Campaign Questions

[doomfreak777]

Hey guys,
I recently got SH3 off steam as it was pretty cheap and I am just wondering about a few things to do with the campaign;

I've only done 7 patrols so far as I have just started out, am I playing it correctly. Travel to patrol area on grid, and then just wait around for 24 hours and come back, unless of course you find something to kill which I have done most of the time.

Atm it's pretty much just cargo ships I am destroying, will I see more military ships as the campaign progresses?

Are all the missions set out the same i.e. Go to grid reference xy12 and patrol for 24 hours?

How long can I expect the campaign to last, in terms of patrols etc?

Hopefully those questions aren't too blunt, Im quite enjoying this atm its the first sub sim I have played. Currently I am playing on a fairly low realism setting but I hope to get into it once I feel a bit more comfortable with everything.

Oh and one final thing, are there any mods you would highly recommend that do not change the actual interface too much, as in visual mods that increase or enhance the atmosphere? I have checked the mods section of the forum and there are a fair few, just wondering if there is any particular one that won't affect my experience too much as a new player and that you recommend?

Thank you for any replies,
Will

[bigboywooly]

Welcome aboard

I guess you are playing stock SH3 ?

You dont have to return after 24hrs
spend 24hrs in the assigned patrol grid to get your renown then do as you please and go where you like
There are plenty of warships in stock mainly patrolling but also taskforc movements

You can do as many patrols as it takes till either war ends or you die
lol
Obviously the longer you spend at sea the less patrols you are doing

If you find SH3 stock easy enough and your computer is up to it pop over to the mods section and get yourself a supermod

GWX/WAC/NYGM and LSH to name but a few
They all enhance the game and add so much more
Personal choice is GWX but then am biased

Also grab yourself SH3commander - not a mod but a stand alone program that gives you greater control over many ingame items
And better interaction with your crew

Enjoy your stay

[pickinthebanjo]

yes it is patrol based, you hunt your way to your grid then patrol it, after that it is up to you. I usually follow convoy/shipping lanes as I travel back to port. If it is naval ships that your after the first battleship I sunk was the HMS Rodney and It was the center ship in a convoy headed for England. I have seen 2-3 Cruiser/Battleships traveling in convoys in my last career which lasted 26 patrols before I was retired by SH3 commander.

But if you want to rush things you could always attack a Task force or do a harbor raid. Both are very risky and there is no guarenteed chance of survival.

for mods I would have to recomend GWX3, SH3 Commander, New interior mod, and SH5 water. If you want to try something new I recommend trying out some GUI mods, OLC GUI is my favorite at the moment

[frau kaleun]

Welcome aboard!

The campaigns are very open-ended - yes, you get orders to proceed to a certain area and stay on patrol there for 24 hours, but you are not required to do this. However if you are playing stock you will get some renown for doing it, so why not?

What you do when you go out on patrol is really up to you, a lot depends on what style of play you enjoy and how much you want to try to stick to some real or presumed standard of "historical realism."

Some folks play with an "orders is orders" attitude, they go where they've been ordered to go and do their 24 hours and then continue to patrol in that sector until they must return to base to re-arm and/or refuel the boat.

Some folks go where they think the hunting will be good, period.

Some folks do a little of both - for instance I will proceed immediately to my patrol grid and stay on station for 24 hours, but after that I will begin to extend my patrol to adjacent grids at my own discretion.

Regarding types of enemy ships, historically speaking the prime directive of the German u-boat campaign in WWII was to attack and destroy the merchant shipping on which Britain was largely dependent and thus force her out of the war entirely.

Unless you go looking for the Royal Navy, or are assigned a patrol grid in a high military traffic area, you will probably encounter mostly merchant shipping early in the war. Great Britain simply did not have enough ships to provide full-time military escorts for merchant shipping, even after the convoy system was fully implemented. Also since there was concern about a possible attempt by Germany to invade the British Isles, many military resources were kept much closer to home than they might otherwise have been until the threat of such a seaborne invasion had passed.

However as things progress and the Allies have more and more ships to spare for convoy escort duty (not to mention dedicated ASW hunter-killer groups) you will no doubt see more and more enemy military vessels over a larger operational area.

In fact if you live long enough, you won't even have to look for them as they will surely find you!

I don't know about campaign lengths in stock, but I assume they last until you are KIA or decide to "retire." I don't think the stock game will retire you just because you reach a certain renown level or anything, but I'm not sure.

As others have already mentioned there are tons of mods available, best to see the threads about them individually in the Mods forum. However I will second the recommendations already made on specific mods and add that if you are going to do any modding, get JSGME to make it as easy and painless as possible!

[doomfreak777]

Thanks guys there is some really useful stuff there, informative replys

I just came off of SH3 for the night as I have just bought my first 'big' sub (to me anyway), I was out on a patrol and destroyed a cargo and armed trawler in rough waters with a thunderstorm. I was just patrolling around in super speed to get the 24 hours out of the way, when suddenly the time goes back to 8x and I am being attacked by a military ship... which was headed straight for me, I had no time to dive or anything literally so it hit me and I was destroyed

Retry that save tomorrow heh...

Anyway thanks for the ideas, I will probably come back and take a look at them tomorrow, I built my pc last year so it is more than capable of some of these mods, can't wait to try them out!

