Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: deSelys on October 12, 2005, 07:12:03 AM
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I just bought it this noon...
What (and where) are the patches/mods that I need to download?
I've already downloaded 1.4b, are there unofficial ones?
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The hell with the goofy sub game.. how'd yah make out with the rifle?
;)
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There are a bunch of mods out there..a BUNCH.
I d/l'd and installed "Improved U-Boat" which was done by Orgy.
Be careful with respect to the mods...many of them are designed to be more realistic while also updating certian graphics...such as improved water, improved smoke etc etc.
Frankly I wish I'd never "modded" at all. Some of the "improvements" I do not like at all and to fix it I am going to have to do a whole bunch of mucking around OR reload the game from scratch and patch. That will probably cause me to lose my current career which I don't want!!!
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Thanks for your concern, Hang, but I wasn't able to go try it yesterday evening.
I've been away from home the two previous WE (skydiving and some kind of "Belgium police and fire games") and, besides being pretty pooped, I was shot down in flame by wife ack when I let slip that I might go out to try a rifle that I might buy...
Gimme a week and the wife problem should be fixed ;)
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LOL.. for shame.. get the gun, keep yer trap shut. Always easier to beg forgiveness (and take her to dinner) afterwards than it is to get permission beforehand. If we allowed women to decide for us the effacy of gun ownership we'd become England in a heatbeat. Concentration Camps all across Europe were once populated by women that hated guns and the men that listened to 'em.
Good luck on the Sub Races. ;)
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I use Patch 1.4b and RUB (Real U Boat) 1.43.
They now have RUB 1.44, but Im not going to download it, Theres really nothing new in it enough for me to consider downloading it. Plus Im already into a new career, and Im not risking it. :D
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Originally posted by Curval
Frankly I wish I'd never "modded" at all. Some of the "improvements" I do not like at all and to fix it I am going to have to do a whole bunch of mucking around OR reload the game from scratch and patch. That will probably cause me to lose my current career which I don't want!!!
I didn't bother applying the player patches, and in light of curv's experience I'm glad I didn't. I suspected it might lead to that. The standard game is fine. I don't want a yellow submarine. For as long as I've played these games, I've never understood the hoopla with regard to "skins" etc., even though Nopoop did very kindly try to explain.
I've very much enjoyed playing SH3. I've learned a lot about torpedo systems, and submarine tactics used for evading destroyers. You need a lot of patience though. It took me a long time to learn the necessary tactics to get into the Scapa Flow and destroy the Revenge battleship. Wall of text continues after pic...
(http://www.zen33071.zen.co.uk/sf14pic.jpg)
DeSelys - if you'd like, you can copy down my game save file and unzip it to your own game save folder. When loaded, it will put you right in Scapa Flow, with a destroyer and the Revenge battleship directly ahead at about 900m! The destroyer is easily killed with a torpedo set with a cruising depth of 2m and an impact pistol.
The battleship is tougher. What I did to kill this one was to launch a salvo of two torps, each with a magnetic pistol, using a spread angle of 4° and a cruising depth of 9m. The draft of the Revenge battleship is 8.5m so the torps will detonate directly underneath the keel, breaking the ship's back.
Practise killing them both, and try different settings till you get it right!
Beet1e's Scapa Flow .ZIP save file (http://www.zen33071.zen.co.uk/sf14.zip)
^ It's a furballer's dream - puts you right in at the action within seconds of having to push the FIRE button, and avoids all that silly realism/strat nonsense. :D Although the maps are kind of big! :lol
As for realism in SH3, I like the external view because I want to see how it would have looked in WW2. I like the event camera to see how well my aim was. And I can't be arsed with dealing with dud torpedoes, so my realism level is only about 64% LOL.
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I like RUB, but I didnt when I first got it.
I tweaked it using a patch that tweaked a few of the changed settings in RUB. For example the deck gun reload time, The Water visability, And the Map option. Everything else I kept.
So I guess I use two patches :)
But anyway, stuff that never happened to me is now happening to me with RUB, and its so much better.
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The mods work just fine if you keep to what´s posted in the readme. Also do a copy of your installed files before you mod them (I backed up the entire directory )
you want to look on subsim.com they have a bunch of nice mods that work fine there.
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Well, I had to reinstall 4.1b last night because that was the only way to remove the Improved U-Boat mod. Unfortunatley I did not use the utility that helps install and uninstall mods...I would recommend trying that if you are using mods as it allows seamless transitions apparently.
So, after backing up my SH3 directory in My Documents (as advised) I reinstalled.
After patching I then tried to run my old career. I CTD'd. Tried again CTD'd. Tried a third time...CTD'd.
Started a new career.
:(
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Saw - how much do these mods add to the authenticity of SH3's attempts to model the RL WW2 sub warfare experience? If we're just talking about a different paint scheme in the command room, or slightly different effects with the ocean waves, I'd say it's not worth bothering. The ubisoft official 1.4b mod was well worth having though.
I'm not interested in all that "career" stuff either, or comparing notes on how many million tonnes we've each sunk. I much prefer the single missions...
...but there are only about ten such single missions included in the game. Are there any more single missions that can be downloaded from ubisoft? Now THAT would interest me.
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Curval - I had a similar thing happen. As far as I know I didn't have any career data saved - unless it saves itself on exiting the game. But I did have a whole load of saved games from single mission activity. After installing 1.4b, all those game saves were rendered useless. Same deal - CTD.
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Beet1e: there are small mods that, once installed, give you plotting tools (i.e. nomograph) in the chart room to help you plot a firing solution.
But I agree that if you play at 65% realism you don't need them.
This sim is awesome. Played it until 03.30 am last night :confused:
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Originally posted by beet1e
...but there are only about ten such single missions included in the game. Are there any more single missions that can be downloaded from ubisoft? Now THAT would interest me.
