Silent Hunter III

Sand

Does anyone know any decent "walkthrough" websites? I know that it being a dynamic campaign theres no set way of doing things, but Id appreciate a "this is what you should be doing generally" type thing, as Im running into some difficulties - finding and intercepting merchant ships. Currently what Im doing is leaving port, plotting course, putting my watch and bow torpedo crews into rest - leaving me blind but hey - and steaming for my patrol zone. As soon as Im on station I head for the center, dive to 30 meters and manually use the hydrophone to listen for ships, and then try to intercept through manual use of the hydrophone. If nothings up, I move around to different points and try again. Its not going great guns quite yet so im open to advice.

Im just after completing my second patrol from the 1939 start point in the rickety old boat you start off in. First patrol was an uneventful cruise of the Norwegian coast, with the weather and sea being atrocious and not the slightest hint of action.

Second patrol was in the North Sea off the English coast. On my way to the patrol zone I came across a lone British merchant by chance and was by now desperate for a kill so I diverted to engage. I managed to intercept somehow, submerged, and fired two fish at long range hoping for a quick kill.... one was a dud the other missed. I cursed. By this point the merchant man had passed me and I could only hope to catch up by surfacing, which was too risky so I resumed course for my patrol zone with only 3 fish left from my starting 5.

My patrol was again uneventful, though the weather was much better. I was determined not to go home without a kill this time so when I saw a contact appear 40 km away on final approach for Hartlepool I said **** it and off I went after it. Of course I never managed to intercept it, but I did intercept a C2 Merchant man heading east from hartlepool. I stalked him for the best part of 30 minutes and closed to within 1700 meters before hitting him with my last 3 fish. By the luck of the gods, the first one hit, and the second, and the third but the bastard was still floating! I had killed the engines after I had fired and watched through the periscope disbelieving as I had never seen a ship take 3 torpedos one after the other and survive, and was just about ready to tear up the manual, smash the disc and burn the map when finally the ****ing thing sank - 6,395 tons to me. Which places me in a not too shabby 4th place in the submarine aces list. Though some gimp managed to get 16,000 + tons somehow.

This may be the one game where I dont reload whenever things get tricky as its going to be interesting to see If I maintain my no casualties record so far.

Trine

Guess it depends on what difficulty you've got it on. Few things I've noticed that help are:

Try to lauch your torpedoes under 1000m distance, gives the target less time to react if the torpedo is spotted. But not under 300m because the torpedo won't have time to arm!

Make sure your rudder is straight and you're heading in a straight direction (or even better at full stop) when you launch.

When you're looking through the attack periscope and locked onto a target, look at the Angle to Bow reading. This tells you what angle the ship you're targeting is to the front of your sub. At 0 it's facing you, at 180 it's facing away from you. Judge the launching of your torpedo so that it hits the ship at 90 or 270 degrees.

Also, when you're on the easier difficulty settings there's little coloured triangles under the targeted boat when you're looking through the attack periscope. When it's red you have little chance of hitting, orange you have an average chance of hitting, and when it's green you have a good chance of hitting. But that's cheating...:D

Hope that helps.

bizmark

I have 500,000 tons of shipping to my name by 1943 \o/

Only advice i could give is to have good watch and sonar men when you find a target line it up so your looking at it side on then line up your target solution so its at 0 degrees on your map press q to open your torp tubes then wait till your inside 1000m do not fire if your below 400m your torp will more than likely not arm itself.Deck guns rule for single or unprotected cargo ships blast a few ap rounds into the waterline and set the top on fire with HE then just watch it burn

Trine

Doesn't sound like you've had the best of luck yet Sand, but I was exactly the same on my first patrols, damn fishing boats seemed to be able to outmaneuver me!

I don't know of any walkthrough guides to be honest. I've seen video tutorials for manual torpedo aiming, but no actual patrol tactics.

