Topic: SH3 (Silent Hunter 3) Revisited

[IAF Lyrkiller]

Since I have not played this game in a long while, I went back to www.subsim.com and looked at what was new.

I then found it, Gray Wolves 1.1. It is a very large mod incorporating alot of the mods that were already been made and alot of other tweaks.

To get the mod will need to register and then d/l it.

OR

I can email it to you.

will post some pics later.

[Lepton]

I've been very tempted to buy SH3 but I am afraid that it will be a little too dry and complicated for me.  I mean, sinking a bunch of freighters or troop transports after days of searching doesn't seem particularly engaging and hardly sporting.  I have a whole problem with the submarine and its role in WW2.  I wish there were a decent WWII naval game out there.  That is really what I am looking for.  Like SFC but on a slightly more strategic level.

[Commander La'ra]

I mean, sinking a bunch of freighters or troop transports after days of searching doesn't seem particularly engaging and hardly sporting.

It's not quite that easy....

[Lepton]

I mean, sinking a bunch of freighters or troop transports after days of searching doesn't seem particularly engaging and hardly sporting.

It's not quite that easy....

No claims to easy on my part. That is part of the issue.  Too little reward for much work.  i'd be the kind of person who would want to do the full realism settings.  That's a steep learning curve.

[Commander La'ra]

Don't know about too little reward.  I love the sweet feeling of seeing a big-ass tanker break in half on a stormy night in the North Atlantic...

[Dracho]

Don't tell me this isn't rewarding ;p

[IAF Lyrkiller]

W/ the Grey Wolves mod I sneaked into Scapa Flow through the eastern approach and sank a troopship and damaged a tanker.

That tanker was one tough nut. It took 5 eels and still did not sink.

[Lepton]

Don't tell me this isn't rewarding ;p

It was not my impression that one typically encountered so many ships in a patrol area.  Up your difficulty level maybe?

[Lepton]

W/ the Grey Wolves mod I sneaked into Scapa Flow through the eastern approach and sank a troopship and damaged a tanker.

That tanker was one tough nut. It took 5 eels and still did not sink.

This is my problem with WWII subs in general.  They are sinking support ships.  If their role had been associated more with a typical naval battle, I'd be more attracted to the game, but you're sinking relatively helpless ships.  While their escorts are certainly not helpless, the measure of a sub's success is the tonnage of support ships sunk.  Not exactly sporting.

[J. Carney]

Not exactly sporting.

"Underhand, unfair, and damned UnEnglish," huh, Lepton?

Just remember, dispite that comment by Rear Admiral A. K. Wilson, RN, the submarine was originally intended to sink enemy warships (like the C.S.S. Hunley), and in modern times, the increase of capabilities has brought that line of thinking full circle (the U.S.S. Virginia is hardly built for killing merchies).

[IAF Lyrkiller]

W/ the Grey Wolves mod I sneaked into Scapa Flow through the eastern approach and sank a troopship and damaged a tanker.

That tanker was one tough nut. It took 5 eels and still did not sink.

This is my problem with WWII subs in general.  They are sinking support ships.  If their role had been associated more with a typical naval battle, I'd be more attracted to the game, but you're sinking relatively helpless ships.  While their escorts are certainly not helpless, the measure of a sub's success is the tonnage of support ships sunk.  Not exactly sporting.

Lepton, the U-Boat is NOT a true sub. Not until the end of the war that the Germans had the true sub. the XXI.

And yes, subs were made to sink merchant shipping, they were not allowed to sink hospital ships and that were lighted correctly. Everything else was fair game.

[Dracho]

Don't tell me this isn't rewarding ;p

It was not my impression that one typically encountered so many ships in a patrol area.  Up your difficulty level maybe?

2 convoys and some strays on a very long patrol.  I usually run most everything except realistic TDC crap.. I don't care to do the geometry.  The trick to sinking a lot of ships is to learn where to shoot each ship type so that you don't use 3-4 torpedos per ship.

Most of the small ships were deck gun kills.  After 1940 they tend to shoot back, so that's not a great idea except early in the war.

[Commander La'ra]

(the U.S.S. Virginia is hardly built for killing merchies).

No, she's made for sinking anything she damned well decides to.

I think I see what he's saying, though.  He's saying he doesn't see what's so exciting about a game where your prey isn't nearly so formidable as you are.

Not everyone likes stealth games, after all, and while Splinter Cell and Silent Hunter 3 are very different games, you're still trying to AVOID that which can kill you rather than seeking out and destroying what can kill you.

Me?  I get a rush from that kinda thing.  Anyone here remember F-19 Stealth Fighter?  On of the best early combat flight sims...

[J. Carney]

(the U.S.S. Virginia is hardly built for killing merchies).

No, she's made for sinking anything she damned well decides to.

I think I see what he's saying, though.  He's saying he doesn't see what's so exciting about a game where your prey isn't nearly so formidable as you are.

Not everyone likes stealth games, after all, and while Splinter Cell and Silent Hunter 3 are very different games, you're still trying to AVOID that which can kill you rather than seeking out and destroying what can kill you.

Me?  I get a rush from that kinda thing.  Anyone here remember F-19 Stealth Fighter?  On of the best early combat flight sims...

