SILENT HUNTER III
Guide Utilisateur
1 ] Quick Keys
Quick keys for moving to different positions or screens in your U-boat
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F1 - Help screen (in all Stations)
F2 - Command room (note that Shift+F2 gives you a "free camera" view of the command room).
Periscopes
o F3 - Attack periscope
 PgUp - Raise gradually
 Ctrl-PgUp - Raise fully
 PgDown - Lower gradually
 Ctrl-PgDn - Lower fully
 Tab - Zoom in and out (1.5x - 6x) also mouse wheel
 L - Lock target
 KP0 - Take a step back and look at the periscope column.
o O - Observation periscope
 Insert - Raise gradually
 Ctrl-Insert - Raise fully
 Delete - Lower gradually
 Ctrl-Delete - Lower fully
 Tab - Zoom in and out (1x - 4x) also mouse wheel
 L - Lock target

On the surface
o F4 - Bridge (on the surface only)
 Tab - Toggle between Bridge and Binoculars also mouse wheel
o B - Binoculars (on the surface only)
 Tab - Toggle between Bridge and Binoculars also mouse wheel
o U - UZO (on the surface only)
 L - Lock target
F5 - Navigation map
F6 - TDC
I - Weapons management
F7 - Crew and damage management
Radio
o F9 - Radio room
o R - Radio
o M - View sent and received radio messages
H - Hydrophone
F8 - View your mission orders
Guns
o F10 - Deck gun station (on the surface only)
o F11 - Flak gun station (on the surface only)
o F - Main Flak gun (on the surface only)
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o
o
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G - Secondary Flak gun (on the surface only)
T - Secondary Flak gun 2 (on the surface only)
K - Captain's log
F12 - External free camera view
Shift-F2 - Internal free camera view
2 ] U-boat controls
For controlling your U-boat

Speed control
o 1 to 5 - Ahead slow, one third, standard, full and flank respectively
o 6 to 9 - Back slow, one third, standard, and emergency respectively
o ~ - All stop

Direction control
o [ - Hard a' port
o ] - Hard a' starboard
o ' - Rudder adminships
o = - Set heading to current optics view
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Depth control
o D - Dive
o S - Surface
o A - Maintain depth
o C - Crash dive
o E - Blow ballast (Emergency Surface)
o P - Periscope depth
o
; - Snorkel depth
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Miscellaneous
o Z - Toggle Silent Running mode
o X - Toggle snorkel up and down
o Ctrl + F8 - Shown the frame rate.
Weapon management and attacks
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Stations
o U - UZO (on the surface only)
o F3 - Attack periscope (use PgUp to raise, PgDn to lower, Ctrl-PgUp to raise fast, CtrlPgDn to lower fast)
o F6 - TDC
o I - Weapons management
o H - Hydrophone
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Targetting
o . - Next unit
o , - Previous unit
o L - Lock view to target
o
N - View recognition manual
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Torpedo attacks
o Q - Open selected torpedo tube(s)
o W - Close open tube(s)
o Y - Cycle tubes
o Enter - Fire torpedo
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Gun attacks
o Space - select deck-gun target
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Miscellaneous
o J - Deploy decoys
Camera controls
For use in the internal (Shift-F2) or external (F12) free-camera views
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Up-arrow - camera forward
Down-arrow - camera backwards
Left-arrow - camera left
Right-arrow - camera right
KP7 - camera up
KP1 - camera down
Left-Shift - hold down to speed up camera movement
Ctrl-Shift - hold down to slow down camera movement
Ctrl-left-arrow - camera left alongside
Ctrl-right-arrow - camera right alongside
Miscellaneous
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Esc - Options
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Time compression
o Numpad + - Increase time compression
o Numpad - - Decrease time compression
o Backspace - Pause
o Ctrl + Enter - Sets Time compression back to 1 (Normal Speed) time compression

