Silent Hunter

Silent Hunter 3

• The Grey Wolves - GWX3 Mod

  • This seems to be a must-have.

• This game feels a lot like B-17: The Mighty 8th. The graphics style and the UI style are very similar.

• It would be cool if a sequel had animations for you actually moving through the ship. Jumping around breaks immersion.

  • A: The sequel does have this! And in fact the GWX mod for SH3 also allows you to do this.

• The game doesn't simulate the speed of sound, so you hear artillery fire immediately, before the rounds arrive.

• There are surprising spelling / grammar errors in the mission objectives and UI explanations.

General advice

• Turn the music off.

• You can disable the Free View button and all the other similar buttons that break immersion in the realism settings in the Single Mission screen.

• Don't try to go for 100% realism from the start. There are a lot of processes to learn if you want to play at 100% realism (firing and navigation are the two big ones).

• How to get back into playing the game after you've been away for a while:

  1. Play a single mission on 'Easy' and just try doing anything, like just click the buttons, click around the UI, try bringing up the periscope, setting the heading and speed, etc.

  2. Rewatch the tutorial videos at 1.5x while following along with the summaries I wrote up below.

  3. Replay the "Convoy Attack" tutorial exam.

     1. You start right in front of the convoy.  You can pass it without even using the navigation view.

     2. On Easy (with Assisted Aiming) you literally just point the periscope at an enemy ship and click 'Fire'.  You don't need to worry about leading the ship, the computer handles all that for you.

  4. Play a 1939 career on Easy.

     1. Your first few missions (at least) will be very easy, you just go to a particular grid, maybe sink a ship, and return to base.

  5. Keep open the Quick-Reference Card (QRC) (which shows the hotkeys) and Manual that you can find in the game folder.

• Summary of the stuff from the tutorials I don't want to forget:

  • Approach a convoy at Ahead Slow to remain undetected by the escorts.

  • If an escort has detected your U-boat, dive to at least 50m.

  • When an escort launches depth charges you should move with Ahead Flank speed and turn hard to one side or the other.

Summary of the tutorial ("Naval Academy")

• Note that the "In-game tutorial" sections below refer to the text that shows up when you're on the screen to select whether to start a training mission as "Training" or as the "Exam".

Navigation

Video tutorial

• Basic Controls

  • To switch between the stations (roles), use F1-F12 or move your mouse to the left edge of the screen and click an option from the sidebar that pops out.

  • Dials

    1. The leftmost dial represents the ordered speed. Beneath the dial is a numerical representation.

    2. The middle dial allows for easy control of the boat's direction. Left-click the exterior disk to order the boat to steer towards that direction. The inner dial represents the boat (so it remains in place, with 0 degrees at the top and 180 degrees at the bottom).

    3. Underneath each dial is a circular switch that switches the dial to an alternate mode that allows for finer control.

    4. The rightmost dial is the depth dial. The default mode allows control up to 25m in depth, while the alternate allows you to dive to the maximum safe depth.

    5. Know that diving takes time, and some U-boat types dive faster than others.

  • The officers (bottom-left corner of the UI) allow you to perform special actions.

• Navigation Tutorial

  1. The black icon represents the U-boat.

  2. To pan, move the mouse to the edge of the screen.

  3. Move the mouse to the pop-out navbar in the top-right corner of the screen to access map tools.

     1. Zoom in and out with the mouse wheel.

  4. To plot a course, select the course-plotting tool and click on the map, and the boat will follow the course automatically.

  5. To speed up long-distance travel, use the time compression buttons in the bottom-right corner of the UI.

     1. Time compression will stop automatically as soon as a ship is spotted.

  6. Click a contact on the map to learn information about it.

  7. Blue icons represent friendly units.

  8. The navigation officer (bottom-left corner of the UI) has several navigation-specific actions.

  9. You can alter a course by click-and-dragging waypoints.

  10. At night the map lighting changes to map the lighting in the U-boat.

  11. When you spot an enemy contact:

      1. Use the ruler to measure the distance to the enemy contact.

      2. Then draw an estimated course of the enemy (draw a line through the enemy ship in the direction it seems to be going).

      3. Then draw a probability corridor in which you expect to find the enemy.

         1. Draw a circle of a certain radius, they use 4.2km in the example, with the center of the circle on the estimated course line.

         2. Draw two additional estimated course lines parallel to the original estimated course line to create a corridor.

      4. Then adjust your waypoints to go back and forth diagonally across this corridor.

         1. You're trying to intercept the ship, so don't aim your first waypoint for where the ship currently is but rather where you expect it might be by the time you arrive at the corridor.  Then have the additional waypoints moving diagonally back-and-forth across the corridor.

      5. Use time compression to shorten the time until you spot the ship again.

Training / Exam

• Objectives:

  1. Enter the channel to the SSE.

  2. Navigate through the channel.

  3. Dive to periscope depth and navigate underwater.

  4. Navigate submerged towards the south at a depth of 25m.

Thoughts

• I'm confused about the "Radio Message Received" notification, because sometimes I'll get it but my mission objectives will not have been updated. So what was the notification?

