Quote:

Originally Posted by firefighter26

2) Watch Crew not reporting visual contacts.
Up on the bridge, double check that my watch crew is manned and again, the officer an senior are watch qualified. I can still see the destroyer moving away. Watch reports no visual contacts. About 10 minutes later, the destroyer is well off now, barely visible on the horizon when the watch officer reports it as a contact.

After saying I'd never seen it before -- I just saw this.

I see a merchant steaming along, but my WO says "No visual contacts". I believe this is due to the way SH3 handles zero visibility. When I asked the WO for the weather, he reported zero visibility, so that I think that's his way of saying "I can't see s&*# -- how about we just submerge before we hit something, 'k?"

firefighter26 · 05-28-10, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dfscott

After saying I'd never seen it before -- I just saw this.

I see a merchant steaming along, but my WO says "No visual contacts". I believe this is due to the way SH3 handles zero visibility. When I asked the WO for the weather, he reported zero visibility, so that I think that's his way of saying "I can't see s&*# -- how about we just submerge before we hit something, 'k?"

As long I wasn't the only one! I never thought about asking for a weather report to check visibility, though that might explain why the destroyer was able to get danger close without detecting me on the surface, then just steamed away when I resurfaced behind him.

05-30-10, 03:01 PM

First of all my appologies voor my bad English...

I bought Silent Hunter III and I can't find the Mission Editor.
It's a legal copy with key code, map and intstruction book.

I've uninstalled and installed again but no Editor....

Help

firefighter26 · 05-31-10, 12:48 PM

I believe the mission editor is a separate program that you run outside of SH3; but it is located in the same main folder. I am not 100% sure, but I thought I seen something that said "SH3 editor" or whatnot in the same folder.

I am sure there are lots of people here that would know better and would be able to confirm or correct me!

05-31-10, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by firefighter26

I believe the mission editor is a separate program that you run outside of SH3; but it is located in the same main folder. I am not 100% sure, but I thought I seen something that said "SH3 editor" or whatnot in the same folder.

I am sure there are lots of people here that would know better and would be able to confirm or correct me!

Great I found it !!

I thought it was in the game. The booklet is not good because it's not clear where to find the editor.

Tnx !!

firefighter26 · 05-31-10, 01:15 PM

Ok, came across something else that I am sure isn't 100% correct. I have the "real uboat 1.4" mod installed (probably switch over to GWX 3.0 this week).

Last night I was down to my last torpedo. It was a good patrol thus far, managed to put 7 British merchant ships of various size to the bottom, most within the same grid, entering the channel east of Dover were it bottle necks.

Anyway, figured I would take one last sweep through before heading home to re-provision. Found a nice Large Cargo ship. Did a classic end-round to get in front of it, it was early morning and I wasn't sure what kind of visibility she would have, so I submerged just off it what i projected its course to be and waited.

Sure enough, she came into perfect solution. She sailed almost perpendicular to me (90 degrees) at 600m off, moving along at 5 knots. Put my last torpedo into her, midship, good size explosion, visible fire on deck.

But, she didn't slow or sink. Ok, I figured I was going to have to do this the hard way. Surfaced the boat, matched her course and speed, stayed a steady 700m off her and manned the deck guns. Since it was getting light out, I also manned the flak guns.

Over the course of the next 3 hours (in game), probably 45 minutes to an hour real life, she followed the same course with some minor zig zagging, same speed and I just plodding along beside her pumping deck gun rounds into her (thank god for the time compression during reloading...)

Anyway, over the course of the morning (3 hours game time) I put over 40 shells into this ship. I stopped counting at 40. I put at least 10 HE and 10 Armor piercing rounds into her hull and water line (where it splashes just in front of the ship, but still detonates on the hull). Then I put another 10 HE rounds into her superstructure/top deck before randomly placing my shells. Some into her bow, her stern, top side, funnel, cranes, on deck cargo, pretty much everywhere.

At one point I was so frustrated I switched over the my flak gun in between reloading the deck gun and strafed up and down her decks with AA fire (which is probably against the Genvieve Convention, but it made me feel slightly better!).