Yes, but screw Ubi, go to Subsim.com
In RUB you can actually take damage, and survive. I recall an occasion where I was DC'd for nearly 3 hours, I had three wounded and One dead, The explosions caused me to sink in shallow water, everytime I tried to sneak away and start the pumps they would find me and DC me again.
RUB adds a whole crap load of fixes such as realistic shipping in harbors and in the open ocean, A damage model superior to boxed version.
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I'm a tinkerer, so when I got SHIII I inmediately started trying to decipher the 3D format so people could mod stuff. I played for 3 or 4 hours tops and spent the rest of my SHIII related time staring at matrix-like hex editor listings. By the time I had most of the format broken I lost all interest in SHIII, so I passed on all my stuff to others which, judging from the mods forums seem to have succeeded at making new ships and stuff.
Well, I guess I too had fun with SHIII, though I can't recall sinking a single ship. :D
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Originally posted by deSelys
Beet1e: there are small mods that, once installed, give you plotting tools (i.e. nomograph) in the chart room to help you plot a firing solution.
But I agree that if you play at 65% realism you don't need them.
This sim is awesome. Played it until 03.30 am last night :confused:
Wow, you know all this and you only bought it yesterday afternoon? I'm impressed! :)
- off to check out subsim.com...
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takeda is a super nerd.
lol
;)
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Originally posted by Nefarious
Yes, but screw Ubi, go to Subsim.com
In RUB you can actually take damage, and survive. I recall an occasion where I was DC'd for nearly 3 hours, I had three wounded and One dead, The explosions caused me to sink in shallow water, everytime I tried to sneak away and start the pumps they would find me and DC me again.
RUB adds a whole crap load of fixes such as realistic shipping in harbors and in the open ocean, A damage model superior to boxed version.
I've been running with nothing but the patch. I'll have to give this a look.
Oh... the ONE thing I do use with SH3 is Shoot (http://clans.gameclubcentral.com/shoot/).
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Please do Sand...
Its so worth it. I played nearly 20 some missions in my first career before I got RUB, Im on Patrol 10 of my 2nd career, and the gameplay is so much better.
Its never routine anymore, Every mission is different.
Like I said, Some features in RUB i didnt like....
No Map Contacts
Cloudy No-Vis Sea
Deck Gun reload time, which is more than a minute, depending on your crew.
I downloaded UnRealUboat, which changes some settings in RUB, those were the only three I chose.
Everything else is perfect. Although I didnt really like the fatigue settings at first, but it has grown on me to a point where its better than the boxed game.
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Nef - I'm downloading RUB 1.43 right now. I've already installed patch 1.4b a long time ago. Any special tips for installing RUB at this stage?
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They have a new RUB 1.44, but I dont have it.
Installing the mod is easy. But I would start a new career to avoid problems, if you are playing a career.
You might not like some of the settings, so i reccomend playing a mission before starting a career, for Im the opposite, I only play career missions.
Be aware the game is totally different gameplay wise. So get a feel of what its like, then change the settings.
Like i said above, I didnt like all of the changes, I dont play full realisim. If you happen to not like some of them, check this site out http://u-boot.realsimulation.com/ for a mod called Unrealuboat. It gives you the oppurtunity to change some the new settings.
Other than that, be ready to fight. And watch for mines and subnets :D
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Beetle san, I think I mostly installed Mapping tools, the merchant skin packs and the depth modifier (on the top of my head).
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Wow this is even better with RealUBoot!
In the training mission, I sank the C2 cargo by plotting the solution all by myself. Check this page for pointers btw: plotting & targeting tutorial (http://www.paulwasserman.net/SHIII/).
This is very rewarding: I shot 3 torpedoes spread at a 6° angle from 900 m on the 4 knots running target. All 3 fishes hit their mark, but as I had set the pistol on impact, the cargo didn't sink immediately: he was dead in the water, listing and low. I finished him with the 4th eel and down it went.
Then I tested the collision model and IMO it is much more realistic than the boxed version.
The traffic in harbours is another great addition.
I think that I'll let my beard grow as soon as I start a patrol ;)
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Thanks guys. Clearly some of these mods go much further than adding a bit of rust to the hull, or a wolf emblem on the conning tower. They're worth having. I'll install RUB1.43 a little later on. Saintaw-san, I'll let you know how it goes. :)
I have a question about career mode: I have done various patrols in a career, but the orders for each patrol take the format of "Go to sector AM19 and patrol it for 24 hours". The journey there would take 2-3 days so naturally I use x1024 time compression. If a ship is spotted, the watch crew yells "ship spotted" and time compression goes back to x1. I'll intercept the target, destroy it if I can, and then carry on. That's about *it*. On some patrols I've not seen a single ship! Kinda boring, which is why I've preferred single mission. How do you guys play the career patrols?
Originally posted by deSelys
This is very rewarding: I shot 3 torpedoes spread at a 6° angle from 900 m on the 4 knots running target. All 3 fishes hit their mark, but as I had set the pistol on impact, the cargo didn't sink immediately: he was dead in the water, listing and low. I finished him with the 4th eel and down it went.
You really are making progress! This answers a question I had about the spread angle when firing more than two torpedoes. I take it the spread angle is the angle between the leftmost and rightmost torpedo, so in this case 6° with an angle of 3° between the centre one and either of the other two. I've just done the trig, and a 6° total spread at 900m range would cause the torpedoes to make impact at intervals of 47m along the ship's hull, ie. 94m between foremost and aftmost point of impact - quite a spread considering the C2 is only 140m in length. You might find it more effective to use a smaller spread angle, and increase your chances of breaking the ship in two with just a couple of torps aimed at the centre section. Try using magnetic pistol and setting the depth to 8m (C2 draft = 7.8m)
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You are correct Beet, but I was spreading wide to have a better chance of a single torpedo hit in case my calculations were a bit off. I didn't really expect to have all 3 torpedoes on target.
Magnetically triggered explosions under the keel are indeed much more effective....when the torps don't premature nor dud! The magnetic pistol reliability was horrendous in the first montsh of the war and I played it safe.