• When it says "Radio Message Received", that can mean just that your objectives have been updated.

• It seems you can't actually do anything while sitting in the radioman's seat.

• The second and third mission objectives bugged out, and I had to retrace my steps to have them trigger.

• When all the mission objectives were completed, the mission didn't end, and when I hit Esc it asked me if I wanted to abandon the mission. So how do I "win"?

  • A: Click "Abandon mission" and then "Return to base" on the screen that pops up.

Naval artillery

Video tutorial

1. Use the binoculars to check the target.

2. Assign crew to the deck gun (using the left sidebar) by double-clicking on the position.

   1. You can also click-and-drag individual men to the gun.

3. Order your watch officer to open fire by clicking the "Deck gun" option from his orders.

   1. You can tell him the range to engage at and what part of the target to aim for.

4. Crew performance is influenced by their experience and the range to the target.

5. You can control the gun manually.

   1. Pay attention to the ammo type, quantity, and reload time (bottom-right corner of the UI).

   2. Press tab to look through the gun's targeting system.

   3. Press the up arrow to increase the gun sight's calibrated range.

   4. Ships have various vulnerable spots, like fuel or ammo reserves. Hitting a ship there can sink it much faster.

In-game tutorial

1. You can only use the deck gun in good weather.

2. Press the space bar to fire.

3. There are two ways to man the deck gun:

   1. Click the watch officer, then Man on Deck, then the deck gun.

   2. Click the crew management screen and double-click the deck gun.

Thoughts

• Q: What are star shells?

  • A: Flares that light up over the target.

• Q: What are the different use-cases for AP vs. HE?

  • A: My guess is HE is for merchants, AP is for escorts.

• Q: When manning the deck gun you see an option for anti-aircraft shells. When are anti-aircraft shells ever used by the deck gun?

• The AI deck gunner was missing a surprising number of shots. It seems like in a serious situation you'd want to take over the gun yourself. And he was missing *wide*, which doesn't make sense; I could understand going over or under.

Flak gun tutorial

Video tutorial

1. Order your watch officer to man the gun and then order him to open fire.

2. You can also choose various things about what he should target.

3. Use your binoculars to identify the target.

4. When using the binoculars, you can change the target the gunner should be firing at by pointing at the new target and pressing the space bar.

5. You can take manual control of the gun.

6. Press Tab to zoom in on the targeting reticle.

7. It's best to wait until the plane fills the reticle before opening fire.

8. Beware that the ammo is easily emptied.

In-game tutorial

• Use LMB to fire.

• Planes can be on fire and still fly around, which looks ridiculous.

Thoughts

• The AI gunner is way, way better than me at shooting down aircraft.

Torpedoes

Video tutorial

1. The vertical column on the right side of the UI in the periscope view represents the position of the periscope head, where the head is the red arrow, and the surface is the top of the yellow liquid.

2. To the right of the vertical column is a lever that lets you raise and lower the periscope.

3. You can choose which torpedo tube to fire with, and you can fire it with the red button.

4. The data notepad (top right corner) is used to collect target data for torpedoes.

5. The "Gyro Angle" shows the angle at which the torpedo will be fired. It's set to where your periscope is looking.

6. The chronometer will show the estimated time to hit the target.

7. The recognition manual shows the information you need to identify a ship.

8. You can move the periscope left and right by clicking on the circular view and moving the mouse left and right.

9. At the top of the periscope view you can see the bearing of the view.

10. Press Tab to zoom in the periscope view.

11. To quickly access the recognition manual entry for a particular target that you're zoomed in on, click the part of the data notepad (top-right) that lists the type of ship.

12. When the tube indicators are green, that means they're ready to fire. Red means they're not.

13. Just pick a tube, aim with your periscope, and press the "Fire" button.

14. For each torpedo you fire, you'll see a torpedo icon in the top-left of the UI. Clicking on it will show the estimated time of impact on the chronometer as a red indicator.

15. It's a good idea to fire more than one torpedo at a target in case a torpedo misses or misfires.

In-game tutorial

• In order to hit a target you need a "solution" for the torpedoes.

• Assisted targeting:

  • Just aim the crosshair over the target.

  • Q: What is "assisted (to be replaced) mode"?

• Manual targeting:

  • First, identify the target using the recognition manual.

  • Click the checkbox on the page for the ship you've identified it as.

  • Range:

    1. To find the range, you need to know the target's maximum height (it's in the recognition manual).

    2. Left-click the range entry in the notepad.

    3. Line up the crosshair on the ship's waterline and click the small icon in the lower-left corner of the page.

    4. Then line up the crosshair on the top of the ship and left-click to automatically calculate the range.

    5. Confirm the result by left-clicking on the check icon.

  • Angle on bow:

    1. Click the corresponding entry on the notepad.

    2. Click your estimated position relative to the ship.

  • Speed:

    1. Click the speed entry.

    2. Aim your periscope at the ship.

    3. Click the chronometer icon in the bottom-left corner of the notepad.

    4. Keep the periscope aimed at the ship for at least 10 seconds while the chronometer is ticking.

    5. Left-click to stop the chronometer.

Training / exam

• To win at this one, feel free to chase the ships around. You don't have to just stay in place.
  I sent two torpedoes after the biggest ship, then went full speed at the other ship that's just to the right of the biggest ship when you start, because it *always* starts moving and stops right in front of you when it sees the torpedoes coming near it (on their way to the big ship), but if you stay in place and fire at it you'll have a hard time hitting it unless you fire in front of it (which is confusing too because can't it see the torpedo is not going to hit it if the ship doesn't move? So why does the ship move then?). After hitting that ship I turn 90 degrees to the right and hit the grey tanker, and then turn another 90 degrees and went after the ship that starts roughly behind you (you can also try to hit that ship with your aft torpedo when you're firing at the second ship). And then I went after the ship that starts to your right, and finally I went and finished off the biggest ship (C3 cargo).

Thoughts

• I had torpedoes bouncing off the merchant vessal...

  • A: It seems they can also bounce off if they impact at too much of an angle, which can happen if you're facing the ship at an angle very different from 90 degrees, or if the ship has already been hit by one torpedo and thus has one end lower in the water than the other, and your torpedo hits at the raised end. And also apparently the torpedoes in 1939 were not as reliable.

  • It might be useful if the captain could adjust the sensitivity of the detonator.

Convoy attack

Video tutorial

1. To find out if there are any ships around, dive to periscope depth and use the hydrophones. They work further out than watchmen, and are stealthier.

   • Q: Why do you need to dive to use the hydrophones?

2. Once the hydrophones pick up something, bearing lines will show up on the navigation map.

3. A red line marks a warship contact, while a black line marks a merchant contact.

4. Once a contact is signaled, check the surface with the periscope.

5. The hydrophone indicators aren't always perfectly accurate. In this example, two indicators were put on the nav map but there was actually a small convoy. Accuracy depends on crew experience, distance to contact, the contact's speed, and your speed.

6. Before you attack, take note of the position of any possible threats (escort ships).

7. When attacking a convoy, select the most-valuable target for the first attack.

8. Once a convoy is aware of an attack, the merchant ships will begin evasive maneuvers, while the escort ships will begin searching for the U-boat.

9. The ideal range at which to engage a ship with torpedoes is between 500m and 1500m.

10. It's best to fire more than one torpedo at a large ship to guarantee it'll sink.

11. One of your officers will tell you if the ship is destroyed ("Enemy Unit Destroyed").

12. The best angle from which to attack with torpedoes is at 90 degrees to its side.

13. The best gyro angle is between 340 degrees and 20 degrees.

14. When engaging smaller ships, firing one torpedo is generally enough.

In-game tutorial

1. Approach a convoy at Ahead Slow to remain undetected by the escorts.

2. The best chance of success is when:

   • You're within 1000m of your target.

   • You maintain a straight course.

   • You attack targets from abeam.

   • You engage merchants first.

   • You don't keep the periscope out of the water for long periods.

3. The enemy will begin evasive maneuvers as soon as you hit a ship, so try to attack more than one ship with your first volley.

4. If you're in a good position to attack a ship, act promptly.

5. Plan to reach a good attack position while your crew is loading the torpedoes.

6. If you damage a ship without sinking it, fire a second torpedo at it to guarantee a kill.

7. Going up against escorts:

   1. The best advantage you have is to remain submerged and undetected.

   2. Your worst disadvantage is your slow speed while underwater.

   3. The escorts' hydrophones have limited range, so as long as you don't get too close to them you should remain undetected.

   4. Escorts' hydrophones cannot detect a submarine behind them because of the noise from their own propellors, so if you're in such a position you can move fast without being detected.

   5. If an escort has detected your U-boat, dive to at least 50m.

   6. When an escort launches depth charges (when they start detonating near you?) you should move with Ahead Flank speed and turn hard to one side or the other.

   7. As long as you have torpedoes, you should try to gain a good position for another attack.

   8. Don't bother trying to use torpedoes on escorts, because they change speed and direction too frequently.

Training / exam

• To beat this one I think I did two initial salvos, which had several misses IIRC, then dove to 25-50m, switched to silent running, at the Ahead Slow speed, and moved to the other side of the convoy, then used my aft torpedo. Somehow while I was down at 50m the escort was destroyed. It was almost as if the armed trawler was firing at it, from what I could see with my periscope out down at 50m. I then surfaced, destroyed the disabled C3 Cargo with my deck gun, then chased after the convoy, destroyed the armed drawler with my deck gun, and then destroyed the rest of the ships with my deck gun.

Thoughts

• Q: If you can hear the sonar pings from escorts, does that mean they know where you are?

• Is it realistic to be able to use the periscope underwater to see nearby ships while you're below periscope depth? I feel like the visibility underwater should not be more than a few feet.

• Q: Can escorts detect you with their hydrophones if you're moving at the slowest speed, or stopped?

• Q: Is it better to just keep hammering a ship with the deck gun in the same spot?

• It would be more immersive if the game showed sailors abandoning ship.

  • A: I think the GWX3 mod does show this. SH4-5 may also show this, I'm not sure.