What I do is take the sector you've been given to patrol as a very rough indication of your actual patrol route. Don't just head full flank for your patrol sector, circle for 24 hours and then head home. Your patrols should (and do historically) last much longer than that.

So if I was given BExx to patrol, I would first head north along the English coast, maybe even taking time to criss-cross the mouth of any busy harbours, spend a few nights observing Scappa Flow and the Norwegian shipping lanes. I'd then head north of Scotland, west of Ireland (one of the best hunting grounds), taking time again to patrol busy America - England shipping lanes. By the time you've actually reached your objective, chances are you've already had plenty of engagements.

The same idea applies if your patrol sector is close by. Go to it first and complete your objective, but then head off to some shipping lanes where the real action is. Hell, head over to the American coast and bag yourself an aircraft carrier!

I can't see why you dive to 30m and use your hydrophone to listen for contacts though. Maybe when you're near a military port with lots of Destroyer activity, but when you're hunting merchants and cargo ships you shouldn't be afraid to stay surfaced, plot a patrol course and let your watchmen spot targets. Plenty of lone ships out there at your mercy.

jonski

Much as I would like this it is probably too much of a "sim" for me , plus i was nearly divorced way back when , for playing silent service 2 for hours on end . I presume this game is more of a sim than that ?

calhob_ie

The subsim forums are full of advice and theres guys out there modding it already.

www.subsim.com

They've already worked out how to up the time compression and up crew stamina levels to more realistic settings as well as modify compression times when near the coast etc. Which I found to be a great help for getting things moving espec getting out of Harbours like Wilhelmshaven or Lorient.

Early in the war you should have no problem sinking lone merchants in and around the irish and north seas but as time moves on convoys will become more prevalent and you'll have to work a bit harder. When America comes in you can have a good couple of patrols sitting off Norfolk and New York but then your in big trouble. By the end of 42 most of the traffic will be in convoys and you'll have to work serously hard to get anything.

Really enjoying this at the minute has to be said, best of luck.

Oh anybody tried the Gibraltrer passage into the med yet? Now that is one heavily defended stretch of sea!

JCDenton

calhob_ie wrote:

Oh anybody tried the Gibraltrer passage into the med yet? Now that is one heavily defended stretch of sea!

By golly it sure is, I think it's mostly just a game of patience there though, I couldn't take all the silent underwater maneuvers (especially when the time compression won't go very high here)

I didn't think I'd enjoy this game so much, but yesterday as I was sailing out of Wilhelmsheven, the sun was setting and I had the rolling stones "gimme shelter" blaring from the grammophone downstairs as I stood on deck.....I could almost smell the sea air.

I can wholehartedly reccommend this to any sim fan out there; great stuff!

Maximilian

Sand wrote:

Does anyone know any decent "walkthrough" websites?

Try http://hometown.aol.co.uk/dominicobaggio/SilentHunterIII.html
LOL @ your signature btw - I hope its meant in an ironic way. SF are hardly ones to complain about secret meetings. Is SH3 now part of IRA training?

This game is really great - Just attacked my first convoy last night - took out the destroyer escort with a salvo (having learned not to fire steam torpedoes at destroyers during daylight) and then was like a rabid wolf in a sheep pen, shooting at everything in sight - sunk another 6 ships before completely running out of ammo. It seems you can't sink a ship with a flak gun or with starshells!!

Great game!!

TwoShedsJackson

Having finally finished the tutorials (even that took me about six hours and was throughly enjoyable ) went on my first patrol in the craptacular 1939 U-Boat. Off to the coast of Norway, sank a German merchant and a neutral Swedish one before realising the nav officer colour codes the markers on your map at my easy-peasy settings

Nothing doing in the patrol zone itself, on the way back a trawler crashed into me and ripped off my periscope. Got home later, no actual enemy kills but bloody good fun.

Next patrol has me going to that grid off Kent so hopefully might actually sink a proper target this time

Check out those subsim.com forums for some handy downloads: the fatigue mod makes it much easier to manage the crew while still being somewhat realistic, they have a compass replacement which has numbers you can actually read, protractor tool for the nav map etc. etc.