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Originally posted by beet1e
That's about *it*. On some patrols I've not seen a single ship! Kinda boring, which is why I've preferred single mission. How do you guys play the career patrols?
I've just done my 24h and moved elsewhere, along the shipping lines.
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Beetle, just a Fishu said, finish your 24 hour patrol in the assigned sector and after that move on to the closest convoy lines.. find them on the map that came with the game.
Imho, single missions take away most of the fun of the game.
Receiving a radio message about a close by enemy warship convoy while you're in the midst of your patrol really makes up for the realistic, yet admittedly sometimes boring lack of action.
I ran into the Illustrious once, in about the worst weather conditions the game engine can create.
She basically appeared out of nowhere, maybe 100 meters in front of me. She ran full flank and was getting out of sight fast, so I had to calculate a torpedo solution all by sonar as she got away. It actually worked, 2 out of 4 torpedos hit their mark and obviously even the magazine. I didn't see her again, all I heard was the sounds of bursting compartments as she went down.
After that I was DC'd for 7 hours game time, the longest DC pursuit I ever experienced in the game.
Needless to say, that made up for the otherwise boring patrol.
Additionally I love the ability to upgrade your boat. Especially when the new sonar equipment becomes available for exact distance measuring.
I use RUB 1.44
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What Fishu said, I usualy move to my patrol area, then move either to the west coast (whutsat channel called between Ireland and Wales again?), or just south west of Cornwalls... plenty of fish, errr boats there :)
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Redwing - what was your depth when you fired the four torps at the Illustrious?
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In my career patrols, I head straight for my patrol zone, If I come across any enemy shipping, I usually sink them, and continue.
After I accomplish my objective, I usually head for a spot with lots of known shipping, BF13, AM52, Gibralter Strait. (Im stationed at St Nazairre with 7th Flotilla).
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Honestly, I can't remember.
Considering the angle of bow was about 170 degrees and I was thus firing at her from aft I think I had them set on magnetic pistol and tried to let them run underneath her keel. I usually try to keep torpedos about half a meter below keel, whatever that translates to with the Illustrious.
Spread angle was zero, I fired all torps manually with slightly different headings and depths.. all I had was the exact distance, thanks to sonar and a rough idea of her speed derived from that. I didn't take the time to reconstruct her course and heading via sonar, that would've taken so long that the increased distance alone would've made blind shots impossible.
I think it was about 20 seconds after the first sighting that I fired the first torpedo. She can't have been much farther away than 300 meters.. and she was big, that helped.
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...sonar being the hydrophone jobbie?
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Yes sorry, that's what I meant. Can't even blame it on lacking english skills, in german it's also called hydrophone. Damn :)
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Originally posted by Redwing
Yes sorry, that's what I meant. Can't even blame it on lacking english skills, in german it's also called hydrophone. Damn :)
Hah - I wasn't sure myself.
Woot!!! Just installed RUB-a-dub-dub 1.43 !!! :eek: Wow, I take back what I said about mods being a waste of time! :cool::cool: OK, so this is a completely different breed of mod, and goes far beyond "skins" and improves the gameplay. I've just sunk my first ship - a piddling DD - LOL. I'll do what you guys said - finish patrolling the sector and then head to the shipping lanes.
One other mod I applied was the one that makes the faces look like the characters in Das Boot! :lol - the radio operator looks like that war correspondent guy - has a mistake been made? And I didn't realise the treacly guy from Mexico City was the weapons engineer.
(http://www.zen33071.zen.co.uk/u96crew.jpg)
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Originally posted by beet1e
Hah - I wasn't sure myself.
Woot!!! Just installed RUB-a-dub-dub 1.43 !!! :eek: Wow, I take back what I said about mods being a waste of time! :cool::cool: OK, so this is a completely different breed of mod, and goes far beyond "skins" and improves the gameplay. I've just sunk my first ship - a piddling DD - LOL. I'll do what you guys said - finish patrolling the sector and then head to the shipping lanes.
One other mod I applied was the one that makes the faces look like the characters in Das Boot! :lol - the radio operator looks like that war correspondent guy - has a mistake been made? And I didn't realise the treacly guy from Mexico City was the weapons engineer.
Told you :D
In Das Boot, watch the attack run on the convoy.
In SHIII and Das Boot and Real Life most people did multiple jobs, Especially officers and Non Coms.
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Dang, just imagine subs in Aces High! Would be great :aok
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Originally posted by frank3
Dang, just imagine subs in Aces High! Would be great :aok
I've got a better idea, now that I can see what these SH3 mods can do. Why not incorporate Aces High into SH3 - a sim modelling a game. In "full realism" mode, depending on who your crew members were, you might see this...
(http://www.zen33071.zen.co.uk/m1495.jpg)
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It hurts to lose a boat after 16 patrols. Yeah, I'm not as good as everyone else out there, but hey, I had a pretty good career going.
Last partol started like any other. My Type IX was moored in Lorient and we had just completed fitting out at around midnight. We cast off and started for the mouth of the English Channel. It was early 1940 and we had already snagged a few unescorted convoys in the general area. My patrol region was northwest of Ireland and out of the shipping lanes, but I figured if I didn't find anything on the way up there I'd get something on the way back.
Most of my crew were seasoned vets. I had one new petty officer aboard to assist with the engines but other than that it was the same crew I'd had the previous patrols. A lot of them wore decorations and a few had been promoted. Life was generally good. We guided our ship from the harbor and started for our patrol region.
Ship traffic on the way was light. My watch officer informed me of two or three German vessels sailing into Lorient, but other than that we encountered nothing. The day dragged on, my ship cruising on the surface at standard. The skies were clear and everything was going peachy.
Just before we reached the Channel, I got a radio message from the BDu. Apparently, a British task force had just been spotted leaving the Gibraltar Strait. They were heading north at 21 knots, which put them directly at my beam heading toward me. I shrugged off the message, as the task force was very far south of me and I didn't believe they were after me. We continued northwest, my watch officer eerily quiet.
