Silent Hunter III Review

[Gixer]

Beetle,

Some basic points on Torpedoes and the TDC to remember.

Assuming your using Auto TDC.

1. Try and fire at 1000 meters or less (torp has to travel atleast 300m to arm) and at 90 degrees from target especially early on the war otherise you will just get duds and torps will glance off the hull at greater angles.

2. When you look through Periscope or UZO the little triangle changes colours from green through to yellow,orange and red. The close to red the better the solution your crew and TDC have and angle for the torp. Though I've yet to see it go any higher then yellow up the scale.

3.  Try and fire when the angle from the bor is within 20 degrees this will reduce the amount of angle the torp will need to travel. Though early torps can be fired from as much as 90 degrees maximium later models can fire upto 135 degrees.

4.  When you lock onto the target and TDC has the solution you can fire and forget. However instead of using the lock funtion  aim where you think a weakest part of the ship is, I usually go for below a funnel.  As where ever you aim the crosshairs on the ship is where it should hit. So unlock the TDC before firing if you have the time.

5.  If you have time always open the tube doors first for the selected tubes. This helps reduce firing time and I think reduces the lag during the firing process which may cause torps to miss stern of the ship in some instances.

6.  Torp settings if you can use magnetic pistol setting and set dept to 1 to 2 meters below the keel of the target ship. This also allows you to shoot at greater angles compared to impact pistol. However early on the war you will get a few duds until the later version torps.

7. You don't need crew in the torpedo rooms for firing only reloading and if you can have a officer with torp speciality or atleast as many WO's with torp speciality as possible otherwise torp reloads will take for ever and external ones not at all.

8.  Another point on external torp reloads must be on the surface and in calm conditiions.

9.  Don't leave the torpedo setting on salvo, I've accidently hit the return key  and lost 3 torpedoes    Now I always leave the aft one as selected during sailing.

10. Save the electrics for daytime, as the merchants will see the wake of the steam torps and try and avoid, of course if you have them set to fast and shoot within 1000 meters all they can do is pray.


If you come across a big convoy always send a radio contact. If there are Axis Air Units within range they will come in and put on quite a display.


...-Gixer

[Darkish]

Beetle, check out the subsim.com forum as well as the silenthunteriii site - you're not alone in befuddlement.  A couple of pointers for you:

i) The torps can guide themselves up to about 90degs from lauch. So no, you don't have to be pointing at the target to kill it but the closer to the perpendicular the torpedo's course is on impact with the target the better.

ii) I would reccomend entering all the data into the TDC station (F6) manually - to do it on the notepad in the scope seems all a bit of a rush to me: in order to get an accurate speed calculation the range and angle off bow has to be spot on, which means the target's got to be close to reduce errors.

I like to work out the targets speed way in advance and input it into the TDC.  2 ways of doing this on 100% realism;  easiest is to ask your wepons officer to plot a solution (vessel must be id'd first) and use his speed value, and the second is to time the ship over a set distance.

All that's left is to set up the shot you want, say 10degs off your port bow and 80degs starboard AOB for the target - here I'd be positoned at 90deg to his course and he's travelling from left to right.  If positioned at 45deg to his course I might want to shoot a bit sooner, say 75 AOB so my angle would increase to 30deg on the starboard side now (45 - 15).  

Back to the scope then, wait for the target to cross the predetermined bearing and "Losse"!

N.B. There are a shed load of commands in the command.cfg file that arn't assigned to keys.  After a days headscratching I've managed to amend it so that some more usefull ones are assigned keys.  I've got it so that from the bridge I can assign crews to the guns and engage targets as and when I say along with specific aim points (hull, waterline etc).  The nav officer now promptly responds to my inquirys for depth, max range and snaps to it when I order a return to course.  The sonar operator and Watch officer are most help regarding the bearing of the closest contact.

And all this is done without touching the keyboard or mouse in game, all done with voice commands.  It is so sweet!

[Fishu]

Originally posted by Saintaw
Wow... talk about a blind crew
I just survived a mid-sea collision with a small merchant, rough seas, rain & heavy fog...

Thats not too bad.. I had once a DD drive by in the fog
Now that was creepy..

[-tronski-]

Originally posted by Nefarious
My first patrol with Type VII, 26000 Tons Baby .

I came back with only one aft torp and a reserve.

Gave my Chief the Iron Cross Second Class, Every Officer aboard has War Badge and Front Clasp. And so far Two Sailors Promoted to Senior Seaman.

Time for Patrol 5.

I've read that you qualify for the U-Boat combat badge after 2 combat patrols (less at the Captains disgression)....it'll take 20 patrols for all the crew to get theirs

Originally posted by Gixer
Beetle,

Some basic points on Torpedoes and the TDC to remember.

Assuming your using Auto TDC.

