Silent Hunter III Review

[SFRT - Frenchy]

Any tips on how to assign promotions and war medals? Do various medals have an effect, I have a bunch of Uboat badges to give away, and 3 guys to promote... 1 iron cross to give.

[BlueJ1]

Are torp calculations hard to figure out if you have a small knowledge of subs ?

[Octavius]

Originally posted by Wotan
I just finished patrol number 10 and have scored 230K. I just upgrade to the VIIc (dunno why, the VIIb was slightly faster on the water and submerged and had greater underwater range). I had 10,000 renown points. Patrol 11 will start in June (11th I think).

WOW - 230k in patrol 10 or after 10 patrols?  

I finished my 4th patrol in the VIIB and am at about 100k.  My first patrol scored 46k-ish and have had moderate luck since then.

[Wotan]

Over 10 patrols...

Not in one patrol...

23k per patrol...

Do you use the manual TDC?

My realism settings are at 100%.

Sometimes I turn on externals but I have removed (renamed) the image that shows the orange marker on the surface of the water.

I also modified the markers (the markers that are placed on the map by bdu) to the same as my uboat marker. Instead of red, green or blue they are black / grey. This encourages me to get close to investigate whether they are friendly, nuetral or enemy boats / ships.

Are torp calculations hard to figure out if you have a small knowledge of subs ?

I picked this up from a thread over at subsim.com, it works for me...

Step #1

a = b sin A / sin B

a = the track of the target vessel toward the collision point in meters.

b = the distance to the target in meters.

A = Bearing to the target.

B = 180 - (A + AOB) ... since the angles of a triangle = 180, subtract the sum of the relative Bearing and the target's AOB.

Step #2

...after 5 minutes (300 seconds) or whatever time interval you need to use, then do the math (Step #1 again) for the second bearing and AOB.

Step #3

Subtract the results of Step #2 from Step #1...the difference is the distance the target ship has traveled in the time allotted.

Step #4

Divide results of Step #3 by 300 seconds (in my example) then multiply the answer by 1.9438 to get the target's speed in knots.

I then enter my results manually and fire. Usually a 2 spread at 2 degrees, magnet pistol set 2 meters below draft. I use the steam torps set to fast and close to 600m. If I don't have a shot I reset. I miss a lot as well. In bad weather its extremely frustrating but at the same time a challenge to get the info correct. In weather where visibility is low (400m) It takes many resets before I get a shot and even then I miss often.

The closer you are to the target the greater the tolerence there is in regrads to the margin of error. You can be off and still hit. Inside 300m though you run the risk of the torp not arming. The sweet spot is 400-600m.

You don't need to do all of it manual. You can go the easy route with the 'aim bot'. Or you can have your weapons officer come up with a solution for you.

There's severals and 'files' you can download that will help you (AOB calculator, etc...)

Basically you need range, speed and AOB of the target. On 100% realism you need to plot all of the is yourself. Its extremely time consuming (I use the pause key a a lot).

Any tips on how to assign promotions and war medals? Do various medals have an effect, I have a bunch of Uboat badges to give away, and 3 guys to promote... 1 iron cross to give.

Just drag um over the guy you want to give then to.

Yes the medals have an effect. The clasp increase resilience. Others have other effects...

I was rather chauvinistic in how I handed out awards, ratings etc...

Officers first, then warrants then enlisted.

I then went to number of patrols and overall experience.

For example when I switched from the type IIs to the VIIs I had a core of 27 guys. I had picked up nubs when I switched to the VII to fill out the crew.

I gave out the awards and promotions to those who had been on the longest and to those with the most experience.

In the VII I have a number of sailors who do nothing more the ride a long. They may help loads torps or be a damage control team but they do very little.

The folks I use a lot like sonar / radio, helm, topside watch. engine room folks and get first priority. These slots are filled with the most experienced and these are the ones that get 1st shot at any award and/or promotion.

Basically everything runs down hill.

FYI Tip on the medic 'badge'

If you get wounded sailors place them in the same compartment with who ever has the medic rating and gradually their injuries will be treated. Sometimes not, the sailor dies. If the medic fixes up the wounded before you get to port theses sailors wont get a 'wound badge'

[Fishu]

with the protractor you can just as well calculate the angle from the map by tracking the contact.
Track the contact and draw it's course on the map.
Of course you have to know its bearing and distance from you.

[SFRT - Frenchy]

Computing the firing solution I use the TDC, it's pretty easy. The only hard part is to compute the contact speed. I usually set the speed to 0, facing 90degs from the target heading.

At 60 deg bearing, I compute his speed based on a 45sec time. I set my torps a Draft -1. If the TDC comes up with xx degrees, I fire the torpedo straight ahead when the target reaches the xx degree bearing, to score a 90 AOB hit. I don't care much for the distance as it does not affects the "lead angle".