It was two days later at three in the morning when we recieved another radio message from the BDu. A convoy had been spotted heading east at about 6 knots, most likely heading for England. What luck! The position indicated was just south of my current position. I forwent my partol and turned around, heading to intercept at full speed.
At about noon, I got my first glimpse of the convoy in my attack periscope. The vessels were still quite a ways off, but I could tell there were a lot of them, and they were unescorted.
Or so I thought.
I did a quick sweep with the scope to gather data from the convoy when my watch officer frantically shouted down the hatch.
"Warship! Medium range! Moving away at bearing 300!"
I swing the scope around and spotted the vessel in question. It was traveling abeam to us and rather slowly, it seemed. I could make out the features and noticed it was a British ship. After consulting my book, I determined it was a Flower Corvette. She had charges and would be a very bad thing to encounter now.
I pondered what to do. The sun was high and we would be easily spotted, if we weren't already. I clambered to the bridge and scanned with binocs I stole from my watch officer. We'd be in range of the convoy in ten minutes, if we held where we were. I looked at the Corvette and watched her for a moment. The spray behind her intensified and she swung her bow to meet us.
I ordered everyone inside and we dove to 14 meters. My sonar man kept track of the Corvette as I slowed the engines to 1/3. She was still closing and closing fast. I ordeed 70 meters and we started for the deep.
At 30 meters, we heard the charges enter the water. The exploded harmlessly above us. I stopped the dive at 43 meters and we adoted a course to intercept the convoy again. I planned to pop up, fire off a two spread, then dive out and away. Later that night, we'd surface, rearm and give chase if we had to. The Corvette would be sweeping behind us by that time.
We sailed on, more charges entering the water behind and away from us. After a few more minutes, I ordered 13 meters still at 1/3. We rose to the new depth, the Corvette sailing away from us charging empty ocean. We reached 13 and up went the scope.
A C3 cargo vessel, flying the British flag, loomed 500 meters in front of us directly abeam. I plotted a qucik snapshot and opened the the doors for 1 and 4. We were running too short on time and I only fired one shot, using the magnetic pistol and a depth set for the C3. Once the fish was away, I turned to match course and watched.
It only took a few seconds.
My fish exploded, thankfully. Hit right underneath the keel of the mammoth cargo vessel. She rocked with the explosion, breaking in half within the first few seconds and starting to go down. Chalk up another one and one more round for the boys when we get home! I steered my sub away from the sinking ship and started my dive. One last sweep and we're out of here.
The Corvette's coming, and she's not happy. 1,500 meters and closing.
I ordered a crash dive. Alarm bells rang and we dove straight for hell. We leveled at 70 and listened as charges exploded above us. I ordered the engines to "Slow" and we went to silent running. The torpedo loading was halted and everyone fell silent. We waited, and again charges entered the water. Once more, they exploded over us. I felt cocky and laughed to myself. We might just get away. Ten more minutes passed and again we heard charges enter the water.
This time...we weren't so lucky.
The first charge missed us, but the second exploded off our aft port side. It wasn't close, but close enough to rock the ehole ship. I ordered flank speed. Perhaps we can still run.
The third charge exploded right next to us. My guess it was only five meters away.
The entire ship rocked vioently, my crew rushing about screaming of flooding. Another charge exploded to our right, too far away to add to the damage. We were flooding in the aft torpedo room and electric engine room. It wasn't bad, but if we lost the engines we'd be in big trouble. I ordered damage control to the flooding areas. My sonar man was deaf, as we'd also lost hte brand new sonar I'd installed just last night. I wasn;t concerned with it, as it could be fixed later. After a few minutes, my crews got the flooding under control in both areas. We just may make it.
That's when one more charge exploded right against the hull. The result was catastrophic. The pressure hull gave way under the blast and the command room and stern barracks were destroyed almost instantly. I don't know what happened after that.
So ends another career. And things were going so well, too.
BTW, RUB is an awesome mod. :D
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I tried playing this game but during training I got orders to move the sub to the west or something and after than nothing happened. I gave up after that.
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hmm i tried installing this game several times and no luck. Tried tech support and they couldnt figure it out. ended up giving my copy away to my nephew.
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I couldn't figure out how to rocket-jump, so I gave up.
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Interesting story, texace.
As with other war games/sims, I play this one to discover what it would have been like to be in the situation our war heroes found themselves in. I'm currently in a career mission in which BDu has urged me to intercept a convoy in AM76. The problem is that in the VIIc, they're faster than I am, and I could not catch them in a pursuit if I turned up at the wrong place. So, using the map tools (ruler, compasses) I headed at standard speed (13kts) to what I believed would be a good interception point, and waited. Sure enough, the convoy showed up with at least two escorts (one was a Flower Corvette, I think the other was a Clemson) between the main convoy and me. Two problems - 1) the sea was like a millpond, making it easy to spot my periscope and/or the wake behind it. 2)It's broad daylight.
Now I've just started using RUB1.43 and learning, so I save the game just before I engage the convoy so that I can reload it later for another attempt. I've tried this particular engagement several times now. The difficulties are getting close enough to the convoy without being detected, and trying to achieve an attack position at silent speed which gives me only 3kts speed. The best I've been able to do is whack the Flower Corvette and launch a long range shot at the C2. But as soon as things start blowing up, the escorts are there in a trice, and the convoy starts turning to evade incoming torps. I'll give it another try later on.
The more I play this game, the less surprised I am to read in the opening credits of Das Boot that out of 40,000 men who went to sea in German U boats, 30,000 never returned.
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I was able to enter Scapa Flow at night by the southern route during my second career mission (october 1939).
The sea was rough and I think that it helped me to dash on the surfaceunspotted between groups of guarding destroyers.
I only sank a Fiji light cruiser at the mooring (one torpedo hit the antisubmarine grenades racks and it made nice fireworks) and a stopped destroyer on the way back. This got me the iron cross 2nd class.