I switch over and let the AI fire the deck gun for a dozen or so rounds, aimed at her water line. I was going to stay on station and pump every last shell I had into her, but a destroyer was sighted, coming in fast, so I crash dived and moved away (putting the still on fire, swish cheese cargo ship between me and the destroyer).

Any thus, my 8th and final kill of the patrol eluded me!

Are there any secrets to deck gunning that I missed in the tutorial? I know why my crew joined the navy, because they certainly wouldn't cut it in the artillery with reload times like that (I have "realistic reload times" enabled, but it was still pretty awful!)

Bummy · 07-12-10, 11:42 AM

Such an small question so I post it here. Will game count it as sink if it takes like 24 hours for ship to actually sink and my sub is by that time already far away?

Edit: Oh, and it's GWX Gold if that matters.

frau kaleun · 07-12-10, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bummy

Such an small question so I post it here. Will game count it as sink if it takes like 24 hours for ship to actually sink and my sub is by that time already far away?

Edit: Oh, and it's GWX Gold if that matters.

You need to be close enough to get a "She's going down" message from whichever one of your officers says it (I think the Navigator). When you get that message in-game, you get credit for the sinking.

You won't get that message if you are no longer within contact range of the ship, so if you do move that far away before the kill is confirmed you will not get credit for it no matter how much damage you did, even if it was enough to make a sinking inevitable over time.

05-27-10, 08:49 PM	#424
Lord_magerius Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Right by the hydrophone station Posts: 724 Downloads: 96 Uploads: 0	I've had #2 happen to me a couple of times, though as it's usually been when I've thought "oh, I should be intercepting such and such now, lets have a look out on the bridge" Probably too far away for my watch crew to see, given atmospheric conditions and the way SH3 works. The only time I've had it bad was when intercepting a convoy in the fog, no hydrophone contact for over 2 hours. I ordered the crew to surface the boat so we could plot a new intercept at full speed. 20 minutes later, "We're taking damage" I went up to the bridge and there I saw the A&B class 50m to port firing away merrily upon us. The watch crew still didn't confirm it as I sat there and awaited my fate, though none of them were killed during the attack. And ahoy Kaleun Firefighter26 __________________

05-27-10, 04:20 PM	#421
firefighter26 Watch Join Date: May 2010 Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada Posts: 17 Downloads: 2 Uploads: 0	I just started playing SH3; the lone copy of it has been on sale at my local game store for months, decided to finally picked it up. I am not sure if I have come across a few glitches or if the game is working as it is designed too. I have a few mods installed, Real Uboat and SH3:World (going to download GWX 3.0 as everyone here seems to use it). This is what I have run into on a few tours (career mode) 1) Manning the AA/Flak Gun. The boat I have, in career mode, has a AA mount (Type VIIB U-boat). When on the surface, close to daylight hours, I want to have the AA gun manned and ready, just in case. However, whenever I ask the watch officer to man the gun, some of my watch crew disappear from the conning tower. When I manually try to reassign them, my AA gun person automatically gets removed. I could understand if there was an explanation that only so many people can be on deck at a time, but there isn't. 2-3 from the watch crew vs 1 AA gunner doesn't seem like a good trade (still have to keep watch)... well, unless I am actually being attacked by an aircraft! Is there a way to keep a full watch crew and have the AA gun manned? I have more than enough crew members to fill both positions. 2) Watch Crew not reporting visual contacts. Cruising up the coast of Norway on the surface, I was checking the various stations. On the bridge, which had a fully manned watch crew, including a watch qualified officer and senior. Doing my 360 and spot a fast moving destroyer bearing down on us. Cash dive, all ahead flank! Get to depth, ask the sonar to report nearest contact. Sonar reports no sound contacts. Slow the boat to give him a better chance to listen. 10-15 minutes go by, still no contact. Up to periscope depth, do my 360 and the destroyer is on the same course, heading away. Ok, its dark. Maybe he didn't see me. Wait a bit, and surface to continue on my way. Up on the bridge, double check that my watch crew is manned and again, the officer an senior are watch qualified. I can still see the destroyer moving away. Watch reports no visual contacts. About 10 minutes later, the destroyer is well off now, barely visible on the horizon when the watch officer reports it as a contact. Makes me wonder how many merchants I have missed contact with... 3) the little boxes that appear randomly on my map. They appear to be hinting about where ships are, but there is no way anyone from my crew could have put them there as they are outside sonar and visual contact range. Is this that "gods eye" mapping option from the realism setting? It can be pretty distracting, but in light of not trusting my watch crew and sonar operator (see #1) is seems to be a necessary evil to enable it. I have a few more questions, but I'll leave it at these three for now. I am definitely enjoying SH3 and I am glad I finally picked it up!