Event camera
o V - Maximise/restore the Event camera
o / - Hide the Event camera
o - View your U-boat from your target
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Navigation
o Ctrl-LeftClick - Centre (center) your U-boat at the selected point on the navigation map
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Miscellaneous
o Ctrl-P - From patch 1.1, disable the particle system to fix the nvidia particle bug
o
o
Shift-PageUp/PageDn - Increase or decrease the software anti-aliasing (Glare system)
Numlock - In multiplay only, use Numlock to start chat, type your text, then hit ENTER.
But be careful: if you hit ENTER 2 times, you fire a fish!
Ctrl-F11 - Take a screenshot.
Shift-F11 - Toggle taking continuous screenshots
Ctrl-F8 - Show frame-rate (FPS) at top of screen
Numberpad Del (decimal point) - Show/hide interface (for screenshots)
Ctrl-Numberpad Del - Remove the orange marker from the ocean surface when submerged
o
o
o
o
o
NOTE: Revisions in Progress...Experimenting with tables...
Station
Key
Engine Room
Key
Depth Control
Key
Help
F1
Ahead Slow
1
Dive
D
Command Room
F2
Ahead 1/3
2
Surface
S
Attack Periscope
F3
Ahead Standard
3
Crash Dive
C
Bridge
F4
Ahead Full
4
Maintain Current Depth
A
Navigation Map
F5
Ahead Flank
5
E
TDC
F6
Back Slow
6
Emergency Surface
(Blow Balast)
Crew and damage management F7
Back 1/3
7
Periscope Depth
P
Radio Room
F9
Back Standard
8
Snorkel Depth
;
Deck Gun
F10
Back Emergency 9
Flak Gun
F11
All Stop
Free View
F12
Left Full Rudder [
~
Right Full Rudder ]
Periscope Control
Key
Torpedo Attacks
Key
Deck Gun/Flak Gun Key
Raise Attack Periscope
PgUp
Open Tube(s)
Q
Deck Gun Station
F10
Raise Attack Periscope
Fully
CtrlPgUp
Close Tube(s)
W
Flak Gun Station
F11
Cycle Tube (Select
Next Tube)
Y
Main Flak Gun
F
Fire Torpedo
Enter
Lower Attack Periscope
PgDn
Lower Attack Periscope
Fully
CtrlPgDn
Raise Observation
Periscope
Ins
Raise Observation
Periscope Fully
Ctrl-Ins
Lower Observation
Periscope
Del
Lower Observation
Periscope Fully
Ctrl-Del
Zoom In/Zoom Out
Tab
Secondary Flak Gun 1 G
Secondary Flak Gun 2 T
Lock Target
L
Set view to heading
-
Look at periscope column KP0
3 ] Realism Settings
Realism Settings control the difficulty of the game. In order to select your Realism level, begin a Single
Mission or start a patrol in Career Mode. Before clicking Start, click Change Realism. Realism cannot be
changed during a mission or patrol.
Once set from either a single mission or career patrol, the realism options selected will be used for all
subsequent patrols of any type. That is, the realism settings are not stored separately for the academy,
single missions and career patrol types.
To set realism for the naval academy, start a career or a single mission, change the realism there, and then
"back out" of the screens until back at the main menu, then choose the naval academy.
Realism Settings
Please note that when playing at 100% Realism, you must return to base by keeping enough fuel in store
to traverse back to within 25km of your home port. Once you are within 25km, press Escape and select
the option to "Dock at [Port]".
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Limited batteries - When selected, the batteries that power your sub's electric engines are limited.
This, in turn, limits the amount of time you can stay submerged before the batteries must be
recharged. (5%)
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Limited compressed air - When selected, your sub uses an amount of compressed air to suface,
blowing air to the ballast tanks. If you exhaust your supply, you will no longer be able to surface
again. You must surface your sub periodically to resupply your sub with compressed air. Also if
your compressor is damaged no more compressed-air will be available. (1%)
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Limited O2 - When selected, you must surface your sub periodically to resupply your sub with
fresh air. (6%)
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Limited fuel - When selected, your sub has limited fuel, and, therefore, limited range. You must
return to base before your fuel supply is exhausted. There are no refueling subs in the game. You
will get a warning during a patrol when you have used 50% of your fuel. (6%)
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Realistic vulnerability - When selected, your sub is more easily damaged. (5%)
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Realistic repair time - When selected, damage repairs will take longer. (8%)
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Realistic ship sinking time - When selected, ships that you attack will take longer to sink. (2%)
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Manual targeting system - When selected, you must enter the appropriate information into the
TDC when firing torpedoes. You can not simply point the UZO or periscope at a target and fire.
You can still request a solution from your Weapons Officer, unless the No Weapons Officer
assistance option below is also disabled. (15%)
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No map contact update - When selected, hydrophone and visual contacts will not appear on the
navigation map. Radio contacts, however, will periodically appear on the map. (12%)
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Realistics sensors - When selected, the effectiveness of your hydrophones and radar is reduced.
(6%)
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Dud torpedoes - When selected, your torpedoes will periodically malfunction. Malfunctioning
torpedoes may either detonate too early, or not detonate at all. (4%)
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Realistic reload - When selected, it will take a considerable amount of time to reload your
torpedo tubes. (6%)
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No event camera - When selected, the event camera is disabled. You will not see special events
such as torpedo impacts or ships sinking. (3%)
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No external view - When selected, the external camera (hotkey F12) is disabled. (8%)
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No stabilize view - When selected, your targeting optics (ie. the UZO or the attack periscope) will
bob realistically on the waves. This will make targeting in rough seas much more difficult. (5%)
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No noise meter - When selected, the noise meter, which gives an indication of how detectable
your u-boat is at the moment, will be disabled. (2%)
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No Weapon Officer assistance - When selected, the Weapon Officer will not identify targets or
calculate firing solutions for you. You must determine range, speed, and AOB by yourself. (6%)
Display Resolution
As installed, SH3 doesn't offer you a choice for a display resolution setting. The game fixes it at 1024 x
768.
To override this limitation, SH3 modmaker Kegetys has developed a DLL file that permits greater display
resolutions when playing SH3. Kegetys' SH3 Resolution Override DLL can be downloaded from one of
the following links:
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Mirror 1 (http://koti.mbnet.fi/kegetys/dl.php?f=dx9res10&e=zip)
Mirror 2 (http://www.paulwasserman.net/SHIII/dx9res10.zip)
Mirror 3 (http://www.filefront.com/?filepath=/theofpfaq/sh3/SH3_Mod_DirectX9Res10.zip)
Make sure you read the enclosed instructions to customize the DLL's configuration file, d3d9.cfg.
For Windows XP SP2 users:
We're not finished yet. In order to get Kegetys' DLL to work, you'll also need to install Microsoft's
Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit
(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows/appcompatibility/default.mspx) and perform the
following procedure to customize it for SH3:
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On Windows' Start menu, select "All Programs/Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit
4.0/Tools" and run the Compatibility Administrator.
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When the program opens, make sure "New Database" is highlighted under "Custom Databases",
and click the "Fix" button.
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In the "Name of program to be fixed" box, type "SH3". Now, click the browse button, and select
the sh3.exe in your SH3 install directory. Then click on the "Next" button.
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Under "Operating System Modes" select "None" and click the "Next" button.
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In the "Compatibility Fixes" box, check DelayDLLInit, and click the "Parameters" button.
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In the "Command Line" box, type "d3d9.dll" and click "OK". (You can click the "Test Run"
button to make sure it is working). Click the "Next" button.
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Click on the "Finish" button. Then click the "Save" button, name it "SH3", and click OK.
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On the "File" menu, select "Install".
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Close the Compatibilty Administrator.
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Enjoy SH3 in high display resolution.
Multiple Screenshot Support
The DLL provides its own mutli-screenshot support. With the DLL installed, by default, any time you
press your keyboards's PRINTSCREEN key in-game, a screen image will be saved as a TGA file in
SH3's install folder.
You can alter the screenshot save path by editting the DLL's accompanying CFG file, d3d9.cfg. File
d3d9.cfg contains the following relevant lines:
enableScreenshots=1
screenshotPath=.
The above will result in placing a TGA picture file in the defined directory path whenever the
PRINTSCREEN key is hit in-game.
For your information, TGA files can be converted to JPGs and other file types using freeware programs
such as IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com/).
Side Effects
Nothing serious has been reported so far. But there are a few minor hiccups:
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The DLL disables some of the function keys in-game (F9, F10, F11) and and CTRL or SHIFT key
combinations associated with those function keys. So, for example, SH3's screenshot key
combinations will not work when this resolution modification is installed. But, as mentioned
above, the DLL provides its own multi-screenshot abilities.
SH3 Update Patches and the Resolution Override DLL
If you had to install Microsoft's Windows Application Compatibility
Toolkit (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows/appcompatibility/default.mspx), as
mentioned above in this article, this section is for you.
When you upgrade SH3 with one of SH3's Update Patches, the SH3 Custom Database you previously
created in the Windows Application Compatibility
Toolkit (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows/appcompatibility/default.mspx) will no
longer be valid for the newly updated SH3 version. This will lead to CTDs during SH3's startup.
To resolve this problem, whenever you've completed upgrading SH3 with an Update Patch, delete the old
SH3 Custom Database defined in the Windows Application Compatibility