I still don't have enough renown to get a type VII and I'm stuck with this short-legged, lightly armed type IIA for at least one more mission! Oh well, I'm assigned to quadrant AN16 again, I'll probably try the same stunt if I don't encounter brit cargos on the way.
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There's a no-cd patch available for 1.4b now. If you want to get rid of StarFarce just do a fresh install, patch and install the no-cd. Other option is to use a SF removal tool for allready installed SH3, apply no-cd and no more SF.
Now I can finally buy the game.
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Originally posted by deSelys
I was able to enter Scapa Flow at night by the southern route during my second career mission (october 1939).
The sea was rough and I think that it helped me to dash on the surfaceunspotted between groups of guarding destroyers.
I only sank a Fiji light cruiser at the mooring (one torpedo hit the antisubmarine grenades racks and it made nice fireworks) and a stopped destroyer on the way back. This got me the iron cross 2nd class.
I still don't have enough renown to get a type VII and I'm stuck with this short-legged, lightly armed type IIA for at least one more mission! Oh well, I'm assigned to quadrant AN16 again, I'll probably try the same stunt if I don't encounter brit cargos on the way.
Great stuff, dS! :cool:
What I always wonder is... do the orders to patrol a quadrant take precedence over alerts of a convoy in another sector? I've decided from now on to respond to position reports rather than staying in the patrol sector.
I finally had some success with that patrol ^. I had to whack the Flower Corvette, and then go ahead at flank to catch up to the nearest C2. I let him have it with two torps, which meant I had only one fore torp left, and the stern torp. I saved those for a later encounter. But... the only thing I saw from then till end of patrol was a lone destroyer. At least I got home safe. Time for another patrol!
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I've had a weird occurance on my computer this weekend.
My DVD drive will recognise movies but when I put a game disk in...any game...it does not recognise that there is a disk in the drive.
It just happened....any ideas?
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Curv, not sure what OS you have, but could it be to do with autorun having been disabled?
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XP Service Pack 2.
If the autorun was disabled why does it pick up the movies?
Also...the game disks do not show up in "My Computer" either. The drive shows as empty even when SH3, BF Vietnam or Rome Total War are in the drive.
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I think my DVD drive is knackered. Only thing it will recognise is movies, not data disks, game disks, picture disks, nor CDs.
:(
I suspect the youngsters.
:furious
:cry
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I love this game, granted I never (cough) bought it. But wait till you get to the later years and the freakin Sunderlands come looking for you as you return to the pens. Made the unfortuante mistake of heading in to port when a TF was leaving the base. Funny thing was I had never seen a friendly TF until then. Tossers got me killed. Kind of hard to dive in 15 feet of water :P
Great game though, and at 100% realism is very difficult.
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What I dislike about the game is the lack of wolfpack tactics, i.e. multiple boats attacking the same convoy.
Consequently I found the only worthwhile tactic when attacking convoys alone to be to intercept them, dive to maybe 100 meters and wait until the leading escort ship has passed overhead. If your interception point was correct in relation to the convoy's course you can come up to periscope depth in the midst of the convoy at about 90° aob. At night, no one will ever spot your periscope.
After that, slowly dive to safety below the thermal layer and get away in silent run.
I do this regularly and sometimes don't even get DC'd.
Later in the war you may have to keep some more distance to the leading escort ship as simply letting him pass overhead can become risky when the allied detection devices get more advanced, but basically the tactic seems to always work, as long as you remain deep enough and in silent run.
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Originally posted by ahgod69
Great game though, and at 100% realism is very difficult.
True, but always remember that a real U boat did not have a crew of one.
My realism is only 65%. I could boost it to 81% at a stroke by changing to manual targeting and manually setting the TDC. But... I have taken the view that in real life, the same guy did not range the enemy contact in the attack periscope and then run across to the TDC to plan a solution. And because of the steep learning curve, I had avoided the manual targeting/TDC.
However, I decided to give that a try last night. But I can't get the recognition manual to work. You're supposed to be able to flick through the pages till you get to the ship that matches what you see in the periscope. But the page buttons don't work. The book remains stuck on the "Armed Trawler" section. Anyone have any tips?
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Beet, on the cover of the book you have up and down arrows. It will allow you to chose the book according to the nationality of your target.
All merchant ships are in the same book.
Even with ma,ual targeting, you can ask your WO to plot a solution for you. I don't know how good he is ;).
My main gripe with auto targeting is the instantaneous and 100% accurate firing solution that you get as soon as you put your crosshairs on a ship.
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Originally posted by beet1e
My realism is only 65%. I could boost it to 81% at a stroke by changing to manual targeting and manually setting the TDC. But... I have taken the view that in real life, the same guy did not range the enemy contact in the attack periscope and then run across to the TDC to plan a solution. And because of the steep learning curve, I had avoided the manual targeting/TDC.
IRL it was the captain on the periscope in an attack situation. He identified, measured speed and AOB. For realism those should be put in manually, but AFAIK it's not possible in SH3.
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Originally posted by deSelys
Beet, on the cover of the book you have up and down arrows. It will allow you to chose the book according to the nationality of your target.
All merchant ships are in the same book.
That was it! I think my book was set to the first country in alphabetical order - Albania LOL. But the book I open seems to have details only of warships, not merchants. The "Museum" is a single entity, subdivided into countries and types of ship. The recognition manual on the uboat doesn't seem to work like that. What am I doing wrong?
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Handelshciffe, if you play in German text. When you open the rec book, its one chapter up for me.
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Originally posted by Nefarious
Handelshciffe, if you play in German text. When you open the rec book, its one chapter up for me.
ah yes, that's it - has all the ships in it. I'll be OK now! :cool:
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I havnt tried it, but they have a new UBoat Commander Version at Subsim.
From what Ive read about, it seems like a great addition, unfortunatley I probably wont D/L until, I start a new Career. Speaking of which I started patrol 12 today.
