Silent Hunter III -

[Tricky]

Who's playing this game? I know Paul and UG are. If you spent half of your youth addicted to Silent Service on the Amstrad then this game is for you - it is quite simply a very, very good game. Here's a few things I picked up while reading the forums at www.subsim.com. There's a gazillion more tips that could be written but I have to get some work done so hopefully this little lot will be helpful. I'm sure other peeps will add their own below (hint! ).

Tricky's (stolen) Tips:

A few extra keys that aren't listed on the keycard:

# Rudder amidships
Z Toggle silent running
M Read radio messages
Ctrl-F11 Take screenshot (stored in your SH3 folder)
Shift-F11 Start taking lots of screenshots, press again to stop

Great places to find huge convoys:
Map grids AM51/52/52

Great places to get killed:
Map grids  AM51/52/52  <-- warning: shallow depths!
English Channel
Gibraltar
Irish Sea

Places to find capital ships to get killed by:

Scapa Flow (courtesy of Herr Paul)
ÃÆ'Ã,¢Ã¢ââ,¬Å¡Ã,¬Ã‚Ã,¦add yours here!

General gameplay tips:

Get the best experience by upping the realism: select realistic damage, dud torpedos and don't use external views when destroyers are hunting you (but keep the option enabled so you can admire the cool graphics).

Tankers get more renown and need less torpedos than cargo ships.

Sinking warships can be necessary but they won't increase your tonnage total by much. You'll get much better renown points and tonnage by saving your torpedos for large merchant ships. Use your deck gun for smaller coastal merchants and trawlers. It's best to try and avoid destroyers anyway rather than fight them as they always call up reinforcements which can be lethal.

Don't shoot neutral ships (marked green on the map) even if they are in convoy with allied (red) ships. You'll lose renown. Be careful when shooting torpedos into the middle of mixed convoys...

DonÃÆ'Ã,¢Ã¢ââ,¬Å¡Ã,¬Ã¢ââ,¬Å¾Ã,¢t forget to train and award medals to your crew after each patrol (if eligible) and spend your renown points on new crew members and equipment.

Check time compression - run at 'green' time settings: "1024x is orange and actually slower than 512x, as the computer slows to a crawl."

Don't let the navigator plot a course before you have left the harbour else you'll probably end up hitting the harbour wall.

Don't crash dive (C) in shallow waters. Crash diving will send you to 70m automatically which will break your boat.

If (when!) you die you can load a saved game.

Play your own gramophone music by putting MP3 or OGG files in the data/sound/gramophone folder under your Silent Hunter game folder and selecting the gramophone option via the radioman. Music must be switched to on in the options. Also I had to remove all the files from the sound folder apart from music.cfg to be able to hear it else the ambient mood music drowns it out. The Das Boot tune is very cool! Authentic wartime music and the Das Boot tune is downloadable from the forums at subsim.com. Will put links here later if I get a chance.

The coloured arrow shown when you have locked onto a target signifies the chance of a torpedo shot hitting the target - red: bad, yellow: fair, green: good.

To find ships that may be over the horizon submerge to periscope depth and run all stop, or ahead slow. Give it a bit of time and your hydrophone operator should pick up on contacts that are outside of visual range.


Destroyers usually have surface radar - fog will not hide you.

Also, ships will radio in your position and call for backup. You cannot fight 3 or more destroyers - well you can try...

-------------------------------------------------
In Contacts.cfg file in e:\SilentHunterIII\data\Cfg folder:

Edit:
Display Range To Important Radio Contacts=3000

(Figure in kilometres) This will reduce the number of lone merchant contacts you are told about but increase the number of bigger targets you hear about from the radio.
---------------------------------------------------

If anyone's noticed, there was a bug with the 7th flotilla whereby if you are in 7th Flotilla in September 1940 and thereafter the game will keep telling you "New Base Kiel" and then "New Base St. Nazaire" whenever you load up the career. The problem is that the Flotilla.cfg lists 7th Flotilla as being in both places during that month. To fix the bug, go into Flotilla.cfg and scroll down to the 7th Flotilla listing. There you'll find the following lines:

Flotilla2=904
TO2=940
NbStartingDate2=5
NbDate2=7
Emblem2=data/Emblems/SubEmblems/Flotillas/7th flotilla.tga
NbBases2=3
Base2_0=750;Kiel
Date2_0_0=1939
Month2_0_0=8
Date2_0_1=1940
Month2_0_1=9

The last number - the 9 is what needs to be changed. Change it to 8 and that should solve the problem.

[RichardWhitely]

http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=29992

How to intercept a convoy, theres usually a convoy or two in the med - its just a question of getting past gibraltar - easy if you submerge and go down to about 25m and rig for silent running.