05-27-10, 07:09 PM	#423
frau kaleun Rear Admiral Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Skyri--oh who are we kidding, I'm probably at Lowe's. Again. Posts: 12,706 Downloads: 168 Uploads: 0	Ahoy and welcome, firefighter26! Item #1 is normal behavior for the game and you will find the same applies in GWX. The watch crew IS your gun crew and vice versa - when you order the guns manned the game will have whoever is already "up top" do the job and the limit seems to be 1 officer and 4 POs/ratings up top at any given time. I do believe I've been able to have both the flak and deck guns manned at the same time, but that's about as much flexibility as there seems to be with it. Re #3, sometimes you will find that if a convoy or task force appears on the map you will find a message about it has come in if you check your message logs. (I've noticed that this also gets reported to me by the appropriate crewman but if I'm running in TC it won't drop back to real time and give me an audible alert so usually the icon on the map is what first gets my attention.) Single ships, however, just seem to appear without any special notice being given other than the map icon, as you've already noticed. I'm not sure about #2 either... I've never picked up a visual contact myself that my WO didn't also see and report on immediately. I don't know anything about the mods you're using so have no clue what effect they might have on this... is your watch crew not reporting anything at all, do they miss everything, or is it just an apparently random ship here and there that you can see and they don't? I know I've had ships that I could pick up through the UZO in bad visibility even though the WO had "lost" it and was reporting no visual contacts when asked. But that was always after he initially saw it and reported it.

05-27-10, 09:27 PM	#425
firefighter26 Watch Join Date: May 2010 Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada Posts: 17 Downloads: 2 Uploads: 0	Yeah, the lack of visual contact concerned me. The destroyer was pretty much on a collision course! However, if the AI didn't see it, I wonder if it would have just passed right over/by me. Oh well, I wasn't going to stick around to find out! I am really enjoying SH3 thus far. The GWX pack sounds very interesting, though I will have to do a complete re-install of the game. I'll probably do that some time down the road; I'd like to finish my current, and 1st, career! Further on in the journey, I was cruising at PD when all of a sudden the event camera kicked on showing a plane making a dive bombing run. I was already at PD, but I crash dived and went to flank anyway. Heard a bunch of explosions overhead. Circled out of the area, back to PD to have a look around. Not far off is a tanker low at the stern. No sign of the plane, so I took a solution and finished it off with single torpedo at long range. I didn't get credit for the kill during the cruise though, so I assume it was still "afloat" when I fired, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get a solution on it. But during the torpedo travel time the computer decided it had finally sunk. Oh well, there will be more tankers, I am sure!

05-28-10, 12:58 PM	#427
firefighter26 Watch Join Date: May 2010 Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada Posts: 17 Downloads: 2 Uploads: 0	Target Identification: I am playing in the early stages of 1939, so unlimited submarine warfare has not been called for. I was tracking a coastal freighter in the western approaches. It was just starting to become light out, so I kept my distance and moved down its projected course to where I figured it would be. Once I got there, I went to periscope depth and waited for her. I wanted a good clean shot so I made sure I lined up nicely to present a large profile to shoot at (having wasted two torpedoes the night before at attempted stern shots that narrowly missed the mark). Something didn't look right, so held off and waited. She got really close. Danger close as far I was concerned as it was now light out. In the light I could plainly make out the Norwegian flag. I checked my messages. Had orders for open hostilities against British ships at sea; and another telling me to avoid British Capital ships unless in self defense. A third message said to be on guard for possible action from French ships. Nothing about Norwegian shipping. So I went deep and let her move away. I did, however, zig zag across her course and found a nice C3 Cargo ship flying British colours later that day. So, other than for my own willingness to play by the 'rules' does taking the time to identify the nationality of a ship play any significance later in the game? perhaps at a higher realism level, or with different Mods?