Toolkit (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows/appcompatibility/default.mspx) and
follow the instructions earlier in this article to create the SH3 Custom Database from scratch.
Updated Graphics Adapter Drivers and the Resolution Override DLL
Sometimes, after installing updated drivers for your PC's graphics adapter, and you've previously installed
the Resolution Override DLL, SH3 freezes during startup or causes your system to crash when SH3 is
started. In this case, it is recommended that you delete the SH3 database entry you previously created in
the Windows Application Compatibility
Toolkit (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows/appcompatibility/default.mspx) and run
through the steps of redefining SH3 there from scratch.
No-CD Cracks and the Resolution Override DLL
See A Word of Caution About No-CD Cracks for SH3.
4 ] Naval Academy
The Naval Academy teaches the essentials of submarine navigation and warfare. There are five "courses"
offered in the Academy: Navigation, Naval Artillery (use of Deck Gun), Flak Artillery (use of Flak Gun),
Torpedos, and Convoy Attack.
You can get a maximum of 1500 renown by completing the training exams. Since each exam is worth
upwards of 500 points, it is unnecessary to complete the entire academy if you are just going back for the
renoun bonus. Exam renoun is applied to the beginning of every new career you start, so it will not help
your existing saved careers.
The exam screen interface can be a bit confusing. There is a bug / oversight where you will not get credit
if you start a mission with the word "training" highlighted. You MUST highlight "exam" before you start
the mission. Some people play the training missions dozens of times before they finally head to the
forums to find out why they didn't get credit. Well, now you know better!
Exams can be done an unlimited number of times, so don't despair if you get a bad grade your first time
out. To complete a mission, finish your objectives and then press ESC. The game will accuse you of
"abandoning the mission", but don't worry. "Abandoning the mission" just means that you're done, not
that you lost. The next screen after you say "yes" will give you the option to "return to base" or
"continue".
Tips:
Navigation tutorial: your headings don't need to be exact. Use the = key to order heading-to-view (i.e.
"go where I'm looking";) this feature was missing from the game when the tutorial was designed, but was
added later in a patch. The message "once on the surface your mission is complete!" is misleading, so
don't just surface and think you're done. Wait for a "congratulations" message before you really exit. As a
rule, press the "M" key to view received radio messages, as they might contain further instructions.
Torpedo tutorial: Put the periscope crosshairs over what you want to hit, and press "fire". The gyroangle computations should be handled automatically for you, so just pretend the periscope is a sniper rifle
and go nuts. If you are using the automatic target data gathering method, it is possible to sink all the ships
without maneuvering your boat at all. To do this, you have to be quick on the trigger. Remember to press
"Q" to open your tubes before you fire; otherwise your torps will fire a full three seconds after you
pressed fire, and this could cause them to miss. In the game, you will want to become familiar with the F6
screen and learn what the different torpedo settings do. Spread angle only applies if you select "salvo fire"
mode (T/S switch on the F6 screen), so don't worry about it screwing up your single shots. Torpedo
speeds are "slow" by default, but if you choose "fast" on the F6 screen you'll probably be more accurate.
As long as your target doesn't change course or speed, there's really no way to miss. Torps require 400500m to arm; if you're too close they will just bounce off.
Flak Gun tutorial: Generally, you'll want to man the flak gun yourself. Your gunners aren't too bright,
and they'll shoot at things they can't hit. With enough patience, you CAN finish this tutorial. It is not
necessary to maneuver your boat. In actual missions, however, you will almost always be maneuvering
your boat while you are at the flak gun; and you will sometimes find the flak gun is more useful against
tug boats and trawlers than it is against airplanes!
Convoy tutorial: The leading escort destroyer does not maneuver, so you should be able to sink him with
a single torpedo assuming you have automatic target data mode on. You can take out the armed trawler
with your deck gun, if you don't mind living dangerously. After that, the convoy is all yours. When you
shoot at the first destroyer, send three torps at the other ships too. Once the destroyer blows up, they'll
start to zig-zag, and hitting with torpedos will become harder.
5 ] Single Missions
Barham: Eastern Mediterranean, November 1941
Briefing: You are oberleutnant zur see von Tiesenhausen, commander of the U-331. On the 25th of
November, operating of the coast of Egypt and Libya, he spotted a group of 3 battleships and eight
destroyers. These were the Queen Elizabeth, Barham and Valiant out of Alexandria in support of
operations against Axis convoys.
With a daring approach, Von Tiesenhausen launched a salvo of four torpedoes at the second battleship in
the line. Although he came under attack immediately and thus was not able to witness it, he scored 3 hits
and sunk his target.
Primary objective: Sink any British capital ship.
Bismarck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Bismarck): North
Atlantic, May 1941
Briefing: Home fleet sent to hunt Bismarck. Current position of Bismarck grid BE. All U-boats in area
move to engage any British warships.
Primary objective: Intercept and sink any British capital ships.
Courageous: North Atlantic, September 1939
Briefing: The most effective counter-measure against U-boats of early war was aircraft. Understanding
this, the British Admiralty deployed its carriers to provide air patrols over the hunting grounds of the Uboat.
On 17th September 1939, U-29 came upon one of those carriers - the HMS Courageous. By sinking it, he
would prove the carriers vulnerability and thus win the open ocean for U-boats.
Primary objective: Sink the Courageous.
Gibraltar: straits of Gibraltar, December 1941
Briefing: Despite opposition from Admiral Doenitz - Who regarded this as a distraction from the main
effort of war against mechant shipping, Germany sent over 60 U-boats into the mediterranean during the
war.
As the straits were under effective control of British Patrols, this was always a risky affair. An additional
19 U-boats were either lost or force to return, and no U-boats ever returned from inside the med. All were
either sunk or scuttled by their crews.
Primary objective: Sneak through the defenses and enter the mediterranean.
Happy Times: North Atlantic, April 1940
Briefing: Its early in the war, in the U-boat 'Happy Times'. You are on the surface, in the vicinity of the
Rockall Banks.
Your watch officer has spotted a weakly escorted convoy dead ahead. The opportunity presents itself for a
devastating attack, and the night is approaching.
Convoys are scheduled to be picked up by escorts near the longitude of 12 west, so your window of
opportunity is just 1 or 2 hours.
Primary objective: Sink 25000 tons of merchant shipping.
Malta: Mediterranean sea, August 1942
Briefing: Major convoy passing south of sicily. All U-boats head for CN25, CN26 and CN28.
Report contact with convoy and engage.
Primary objective: Engage merchant ships
Narvik: Norwegian waters, April 1940
Briefing: As part of operation 'Weseruebung' the invasion of norway you have been tasked with the
protection of forces landing at Narvik.
On 10th of April, British destroyers have probed the fjord. Losing two of their own for two of our
Zerstoerer, they have managed to destroy the troop carriers.
Now, reinforced by a battleship, they are coming again.
Primary objective: Sink the Warspite
Scapa Flow: North Atlantic, October 1939
Briefing: You are NE of Scapa Flow, British naval base. Attempt to penetrate the base defenses. Sink any
capital warship you may find. Good luck!
Primary objective: Priority targets - British capital warships.
U505: South Atlantic, June 1944
Briefing: On June the 4th, 1944 Taskforce 22.3 - A hunter killer group formed around the escort carrier
USS Guadalcanal - was heading for Casablanca.
Travelling northwards, they were expecting, based on ULTRA and radio direction finder intercepts, to
encounter a submarine on the route.
And they got it, closer than may have wanted. You are in a bad position, minutes away from destruction.
But so is their carrier.
Primary objective: Sink the USS Guadalcanal
XXI: North sea, November 1944
Briefing: You are the first type XXI U-boat to reach operational status, ahead of the schedule.
And you have just the prestige target to test the boat against a heavily escorted carrier task force.
Primary objective: Sink the fleet carriers
Secondary objective: Sink the escort carrier
6 ] Career
The Career mode is also known as the "dynamic campaign." In career mode, you perform a series of
patrols throughout the course of the war.
Table of contents [hide]
1 Objectives
1.1 Career progression
1.2 Saving, reloading, and deleting careers
1.3 Repairing careers
Objectives
Unlike the single mission mode, you will not receive specific objectives, such as "sink the King George V
battleship." All of your orders will be to patrol a specified grid square for 24 hours. The 24 hours do not
have to be consecutive, so you can pursue ship contacts outside of the grid, and then return later to
complete your patrol.
After you patrol your assigned grid, you are then free to navigate freely wherever you please for as long
as your fuel and torpedoes hold out.
You are free to engage any enemy targets you encounter before, during, or after your patrol. You can
terminate the patrol at any point and automatically return to base or, preferably, you can sail back to port,
and terminate the patrol "in the harbour".
Check the Career Timeline for the availability of U-boat types, weapons, ports, flotillas, and
neutrality/enmity of nations.
Career progression
As you complete each patrol in your career, you will receive several things in reward for your successes.
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Renown - This is a measure of your fame. The more successful you are, the more renown you are
awarded. You can use and renown earned as a form of currency to "buy" certain improvements for
your U-Boat. These range from better crew, to equipment upgrades and even entirely new UBoats. See the Career Timeline for lists of what is available and how much renown it costs.
Successes which gain you renown include:
o Reaching your patrol area
o Patrolling that area for 24 hours
o Number of enemy ships sunk
o Tonnage of enemy ships sunk
o Aeroplanes shot down
Loss of Renown - If you have any failures, these will deduct from your gained renown. Failures
include:
o Sinking neutral ships
o Sinking axis ships
o Shooting friendly aeroplanes
o Wounded crew
o
o
Killed crew
Damage to your U-Boat
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Promotions - If you are particularly successful, you may be allowed to award promotions to
members of your crew. If you have sufficient renown, you yourself may be promotoed.