Yeah... I'd love to see a game like Destroyer Command released on the Silent Hunter III engine. That was an entertaining- if hard to master, game; you actually got to be the tin can taking on another enemy warship.

Now, if they made it where you could get promoted out of the cans and command the kinds of ships that you hac in Fighting Steel...

I'd love to reenact the Alabama/Tirpitz encounter that took place on a frosty Artic morning during a Murmansk run long ago. The first time, the Tirpitz broke and ran after discovering that there was a BB escorting the convoy, only one salvo was fired.

I'd like to try to give the Alabama a BB kill.

[Commander La'ra]

Yeah... I'd love to see a game like Destroyer Command released on the Silent Hunter III engine. That was an entertaining- if hard to master, game; you actually got to be the tin can taking on another enemy warship.

I never got to play Destroyer Command, but I've always wanted to take a tin can out to do what they do.  You'd think with the range of missions they do, there'd be more games that simulate them.

Now, if they made it where you could get promoted out of the cans and command the kinds of ships that you hac in Fighting Steel...

I like the idea but sailing along in a battle line, blazing away at targets so far away I can barely see them without a telescope...that just doesn't appeal too much to me.  That's probably why most battlewagon games, you manage the whole task force.

I'd love to reenact the Alabama/Tirpitz encounter that took place on a frosty Artic morning during a Murmansk run long ago. The first time, the Tirpitz broke and ran after discovering that there was a BB escorting the convoy, only one salvo was fired.

I'd like to try to give the Alabama a BB kill.

That woulda been an interesting fight.  The Tirpitz would have better gun power and speed, but there's few things more heavily armored than an old battlewagon like the 'Bama, and in a convoy battle, the Tirpitz would have to attack if they wanted to accomplish their mission, nullifying a lot of her mobility pluses.

[J. Carney]

I'd love to reenact the Alabama/Tirpitz encounter that took place on a frosty Artic morning during a Murmansk run long ago. The first time, the Tirpitz broke and ran after discovering that there was a BB escorting the convoy, only one salvo was fired.

I'd like to try to give the Alabama a BB kill.

That woulda been an interesting fight.  The Tirpitz would have better gun power and speed, but there's few things more heavily armored than an old battlewagon like the 'Bama, and in a convoy battle, the Tirpitz would have to attack if they wanted to accomplish their mission, nullifying a lot of her mobility pluses.

Alabama also had better armor protection and a shorter, squater profile; This would have made her a slightly harder target to hit. Additionally her armor protection was in a better POSITION than that of the German ship (Alabama was made to fact plunginh fire, Tirpitz was made to face low-angle shots). She was also more manuverable than Tirpitz- her four shafts would have made turning with specific shaft orders more effective than anattempt at the same with the tri-screw German BB.


It would have been bloody for sure, but I think that Alabama would have came out on top.

[Jack Morris]

W/ the Grey Wolves mod I sneaked into Scapa Flow through the eastern approach and sank a troopship and damaged a tanker.

That tanker was one tough nut. It took 5 eels and still did not sink.

This is my problem with WWII subs in general.  They are sinking support ships.  If their role had been associated more with a typical naval battle, I'd be more attracted to the game, but you're sinking relatively helpless ships.  While their escorts are certainly not helpless, the measure of a sub's success is the tonnage of support ships sunk.  Not exactly sporting.

Helpless ships that have deck guns and zig-zag like a mo-fo?

Even when unescorted if you take too long chasing a wounded mo-fo I can guarantee you that some killer AI DDs and planes will be coming at you.

You seem to think there are too few targets for long patrols? that was life back then, but at least with SH3 you have something called "fast-forward" in time span. 

Capital ships are rare, as well as they should be, if they were not WW2 would have had far more C.S. casualties to U-boats.

I gave my SH3 away, bad move now that they have mods. It would be nice to have Destroyer Command 3 come out and be compatible with SH3, but Ubisoft is working on another WW2 sim, a flight one of Europe. 

That Pacific Strike game looks cool. I'll be glad when they release it here, the game shelves at Best Buy have sucked, IMHO, for most of 2006.

Best games of 05? Pirates and SH3. IMO.

[Dracho]

IIRC The Alabama was a North Carolina class ship and she was not some Pre-war scow that was raised from the floor of Pearl Harbor to bombard for invasions.

They also had bodacious AA defenses, so good in fact that they wound up doing more carrier escort than battleline duty.

As for SH 3, if it's not hard enough for you there are some realism mods that make it downright impossible to play.   Some of the mods are really, really nice.

[J. Carney]

IIRC The Alabama was a North Carolina class ship and she was not some Pre-war scow that was raised from the floor of Pearl Harbor to bombard for invasions.

Nope. She was a South Dakota, fresh build for a new war. 16"x45caliber main guns, and 20 5" secondaries.

They also had bodacious AA defenses, so good in fact that they wound up doing more carrier escort than battleline duty.

Yep. Alabama never even killed a 'can, but she shot down a crapload of planes.

[Grim]

Just reinstalled and i am downloading the mod that Lyrkiller recommended now, looks like the mod has a huge amount of cool features.

Looking forward to trying it out.