Starting Out

[IsolatedCat]

Okay, so I've just recently begun to play this game but am fairly determined to play this at the pinnacle of its realism despite my inexperience. So far I'm having a number of problems getting off the ground so to speak on the campaign so I'd like to just talk through an average patrol for me so far and hopefully you more learned people can highlight where I'm making mistakes.

I choose to be part of the 1st Flotilla, spending my current renown before setting out or not depending on my mood, although I don't believe my choice in this matter plays much of a contributing role towards the difficulties I'm experiencing (I could be wrong of course).
Setting off from Wilhemshaven I plot my course to the designated grid referance and crank the time accelaration up to 1024. This resets once the men on deck spot the friendly destroyer and patrol boat that always seem to be just a bit north out of the docks, so I'll proceed to accelerate time once more. At this point, along the journey to my target grid referance, the accelaration will reset again a number of times in response to 'supposed' spotted ships which appear on my map in various colours (I'm assuming green for allied, blue neutral, red enemy) however, allegiance regardless, whenever I switch to the bridge to check on these apparent contacts there is never anything there. Ever. This baffles me somewhat and does not appear to be covered anywhere in the manual.
So, at a stuttering accelaration of time, I eventually reach my destination and perform a search (surfaced usually). The results of this tend to vary but on the occasions I have spotted a potential target by the time my crew notifies me of its bearing it is usually closer than I would like, and subsequently my attempts to sink it with a torpedo fail miserably as the ship in question proceeds to accelerate/decelerate and change course erratically. While trying to sink the proposed ship I maintain periscope depth so as not to be blindingly obvious (hopefully) but it always seems to be the case that the ship spots the U boat initally a lot earlier than my crew spots it.
Where am I going wrong? I would be grateful for any advice. P.S This is starting in 1939, 100% realism

[geoffwessex]

OK, first things first.

The contacts that appear on your chart are not necessarily visible - in fact they're usually not, unless you're told "Ship Spotted, etc".

The colours... in the basic game, it's Red for Enemy, Green for Neutral, Blue for Friendly.

For some reason, you're getting too close, too quickly. If you hear "Ship Spotted", it's time to work out what to do about it. Try the TDC screen and chart and look at your position in relation to the contact. If you've only just spotted it, your Time Compression should drop automatically to x8 (though this can be altered with SH3 Commander). Then think about where you need to be to get your perfect torpedo launch against the enemy contact. It's good, when possible, (bearing in mind relative speeds) to fire your torpedo from about 90 degrees from the target, so you need to be either heading for the same 'virtual' point in the sea or waiting just off his 'track' at the right angle (which is, er, a right-angle).

Can't work out why the enemy ship is spotting your (tiny) boat before your crew has spotted the (relatively huge) enemy ship. Have you got a full watch on the tower? An officer and four?

[Ticcy]

Hi IsolatedCat.

Glad to hear you joining the game. I too am new to the game, but think I have figured out some of what you're having problems with.

With regards to the ships dropping you out of accelerated time, but not being visible: What I understand of it is that the ships that appear on the navigation maps from time to time are not always ships your watchmen see. They are in fact radio reports of sightings from other U-boats (possibly) operating in the area and are "calling in" their sightings. That way your radio man receives the messages and alerts you to their position, dropping you out of accelerated time. This can usually be a cue to dash off and sink them, depending on their allegiance and distance/heading, or to let them go and keep on course.

Also I think you have made a mistake on the colour references too. Red is NME, but green is actually neutral and Blue is friendly (based on the fact that on the Nav map Wilhemshaven is blue).

As for you getting too close to ships before your crew alert you: I'm not too sure on this. I usually get alerted by my watch when ships are up to 7000m away, even at night, possibly dropping down to 5000m. Which is still plenty of time to manoeuvre for a good shot before they see you and go on evasive manoeuvres. What I'd suggest is check that your watch always has a "watchman" qualified person there, preferably an officer. Make sure the efficiency bar is as high as you can keep it so you're more likely to spot ships before they spot you. Other little things include, keep your periscopes as low to the water's surface as possible and where possible don't have them up at all. Don't sit and watch a ship through your scope. Pop it up, check heading, speed and distance and pop it down while you cruise and position yourself, then pop it up again to see if you where heading down the right lines, then pop it down again. And so on and so on.

If the friendly ship alerts slowing you up annoys you too much SH commander is a modification (MOD) for the game that allows you to edit what situations affect your accelerated speed and by how much, so that may be an option, but for now I'd carry on playing for a little longer before you take the MOD on as it alters other things too. I've only just installed it and find editing those things is nice, but don't rush into it until you're fully comfortable with the game.

That's about all the advice I can offer you from my brief experience of the game, but I imagine one of these guys will provide you with better advice and point out all I've said is wrong http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Anyway, Hope this helps,
Ticcy

[IsolatedCat]

Thankyou very much for your kind advice thus far Ticcy and Geoffwessex.
I have since started anew and the problem I seemed to be having with being spotted first is gone. However, this has not secured me success, which leads me on to my next question.

In the past couple of careers I have attempted (first didn't save?) I'm having difficulty getting off the mark with regards to tonnage. Bearing in mind I'm playing on 100% realism, starting in 1939, I'm having to restrict my activities while on patrol in order to have enough fuel for the journey home (previous career -hence the restart- coming to an abrupt halt when I ran out of fuel a fair way out from port with no way of ending the patrol despite having completed the objectives). Subsequently, my query is this. Is it common to still be stuck on nothing sunk after 2 patrols? Or is this simply yet another mark of my apparent ineptitude at this game?

[Foehammer-1]

If you are sailing the IIA boat, yes, it is, regrettably, very common to not sink anything and not have the fuel to search. You may try to park about 30-50km off the British coast and turn off the engines. Then wait for contact reports. That way you will not use fuel while waiting. I suggest you transfer to Kiel, get yourself a VIIb boat, then transfer back to Wilhelmshaven. That boat does not have a great range, but it can sail a LOT further than the II boats. And it has more torpedoes. The VIIb is my personal favourite for 100K patrols, since it provides a challenge (not many opportunities for wasted shots).

[IsolatedCat]

Thanks for the advice Foehammer. Things are going well-ish now and I've sunk a few but now am being frustrated by a new issue.
My PC has been complaining about RAM issues lately. It seems to go into these little huffs every once in a while and previous demands I placed on it which it had no trouble at all with become a problem, often leading it to close certain programs or not run them at all. I have a gig of ram, so should be able to run SH3 without much difficulty as far as I know, yet I've had to go and purge the PC through Task Manager before launching in order to be able to have it run the campaign without crashing out the moment the bar reaches fully loaded. This is a minor annoyance however, and one I can work around and am prepared to put up with. What's concerning me now is on my return to port it always seems to stop and hang for a second or two once I get within a certain range. On the surface this isn't anything to be worried over, yet on my last patrol once the uboat got to this position it crashed out. This was especially frustrating as I had been ordered to AN18 in my IID and the weather was not in my favour, causing judging the range of the targets to be especially difficult as the waves rocked my ship from side to side. I was so sure I would come away empty handed from that patrol but with my last torpedo I finally hit a c3 that I'd lain in wait for and was particularly chuffed with having done so considering all that had been against me. This made the crash considerably harder to bare http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif So, even though this is probably in the wrong forum, I'd like to know if this is a common thing and if so whether there's some easy way to fix it, such as turning something down somewhere to cause the dock area to be less of a strain or whatever the problem is with it. Thanks again in advance