Patrol 11 I caught a Large Convoy that had 3 T3 Tankers in it, needless to say all three sit on the bottom. Netted 50K Tons, with a couple C2's C3's and a C Class Destroyer I caught piddiling at 5 knots.
Got to be careful operating in Am53, while deep reloading torps I passed a few mines around 60, 70 meters.
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Needless to say, I'll use time compression for those long cruises to the assigned sector. I don't suppose anyone would do any different - unless they wanted to sit in front of the monitor for 3-4 days...
That works fine on the open ocean. If a ship is spotted, the watch will call "Ship spotted!", and the game will go back to x1 time compression. The ship spotted will be some distance away, and you can plan an attack.
However, there are some situations where using x1024 TC can land you in the chit. - Surprise appearance by a DD
- Aerial attack
If using x1024, you'll suddenly find yourself being pounded by a DD in some situations. Worse are the aerial attacks. I went sailing up the Irish sea yesterday (west of mainland Britain, east of Ireland), and as I didn't want to take 3 days, I used x1024. Those sudden aerial attacks are lethal! -no chance to prepare.
So what's the answer - stay submerged at periscope depth, and use x1024 TC, or stay at surface in real time, or a combination?
Recommendations please!
I suppose I could always whine like a gamer dork on the SH3 board - waaaah, get rid of planes! They have "no place" in a *game* such as this! OR... waaaah, get rid of day!
:rofl
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Depends mostly on weather conditions.
When I'm close to England and in bad weather I usually stay submerged during the day, going ahead slow at 1024 times compression. Batteries usually last for almost an entire day at that setting, you gain a couple miles and can recharge at night (also using 1024 time compression) for another day.
It also highly depends on your watchmen. In bad weather be sure to put your best men out there, if possible an officer as well. As everyone gains more experience the suprise attacks will become less of a problem so you can use time compression without worrying to much about it.
Later in the war you get radar warning equipment which helps some more... they may find you more easily, but at least give away their presence long before they pose a threat.
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Yeah, when close to England, And Ive dived to escape Aircraft. I will run sumberged during the day at 3 or 4 knots. And usually I will surface an hour after sunset.
I never TC at 1024 unless im out in open water, out of Allied Air Cover, Its March 1941 in my career so I can still operate at 1024 effectively.
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RW/Nef - thanks for that - I was able to survive by diving to PD and running silent. The only problem was that after a prolonged night time attack on a convoy, my batteries were getting low just as dawn came around. I had to shut down engines and give the crew a day off while we waited for night. It's summer time, and around the inner Hebrides off Scotland, it doesn't get dark till 11pm, and starts getting light again not long after 3am, so there's not much opportunity for recharging the batteries. And after the attack on the convoy I only had 3 torps left, so I RTBed to start another patrol...
...and in that patrol, at x1024 TC on the open waters, I ran into a Clemson which was attacking from a range of more than 2000 metres. I took some damage, but was able to dive to PD, and turn away from the Clemson. It very kindly kept a constant speed and bearing, and I was able to whack it with the stern torp.
I wasn't so lucky the next time. Still on the open seas at x1024 TC, I ran into another DD. By the time the warning came, the DD was already at p***ing distance, my VIIc having suffered catastrophic damage and flooding, and I was soon dead. The issue here is that this would not have happened in x1 TC - my guys would have spotted the DD and/or the sonar man would have detected it. The game does automatically change into x1 from x1024, but in many cases it happens much too late to be of any use. Sitting there at x1 for days at a time while my sub trundles to the assigned sector is not an option, so I think I'll do saves every 2 mins at x1024, and if this situation arises again, just go back to the last save.
I'm just about to download RUB 1.44 to see if this issue has been addressed.
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Beet...why do you insist on running at x1024?
The reason you have a problem getting nailed at that speed is due to a number of factors, but in general think of it this way:
There is always ALWAYS a delay from the time at which a crew member sights (or a hydrophone operator reports) a contact. A real delay, not a computer graphics delay. The reporting crew member sees the target then relays that information to the captain. It takes only a moment or two BUT if you are running at x1024 that moment is HUGE. By the time you are able to react the clock "ticks" once. That "once" is alot of time due to your compression setting.
If you run at x512 you half that moment is reduced by half. At X256 it is half again.
Try running at a maximum of X256. I guarentee you won't have the problems with getting surprised.
The only time I run at x1024 is getting out of port or on an Atlantic crossing.
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Curval
Thanks for your help! :) I'm sure you're right. I will try x256 max from now on. As well as the delay as you described it, I think my (XP2600) CPU has a hard time keeping up. Static temperature is 48°, but SH3 makes it rise to 54°.
But, if covering vast oceans at only x256, I might have to start a campaign - move the sectors closer together (and get rid of day)! ;)
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512 is good for shorter distances, around England. I use every TC number in different situations.
But if you are spotted during the day you must remain at Periscope Depth for the rest of the day usually.
Just watch out for mines.
Another good tip, Silent Running doesnt help any when in Shallows. Less than 70 or so meters. Best thing to do in a situation where your pinned in shallows, is Flank speed as often as possible, numerous turns, and a strong faith in gott. :)
I dont know why that is, but it seems its easier for the DD's to effectively kill you when your hardly moving, better chances trying to run, Fast instead of slow.
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Originally posted by Curval
I've had a weird occurance on my computer this weekend.
My DVD drive will recognise movies but when I put a game disk in...any game...it does not recognise that there is a disk in the drive.
It just happened....any ideas?
Probably caused by the insanely destructive StarForce copy protection that Silent Hunter III uses. StarForce installs hidden drivers that it doesn't tell you about. These drivers are known to cause system instability and open the low level processes of Win2k/XP up to people who know how to access them (there are scripts in existance for the script kiddies), undoing some of the major security improvements Windows has had in the last 5 years. It doesn't even uninstall these hidden drivers when you remove the program.
It is also known to intentionally break software that might be used for piracy such as OEM versions of Nero.
