Silent Hunter III

[Eaglesfan27]

I had a freeze tonight while doing the naval academy.. perhaps because I panicked and started hitting several keys at once, including trying to look out my periscope while still submerged. In any case, I'm really enjoying the tutorial, and look forward to diving into it more tomorrow (I really only planned on playing for an hour tonight and played 2 1/2 hours instead.)

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

and look forward to diving into it more tomorrow

Ugh!

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Ugh!

[klayman]

My gf wanted me to tell you guys that apparently you have ruined easter and she hates you all. I'm just glad I'm not getting blamed so I can keep playing.

[Eaglesfan27]

This morning, it took me 2 hours to figure out that I had to use escape "to return to base" and end my first naval academy mission. I navigated all over looking for the base. I'm embarassed that I did something that stupid. I did see some lovely landmarks though. I'm looking forward to playing some more later today or tomorrow.

[Surtt]

48 hour madness sale

Silent Hunter 3 now just $27.90

hxxp://www.gogamer.com/cgi-bin/GoGamer.storefront/SESSIONID/Product/View/001SIL3I

[Eaglesfan27]

Don't have the link here at work, but this game received an 8.9 and a very favorable review on Gamespot the other day.

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Surtt

48 hour madness sale

Silent Hunter 3 now just $27.90

Sweet! Just what I've been waiting on...thanks for the heads-up.

[scooter]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Don't have the link here at work, but this game received an 8.9 and a very favorable review on Gamespot the other day.

There you go:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/silen...=silent+hunter

[vyshka]

www.subsim.com gave it a 100/100 score.

[WSUCougar]

Any more recent thoughts on the game? Things to look for? My copy should be arriving by the weekend and I am anxious to dive into it.

By the way, it has been patched.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Any more recent thoughts on the game? Things to look for? My copy should be arriving by the weekend and I am anxious to dive into it.

By the way, it has been patched.

Double ugh!


I'm really enjoying it still. It is a slow moving game at times, but I read during the slow periods. Also, I highly recommend the tutorials.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

After a training mission, don't spend two hours trying to find your starting base like... uhmm.. a friend did.

Just hit escape once you have completed a training mission and hit yes when it asks you if you want to abandon your mission. You'll then see a screen that will tell you if you completed your objectives and ask you if you want to return to base or return to your mission.

[Calis]

New Patch, 1.2 out!

http://patches.ubi.com/silent_hunter...dvd_1.2_us.exe

Buncha fixes to damage and collision models, neatest thing imo in the patch is the addition of a protractor to your tools on the navigation screen.

That was sorely needed.

[Warhammer]

Where do you change the realism settings? Is this in the campaign at your desk or what?

I am still running through the tutorials and was curious. Also, is there a way to have your crew fire the deck gun and flak guns during the tutorial, or is that all you?

[Calis]

Before you start up a mission or patrol you'll get a "Change Realism" option.

So if you want to change them for tutorials you need to either start a career or do a canned mission before firing them up, kinda strange.

[Francis_Cole]

After a training mission, don't spend two hours trying to find your starting base like... uhmm.. a friend did.


I also had, er a friend, who did that for hours going round and round in a cirlce wondering what to do.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Francis_Cole

After a training mission, don't spend two hours trying to find your starting base like... uhmm.. a friend did.


I also had, er a friend, who did that for hours going round and round in a cirlce wondering what to do.

Glad to know that my friend wasn't alone

[Warhammer]

Probably a stupid question, how do you ping?

[Calis]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

Probably a stupid question, how do you ping?

Not sure exactly what you're asking here, but as long as you have a sonarman working he'll be doing so.

The deeper the better and you want to barely be moving if at all.

Think maybe you can order the sonarman to do a sweep as well, but I've never noticed that doing any better than just letting him do it. You can take over for him as well and check for yourself.

Haven't got far enough to deal with any of the fancy stuff or radar yet.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Calis

Not sure exactly what you're asking here, but as long as you have a sonarman working he'll be doing so.

The deeper the better and you want to barely be moving if at all.

Think maybe you can order the sonarman to do a sweep as well, but I've never noticed that doing any better than just letting him do it. You can take over for him as well and check for yourself.

Haven't got far enough to deal with any of the fancy stuff or radar yet.