Also the map in the documentation folder on the dvd lists the convoy routes.

http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=31915 <-- how to quickly rest tired crew members!

[Tricky]

Changed this tip - they've discovered that it also affects convoy notification so it's best to leave the 'Opportunity' figure as 300.

****************

In Contacts.cfg file in e:\SilentHunterIII\data\Cfg folder:

Edit:
Display Range To Opportunity Radio Contacts=300 *** was 200 ***
Display Range To Important Radio Contacts=3000

(Figure in kilometres) This will reduce the number of lone merchant contacts you are told about but increase the number of bigger targets you hear about from the radio.

[RichardWhitely]

Modified in-game map with convoy routes by Sheppard
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Armour/SH3MapConvoys.zip

Very useful

some other mods here: http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=30638

[RichardWhitely]

From how far out do you fire tricky?

I usually fire once I pick em up on hydrophone, I usually press "H" so I can use the hydro myself, get a bearing on target - turn the sub in that direction, flip over to Torpedo Data Computer to plan the attack, get an accurate range off sonar, ask weapon officer for a solution to target and then switch to attack periscope to fire.

The closest I've fired is 500m - usually fire on them from 2000-3000m out (once fired on a destroyer at nearly 5000m - surprisingly it hit and sunk the destroyer too! ).

What about fast moving, zig zagging and speed changing targets? I never usually bother with those as they just waste torpedos..

Also what kind of torpedos do you use? Since I'm in the later years of the war, I go with magnetic and those other torpedo's that do the zig zag search pattern as they make their way to the target..

[Tricky]

Ohh you fire from long range!    I like to see the whites of their eyes and fire from about 600m. If it's stormy I'll get to 400m then fire to cut the risk of premature detonation. I'll usually only fire from 1000m at the second row of a convoy I can't get closer to. I usually set sail with whatever torps are loaded - I don't usually upgrade any so I have a mix of steam and magnetic. I'm still in 1941 so I don't have ziggy zaggy torps - although they sound kinda cool. I prefer the steam mostly because I like to watch the bubble trail - also they have longer range and faster speed. I save the electric torps for DDs since they're usually the only ships that will evade torps if they see the trail.

I started out shooting at anything that moved but nowadays I try to hit only C2s and up. Tankers are preferred as they generally take less torps to sink although I have perfected hitting C3s in the just the right spot to make them blow up and sink straight away!

[RichardWhitely]

Yeah I'm still in the shoot anything that comes in range mode... hence my tonnage per patrol is still a bit low. Will start properly hunting the convoy routes on next patrol

[Cartman(NL)]

ehrm.. still practicing to find out what the best way is..
now sneaking up to 300mtr and shoot um in the side.. costs 2 torp and they sink for sure..
or i just shoot 1 and surface to finish them of with the canon  

[RichardWhitely]

Found a really cool mod, it adds a stack of new harbours, lots of slow moving convoy's and lots of other stuff to sink or get sunk by

http://home.online.no/~annkrisn/files/World2.zip

Well worth downloading,

erm, is that the time? have I been playing SH3 until this time? Eeeek!  

[RichardWhitely]

Found this on the forums (regarding good hunting spots) http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=34801

I was sent to EC-69, for my 25th patrol out of Lorient, it's November 1942, I'm in a IXC.
Didn't hit a convoy all the way there....and traveled the convoy routes, periscope depth to 25% battery, then I'd surface to recharge, one third speed all the way.......up and down, to save fuel.
It was a long trip....but when I got south of Cuba....I started to see tankers....one by one....just like ducks, running west to east. I sat on the southeast corner of EC62 and just waited, as the ducks floated by, sometimes 2 at a time. Every now and then a lone plane would make me duck my head...I'd just move a little east or west, and start shooting again....nothing else bothered me. I'm at 109,933 right now and I still have 2 torps left. I've never gotten close to 100 before. I feel like a kid in a candy store, and nobody around.
My avg is about 40,000 a patrol.
I should have known....South America, Texas, Mexico.....Oil....WWII.....it all fits.
It's so easy when there aren't any DD's around, and your not sitting in the middle of a convoy that's trying to crush you.....

Wonder if they are still there after you apply the world mod from the link above...