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Fortunately that is not the case Karnak...although it DID cross my mind as I have read some of the threads over at subsim.com about those drivers.
In my case the drive just gave out on me. Either it was a lemon from the get-go and finally pooped out on me, or the kids did something. I just don't know.
Also fortunately I bought a Dell..a Gen 4 XPS..right off the Dell Bermuda website back in January. I called the tech support people (we have to go through Dell Latin America) and after about ten minutes of mucking around the lady said "Okay...it is under warrenty, we will just replace the drive. A technician will be out to your home to install it in two or three days."
That was Wednesday night. On Friday at about 11.00am I got a call asking for directions and was told the guy would be there at 3.30pm to switch out the drive. At 2.30 he arrived and was gone by 2.45.
They gave me a faster drive than I had as well. :aok
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Curv,
I'm in a new patrol, cruising up the west coast of Ireland. I'm on the surface ahead one third and x256, when boom! We're under attack. :mad: Serious damage...
I tried this again, and slowed it down for the second attempt and dived to PD - gaming the game, perhaps. ;) It's a Clemson destroyer at medium range, but moves away and disappears. I surfaced when it was safe. It is night time, pitch black. I continued at x256 TC, but then... a plane appears! As before, in x256 TC, the warning comes too late to avoid serious damage. Question: What the hell's a plane doing looking for U-boats in the middle of the night? OK, I know that U96 came under aerial attack in Das Boot, but that was Gibraltar, where they were expecting U-boat traffic.
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Yea, I've had similar experiences with planes attacking at night.
Not sure how realistic that is, particularly when you are out in the middle of the ocean. Perhaps a ship in the area detected you or something.
dunno.
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Depending on your year in the campaign, Aircraft will attack at night, PBY's, Wellingtons, Avengers.
Now I have had aircraft attack at Dusk, where I thought it was questionable as to wether they could or not.
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Quite a bit of aircraft attacks happened at night... the aircraft (particularly late war) would detect the sub via radar (cavity magnetron units) and often kill their engines and place a spotlight on the sub as they made their run.
Real deadly...
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lol very touchy community over at subsim (http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=44827&start=25&sid=8999377fcf654b5bf089f0d2504bd56b)
I made a mistake and didn't notice "Avon Lady's" Star of David sig and asked if "he" (who is obviously a "she"...I was busy at work..not my best day of posting)was Jewish. Then everyone starts to get silly about it after I mention that some Jewish friends of mine, and a guy I know at my Rotary Club, aren't thrilled about me playing on the German side.
Apparently Avon Lady is something of an icon over there or something.
I guess I'm no longer part of their little clique community.
OH THE AGONY.
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Shes very arrogant, People ask questions, then she chimes and in and says, "If you would of used the Search Function", A first time member of that forum, would have an incredibly hard time of navigating that BBS. Its full of stupid image signatures the size of Texas, Avon Ladyz is probably the biggest, Im so glad we dont do that here.
I read the Mods Workshop forum mostly, that game is about to explode with new models. I cant wait :D
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Ok, all this talk sparked my interest again. I havent played SH3 since switching to new HDs many months ago. I reinstalled it, downloaded that RUB thing, and want to continue my old career. I found the old HD containing all the career files and transferred only the folder of the specific career located in the 'My Documents\SH3' area.
Is that all that's needed? If yes, is it compatible with the Real Uboat mod? I tried loading a save and it crashes mid-load; both RUB loaded and unloaded. Do I need the config files and anything else from the original install (old HD, heavily modified)?
I was on patrol 20 or so in the old install, many veteren crewmembers, medals, and a huge amount of tonnage... I dont want to start over. :)
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Originally posted by Nefarious
Shes very arrogant, People ask questions, then she chimes and in and says, "If you would of used the Search Function", A first time member of that forum, would have an incredibly hard time of navigating that BBS. Its full of stupid image signatures the size of Texas, Avon Ladyz is probably the biggest, Im so glad we dont do that here.
I read the Mods Workshop forum mostly, that game is about to explode with new models. I cant wait :D
I love the guy who compares Dresden to the holocaust...he thinks he is making points with her. Can't wait to see what she says about that little tidbit.
What a JOKE though. They all masterbate each other with talk about how great the COMMUNITY is and then pig-pile when someone makes a mistake. The FDB forums are more friendly than that freakin place...lol.
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The Avon Lady was big in Operation Flashpoint also. Apparently her and her husband are ex Israeli military.
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/209_1081438631_swoop.gif)
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Originally posted by Octavius
Ok, all this talk sparked my interest again. I havent played SH3 since switching to new HDs many months ago. I reinstalled it, downloaded that RUB thing, and want to continue my old career. I found the old HD containing all the career files and transferred only the folder of the specific career located in the 'My Documents\SH3' area.
Is that all that's needed? If yes, is it compatible with the Real Uboat mod? I tried loading a save and it crashes mid-load; both RUB loaded and unloaded. Do I need the config files and anything else from the original install (old HD, heavily modified)?
I was on patrol 20 or so in the old install, many veteren crewmembers, medals, and a huge amount of tonnage... I dont want to start over. :)
Bite the bullet, and restart your career.
I was in patrol 25, I grew tired of reading stuff like this. It gives a warning that careers from non RUB might not work. I downloaded SH3 Commander the other day, and totally fugged my 2nd Career with RUB. So I started over, And I still couldnt get SH3 Commnder to work. So I gave up, and just started my 3rd career with RUB 1.44.
I would like to try SH3 Commander, But I cant get it to work.
As for there community, I think its an ok place. Unfortunatley, There sigs, and a couple very rude people ruins the place. Ive been a member of that forum for nearly three years, and I have only 30 some posts.
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It's all good. I ran SH3 commander, fiddled with the crew section and it seemed to clean house. Before I made that last post I noticed the saves labeled my IXb as type 7s. Now they display properly.
