Silent Hunter III ships

[Quid]

Great game if you have a lot of time on your hands. I have been playing like a maniac during the hols now and I can't seem to stop. Nothing beats sneaking up on a convoy and sink the ships undetected. On the other hand, no anger is greater when you run out of ammunition and there are still some juicy corgo ships and tankers left.

Just one little thing I have noticed. When a number of ships engage you, they tend to shoot and sink each other. I have had an instance where an escort had just detected me and was about to bomb me to high heaven, then all of a sudden the cargo ships engage the escort and blow it out of the water. It proved to be convenient but does that really have to be ?

Never the less, highly recommendable and playable. However, as I said, you do need a hell of a lot of spare time.

Ok, I really have to get my car fixed now. Should have done it two weeks ago...

Quid

[Hosakawa Tito]

Got myself a DVD Drive and started playing the tutorials. I can't get past the first step in navigation. I enter the channel okay because you get the initial course and speed before you start. My problem is the stupid radio man doesn't give me the subsequent radio messages. He reports, message received, then when I click on the message report icon the idiot tells me no messages received. He is now swimming with the fishes till I get this figured out. What the hell am I doing wrong?

[Quid]

Press 'M' (to get to the message board) and then press on 'Message Received' and you will get your subsequent orders. These will pretty much be the ones you were told about at the beginning on the 'to pass' sheet (F8, I believe, in game).

Quid

[Spino]

Great game if you have a lot of time on your hands. I have been playing like a maniac during the hols now and I can't seem to stop. Nothing beats sneaking up on a convoy and sink the ships undetected. On the other hand, no anger is greater when you run out of ammunition and there are still some juicy corgo ships and tankers left.

Just one little thing I have noticed. When a number of ships engage you, they tend to shoot and sink each other. I have had an instance where an escort had just detected me and was about to bomb me to high heaven, then all of a sudden the cargo ships engage the escort and blow it out of the water. It proved to be convenient but does that really have to be ?

Never the less, highly recommendable and playable. However, as I said, you do need a hell of a lot of spare time.

That must be a very infrequent occurence because I've never seen it happen once and I've finished roughly 12 patrols (experienced lots of convoys) and and have completed several historical missions. Sounds like a weird bug. Not that I haven't seen friendly fire before, I once had a RN destroyer accidentally fire upon a motionless cargo ship that was situated between my sub and the destroyer. My sub was completely obscured by from the destroyer by the cargo ship's hull (I was really close and using my deck gun). The destroyer's shells kept slamming into the other side of the cargo ship and ultimately helped me deep six her alot faster.

A simple tweak to one of the cfg files can increase time compression beyond 1024x and lessen the doldrums. I have 2048x as my maximum TC setting now. It helps ALOT when traveling through zones with little to no sea traffic.

Got myself a DVD Drive and started playing the tutorials. I can't get past the first step in navigation. I enter the channel okay because you get the initial course and speed before you start. My problem is the stupid radio man doesn't give me the subsequent radio messages. He reports, message received, then when I click on the message report icon the idiot tells me no messages received. He is now swimming with the fishes till I get this figured out. What the hell am I doing wrong?

I didn't play through all the tutorials but I don't believe you're doing anything wrong. Most of the time the only kind of radio messages you'll get are simple, single ship contact updates on your Navigation Map. These messages are not 'proper' radio messages in that there's no descriptive text or spoken statement from your Radio Operator telling you about them. I don't recall ever getting text messages/spoken warnings from my Radio operator for individual ship contacts, only task groups and convoys.

[Quid]

That must be a very infrequent occurence because I've never seen it happen once and I've finished roughly 12 patrols (experienced lots of convoys) and and have completed several historical missions. Sounds like a weird bug. Not that I haven't seen friendly fire before, I once had a RN destroyer accidentally fire upon a motionless cargo ship that was situated between my sub and the destroyer. My sub was completely obscured by from the destroyer by the cargo ship's hull (I was really close and using my deck gun). The destroyer's shells kept slamming into the other side of the cargo ship and ultimately helped me deep six her alot faster.

I have had this happen a few times. I think it may well be friendly fire or at least, initiated by FF. Once a unit is hit by another friendly unit they keep on shooting at each other. I first noticed it in the last practice mission where you have to sink a convoy.

I don't recall ever getting text messages/spoken warnings from my Radio operator for individual ship contacts, only task groups and convoys.

You get them only from an officer on deck and not from the radio operator when the target is close (something like 3km to 7km, depending on weather condition).

The radio operator is really only there to relay and recieve information gathered from other ships (such as positions from convoys) and to send and receive SitReps.

The usual received ones are: 'Keep up the good work' or 'Back to base' (when you ran out of ammunition) or 'Be more agressive'...Only once have I received a base change info.

Again, I think Hosa is missing the 'M' button to actually read the messages as opposed to clicking the radio operator and hope for info. Inevitably, he will tell you that there hasn't been a message. Feed him to the fishes!

Quid

Quid

[Hosakawa Tito]

I got that M button thing okay, though a radioman must be the most useless position in the game so far. Several things: How do you get the sonar man to do anything useful? I ask for sonar contact reports and never get anything, even from 100 meters away. Also, how do you end the patrol during the career missions? I parked my sub in the same sub pen I left in Kiel after completing a successful patrol and no end of mission briefing or acknowledgement. Do you just hit escape and "Dock at Kiel" and get credit for your mission?

[Quid]

I got that M button thing okay, though a radioman must be the most useless position in the game so far. Several things: How do you get the sonar man to do anything useful? I ask for sonar contact reports and never get anything, even from 100 meters away.

To be honest, I'd vote for the sonarman to be the most useless person on the boat. I have had no use for him as of yet. I usually go with the hydrophone. It gives you a pretty accurate description of what lies ahead.

Also, how do you end the patrol during the career missions? I parked my sub in the same sub pen I left in Kiel after completing a successful patrol and no end of mission briefing or acknowledgement. Do you just hit escape and "Dock at Kiel" and get credit for your mission?

Yes. Alternatively, you can hit escape much earlier in the game and just dock at base. This works only if you have no contacts bearing on you but is a useful tool to get back to base quickly when you are done with all your ammunition and don't want to bother manoeuvering your way back. I don't know if that has any influence upon your score. I believe it does not.

Hope that helps.

Quid

[Voigtkampf]

Is there a voice command feature in this game? I would really love to be able to speak the orders instead of typing them. The developers said that a voice command part was envisioned, I read it on the dev’ chat pages, but has it made it to the game?

Also, I found this interesting thread about this issue.

Voice commands with VAC

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Yes. Alternatively, you can hit escape much earlier in the game and just dock at base. This works only if you have no contacts bearing on you but is a useful tool to get back to base quickly when you are done with all your ammunition and don't want to bother manoeuvering your way back. I don't know if that has any influence upon your score. I believe it does not.

I think you get an extra 100 renown for actually returning to your base, rather than just quitting in the middle of the ocean.

[Krypta]

Is there a voice command feature in this game? I would really love to be able to speak the orders instead of typing them. The developers said that a voice command part was envisioned, I read it on the dev’ chat pages, but has it made it to the game?

Also, I found this interesting thread about this issue.

Voice commands with VAC

I was over at SubSim.com and I came across this "Silent Hunter III Voice Command v2.3", dunno if this is what you were looking for. Lotsa other mods and tweaks can be found on the page aswell. Have fun

Downloads, Mods and Tweaks at SubSim.com