So far didn't do much ...

Patrol 1 =  sank only 1 Merchant.
Patrol 2 = 2 or 3.
Patrol 3 = A lot of Merchants, thank to the VII allowing the gun. Something like 40K plus. I got messed up by a DD, calm water on the surface, he sheeled me in 1000 speed before I could spot him. He was abrely a smoke on the horizon, yet he hit me 3 times before I could dive.

I have yet to come accros a convoy. I am having fun with this game ... I like having all the arcade mod off except the external view (so pretty), it makes you "plan ahead" and garantees a fun hunt.

[Wotan]

I have yet to come accros a convoy.

As soon as you can start making trips out to AM 51 52 53 and you will find convoys.

You can clean up even if you just hit the British T2 (10k tons) and T3 (11k tons) tankers. They will be in the second row from the south T2 in lead then a US small tanker (don't hit it) then the T3.

The southern row will be a line of 3 C2 cargo ships. The north row will be a small merchant, coastal Merchant with a a C2 trailing.

On the arse end of every row will be US C3 cargo ships.

Early on there will be no escort, later just 1 V & W Destroyer. You can easily kill this destroyer then have free reign on the convoy. If the weather is good you can use your deck. Weather is rarely if ever good.

I never bothered with the Destroyer because at the time I was in a IId with only 5 torps. I good hit in the center of the tankers in enough to kill them with one torp. I can't aim that good so I fired 2 at the t2, reset as my TM reloaded then 2 at the T3. In the VIIC I just fire salvos of 2.

I just finished patrol 12 tonight and here's the score:



First I set up on the tankers, killed them both in 4 minutes, crashed dived went south the west to avoid the destroyer. Surfaced went north then east just beyond visual of the convoy.

Reset north to south and hit the small merchant then the C2 in 6 min.

I basically just get in a spot and wait engine at stop. I might make minor adjustment to keep a good line. I hit these ships all the time so I know pretty well the settings before hand (draft, good guess at range speed is always 5 - 7knots). So I just sit and wait.

I salvo tubes1 and IV; then reset on the next ship in the line and fire tubes II and III. I set the torps to fast, fire at close range (400-600m), with a torp depth 2m below the draft, magnet pistols. I fire and forget. I crash dive rig for silent and run out to reset.

I see 2 maybe 3 convoys a patrol in that area. I even ran into a 'task force'. It's tough getting a good line and sometimes I don't get a shot. Bad weather ruins it many times. On the task force it was cruising at 20 - 25 knots. I couldn't get out in front to set up.

I don't bother chasing single ships, I head to the Atlantic and the western approaches. It never fails...

[Saintaw]

Frenchy,

the effect of promotions & medals are roughly:

Promotions: They will perform better (fills the green bar in the compartment a little further)

Medals: Have an effect on how fast the lad gets tired, when you put the medal above the KC#1 (forgot the name) they no longer get tired at all.

[Nath_____]

In the actual Battle for the Atlantic, didn't U-Boats intercept ships more towards the middle/west Atlantic, closer to the USA?  In SH3 all my missions have been relatively close to Europe.  

As an aside, I wish someone would make a patch that removes the time compression limiter thing.  It takes me like 15 minutes to drive my Type IX out of the harbor because of all the inlets... bah!  And when I go afk with 1024 mode on, I come back and its back on 8x speed for no reason.

[Fishu]

Originally posted by Nath_____
In the actual Battle for the Atlantic, didn't U-Boats intercept ships more towards the middle/west Atlantic, closer to the USA?  In SH3 all my missions have been relatively close to Europe.  
 

You are early in the war.
As the time goes on, there'll be longer assignments.

I've been at furthest to DT28.
Haven't had missions as far to the west tho.

[Saintaw]

My 1st mission when I had my type IX was off the coast of New York city. If you want northwestern patrol quadrants, you should go to the 7th flotilla.

Nath, you can edit the time compression caps in your main.cfg file (In your save dir, not the game dir)

[SFRT - Frenchy]

Thx for the tips. I'll be off this week end to shoot a commercial for a japaneese drink:cool:
See you on monday. BTW at Scapa I came accros the mines and the nets. Good call to navigate in shallow water with the scope.

[Saintaw]

You mean like Bill Murray in "Lost in translation" ?

Please take pictures in the nudies bars

[Curval]

I started my training last night night....took me FOREVER to figure out how to get radio messages.  I kept going to the radioman's station and he kept telling me there were No Reports Sir...when on the next line up in the buffer stated clearly that there was a new message for me.

When I figured it out I gave myself the obligatory head-slap and admonished myself for not RTFM!!!!

Anyway...no issues at all so far with the Starforce driver thing...this game is gonna be what I'm playing for a while now.

[Saintaw]

Nice stuff:
http://subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=32531