Does Real Uboat mess with any AI DD tactics? I just reigned hell upon 4 T3 tankers in Feb. of 41 in a Mk. IXb. Their reaction was on par with night security at a museum... a frigate shined a flashlight and went back to sleep. Only after distancing myself, surfacing and reloading the tubes did I notice the frigate's DD partner. Didn't hear a peep from him as I downed the next two T3s.
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Originally posted by Nefarious
Depending on your year in the campaign, Aircraft will attack at night, PBY's, Wellingtons, Avengers.
Now I have had aircraft attack at Dusk, where I thought it was questionable as to wether they could or not.
Yes, I am in Dec.42. I found a large convoy and got 3xC3. I then evaded the DDs until I thought it was safe to come up to PD - all at silent speed/silent running. But it seems the DDs were able to spot my periscope. That didn't seem to happen earlier in the war. I guess the trick is to use all four forward torps in a single attack and then just get the hell out.
One thing I notice is that there seems to be no pattern to torp reload time. Sometimes it's quick, sometimes it takes forever. I've got a full crew in the torp room, including an officer. What gives?
How does everyone here rate RUB 1.44?
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Originally posted by beet1e
Yes, I am in Dec.42. I found a large convoy and got 3xC3. I then evaded the DDs until I thought it was safe to come up to PD - all at silent speed/silent running. But it seems the DDs were able to spot my periscope. That didn't seem to happen earlier in the war. I guess the trick is to use all four forward torps in a single attack and then just get the hell out.
One thing I notice is that there seems to be no pattern to torp reload time. Sometimes it's quick, sometimes it takes forever. I've got a full crew in the torp room, including an officer. What gives?
How does everyone here rate RUB 1.44?
1.44 is great, Although its not too different from 1.43.
Also, it depends on your crews energy, If theyre low, it will take longer.
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I went back to a clean copy updated for the patches after having my experience with IUB.
I see no value in the mods personally.....just my preference I suppose.
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All SHIII AHers check this thread (http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=163830).
Looks entertaining.
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/209_1081438631_swoop.gif)
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Originally posted by Swoop
All SHIII AHers check this thread (http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=163830).
Looks entertaining.
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/209_1081438631_swoop.gif)
Read the thread, but what is it?
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Remember B17-II? Remember 'Bombs Away'?
Just like that.
And if you dont remember.......instead of multiplayer action, it's single player action but organised as if all the players are playing the same campaign. Ranks, medals, u-boat upgrades are all decided by the command system (ie, not by SHII but by your actions) and apparently, using the system they are using, the war can be won.
You get your assignments, go simulate your mission and post your results.
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/209_1081438631_swoop.gif)
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well since i never could get the dvd game to work i bought the d/l version, awsome game!! now im trying to figure out whay mods are worth getting.....and advice mucho preciated :)
btw sank 3 cargos my 1st patrol out tho i totally suck at using torps atm :(
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I've been trying what you said, and using max x256 TC. But there are still problems, and I'm wondering if there are even bugs in the game.
...so there I was, skimming along the surface at x256, when boom-ping-whizz-pop - "we're under attack, sir! We're taking damage, sir!"
FFS! Almost all sections of the hull were damaged. :mad: Luckily, I'd taken a game save earlier in that sector, so I was able to recreate the scenario easily to analyse what had happened. There was a Flower Corvette waiting for me, with its searchlights on! I replayed from the save file up to the point just before I was in range of that FC. I checked the hydrophone - NOTHING! No sound at all - not even the background sound of the deep. I asked the sonar man for the nearest warship contact. "No sound contact" was his reply. And yet, 2 mins later in real time, I was under attack.
Why does the hydrophone background sound disappear? Is this a bug? I notice that other sounds also disappear - the periscope up/down sound goes, and the electric engine sounds in some cases.
Can you explain how I could be 2 mins away from an attack, but for nothing to be heard on hydrophone/sonar?
Just to show I wasn't making it up...
(http://www.zen33071.zen.co.uk/nosoundcontact.jpg)
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The problem doesn't appear to be a X256 problem. When you are on the surface the hydrophone ability to pick up contacts is significantly reduced. The reasons for this include the fact that the diesel engines make a bunch of noise and reduce hydrophone effectiveness and the fact that all the noise made by your sub crashing through the surf does the same. Obviously the faster you are going the worse this gets too.
Try and reload again...this time approach at periscope depth. I'll bet you pick up that corvette.
Also...how tired is your sonarman? If his fatigue is high his effectiveness is also reduced.
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Curv - thanks for that. But I still seem to be back at the stage where I can't use x256 TC then. (?) I manned the hydrophone myself, and still heard absolutely nothing. Why does the background noise of the deep disappear? I thought crew fatigue was not a factor if using TC from the map view. I must say I don't like all this micromanagement of the crew.
Yes I can detect him at periscope depth, but he has already detected me. So it becomes an exercise in evasion. Probably not worth attacking a lone corvette anyway though.
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I must admit that I don't seem to have the same issues as you with respect to the time compression. I use it often and have only had a "few" issues with getting attacked etc.
Maybe it is RUB that is the determining factor now...I don't have it.
I only attack destroyers if I get a perfect shot opportunity (generally when they haven't detected me) and if I can "afford" the torpedo.
Usually I just rig for silent running and go deep...then evade.
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Ah! Didn't know you didn't have RUB... I like it - a big improvement on the standard game.
As for TC, I think I'll do what I've been doing - use x256 but save the game in every sector. There's just no way anyone can be expected to sail in real time with all those thousands of km. to cover.
Yesterday I was assigned a patrol in BE63 - did the whole patrol and didn't see a single ship. :confused:
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Curval - take a look at this! I don't know what's going on. The enemy ship is less than 3000 metres away, and the sonar man reports no contact. I even replaced him with a rested petty officer - still no sound contact!!
:confused:
(http://www.zen33071.zen.co.uk/nosound2.jpg)
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It's gotta be RUB. I have not experienced anything like that.