Medals - If you are particularly successful, you may be allowed to allocate medals to members of
your crew. It is possible that you yourself may also receive such decorations.

Qualifications - At the conclusion of each patrol, you will be able to allocate one "qualification
badge" to any Officer or Non-commissioned Officer of your crew. For a list of available
qualifications, see Crew Management.
Saving, reloading, and deleting careers
To save your career in a mission, hit the "ESC" key, you will then see a menu option to save your career.
An important point: when you delete or load a saved game, it deletes ALL saved-games which are newer
- this prevents you from "branching" your career. So be careful before deleting those old saved-games
from early in your career!
Repairing careers
If your saved career gets corrupted in some way, the instructions at Restoring Corrupted Careers may
help.
7 ] Renown Basics
Renown is the measure of the success of your patrols in Career mode.
You earn renown by:
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Reaching your patrol zone
Patrolling for 24 hours
Sinking enemy ships
Shooting down enemy planes
Returning to your base at patrol end, instead of using the ESCAPE key to "return to port" in midpatrol. When you're within 30 kilometers of your base and hit the ESCAPE key, you will then be
offered the option to "Dock at: base". You do not have to travel the last mile and dock in the Uboat pen.
You lose renown by:


Sinking friendly ships. Sinking a friendly ship will penalize your renown by a factor of ten times
such a ship's renown value. Keep it up and SH3 will toss you out of the Kriegsmarine.
Sinking neutral ships. Neutral ships will cost you the same renown amount that you would earn
for sinking the equivalent enemy ship. Armed neutral ships will also begin firing on you. As with
sinking friendly ships, sinking neutrals can lead to the end of your career in the Kriegsmarine.
You do not lose renown for skipping your patrol grid square. It is just a place to earn points if you visit it.
It is not required of you to go there or stay there.
You will not see the renown you've earned in your current patrol until you've returned to base.
Renown can be used to upgrade to a new type of U-boat, purchase upgraded conning towers, radios, or
guns, or to enlist more experienced sailors and officers.
The renown value for each ship can be found by looking at the .cfg file for the ship in the
SilentHunterIII/data/Sea/shipname/ directory.
Renown and Realism
The renown you receive for sinking enemy ships is also affected by your Realism %. You will earn more
renown for playing at a higher Realism %.
The formula for calculating renown (http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=36293), per ship,
is:
base ship renown value (see below) * ( (0.75 * realism %) + 0.25 ).
Therefore, At 100% realism, you will receive full renown credit for every ship that you sink and at 0%
realism, you will receive 25% of the renown credit for every ship.
Renown per academy\objective
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




Scoring highest score on navigation training in academy = 500
Scoring highest score on deck gun training in academy = 1000
Scoring highest score on flak training in academy = 600
Scoring highest score on torpedo training in academy = 300
Scoring highest score on convoy attack training in academy = 1645
Reaching patrolgrid: = 500
Patroling patrolgrid for 24 hours = 200
Docking at home port = 100
Renown per ship
Warships

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
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












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
King George Battleship = 1500
Nelson Battleship = 1400
Revenge Battleship = 1100
Illustrious Carrier = 900
Hipper Carrier = 760
Bogue Carrier = 560
Casablanca Carrier = 420
AuxiliaryCruiser = 420
Fiji Class Cruiser = 430
Dido Class Cruiser = 225
Fletcher Destroyer = 150
Somers Destroyer = 140
Tribal Destroyer = 140
C & D Destroyer = 130
J Class Destroyer = 130
Soldati Destroyer = 130
Buckley Class Destroyer = 130
J.C. Butler Class Destroyer = 130
River Class Destroyer Escort = 130
Black Swan Frigate = 125
Evarts Destroyer = 120
Clemson Destroyer = 120
Hunt I Destroyer = 120
Hunt II Destroyer = 120
Hunt III Destroyer = 120
V&W Class Destroyer = 120
Flower Corvette = 120
Armed Trawler = 30
Elco Torpedoboat = 20
Merchants





Passenger Liner = 870
Troop Transport = 390
T3 Tanker = 340
T2 Tanker = 320
C3 Cargo = 240




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
Victory Cargo = 230
Liberty Cargo = 220
Landing Ship Tank = 220
C2 Cargo = 190
Small Tanker = 125
Small Merchant = 70
Coastal Merchant = 60
TugBoat = 30
Trawler = 20
Small Coastal Vessel = 20
Fishingboat = 20
Renown per aeroplane
Fighters

Hurricane = 20
Bombers


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

B24 = 100
Wellington = 70
Sunderland = 70
PBY = 70
Avenger = 50
Swordfish = 20
8 ] Being Promoted
To be promoted, you must accumulate sufficient renown.
Awarding Promotions
Promotions can be awarded to crew members at the conclusion of a mission, depending on mission
performance. Promoting your crew will increase their hitpoints and efficiency.
If an available promotion is not given before the next mission, then the opportunity will be lost. Use them
or lose them! (Same thing with medals)
American Promotions (In Order Of Rank)

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
Seaman
Senior Seaman
Chief Seaman
Warrant Officer
Senior Warrant Officer
Chief Senior Warrant Officer
Sub-Lieutenant
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
Junior Captain
Captain
German Promotions (In Order Of Rank)

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Matrose
Matrosenstabsgefreiter
Matrosenstabsobergefreiter
Bootsmann
Stabsbootsmann
Stabsoberbootsmann
Oberfähnrich z. S.
Leutnant z. S.
Oberleutnant z. S.
Kapitänleutnant
Korvettenkapitän
Fregattenkapitän
Kapitän z. S.
Always showing German ranks
If the use of American ranks in a U-boat grates against your sense of realism, see Using German Ranks in
English.
Medals
Medals are earned at the end of a successful patrol (i.e. you get home in one piece). The more successful
the patrol, the more medals you earn to give out to your crew. It appears that medals are tied to how much
renown is earned on that patrol, or rather stems from the same source (apparently a combination of hull
integrity, tonnage sunk, and torpedo efficiency - someone who's examined the configuration files edit this
line as necessary).
The net effect of the medals appears to be an increase in morale and endurance for the receiving
crewmember. The greater the honor, the greater the benefit on that crewmember. Giving an Iron Cross,
for example, has a noticeable impact on the sailor's performance, while the U-Boat front clasp seems to
do rather little.
Obtaining Player Medals
These are the numeric requirements for player medals based on renown earned from patrols. I'm not sure
if there are other requirements, such as total tonnage or previous medals awarded. I'm also not sure if the
renown requirements are based upon current total or career total.







Iron Cross, 2nd Class - 3,000 Renown
Iron Cross, 1st Class - 6,000 Renown
Knight's Cross - 10,000 Renown
Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves - 15,000 Renown
Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords - 20,000 Renown
Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds - 25,000 Renown
All - 30,000 Renown ?I figure this means you will have been awarded every medal if you reach
this point?
Obtaining Crew Medals
These requirements are per patrol. You may receive more than one of a certain medal based on your
patrol tonnage total and the tonnage required for the medal. For example, the U-Boat Front Clasp requires
at least 5,000 tons sunk at the end of a patrol. If you have 11,254 total tons sunk, you will receive 2 UBoat Front Clasps. The only exception is the U-Boat War Badge which is based upon renown earned for a
patrol.
Starting with the Iron Cross 1st class, there is an additional requirement. You need to have handed out all
lesser medals. Thus an Iron Cross 1st class will not be available to be awarded unless you have handed
out an Iron Cross 2nd class in a earlier mission.