05-30-10, 03:01 PM	#430
tehuurbij Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	First of all my appologies voor my bad English... I bought Silent Hunter III and I can't find the Mission Editor. It's a legal copy with key code, map and intstruction book. I've uninstalled and installed again but no Editor.... Help

05-31-10, 12:48 PM	#431
firefighter26 Watch Join Date: May 2010 Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada Posts: 17 Downloads: 2 Uploads: 0	I believe the mission editor is a separate program that you run outside of SH3; but it is located in the same main folder. I am not 100% sure, but I thought I seen something that said "SH3 editor" or whatnot in the same folder. I am sure there are lots of people here that would know better and would be able to confirm or correct me!

05-31-10, 01:15 PM	#433
firefighter26 Watch Join Date: May 2010 Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada Posts: 17 Downloads: 2 Uploads: 0	Ok, came across something else that I am sure isn't 100% correct. I have the "real uboat 1.4" mod installed (probably switch over to GWX 3.0 this week). Last night I was down to my last torpedo. It was a good patrol thus far, managed to put 7 British merchant ships of various size to the bottom, most within the same grid, entering the channel east of Dover were it bottle necks. Anyway, figured I would take one last sweep through before heading home to re-provision. Found a nice Large Cargo ship. Did a classic end-round to get in front of it, it was early morning and I wasn't sure what kind of visibility she would have, so I submerged just off it what i projected its course to be and waited. Sure enough, she came into perfect solution. She sailed almost perpendicular to me (90 degrees) at 600m off, moving along at 5 knots. Put my last torpedo into her, midship, good size explosion, visible fire on deck. But, she didn't slow or sink. Ok, I figured I was going to have to do this the hard way. Surfaced the boat, matched her course and speed, stayed a steady 700m off her and manned the deck guns. Since it was getting light out, I also manned the flak guns. Over the course of the next 3 hours (in game), probably 45 minutes to an hour real life, she followed the same course with some minor zig zagging, same speed and I just plodding along beside her pumping deck gun rounds into her (thank god for the time compression during reloading...) Anyway, over the course of the morning (3 hours game time) I put over 40 shells into this ship. I stopped counting at 40. I put at least 10 HE and 10 Armor piercing rounds into her hull and water line (where it splashes just in front of the ship, but still detonates on the hull). Then I put another 10 HE rounds into her superstructure/top deck before randomly placing my shells. Some into her bow, her stern, top side, funnel, cranes, on deck cargo, pretty much everywhere. At one point I was so frustrated I switched over the my flak gun in between reloading the deck gun and strafed up and down her decks with AA fire (which is probably against the Genvieve Convention, but it made me feel slightly better!). I switch over and let the AI fire the deck gun for a dozen or so rounds, aimed at her water line. I was going to stay on station and pump every last shell I had into her, but a destroyer was sighted, coming in fast, so I crash dived and moved away (putting the still on fire, swish cheese cargo ship between me and the destroyer). Any thus, my 8th and final kill of the patrol eluded me! Are there any secrets to deck gunning that I missed in the tutorial? I know why my crew joined the navy, because they certainly wouldn't cut it in the artillery with reload times like that (I have "realistic reload times" enabled, but it was still pretty awful!)

07-12-10, 11:42 AM	#434
Bummy Swabbie Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Finland Posts: 11 Downloads: 30 Uploads: 0	Such an small question so I post it here. Will game count it as sink if it takes like 24 hours for ship to actually sink and my sub is by that time already far away? Edit: Oh, and it's GWX Gold if that matters.