1. Try and fire at 1000 meters or less (torp has to travel atleast 300m to arm) and at 90 degrees from target especially early on the war otherise you will just get duds and torps will glance off the hull at greater angles.

2. When you look through Periscope or UZO the little triangle changes colours from green through to yellow,orange and red. The close to red the better the solution your crew and TDC have and angle for the torp. Though I've yet to see it go any higher then yellow up the scale.

3.  Try and fire when the angle from the bor is within 20 degrees this will reduce the amount of angle the torp will need to travel. Though early torps can be fired from as much as 90 degrees maximium later models can fire upto 135 degrees.

4.  When you lock onto the target and TDC has the solution you can fire and forget. However instead of using the lock funtion  aim where you think a weakest part of the ship is, I usually go for below a funnel.  As where ever you aim the crosshairs on the ship is where it should hit. So unlock the TDC before firing if you have the time.

5.  If you have time always open the tube doors first for the selected tubes. This helps reduce firing time and I think reduces the lag during the firing process which may cause torps to miss stern of the ship in some instances.

6.  Torp settings if you can use magnetic pistol setting and set dept to 1 to 2 meters below the keel of the target ship. This also allows you to shoot at greater angles compared to impact pistol. However early on the war you will get a few duds until the later version torps.

7. You don't need crew in the torpedo rooms for firing only reloading and if you can have a officer with torp speciality or atleast as many WO's with torp speciality as possible otherwise torp reloads will take for ever and external ones not at all.

8.  Another point on external torp reloads must be on the surface and in calm conditiions.

9.  Don't leave the torpedo setting on salvo, I've accidently hit the return key  and lost 3 torpedoes    Now I always leave the aft one as selected during sailing.

10. Save the electrics for daytime, as the merchants will see the wake of the steam torps and try and avoid, of course if you have them set to fast and shoot within 1000 meters all they can do is pray.


If you come across a big convoy always send a radio contact. If there are Axis Air Units within range they will come in and put on quite a display.


...-Gixer

I thought green was good, and red bad on the auto TDC!!!?!!?!?

 Tronsky

[lasersailor184]

I'm not sure how it is ingame, but you can try doing what they did in real life.


Most of the deck guns on the destroyers and such (british) could not depress enough when you are right ontop of them.

[Saintaw]

I dunno what happened to that excell sheet... I had a fancy calculation thing in the 2nd version, but it wasn't saved... oh well... back to mental calculus I guess

Gixer, where do I find the screenshots? (I tried in the game folder and in the documents folder... nothing?)

I tried changing the resolution to 1600/1280 in the cfg file, but it hasn't worked (Yes, I have a big soup system ) what did seem to work was setting the "real time" shadows 'On'. I wish they had put more options visible in game.

What cfg file should I edit to be able to have a low profile ? (7M deep/surface)

Re: VIIB Boat... I don't know, I guess it depends of your station, I started from Kiel with a VIIB right from the start... I just got a VIIC, and upgraded engines & batteries.

[beet1e]

Pei/Darkish/Gixer

Thanks guys, you've been a great help. I learned more from your posts than from the SH3 tutorials!

I must have been very lucky - I blew up a ship at 4600 metres. Didn't really know what I was doing... All this about elctric torps/steam torps is not covered in the naval academy programme, it would seem.

Yes I wondered what that yellow/green/red triangle thing was about. I have had the red one, but it was little use to me at the time as I didn't know what it meant. None of this stuff seems to be in the tuts. Did you guys have SH2? You seem to know an awful lot about a game which came out only last week. I'm impressed!

Magnetic/impact pistol setting has not come up in the naval academy exercises, and neither has depth setting. I guess the game is saving these for me!

And what's all this about voice commands??? I haven't seen how/where you can do that.

I'm beginning to understand what is meant by "you can't teach an old dog new tricks". ;)

[Kirin]

Heavily pictured Stuka attack on allied merchant and destroyer happening on a regular patrol.

Link from the german SHIII forum

[Gixer]

Originally posted by -tronski-
I thought green was good, and red bad on the auto TDC!!!?!!?!?

 Tronsky

Yes correct sorry got it the wrong way around when typing it out.


...-Gixer

[Gixer]

Saintaw,

I don't know where SH3 sticks the screenshots by default as I've always used ScreenHunter  4.0 for taking screenshots as it's free,small,simple,uses next to no resources and allows you to crop and install into any directory.

http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/screenhunter.htm


Beet1e,

Subsims have always been my favourite from SH1,AOTD and SH2 I played SH2 constantly since it's release especially once the mod teams got to it and when Pacific Aces was introduced (Pacific War Mod) that was pretty much the end of my AH days.

As it is this sim is outstanding out of the box but with a patch and mod or two it will be the definitive sub sim for quite some time.


...-Gixer

[Schutt]

Originally posted by beet1e

Magnetic/impact pistol setting has not come up in the naval academy exercises, and neither has depth setting. I guess the game is saving these for me!