Trine

Just recieved a report of my first convoy last night aswell, 16 ships with just one destroyer escort, off the south coast of Ireland. Intercepted it on the dot of midnight...and saved the game. Gonna attack tonight when I get a chance to play.

I downloaded a music pack for the gramaphone, has all early 40's German Nazi nationalist music, with such classic hits as "Heil Hitler Marschlied", "Panzer rollen in Afrika vor" and "Deutschland Du Land Der Treue"...

TwoShedsJackson

Using the Das Boot soundtrack myself where did you get the music pack?

Trine

This is what I have, Messervy's Gramaphone Pack, but be warned it's 130MB...

http://www.sushi-inc.dk/downloads/Messervys_gramophone_pack_complete.rar

There's other smaller packs, you just gotta look about for them. The Community board on the Ubisoft Silent Hunter III site is a good place.

Well my attack on the convoy went pretty disasterously, I was hoping to sink at least half of the 16 boats, but only managed to sink 4 and damage 3. :mad: Would have loved to have surfaced and let rip with my deck gun, but it couldn't be manned in the rough weather. :mad: :mad: :mad:

Oh well, got me 2 aircraft on the way home!

Terra

I love this game, been playing it for a few days now

Just got to lorrient, and its some port to navigate out of.

having a few problems getting my lads to reload the torpedos and fix and damage compartments...

it seems a bit odd sometimes they just do it and other times the torpedoe just say there que'd for loading but never load.

anyone have this problem ?

calhob_ie

Check your not rigged for silent running, that stops all noisy work on the boat Ie reloading torpedos, fixing damage etc. Also make sure you have enough guys in the relevant torpedo compartment.

Finally if your moving torpedos from external storage into the boat then it can only be done when the weather is good enough.

Sand

Anyone ever see ships sink of their own accord in rough weather? I intercepted this Norwegian trawler and decided to go to periscope depth so he didnt see me - Im not sure if neutrals report your position to enemy destroyers but I didnt want to risk it - and I was just poring over the maps wondering where Id go next when the trawler was marked on my map as sunk. I checked and yep it was gone.

The seas were quite rough so I guess its conceivable that it was swamped by a wave but its a tad conincidental that it would happen just when i was there to witness it.

Winning Hand

Never saw that before, did you get the tonnage credit?
Just finished a mission whereby i intercepted a convoy of tankers in the middle of the night off scapa flow with only one destroyer escort. Took that bad boy down and was free to unleash my torpedos on the rest of the convoy. 5 Tankers later and with no torpedos left and unable to use the deck gun due to bad weather I carried on to my patrol point where i hid for 24 hours to get the mission credit. Oddly enough there were no medals for me on my return, although i got the iron cross with oak leaves the mission before for taking out one armed trawler and nothing else

The second thumb has just gone up for this game in my book, now if only they could fix all the bugs!

Sand

Never saw that before, did you get the tonnage credit?

No, when I saw it sunk I wondered for some mad moment if I had accidentially hit fire with a very lucky torpedo but they were all there and there was no enemy shipping or friendlies around ( Norway was neutral anyway) so It must have been a freak wave that caught it.

Odd like I said, I wouldnt have throught it would have been that detailed that ships could just sink.

bizmark

Iv offen seen Pt boats sink in bad weather off the coast of England after they have been sent out to attack me

Azza

Seriously at the next midlans. I want to have this in a competition. Doing a co-op game see who sinks the most tonage. Winner gets a prize.

Trine

If anybodies up for a game some night gimme a PM, multiplayer is great.

bizmark

Id be up for some multi at 9 im an adverage simmer though 50% realism with the targeting computer stuff done for you.

bizmark

Muiltplayer is class myself trine and 2 others took out most of a british taskforce battleships aircraft carriers destroyers all going down lovely got a bit hectic at one point manged to ram trine :eek:


Anyone who wants a muiltplayer game pm me its great fun

Trine

:mad: Paint costs are being sent to your superior officer...