U-Boat War Badge - 500 Renown
U-Boat Front Clasp - 5,000 Tons
Iron Cross, 2nd Class - 20,000 Tons
Iron Cross, 1st Class - 30,000 Tons
German Cross In Gold - 40,000 Tons
Knight's Cross - 50,000 Tons
Medals And Their Effects





U-Boat Front Clasp - The recipient will receive a boost to resilience. Fatigue change?
Iron Cross, 2nd Class - The recipient will receive an experience boost. In my case the boost was
81xp, but this may change based on rank or current experience. Fatigue change?
Iron Cross, 1st Class - Unknown
German Cross In Gold - Requires IC (2nd and 1st). Awarding a GCIG will result in the recipient
becoming immune from fatigue.
Knight's Cross - increase crew's effect on a compartment's operating efficiency
9 ] U-boat Numbers
When you begin your career, your U-boat is given a number randomly, as appropriate to the type of Uboat you have chosen. If you upgrade your U-boat during the campaign, you will keep the same U-boat
number, even though your boat itself has changed.
How to change your U-boat number
If you wish to change your U-boat number, you can use mods such as SH3-Commander. Alternatively,
you can do it simply with a text editor, such as NotePad, WordPad, or similar.
To change your boat number at the beginning of a career, you have to do it after coming back to base.
Once your first patrol is over, exit the game and open the Patrols_0.cfg file (it's in the My
Documents/SH3/data/cfg/careers folder in the folder with the same name as your commander). This is a
simple text file, so you can open it with Wordpad or any program that will save it as-is (i.e. without
changing the .cfg suffix). All you have to do is look at the 25th line of text. This is the U-Boat's number.
Just change it to the number you want and save the file. Do the same with the Log_0.cfg and the
Patrols.cfg files (the boat number is easy to spot). Each patrol will now recognise your new number, as
will your in-game crew compartment screen and every patrol log.
For changing a U-Boat number half way through a career (e.g. if you transferred to a new boat), just alter
the Patrols_0.cfg file (only the listing for the upcoming patrol) before you go on the first patrol in your
new boat.
U-boat Emblems/Insignias
At some point in your campaign career, once you've earned sufficient renown points, you will become
eligible to place an emblem on your U-boat's conning tower. This ability will eventually be displayed
when you're on base, in the U-boat Options menu, under "Specials".
SH3 offers you a limited number of historical U-boat emblems to choose from. If you would like to
expand your choice of historical emblems, you can download:



Evil Jester 76's high resolution U-boat Emblems
mod (http://www.filefront.com/?filepath=/theofpfaq/sh3/SH3_Mod_EvilJester76sEmblems.zip)
(final version, 04NOV2005)
Evil Jester 76's high resolution Flotilla Emblems
mod (http://www.filefront.com/?filepath=/theofpfaq/sh3/SH3_Mod_EvilJester76sFlotillaEmblems
.zip)
Kaptain Zig's U-boat Emblems
pack (http://www.filefront.com/?filepath=/theofpfaq/sh3/SH3_Mod_UboatEmblems.zip)
or similar and follow the instructions therein to add the pack's files to SH3 installation folder
\SilentHunterIII\data\emblems\sub emblems.
The next thing you'll most probably be thinking of is whether you can place a customized emblem on
your sub in-game. Sure! The emblem needs to be in TGA picture file format and the picture's pixel height
and width must be equal (for example, 128x128, 1000x1000, etc.). If you don't have a program that lets
you edit TGA files, you can download a freeware product called Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/),
which lets you convert picture files from one format to another (for example, JPG or BMP picture files to
TGA format - just what you need).
If you can't wait to earn the renown needed to become eligible to place an emblem on your U-boat, here's
how you can force the display of a U-boat emblem. Edit files:
\My Documents\SH3\data\cfg\Careers\yourPlayerName\Careers.cfg
and
\My Documents\SH3\data\cfg\Careers\yourPlayerName\Careers_0.cfg.
In both files, find the last occurrence of the following statement:
E01=NULL
Change the E01 statements in both files to refect the folder path and TGA file name of the emblem file
you want to use. For example:
E01=data/emblems/subemblems/myCustomEmblem.tga
Save the changes, start SH3 and restart your last career patrol from in-base. If you're in mid patrol and
don't want to revert back to being in-base, no problem. The changes will simply take effect when you start
your next patrol.
10 ]Available U-Boats
For the performance differences between the various U-Boat types, please see the table in Submarines.
In addition to the Renown Cost for each U-Boat type, there are also restrictions according the flotilla; that
is, only certain U-Boat types are available to certain flotillas.
Renown Cost
Name
Date
1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944
1945
IIA
July 1939
0
0
0
IID
October 1939
500
500
500 500
VIIB
September 1939 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500 2500
2500
VIIC
April 1940
0
0
0
0
500
500
500
NA
3000 3000 3000 3000 3000
3000
VIIC/41 October 1943
NA
NA
NA
NA
3000 3000
3000
VIIC/42 January 1944
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
3000
3000
IXB
October 1939
9000 7500 6500 5000 4000 3000
2000
IXC
July 1941
NA
NA
7500 6500 5000 4000
3000
IXC/40 October 1942
NA
NA
NA
4000
IXD1
October 1941
NA
NA
3500 ?
?
IXD2
January 1943
NA
NA
NA
NA
9000 6000
XXI
April 1944
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
7500 6500 5000
?
?
5000
30000 30000
Available Torpedos
I'm not sure what the difference is between the prototype dates and the regular dates. Maybe something
with accuracy or effectiveness.
Name
Prototype Date
Regular Date
Renown Cost
T1 (G7a)
None
January 1939
0
T1 FaT1 (G7a) May 1941
October 1942
100
T1 LuT1 (G7a) March 1944
March 1944
350
T2 (G7e)
None
January 1939
0
T3 (G7e)
May 1941
June 1942
0
T3 FaT2 (G7e) September 1942 March 1943
250
T3 LuT2 (G7e) September 1944 September 1944 450
T4 (G7es)
November 1942 July 1943
500
T5 (G7es)
January 1943
800
T11 (G7es)
November 1943 July 1944
October 1943
1000
Component Upgrades
Deck Guns
Some U-Boats may be fitted with a deck gun. This weapon was used for sinking ships (or finishing off
ships crippled by a torpedo, but still afloat) while the U-Boat was surfaced. Deck guns may only be used
in calm weather. (Wind speed 6 metres per second or less.)
The type of deck gun that is fitted depends on the U-Boat type and the type of conning tower fitted to that
U-Boat. See the Conning Tower section, to see which calibre deck gun is permitted for a given
configuration.
Different types of ammunition are stowed for the deck gun at the beginning of each mission. These are:



AP - Armor Piercing
HE - High Explosive
SS - Star Shell
Ammo
Name
AP HE SS Date
Renown Cost
8.8cm SK C/35 40 160 40 January 1939 0
10.5cm SK C/32 40 60
20 January 1939 0
Flak Guns
Flak guns (Fliegerabwehrkanonen) are anti-aircraft guns. While their primary purpose is to fell enemy
aircraft, they may also be used against very small surface targets (for example fishing trawlers). However,
be warned that this is extremely ineffective and will require a lot of ammunition.
The type of Flak gun that may be fitted depends on the type of conning tower used. Each gun is classified
as "light" or "heavy" and requires an appropriate mounting platform. See the Conning Tower section to
see how many Flak guns of each type may be installed. Note that the 2cm FK C/38 Flakzwilling XXI may
only be used on Type XXI U-Boats.
Flak guns may use one or two different types of ammunition:


AP - Armor Piercing
AA - Anti-Air
The quantity of ammunition stowed for each Flak gun type is indicated below.
Ammunition
Name
Type
AP
AA
Date
2cm FK C/30
Light
NA
1000 January 1939
0
2cm FK C/38
Light
NA
1000 January 1943
0
2cm FK C/30 Flakzwilling
Light
NA
2000 July 1940
0
2cm FK C/38 Flakvierling
Heavy
NA
4000 May 1943
0
2cm FK C/38 Flakzwilling
Light
NA
2000 July 1943
0
2cm FK C/38 Flakzwilling XXI Type XXI NA
2000 April 1944
0
3.7cm SK C/30
Heavy
400
800
0
3.7cm FK M 42
Heavy
800
1200 December 1943 0
3.7cm FK M 42 Twin
Heavy
1600 2400 December 1943 0
January 1939
Renown Cost
[edit]
Conning Towers
The different types of U-Boats may be fitted with different superstructures. Each conning tower may only
fitted on the type of U-Boat indicated in the name. For example, a IID/2 tower may only be fitted on a
Type II-D U-Boat. The choice of tower affects the number of deck gun and Flak installations that are
fitted. Fitting a new tower may take up to two weeks.
Name Date
Deck Gun Heavy Flak Light Flak Renown Cost
IIA/1
January 1939 none
none
1
0
IID/1
October 1939 none
none
1
0
IID/2
January 1943 none
none
2
300
VIIB/1 January 1939 88mm
none
1
0
VIIB/2 January 1942 88mm
none
2
400
VIIC/1 April 1940
88mm
none
1
0
VIIC/2 January 1942 88mm
none
2
500
VIIC/3 January 1943 88mm
1
2
1000
VIIC/4 June 1943
3
none
1500
1
1
0
IX/1
none
October 1939 105mm
IX/2
January 1940 105mm
none
2
500
IX/3
January 1942 105mm
1
2
1000
none
2
0
XXI/1 April 1944
none
Note that the VIIC/4 tower is the so called "U-Flak" configuration.
Also note that the Type XXI U-Boats may only use the Type XXI Flak guns as listed in the Flak Guns
section.
Diesel Engine Superchargers
Name
Speed Boost Date
Renown Cost
GWKapselgeblase x1.1
February 1939 500
MANBuchigeblase x1.2
January 1939
1500
Batteries
These also depend on U-Boat type.
Name
Energy Bonus Date
Renown Cost
AFA27MAK740 x1.0
January 1939 0
AFA27MAK800 x1.15
April 1940
AFA33MAL800 x1.30
October 1941 1500
AFA36MAK580 x1.0
January 1939 0
AFA36MAK740 x1.0
January 1939 0
AFA44MAL570 x1.25
October 1939 500
AFA44MAL740 x1.25
October 1941 1500
Hydrophones
These may depend on U-Boat type.
Name
Date
Renown Cost
GHG
January 1939 0
600
KDB
January 1939 300
BalkonGerat October 1943 750
Sonar
These may depend on U-Boat type.
Name
Date
Renown Cost
S-Gerät
April 1942
500
Nibelung October 1943 1000
Radar
These may depend on U-Boat type.
Name
Date
Renown Cost
FuMO29GEMA
February 1942 250
FuMO30
February 1943 750
FuMO61Hohentwiel March 1944
1000
FuMO64Hohentwiel March 1944
1200
FuMO391
1500
August 1944
[edit]
Radar Warning Receiver
These may depend on U-Boat type.
Name
Date
Renown Cost
FuMB1Metox
August 1942
100
FuMB10Borkum November 1943 200
FuMB7Naxos
December 1943 250
FuMB26Tunis
May 1944
400
Sonar Decoys
Name
Date
Renown Cost
BoldType1 March 1942
250
BoldType2 May 1943
350
BoldType3 January 1944 450
BoldType4 October 1944 550
BoldType5 January 1945 650
Sonar Hull Coatings
Name
Date
Renown Cost
Alberich
August 1941
1000
AlberichImproved February 1944 2000
Radar Hull Coatings
Name
Date
Renown Cost
Tarnmatte January 1944 1500
Emblems
Once you have completed a sufficient number of patrols, you may be entitled to paint the flotilla emblem
or even an emblem of your own choosing on the side of your boat's conning tower. See U-boat
Emblems/Insignias for more information.
Available Ports/Flotillas
The map shows the prinicple U-Boat bases. Note that not all of these are available in the standard version
of Silent Hunter III.
The following table lists the Flottillen represented in Silent Hunter III, along with the bases used and the
types of U-Boats available to that Flottille. Note that not all U-Boat types are immediately available, but a
limited to the appropriate date.
Flottille
Bases
U-Boat types
1.
1939 - 1940: Wilhelmshaven IIA, IID, VIIB, VIIC
1940 - 1944: Brest
2.
1939 - 1940: Wilhelmshaven VIIB, IXB, IXC
1940 - 1944: Lorient
7.
1939 - 1940: Kiel
1940 - 1944: St. Nazaire
VIIB, VIIC, VIIC/41, XXI
1944 - 1945: Bergen
10.
1941 - 1944: Lorient
IXB, IXC
11.
1941 - 1945: Bergen
VIIC, VIIC/41, XXI
12.
1942 - 1944: Bordeaux
IXB, IXC
29.
1941 - 1943: La Spezia
1943 - 1944: Toulon
VIIB, VIIC
33.
1944 - 1945: Flensburg
VIIC, VIIC/41, IXB, IXC, XXI
Nation Status
To determine whether a particular nationality is a friend, an enemy or neutral, refer to the following list
showing the status of each country at different times during the war. See also the Nationality Status
Timeline.
Date format = YEAR/MONTH/DAY
British {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/02-->|
|<--1939/09/03-----Allies------1945/08/25-->|
|<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
American {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1941/12/08-->|
|<--1941/12/09-----Allies------1945/08/25-->|
|<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
German {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/08/31-->|
|<--1939/09/01-----Axis--------1945/05/09-->|
|<--1945/05/09-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
Environmental (Seagulls and Icebergs)
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
Canadian {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/10-->|
|<--1939/09/11-----Allies------1945/08/25-->|
|<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
Australian {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/10-->|
|<--1939/09/11-----Allies------1945/08/25-->|
|<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
Italian {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1940/06/09-->|
|<--1940/06/10-----Axis--------1943/09/03-->|
|<--1943/09/03-----Neutral-----1943/10/13-->|
|<--1943/10/13-----Allies------1945/05/07-->|
|<--1945/05/07-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
SouthAfrica {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/10-->|
|<--1939/09/11-----Allies------1945/08/25-->|
|<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
Russia {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1941/06/21-->|
|<--1941/06/22-----Allies------1945/08/25-->|
|<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
Poland {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/01-->|
|<--1939/09/02-----Allies------1945/08/25-->|
|<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
Netherland {put flag here}
|<--1940/05/10-----Neutral-----1939/09/09-->|
|<--1940/05/11-----Allies------1945/12/31-->|
France {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/02-->|
|<--1939/09/03-----Allies------1940/06/25-->|
|<--1940/06/26-----Neutral-----1944/08/25-->|
|<--1944/08/26-----Allies------1945/12/31-->|
FreeFrench {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Allies------1945/12/31-->|
Norway {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1940/04/10-->|
|<--1940/04/11-----Allies------1945/12/31-->|
NewZealand {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1939/09/10-->|
|<--1939/09/11-----Allies------1945/08/25-->|
|<--1945/08/26-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
Sweden {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1945/12/31-->|
Greece {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1940/11/12-->|
|<--1940/11/13-----Allies------1945/12/31-->|
Brasil {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1942/08/22-->|
|<--1942/08/23-----Allies------1945/12/31-->|
Romania {put flag here}
|<--1938/01/01-----Neutral-----1940/07/05-->|
|<--1940/07/06-----Axis--------1944/08/23-->|
|<--1944/08/24-----Allies------1945/12/31-->|
Japan {put flag here}
|<--1936/10/25-----Axis--------1945/09/02-->|
11 ] Multiplayer
Firewall Ports Configuration
SH3's multiplayer abilities allow you to play either on UbiSoft hosted game servers or on privately hosted
LAN and Internet based servers.
The following TCP and UDP ports should be opened to allow for SH3 multiplayer gaming:




TCP/UDP ports 17997 through 18003 - allows up to 8 players to join
TCP port 667 - UbiSoft ping
TCP/UDP ports 40000 through 42000 - Ubi.com
TCP/UDP port 43500 - Ubi.com2
12 ] Types of WWII U-Boats
This list is a complete list of all the U-Boat types that were deployed during WWII. Only the types
marked in bold face are available in Silent Hunter III.
Type Purpose























IA High Seas U-Boat
IIA Coastal U-Boat
IIB Coastal U-Boat
IIC Coastal U-Boat
IID Coastal U-Boat
VIIA High Seas U-Boat
VIIB High Seas U-Boat
VIIC High Seas U-Boat
VIID High Seas U-Boat
IXA Ocean going U-Boat
IXB Ocean going U-Boat
IXC Ocean going U-Boat
IXD1 Ocean going U-Boat
IXD2 Ocean going U-Boat
XB High Seas Minelayer/Supply vessel
XIV Fuel transport
XVII Walter research boat
XVIII Walter High Seas boat
XX Oil Transport
XXI Ocean going Electro boat
XXIII Small Electro boat
XXVI Walter High Seas turbine
XXVIII Coastal U-Boat - Steam turbine
Types of U-Boats in Silent Hunter III
The following tables lists the types (and sub-types) of U-Boats that are represented in Silent Hunter III,
along with statistics for comparison.
Type
IIA
IID
VIIB
VIIC
VIIC/41 VIIC/42 IXB
IXC
IXC/40 IXD2
XXI
Surface
displacement 254 314
(t)
753
761
759
999
1051
1120
1144
1616
1621
Submerged
displacement 303 364
(t)
857
865
860
1099
1178
1232
1257
1804
1819
Length (m)
40.9 44.0 66.5
67.1
67.2
68.7
76.5
76.8
76.8
87.6
76.7
Beam (m)
4.1
5.0
6.2
6.2
6.2
6.7
6.8
6.8
6.9
7.5
6.6
Draft (m)
3.8
3.9
4.7
4.8
4.8
5.1
4.7
4.7
4.7
5.4
6.3
Surface
max.speed
(kt)
13.0 13.0 17.2
17.2
17.0
18.6
18.2
18.3
18.0
19.2
15.6
Submerged
max.speed
(kt)
6.9
7.6
7.6
8.2
7.3
7.3
7.0
6.9
17.5
Surface
endurance
(nm)
1050 3450 6500
6500
6500
10000
8700
11000 11400
23700 11150
Submerged
Endurance
(nm)
35
90
80
80
80
64
63
63
57
285
Operation
depth (m)
100 125
150
150
150
250
150
150
110
150
175
Maximum
depth (m)
152 157
225
247
247?
350?
216
232
232
235
285
Dive Time
(s)
35
25
30
27
25
27
35
37
37
42
25
Bow
Torpedo
Tubes
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
6
Stern
Torpedo
Tubes
0
0
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
0
Internal
Reloads
2
2
7
7
7
7
8
8
8
8
17
External
Reloads
0
0
2
2
2
4
7
8
8
12
0
Total
number of
torpedoes
5
5
14
14
14
16
21
22
22
26
23
Deck Gun
N/A N/A 8,8cm* 8,8cm* 8,8cm* 8,8cm* 10,5cm 10,5cm 10,5cm 10,5cm N/A
7.9
56
8.0
Source: SH3 Manual and for Max Depth SH3 Crush Depth Tool. IXC/40 Found Experimentally. VIIC/41
and VIIC/42 unknown.

) Type VII submarines with type VII/4 conning tower have no deck gun.
See also the Type VII / IX Comparison
U-Boat Flotillas and Bases
List made by HammFist
"Flotilla - Base - SubType"
1st Flotilla
Wilhemshaven 6/39 to 7/40
Brest 8/40 to 9/44






1939: U-Boat Type IIA
1940: U-Boat Type VIIB
1941: U-Boat Type VIIC
1942: U-Boat Type VIIC
1943: U-Boat Type VIIC
1944: U-Boat Type VIIC
2nd Flotilla
Wilhemshaven 8/39 to 8/40
Lorient 9/40 to 9/44





1940: U-Boat Type VIIB
1941: U-Boat Type IXB
1942: U-Boat Type IXC
1943: U-Boat Type IXC
1944: U-Boat Type IXC
7th Flotilla
Kiel 8/39 to 8/40
St. Nazaire 9/40 to 7/44
Bergen 8/44 to 5/45









1939: U-Boat Type VIIB
1940: U-Boat Type VIIB
1941: U-Boat Type VIIC
1942: U-Boat Type VIIC
1943: U-Boat Type VIIC/41
1944: U-Boat Type VIIC/41
1944: U-Boat Type XXI
1945: U-Boat Type VIIC/41
1945: U-Boat Type XXI
10th Flotilla
Lorient 1/41 to 9/44



1942: U-Boat Type IXC
1943: U-Boat Type IXC
1944: U-Boat Type IXC
11th Flotilla
Bergen 1/41 to 5/45






1942: U-Boat Type VIIC
1943: U-Boat Type VIIC/41
1944: U-Boat Type VIIC/41
1944: U-Boat Type XXI
1945: U-Boat Type VIIC/41
1945: U-Boat Type XXI
12th Flotilla
Bordeaux 10/42 to 8/44



1942: U-Boat Type IXB
1943: U-Boat Type IXC
1944: U-Boat Type IXC
29th Flotilla
La Spezia 9/41 to 8/43
Toulon 9/43 to 8/44




1941: U-Boat Type VIIB
1942: U-Boat Type VIIB
1943: U-Boat Type VIIC
1944: U-Boat Type VIIC
33rd Flotilla
Flensburg 9/44 to 6/45


