What is the attraction of SH3?

[Phobus]

I have been trying to play SH3 for about three weeks now and can't understand it's supposed attraction.

I started off with the basic game but found that I spent most of my time managing my crew. Not able to go above x32 TC because crew did not recover. Took an hour or two real time to get from W'haven to Scapa at walking pace 4kts, to save fuel in a type II.

Ditched that lot and reinstalled SH3 with the Grey Wolves mod. Started new career got out on patrol, still micro managing the crew.

Found a small coastal merchant. First torp hit but bounced off. Second hits, ship on fire. I surfaced to finish with gun and fired 180 rnds to no effect, had to stop because gun crew needed changing after every 4 rounds, exhausted. Fired another torp which missed. Silly me! I thought the green triangle meant I had a good resolution. Fired another which hit, it still wouldn't sink fired yet another same again. It's getting rediculous. Turn and fire stern torp which misses at 480 mtrs, aob 93, brg 180.

The result was that after 3 hours I had a boat with most of my crew exhausted an unable to comply with orders. Target eventually sinks about three hours after I started the attack. Three torps and 180 rnds to sink a small ship, what chance with something bigger?

Ditchhed Grey Wolves and started again with new install and the IuB3 mod. I started my next, new, patrol heading for AN16 but now I'm having to change my crew every 3 mins real time!! So I spent all of two hours this afternoon looking at my crew managment screen.

I am sure there is something good in this game but can't for the life of me see what it is. I'm obviously doing something terribly wrong and unless I can find the answer it's back to SH 1 and PTC for me.

Is there anyone out there with some practical advice?

I should add that I don't have a degree in computers so changing things in the data files is fraught with hazard so keep instructions simple please.

[Deamon]

Did you installed the patches ?

Deamon

[Phobus]

Patches???

[Deamon]

LOL, the official patch that fixes the issues with the crew managing for example:

http://www.silent-hunteriii.com/uk/updates.php

Enjoy

Deamon

[Phobus]

Daemon,

Thanks for the reply. I've d/l the patch SH III EMEA DVD v1.0 to V1.3 but get the following message when I try to install.

"This program cannot update the installed version of SH 3.....because of the following reason.
C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\data\Menu\en_help.tx t: unknown version."

I uninstalled the game and reinstalled with the same result So I uninstalled again and reinstalled from a SECOND DVD (I've got two copies of the game) tried to patch and am getting the same message.

Now I've had the game running before with the patch installed OK so have noe idea what's happening now.

I have the game running just (Win 98), on another PC so I copied the 'Menu' folder over to problem machine, still with the same result and same message.

[Deamon]

There are 4 different versions of the patch are you sure that you have applied the right one ?

Deamon

[Phobus]

Hi Daemon

Yes I d/l the

EMA DVD Patch 1.4b.

I've also tried it from differing download sites.

Is there any possiblity that it's a problem with my PC?

[Deamon]

Originally Posted by Phobus

Hi Daemon

Yes I d/l the

EMA DVD Patch 1.4b.

I've also tried it from differing download sites.

Is there any possiblity that it's a problem with my PC?

If it's not the wrong patch then i don't know what it can be else. Maybe you should ask on the SHIII forum.

Deamon

[Phobus]

Hi Deamon,

Problem solved.

I spoke with the UK tech support people who advised me to delete all the .txt files in the Menu folder the try to patch. It worked, but don't ask my what the problem was.

After that I added the IuB mod which seemed ok. Then I started a saved game. Talk about laugh, I found myself about 200 miles south of Lagos in a Type IIa!! You couldn't let me have a few galls of diesel could you to get me home?

Thanks for the support.

[Deamon]

Well, fine. Enjoy

Deamon

[AS]

There are "No Crew Fatigue"-Mods out there, too.

[fredbass]

The SH3 Commander mod will give you choices in Fatigue. A must for everyone.

[Onkel Neal]

Green triangle? What green triangle??

[Dowly]

I must admit that I want to know the answer too. I´m getting bored to the SHIII. One of the great things about the SHII was the way the waves rocked your boat. I´m not getting the same feeling in SHIII. I want to really feel it when the boat comes crashing down from the wave´s peak.

[Deamon]

Originally Posted by Dowly

I must admit that I want to know the answer too. I´m getting bored to the SHIII. One of the great things about the SHII was the way the waves rocked your boat. I´m not getting the same feeling in SHIII. I want to really feel it when the boat comes crashing down from the wave´s peak.

With all the mods i find it pretty enjoyable. There's alot what i could bitch about but i find it very exciting to see the war evolute and see my self forced to adapt to it. That's the realy nice thing about it. The dynamic campaign alone makes it worth playing imo. The whole dynamic environment gives a good feeling of participating in a war. And of course i just love to operate u-boats

Concerning the water, i found it thrilling somewhat. Especialy at the beginning i had often that thrilling feeling of being on the sea in my little Type II vessel. Overall SHIII is a major improvement over SHII. I guess i'm just happy and they didn't screwed it up that much as they did with SHII. I'm just happy to have a playable subsim again and looking forward to SHIV and V and embrace the devs approach of reusing the engine improve it. That way we can hope for a realy fine sim someday, after goten used to screwed up sims or what ?

Deamon