A ping is active sonar. If my sonarman is doing that on his own, I'm court-martialling him in the 5 minutes or so we have before the destroyers take him out. It sounds like you are describing passive sonar, while Coug wants to know how to do the active stuff, which is useful for ranging without surfacing or engaging other subs that are also being super-quiet.

[Warhammer]

Exactly, I am trying to figure out how to go active. I see where he can sweep and all that good stuff, but I was wondering about acquiring ranging data and the like...

[Calis]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

Exactly, I am trying to figure out how to go active. I see where he can sweep and all that good stuff, but I was wondering about acquiring ranging data and the like...

Ahh gotcha then, sorry about that.

No clue on that though, and never really had any desire or need to do it personally. I get found too easy as it is.

[Warhammer]

Yeah, I can do it with the periscope and all, but I would like to eventually do it while submerged then pop up for a shot...

I wonder if I could use a screwdriver on them?

[WSUCougar]

Got the game, loaded it, and discovered that my video card is lacking (pixel something-or-other 1.1). *sigh*

Back to CompUSA we go.

[tanglewood]

Did the Kreigsmarine even have active sonar in WWII? I suppose you could clang the hull with a metal pipe or something...

[Warhammer]

How do you load your external torpedo reloads?

[Airhog]

The S-Gear (Sondergerät für Aktive Schallortung [Special device for active sound location]) used aboard U-2317 in With Honour in Battle was a German version of active sonar, utilising an ultra-sonic pulse frequency that was designed to be outside the ranges that could be detected by Asdic gear. (It wasn't, though.) It utilised a round display screen, similar to that used for radar, which displayed the targets as dots of light. The submarine itself was always at the centre of the screen. The operator could watch the screen and determine range and bearing to each target. The strength of the echo could be used as a rough indication of target size, a cruiser, for instance, reflecting back more of the signal than a frigate and so showing a stronger return on the screen. Like all bow-mounted sonar arrays, there was a blind area behind the boat.

The S-Gear system was designed to be used for submerged attack, and was significantly more useful in that role than the pre-war American sonar systems. However, it was deployed too late in the war to have much effect. Coupled with German advances in torpedo design, and the high underwater speed, and extreme stealthiness, of the Typ XXI and XXIII boats that were just coming into service when the war ended, it could have had a significant effect on the Battle of the Atlantic.

Normally, the system would be used on passive mode, using the array of 48 transducers in the balkon gerät under the boat's bow, which could detect targets at extreme range. U-2317 used a variant of the Nibelung apparatus, which could be keyed by the operator, and was capable of obtaining an accurate range and bearing using at most three active pings.

[Francis_Cole]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

How do you load your external torpedo reloads?

Surface your boat, then go to your weapons screen and drag the pictures of the external torps into empty reserve spaces inside your boat (I don't think you can drag them directly into an empty tube, you have to put them in a reserve space first then load them up)

Fran

[WSUCougar]

Oh dear god, this game is spectacular.

I played it until 3:00 last night (this morning?), and had to pry myself away from it even then. It's 1939 and sailing out of Kiel I've only sunk two small merchants en route to my patrol zone north of Ireland. I skirted the coast of Norway to bag those two, but then ran into this HELLACIOUS storm. Geez, the seas have been running huge for days and were taking green water over the bow even at slow speeds on the surface, so I've been running at 25 meters down and then coming up only to recharge the batteries. Still - and I can't tell you how cool this is - I love the fact that my Type VII U-Boat has only bagged two little merchants and has subsequently been fighting heavy seas. It's like a storm at sea sim! Now I know what a weather buoy off Cape Hatteras feels like.

Couple things to mention:

1. I learned the hard way that there is a lighthouse in the middle of the channel leaving Kiel, and more importantly it's not on the navigation map! I set my course, put the game on compressed time 64, and went to read parts of the manual again, and next thing I know we are grinding the hull all to hell. D'oh!

2. Crew rotation is tough, but especially with the officers. With only two slots to rest, I'm not sure how you do it effectively. I wish there was better documentation on the crew management stuff, as well as setting watches.

3. Did I mention how cool the heavy seas are? I even tried chasing down a merchant in that mess, but after hours of hide-and-seek it turned out to be...drumroll please...a TUGBOAT. Ouch.