Will

p.s. this game makes time fly

[KL-alfman]

welcome doomfreak!

with SH3Commander installed you can change the time-settings to whatever you like. "suddenly" appearing DDs will then be no harm again.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by doomfreak777

Thanks guys there is some really useful stuff there, informative replys

I just came off of SH3 for the night as I have just bought my first 'big' sub (to me anyway), I was out on a patrol and destroyed a cargo and armed trawler in rough waters with a thunderstorm. I was just patrolling around in super speed to get the 24 hours out of the way, when suddenly the time goes back to 8x and I am being attacked by a military ship... which was headed straight for me, I had no time to dive or anything literally so it hit me and I was destroyed

Retry that save tomorrow heh...

Anyway thanks for the ideas, I will probably come back and take a look at them tomorrow, I built my pc last year so it is more than capable of some of these mods, can't wait to try them out!

Will

p.s. this game makes time fly

Why yes, yes it does.

Regarding "super speed" - if you only mean high time compression, you've already discovered that it's not that great an idea when you are anywhere other than completely friendly waters. And even there it may be inadvisable due to all the other friendly ships and aircraft in the area. A collision with a friendly ship in your home port is still a collision!

At high TC, when a dangerous situation manifests itself, it's often too late to do anything to avoid total disaster by the time you drop back into real time. This can include everything from attacks by enemy ships or planes (and they will get more numerous and deadly as the war progresses) to hitting a mine and not being able to order the necessary damage control before the ship is lost.

The general consensus seems to be that anything over 128 TC is where bad things are likely to happen too quickly to respond as needed, so use the high TCs sparingly and wisely and NEVER at a time when you cannot be right there keeping an undistracted eye on things. (There's also a possibility that patrolling at too high a TC can cause your crew to "miss" contacts they might have informed you about at a lower TC, which can mean you race through a patrol in record time but have fewer kills to show for it.)

But just in case by "super speed" you're also referring to the speed you've ordered from the engines - be aware that the highest setting on the engine telegraph, i.e. "flank speed," will burn through your fuel at a very uneconomical rate and put undue strain on your engines if used for extended periods of time. It's there for emergency purposes, to escape from an attacker or sometimes to run down a ship that you are hunting but in both cases should be used only for as long as absolutely necessary to achieve the immediate goal.

The second to lowest setting on the engine telegraph seems to be the most economical in terms of fuel consumption. Anything faster or slower than that is less efficient and will cause you to get less than optimum range for your available fuel if used for extended periods of time.

[Sailor Steve]

More on the "24 hours" thing: In SH2 all missions were single missions, strung together to make a "campaign". SH3 was planned to be similar, but got changed to a dynamic random campaign. The "Patrol for 24 hours" is what was left of that. In real life you would be assigned a grid and expected to stay there until ordered to go elsewhere. The renown for arriving and for staying is eliminated in GWX.

That said, some people (me) go and stay for weeks, even if they don't see anything, some do the 24 hours and move to better hunting grounds, and some never go to their grids at all, figuring they'll get more renown from sinking ships.

It's a game. What you do is up to you.

[Brag]

Welcome aboard, Doomfreak777

For tactics you may want to visit my kielman website

[doomfreak777]

Regarding "super speed" - if you only mean high time compression

Yeah thats the one, I pretty much never use flank speed like you have said although I tend to cruise with full ahead, however I have never got to the point of running down my fuel past the half-full mark but thats just because I don't stay out long enough I believe.

For tactics you may want to visit my kielman website

Ok then, I may head over there a bit later and see what youv'e got going on Could aid me in my hunting i'm sure!

In real life you would be assigned a grid and expected to stay there until ordered to go elsewhere. The renown for arriving and for staying is eliminated in GWX

Ok then that sounds alright, so in GWX are your objectives still to stay there for 24 hours anyway despite no renown?

I am having a bit of trouble installing the Generic Mod Enabler atm, I am trying to set up the target shortcut for my silent hunter 3 folder. However my silent hunter 3 folder is located in a subset of my 'steam' games folder as steam does not install the game directly to your program files. It is saying it cannot find the file path specified, even though it is one of the suggestions when I am typing the file path into the box. I'm on Windows 7 also.
I hope that makes sense but I may head over to the mods section on this one.

Is anyone here familiar with the steam platform?

Thanks for your help

p.s. just installed the sh3 commander mod, hopefully it works ha

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by doomfreak777

Ok then that sounds alright, so in GWX are your objectives still to stay there for 24 hours anyway despite no renown?

As far as the game is concerned your objectives are to do whatever you want. It doesn't matter at all.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome aboard doomfreak777

Try the mod after you've become accustomed to the stock/vanilla version of the game....I'm confident you'll enjoy the GWXperience

[dfscott]

If you find the "go here and patrol" bit too boring, you can try using SH3Gen. I've just started using it and have been having a blast with it. It's fun to get told to go into places I'd never go in my right mind. For example, last night I was told to sneak into Belfast and attack any ships there. Now that was exciting.

[Brag]

Originally Posted by dfscott

If you find the "go here and patrol" bit too boring, you can try using SH3Gen. I've just started using it and have been having a blast with it. It's fun to get told to go into places I'd never go in my right mind. For example, last night I was told to sneak into Belfast and attack any ships there. Now that was exciting.

Was Bernard the duty officer who sent you there?

[pickinthebanjo]

I know hey. I installed that and could not believe some of the things they wanted me to do