[/B]

the magnetic stuff was somewhere. I think in the tutorial video?

Anyway... green triangle is best, red is sure miss. I usually fire on merchants from 600 to 800 meter, 1m below their keel, in the book it is listed how deep they go, with magneto fuese and high speed steam.

I still have trouble sinking a c2 cargo with one torp.... out of 8 c2 i sank only two went down after the first hit. Seemed to me it has to be just forward of the smoke stack.

On the torpedos... when your in your office and klick on the right table and select the torps at the equipment there is a description with range, i think it also lists the steam problem.

With heavy sea with breakers no enemy ship has detected my torps yet. From close in they have no time to reakt anyways.

Crew only rests and gets tired at time multiplier of 32 or less. Since i know this its easy, just spend most time at higher multipliers or at 1.

In the weapon resolution map the path of the torpedo is listed, with auto TDC its also updated. I usually fire from there with target locked, when the green line is straight its fine.

When you have a weapons officer you can open the torpedo hatch (?) before fireing.. this way you save a second between the torp is set to course and fired, adds to hit probability.

The game sometimes kicks you back to 8 times or 32 times acceleration... when you spot an enemy or something happens, i found these worsed for crew tiredness, switch to 1 time accel, do my stuff and put the time up to 64.

When its good weather i use the sonar, go to the hydrophone and dial in the target in the direction the guy reports the closest target. Then it lists "frachter" or "kriegsschiff". When you click the mark he selects this as target, now he can tell you the distance. I dont know how he determines the distance but eaven destroyers did not get alerted by that.

Now i print the heading and distance on the map in 5 minute intervals, put a line through the points and get the course the target is traveling without putting up the  periscope. Then i set up an intercept course where i sit just 800m off his course with 90 degree angle on him. When hes close to torp solution put up periscope, lock on target, shoot and put down periscope. Note that at this moment he is about 10 to 20 degrees off my bow to one or another direction (020 or 340) because i want him to be in front of me when the torp hits not when i fire.

Destroyers spot me a lot... if the periscope comes up 2000m or closer they see me it seems. anyone got a strategy to take down destroyers without being seen?


Hydrophone also helps in verry bad weather... check distance with hydrophone.

[Fishu]

Schutt,

C2 seems to blow up the best when hit between behind front of the bridge and smoke stack.
Hitting in front of the bridge structures or behind the smoke stack just makes 'em float forever..
Quite a small place to hit with a torp. If possible, just use impact pistol against it. Tried one with like 4 meters depth and the ship blew up good.

Best strategy to kill destroyers IS to get seen
Then they'll merrily rush at you and all you have to do, is to keep your stern or bow at them.
Then launch a magnetic torpedo and they'll merilly blow up into it.

They're easiest to pick off when you can shoot them from the side while they're cruising.
Doesn't really matter if its a long range, just make sure the angle is good for pistol fused torpedo and use shallow depth, so it wont bounce off from the curved bottom side.
One hit with a torpedo and the DD's goes down to the bottom

British V&W's can be picked off with the deck gun quite easily, when hitting the waterline. They got a lousy aim too. Just make sure you have some distance... otherwise, if you fail to sink them in time, they might run you over or drop charges on ya.


Gixer,

Screenies goes right into the main folder of SH3

[Saintaw]

Got my 1st two destroyers on the east coast of Ireland. Like Fishu says... "lure them" onto your tail... boom!

A couple of screenies (thanks for the location, doh!

Moon:


Burning oil slick, in the middle of a very dense fog (almost a day's pursuit using stop & listen...)


Brussels like weather:

[thrila]

Ok i'm getting used to torpedoing things now.  I had SHII but never really got into it, so manual targetting is a learning experience for me.

I finally killed all the ships in the torpedo training mission.   The C2 tanker took 4  torpedoes, i couldn't believe it! it's never taken that many before!  i straddled it with a salvo of 2 magnetic torpedoes.   She had stopped so i thought i would finish her off with an impact torp, it landed smack bang in the middle in the middle- still she didn't sink, just a slight list.  Ok...a fourth and it bounced off- doh!    So i turned a fired off my ventral torp...  BOOM!   she sank in a couple of seconds.   It took 5 torps but i got her:D    All the other ships took 1 torp each luckily enough.


I think i'm ready for my first patrol:)

[Fishu]

Today I hit one ship so that the screw fell off.. it still continued at 3kt

An hour ago replaced my GF TI4200 with a GF 6600GT.
Now the game is sweet, since I can use the FSAA and anisotrophy and the FPS is still far better


Thrila,

Avoid shooting the tankers cargo compartments, those are already filled with liquid, so it does little difference if theres a little more liquid...

Tankers do usually blow up merrily when you hit the stern, where the crew area or whatever bridge begins and at least to halfway the structure.
Usually causes very nice explosions and most of the ship is engulfed in flames.