Also if you have installed it

Definately AM 51 or AM 53
West of Gibraltar is good as well. (many planes though)
After Worl Mod 2.0 the waters near Merthyr and Bristol are also infested with vesselsl.
My career is in '43 now and there are passenger liners galore there. Many troops destined for D-Day aren't making it safe to England.
Whoever wants to save private Ryan; better look for him floating somewhere in grid BF instead of Omaha beach

[rover]

im playing this game and i have passed my nav test and thats it but i must say it looks realy cool
cant wait to blow the crap out of the brits

[Tricky]

Don't worry about the tests. Just put to sea with your salty seadog comrades and learn how to drive a sub the hard way! I only crashed into the harbour walls twice before I got the hang of it... Bargain! Also, I only drove the sub into the ocean floor at full speed once... lol. Anyone want to join my crew?!!

[RichardWhitely]

I swung open the hatch to the conning tower and the tepid stench of sweat and oil was replaced by a spray of water and a rush of cool sea air. Topside, the night was thick and black, a carpet of stars overhead and the lights and smoke of Kiel below. I had been given a mission. A mission to patrol ... somewhere. And I presumed it wasn't my home port. "One quarter speed, uh, this way," I announced, grasping the engine room telegraph lever and flipping it toward an incomprehensible squiggle of red lettering.

Below, I could feel the satisfying rumble of the engines in the soles of my waterlogged feet. The water around us began to churn. We were on our way! Soon the British would pay dearly for trying to ship food to their puny island! Then I noticed a curious phenomenon: "Why is the front of the sub leaving a wake?" I asked an uncomprehending crewman. Suddenly in a panic I turned around, discovering that we were rushing toward the back wall of the submarine pen. "Stop! Stop the boat!" I hollered. "STOP! STOP IT! I mean, Halt! HALT!!"

The good news: I had just scored a preview version of Silent Hunter III, which I firmly believe is destined to become the premiere historical submarine simulation on the planet. This thing has it all: detailed 3D renderings of a World War II submarine inside and out, incredible water graphics that even simulate how water drains over the periscope lens, and genuine navigation and tactics.

The bad news? The build I had was mostly in German, which made it uncannily realistic in the worst way. My grasp of the German language is limited to what I gathered from a couple years of high school, meaning I can ask where the toilet is or inform someone named Mucki that I like to play tennis. Neither of which is very helpful when attacking a convoy in the treacherous rollers of the English Channel.

I rammed the engine telegraph lever in the opposite direction and made a note of the difference between "quarter speed ahead" and "quarter speed reverse" when both are written in German. Soon we were on our way, gliding out of the submarine pen while the crew around me acknowledged my orders incomprehensibly. I suppose I owed it to them to tell them the truth.

"Men," I said, speaking over the thrum of the engines and the gurgle of water. "I know that you all look up to me. This is because I'm standing on the rail of the conning tower, and you are several feet below. But I digress." The young men, Germany's finest, blinked at me, not understanding a word. "Men, I don't speak German," I announced. "Ich ... spreche ... nada. Nein! None. Indeed, it's a miracle I've gotten this far in the Kriegsmarine, because not only can I not understand you, nor any of the controls, but I am also too lazy to read game manuals. In truth, the only thing between you and a horrifying death in the icy clutches of the sea will be my inability to locate the enemy. Godspeed."

I put my hat on and clenched a pipe in my teeth, moments before a spray of water drenched me.

Our submarine chugged along, the shoreline drifting quietly by in the dead of night. I stumbled awkwardly down into the sub and spoke with the Navigator by clicking on him until a map appeared. "Here we are in Kiel," I explained, tapping a ruler. "Which is, might I say, the most inconvenient port in the world. Look, just to get out we have to go up here and over here and around here and up through there and then we squeeze out of here and down here, just to get into the English Channel. You'd think we'd have something closer. Does the fuehrer know about this? Where's the phone? Hermann? Franz? Anyone? Oh yah, no phones on submarines. I'll send him an email. Full speed ahead!"

Minutes passed as I climbed topside again to watch as the submarine crept its way out of Kiel. "Those shoals are awfully close," I commented warily. "Who's driving this thing? Does the navigator know about those?" I clicked on him.

"Wir kÃÆ'ƒÂÃ,¶nnen 1256 Kilometer mit unserer gegenwÃÆ'ƒÂÃ,¤rtigen Geschwindigkeit reisen," he explained, patiently.

"That's good, that's good. You keep it that way," I said, nodding authoritatively and shushing him off. Waves slipped by in the darkness. I idly looked through the binoculars and saw blurry things. So far the simulation was startling, so realistic was its portrayal of life aboard a submarine. That is to say, I was cold, wet, and bored. I descended back into the bridge, ducking under hanging slabs of meat and cheese.

"There's got to be some sort of time-acceleration feature in this game," I told the uncomprehending men. "And I'm too lazy to look it up. Start hitting buttons. What does this do? How about this? You there, turn that ... thing." The sub continued to creep along at 7 knots in realtime. "Okay you, speed up the time! Speed it up! Macht schnell! Schnell it up! SCHNELL FASTER!" Nothing.