4. I don't have quite enough RAM, but am getting by with 512. The only issues I have are with the UZO and binoculars, and then only in the 340 - 0 - 20 forward arc. Is that supposed to be spray off the bow clouding the view, or what?

Anyway, awesome game so far. Just awesome.

[Eaglesfan27]

I've had a bit of problems with 512 MB of Ram as well...

This morning my wife tells me that one of her games isn't playing well and she wants to upgrade the computer. Instead of getting each other expensive anniversary gifts at the beginning of May, we are going to purchase a new computer (and give our old one to her mother who is still struggling with a computer from 1996!) Mainly for this game, I love the timing of her decision

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I've had a bit of problems with 512 MB of Ram as well...

This morning my wife tells me that one of her games isn't playing well and she wants to upgrade the computer. Instead of getting each other expensive anniversary gifts at the beginning of May, we are going to purchase a new computer (and give our old one to her mother who is still struggling with a computer from 1996!) Mainly for this game, I love the timing of her decision

Great news...cool for you!

Sank another small merchant in the middle of the Storm from Hell. She blundered right into me northwest of Scapa Flow, and the weary crew let out a shout as she took the torp in the engine room and went down like a shot.

Now the seas have calmed and I am dutifully patrolling my zone...and haven't spotted a damn thing.

[gstelmack]

Okay, this game was fun and all, but going a bit slow, and with other stuff to do (plus 2 restarts and one accidental wipe of the wrong saved game), so I wasn't very far along. That all changed today...

Current career is out of Wilhelmshaven, Winter of 39/40 (forget if I'm at the end of 39 or start of 40). Third Patrol in my VIIB, first two were the typical pick off a few lone merchantmen until out of torpedoes, RTB, maybe 10,000 tons sunk all told.

I cruise through the strait north of Scappa Flow, picking off four lone merchantmen and leaving me with 3 torps. Continue to my patrol zone way off in the North Atlantic when my first convoy comes traipsing along. It's night, I plant myself north of their course, wait for them to reach my location, go to periscope depth, close, and sink a tanker and a small merchant with my first two torps. My third (and last) torp fired from the aft tube sails through the now-zig-zagging convoy, narrowly missing two ships.

But I haven't heard a sonar or seen evidence of any escorts. So I surface and head back in with the deck gun manned (how I lucked out and did not have a storm going I still don't understand...)

I've now sunk roughly a dozen ships, even managing to leave most of the currently-neutral US ships alone. This is the first time I've been in that close with the deck gun, and you just don't realise how good a job they did on the ships until you watch a shell smash into the foredeck and topple a crane arm. I'm a bit disappointed that no merchants tried to ram me, but this is the first time I really felt like a hunter.

Very well done.

[WSUCougar]

Excellent, gstelmack.

We have become an unholy terror with the deck gun in U-53 (Type VIIB). On our last patrol, autumn 1940, we were based out of St. Nazaire for the first time. En route to our patrol zone, we lingered in the hot little triangle west-northwest of Brest and southwest of Cornwall because (a) it's a busy area and (b) the sea was flat as a pancake and we could use the gun with great effect. Hear them coming with the hydrophones, maneuver underwater into a good spot ahead, and then pop up at around 1000 meters to let 'em have it. Didn't use a single torp and sank half a dozen ships.

[gstelmack]

I also forgot about the part where I was pumping shells into the stern of the ship, and it caught fire and finally exploded, sending either a boiler or a piece of deck cargo into the air and smashing back down on the deck. Just utterly fantastic...

[WSUCougar]

Holy crap! Twice now (early 1941) I've encountered huge, undefended "neutral" convoys in which the ships are 75% or more British, and thus fair game. These convoys are pin-pointed by radio messages, and I've just waltzed in and had a field day with torps as well as the deck gun. Ducks in a barrel, although attacking the last one I actually took some light damage from armed merchants. I cannot imagine why there are no escorts guarding such juicy targets.

I also had a cool first last night. Day time, southwest of Ireland, I'm at periscope depth and get a hydrophone report of a fast merchant closing from the northeast. Looking through the scope I see a freakin' PASSENGER LINER, steaming west at 21 knots. It's bloody beautiful...I had to wipe drool off the keyboard. But I've only got two fish left, and limited deck gun ammo (30 rounds), and this sucker is blazing past me already. I turn my ass at it and pop off a torpedo at 3000 meters, then run in at flank speed with my scope down to try and close the range. The first shot misses - not sure what happened, but it wasn't even close - and it turns out that the bastard starts zig-zagging and my follow-up shot from around 1500 meters misses as well. Verdammt!