Think that was the first boards.ie SS3 patrol, good work bizmark!

First game was very strange, out of nowhere a ship bizmark sunk landed square on top of me. This pic shows after being hit by it...



Notice the slight dive angle I found myself in...

Result was massive flooding in rear compartments, almost half my crew dead, hull ripped to shreds...starting sinking like a brick. Was dropping a couple of meters a seconds, really going down fast, 300...350...400...450...hull was at 36% so started thinking this was a little weird. 500...still dropping at the same speed...then suddenly leveled at 503. Then nothing...blowing ballast had no effect, couldn't dive, surface, change direction or manage the crew.

Second patrol involved the Illustrious Aircraft Carrier, King George Battleship, a rake of Revenge destroyers and three duds in a row for bizmark. Though we were both sunk at almost exactly the same time by some crazy accurate depth charges.

Good games, bizmark came out on top on both occasions but I'll get revenge...

bizmark

lol dropped right on your head class you really should of imploded at around 80-100 meters so that must of been a bug...I though i hit you with a sound guided torp at one point dureing the first mission just saw it change course at the last second to hit a c3 cargo ship instead :eek:.If i wasnt ramming you or dropping ships on your head i was getting in a bit of blue on blue engagements crazy stuff

Azza

Did 4 patrols offline. Full real. First 3 in castrol patrol U-Boats. Patrolled mostly east coast of England. Sank 2x C2 Cargo Ships 1x C3 Cargo and 1x Costal Merchant.

4th patrol got a U-boat with 14 torpedos and a deck gun. Sank 2x Coastal merchant 2xC3 Cagos 1x C2 Cargo 1x Trawler. All with the deck guns. Missed with all but one of my torpedos but did not sink it. Bit unrealistic how easy it is to sink ship with deck gun. Survived no less than 4 attacks from the air on my 4th patrol.

Total Tonnage I think was 51,000 tons.

Sand

Missed with all but one of my torpedos but did not sink it.

Man, thats a lousy return on 14 torpedos! Are you using the auto targeting info or are you doing it all manual? If youre getting the solution plotted auto then you should be hitting with pretty much all your torps bar the odd dud. Course you have to make it easy for yourself ( intercept ahead, get to a sweetspot range of 700 meters) put it a meter or two under the keel and you get one kill for every torp fired, on most of the smaller merchant men anyway - Im on a run of 8 shots, 8 kills and I intend to keep it as efficient as possible.

Still waiting to get my deck gun and wreak some havoc. I decided to tidy up my save games and of course blindly ignored the warnings and deleted every save game bar the earliest. Crappy save system! So I had to restart the whole damn thing, but its going a lot faster now because I know what Im doing. Its gone from where I couldnt find ships to my major problem on my last patrol being torping one ship 1 km north of me, and then spinning about fast enough to torp another 1km south heading opposite directions. I dont think Ill ever break that particular time for consecutive kills outside of a convoy.

Azza

I'm using manual targeting its really tricky. Find it very difficult to hit aything.

I see the guys on the main Silent Hunter Forum are easily racking up 100,000 tons on one mission.

Sand

I'm using manual targeting its really tricky. Find it very difficult to hit aything.

Yeah, I have to admit I left that well alone - I doubt Id hit a thing either if I had to calculate the solution manually.Even identifying the ships would be a challenge without the trusty auto assist.

I see the guys on the main Silent Hunter Forum are easily racking up 100,000 tons on one mission.

Not totally beyond impossible with save and reload - That gimp Prien managed to rack up 50000+ tons in one real life patrol so with the ability to go back and forward in time it can only be expected youd rack up multiples of that.

Canis Lupus

Todays question, is this game worth getting?

bizmark

Canis Lupus wrote:

Todays question, is this game worth getting?

Yes it is read a few reviews on line here