It was time to start hitting keys on the keyboard. As any hardcore simulation player knows, this can be extremely dangerous. Just about every button does something. What if I opened both sides of the torpedo doors? What if I dived with the hatches open? Or lowered the landing gear? Who knows! Timidly, I pressed the "2" key hoping to double the time compression.

The helmsman nodded affirmatively and said something in German while a bunch of people ran around the submarine. "What did I just do?" I asked. "Hello? Hey? Uhm... yes, you do that. Good, good. I mean, gut. I think."

We crept along slowly, Kiel still visible to anyone who peered out of the hatch.

"What do you say we try one of the scenarios, instead?" I asked. "I knew you'd see it my way."

"Up Periscope!" I cried out. It was already up, but I had always wanted to say that. I peered through the viewing device to discover a flotilla of vessels stretching off into the distance. "Hot dog on a stick, boys, we're surrounded. It's like a turkey shoot up there."

I turned, then lit up my pipe and addressed the crew. "Here's the plan, my young German cannon fodders. We're going to rush blindly forward and fire four torpedoes at the largest ship I can see. Assuming we survive and they don't, we'll change direction and then repeat the process until we're the only thing afloat. Or dead. Who's with me!?!"

Nobody said a word.

"Okay then, full speed ahead. Or sideways, I'm feeling creative." I peered through the periscope. There are two modes of aiming in Silent Hunter III: a realistic one that plays like a simulation, and then a "casual" one, for less serious players. That would be me. Plus, I like the idea of "casually" firing a torpedo, the way you might toss your laundry aside at the end of the night. I pegged my periscope crosshairs over a large ship.

"Fire! Fire them all! Full spread! Willy-nilly!"

When you fired torpedoes aboard a World War II submarine you would use a stopwatch to time their impact. I was delighted to see that this is represented in the game by an actual (beautifully rendered) ticking stopwatch. "...Hey can I keep this?" I asked.

The Torpedoes hit! At least, I think they hit. There were explosions and the young German men who started shouting at me were very excited. "You betcha," I said. "Whatever that ship was -- and I can say with certainty that I'm almost positively kinda sure that it wasn't ours -- they're feeling the hurt."

But now the voices around me grew more alarmed. "Hey hey now, don't everybody talk at once," I said. "But then again, what do I care?" Here, I'll look through the periscope if that will make you feel better." (I did so.) "Oh I see, 'wir werden verurteilt' means 'There's a destroyer driving right up our ass at full speed.' Well, buck up, friends. You see, we're under the water, four meters or so, and they're on top of the water, so we're perfectly safe."

The gut-wrenching crash that shortly followed sent the ship swinging back and forth like a pendulum. I gasped in the fetid air. "They rammed us! Ran over us, like roadkill!" Damage reports flooded in. At least, I think they did. Nevertheless, when I clicked on the damage report button, it was clear that the entire top part of our submarine was bright red. I assumed this was bad. Indeed, we lost all of our topside guns and the periscope was destroyed.

"Dive! Dive!" I cried, because I always wanted to. Going into a crash dive in Silent Hunter III is spectacular. And yet, as the minutes passed, I learned that hiding down below the sea isn't nearly as exciting as the movies make it out to be, even when you elude the enemy. I stuck my face into the periscope and it gushed freezing seawater into my eyes. "I can't see a thing," I grumbled. "Weak."

"New plan:" I said, gathering the men around. The ones who were still alive, at least. "We're gonna surface. They'll never see it coming."

The men, gripping my meaning when I pointed at the roof of the bridge, gasped with audible horror.

"That's right, c'mon you wussies, we're gonna surface in the middle of this convoy and start chucking torpedoes like rice at a wedding!"

They pleaded with me not to do it, but I pretended that they were egging me on because I didn't know the difference. Like a killer whale at Sea World, our submarine sprang out of the water in a spectacular rush of white foam. When the shells came -- and they did, in great numbers -- they came from all directions simultaneously. It was the convoy's birthday, and we were a small wet piÃÆ'ƒÂÃ,±ata in a friendless sea.

In the moments just before my vessel exploded into ribbons of shattered steel beneath my feet and slipped forever beneath the waves, I thought -- briefly -- that my eighth grade German teacher may have in fact been telling the truth when he tried to explain to me the value of learning another language.

[Tricky]

LOL. Great review - made me laugh... A few things in that sound very familiar...

[Calibrax]

Very good. But I think you have waaaaay too much time on your hands...

/me sends for the men in the white coats