So I surface in broad daylight and the chase is on. I start pouring armor-piercing shots into its waterline, trying to be as consistently accurate as I can, and eventually she drops down to six knots with an ample list to port. But now I'm out of ammo! And have no torps left! So in desperation I start lighting up the liner's upper deck with the 20mm flak gun. A couple small fires and explosions, but it's quickly apparent that I cannot bring the beast down. And it's too dangerous to linger...reluctantly, I turn tail and run, submerging with that glorious 24,000 tons fading into the west.

[Warhammer]

My convoy story:

I was in grid AM 53, I had just made the run towards Liverpool and was heading back out and around the Orkneys (or that was the plan). There is a convoy bearing down on me. The weather is stormy but not bad otherwise. I plot my intercept, and get to the "rendevous" point. I go up to periscope depth... Nothing. I run my estimate of their course, and realize I am a few hours early. I wait... Suddenly I start hearing all sorts of contacts. I raise the scope and.... fog. Nothing but fog... Cursing my luck I sit and I wait... Next thing I know contacts are all around me! But, I can't see them for the fog!

The I see a tanker coming out of the fog, its a T3, unfortunately the only shot I get off is within the minimum range of the torps. So I decide to surface and pursue her. I get to the surface and make a quick scan, there is a C2 no more than 100 meters off my stern! I move forward, and try setting up a solution on C2 with the stern tubes, but I almost run into another C2 that came out of the fog!

I change course and nearly run into another C2, this one American. So I change course and slow down to calm myself down and get my bearings. While I am doing this, the American C2 changes course to run me down! I quickly order a crash dive and try changing course, but to no avail, the C2 hits the back of my ship and causes some damage, luckily it is not severe. I quickly resurface and go to flank speed. I set my torps for my normal 90 deg. attack, and make a short semi-circle to try and get ahead of some of the ships.

Make a long story short, I bag one C2, and then I see her, the T3 coming out of the fog. Unfortunately she has changed course and with the fog I cannot get a good read on her bearing. Plus, since she is moving back into the fog, I do not have time to change my AOB, torp, and speed settings to what I want. Determining what bearing from my course the torps are going to fire along, I line that bearing up with where I think the tanker is going to be and fire a spread of three torps. A few seconds later, BOOM...BOOM...BOOM! I see the T3 break in half, I quickly turn to see some splashes all around me, a destroyer is bearing down on me! I crash dive and head to 40 m. An hour and a half, plus 3 destroyers later, I am back on my way to Kiel.

[klayman]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

I change course and nearly run into another C2, this one American. So I change course and slow down to calm myself down and get my bearings. While I am doing this, the American C2 changes course to run me down! I quickly order a crash dive and try changing course, but to no avail, the C2 hits the back of my ship and causes some damage, luckily it is not severe. I quickly resurface and go to flank speed. I set my torps for my normal 90 deg. attack, and make a short semi-circle to try and get ahead of some of the ships.

Damn. Isn't that an act of war?

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by klayman

Damn. Isn't that an act of war?

Only if the U-Boat survives to report it

"U-Boat? You claim we sank a U-Boat? With a cargo vessel? There's not even a scratch on our merchantman!"

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by klayman

Damn. Isn't that an act of war?

What's worse, I have the almost exact same situation happen to me last night. The difference was I went down below to plot a course to get out of dodge, and my watch neglects to tell me that we are about to run into a C2! All of a sudden I hear hulls scrapping, I rush to the bridge and see nothing but a big hull in front of me. Luckily I survived, but I spent something like 6 weeks in dock for repairs.

[klayman]

I guess I'll have to be more careful. I never had a neutral ship try to ram me yet, only allied destroyers. In fact, during one very successful convoy attack, I surfaced between two American C2 that had become seperated from the rest of the pact (due to a habit of ships in front of them blowing up and sinking ) so I could pull my reserve eels in, and was close enough to see the British ensignias (sp?) on the planes they were carrying. Together the three of us sailed happily along until we came up on the convoy again and continued my attack. I shudder to think the damage they would have done if they both decided to turn into me.