1944: U-Boat Type VIIC/41
1945: U-Boat Type VIIC/41
U-boat Identification
Individual U-boats were identified by a number - sort of like a serial number - rather than a name. While
famous ships are known by names, such as the "Bismarck" or "Hood", famous U-boats were known by
their number - for example: U-47. See the section "U-boat Numbers" for details.
U-boats would have designs painted on the side of the conning tower to further "personalise" them. If you
would like to do this for your U-boat in SH3, see the section "U-boat Emblems/Insignias".
13 ] Navigation
The usual method for navigating your U-Boat is to plot a course on the navigation map. Alternately, you
can set your heading manually, using the compass or rudder controls.
Your course is always relative to North (Bearing 0 degrees). There are 360 degrees in a full circle,
increasing as you go east. To summarise the main directions (in both English and German):
Bearing
Course
000
North
Abbr.
Peilung
N
Nord
Abk.
N
022.5
North-North-East NNE Nord-Nord-Ost NNO
045
North-East
NE
Nord-Ost
NO
067.5
East-North-East
ENE
Ost-Nord-Ost
ONO
090
East
E
Ost
O
112.5
East-South-East
ESE
Ost-Süd-Ost
OSO
135
South-East
SE
Süd-Ost
SO
157.5
South-South-East SSE
Süd-Süd-Ost
SSO
180
South
Süd
S
202.5
South-South-West SSW Süd-Süd-West
SSW
225
South-West
SW
247.5
West-South-West WSW West-Süd-West
WSW
270
West
W
292.5
West-North-West WNW West-Nord-West WNW
315
North-West
337.5
North-North-West NNW Nord-Nord-West NNW
S
SW
W
NW
Süd-West
West
Nord-West
NW
If you click on the outside rim of the compass dial, then your U-Boat will turn towards this course (taking
the shortest turn of the two possible directions).
Navigating is generally done from the navigation map, found by pressing F5. Use the plotting tool to
select way-points, thus indicating your desired course. Generally, this is the most precise way of
navigating. However using the compass dial to set a course can also be useful under certain
circumstances. As can controlling the rudder manually. As an example of the latter, if you wish to avoid
aircraft, then simply setting the rudder hard to port or starboard (usually via the shortcut keys) is a very
effective way of reacting to the incoming threat.
Sonar
The sonar is your ears and the only way of detecting ships when you are submerged beyond periscope
depth, and the safest way to detect ships under poor weather conditions. Sound travels faster and further
in water, making the sonar a very important instrument.
The passive sonar device is standard equipment on U-boats and is very simple in operation; an array of
transducers (microphones) are located around the fore dive planes. Any sound these pick up (such as the
cavitation noise of a ship's screw) are amplified and can be heard when manning the hydrophone station.
While using the hydrophone, click on the wheel or on the dial to pick up sound waves from another
direction.
There are several sources of sound you will encounter on your patrols. Most of them are naturally ships'
screws (a constant thumping), but also sinking ships, underwater explosions, the screws of your
torpedoes, and dud torpedoes (a loud metallic bang as the torpedo impacts, but does not detonate) can be
heard. This obviously also means the screws of your own U-boat can be heard by yourself, adding to the
ambient noise and creating a blind - literally deaf - spot around your aft. Ordering "All stop" or turning
20-30 degrees allows you to scan this area as well. Also keep in mind that the hydrophone works best
when you are submerged. Using it while surfaced limits the range. When submerged, expect the range to
be around 20kms, and 30 kms if you have the KDB installed.
Anti-sonar coating
Some time in to the war, you can acquire an anti sonar coating to your U-boat when in dock. This helps
conceal your U-boat somewhat when being pinged by enemy sonar by absorbing some of the sound
waves.
Bold sonar decoy
The Bold is ejected on the port side of your torpedo room and disrupts the water in this area for three
minutes. This confuses enemy sonar operators, which may mistake the return echo from it to come from
your U-boat. Remember the sonar of a surface vessel doesn't work as well with targets in shallow waters,
so deploy the decoy at some depth.
Sonarman (SO)
This is the crew member relaying whatever information can be found out from using the hydrophone.
When you are submerged, he notifies you whenever he discovers a ship and reports the following:





type of ship (warship/merchant)
its speed
if it's closing in, moving away or keeping a constant distance to you
which direction it's at
the range (long/medium/short)
The experience of the sonar operator affects how good he's at detecting ships. For best results, give him a
radioman qualification.
Clicking on the Sonarman icon in the lower left corner will give you access to the following menus

Report
o
o


Repeat last report
Report on nearest contact
This will make the SO reply either the absence of contacts, or the bearing of the nearest
contact.
Hydrophone
Neither of these commands will result in an acknowledgement from the SO.
o Normal sweep
The default method the SO uses to find contacts.
o Follow nearest sound contact
Sonar
Both these commands assumes you have selected and a target using the periscope (locking on to it
is not required).
o Estimate range to contact
o Precise range to contact
Radio and radar
Radio
Keeping in touch with BdU is what the radio is for. You can only transmit reports when you are surfaced,
but you can receive messages even when you are submerged - as long as the equipment (including the
antenna in the conning tower) is working. Remember to be careful about when and where you are
transmitting. While everything you transmit and receive is encrypted and might not contain enough
information to alert anyone who successfully decrypts your correspondence, your location can be
calculated very precisely by the Allies using triangulation. It is generally safest to transmit right before
you submerge, as the possibility of planes and/or warships being sent to your location is high. (See also
Radioman below.)
Radar
The radar is an active detection instrument, much like the sonar. It transmits a radio wave and listens for
an echo. Unlike modern mobile radars and stationery radar installations, the U-boat radar only covers a
quite small arc in front of the boat.
(In a 1944 IX-D2, this arc is 20 degrees each side of your course bearing or 40 degrees total - unknown if
this active arc increases with radar upgrades.) As a result of this, you need to turn your U-boat around to
sweep your surroundings. And because it is an active system, other units - such as enemy destroyers - can
pick up your radar waves and find out your position. Radar works well in calm weather, but is less
relibable in high waves and precipitation.
Radar detector
This utility allows you to know when a radar set is being operated in the vicinity (and pointed your way).
The RA will announce the presence of radar waves the instant an enemy destroyer decides to sweep the
area you are in. This doesn't necessarily mean you have been detected as high waves, inexperienced
enemy radar operators with unfamiliar equipment may lead the enemy to believe he was seeing a wave
instead of the conning tower of a U-boat.
Anti-radar coating
Similar to the anti-sonar coating, this is yet another upgrade that helps you remain undetected. It works by
absorbing radar waves, or deflecting them in different angles.
Radioman (RA)
The radioman (RA) - or Funker (FU) in German - operates the radio, radar, radar warning equipment and
gramaphone. Unless you have radar installed in your U-boat, the crew member working as RA doesn't
need to be highly skilled or a qualified radioman. His only task is to receive and transmit messages.
Clicking on the RA icon will present you with the following menu items.

Report
o
o
o


Report contacts
Choosing this will make the RA repeat any contact report that has been received from
BdU.
Send contact report
The RA will transmit a contact report to BdU if you have made visual contact with a
convoy. You will receive confirmation from BdU some time after the contact has been sent
(typically 1 to 4 hours). If you are close enough to Germany or territories currently
occupied by Germany, fighter or bomber aircraft might be dispatched to your location.
Note that once you have sent a report, additional reports will not be acknowledged until at
least 12 hours has passed. Thus, if you are stalking a convoy, reporting its position as you
follow it, then it only makes sense to send reports twice a day. You can tell if a report will
be acknowledged, as only those reports are noted on the message note pad (Press keyboard
shortcut "r").
Send patrol report
If you have spent your torpedoes, you can send a patrol report to be ordered back to base.
The number of torpedoes you have left, along with tonnage sunk will be sent to BdU.
Radar
This section only applies if you have a radar set installed in your U-boat.
o One sweep
RA will perform one sweep with the radar, and then turn it off.
o Continuous sweep
RA will continuously monitor the area in front of your U-boat.
o Turn off
Click this to turn off your radar. This command does not seem to work reliably. See the
radar switch workaround for more info.
Gramophone
For playing all your favourite wax records. See the Gramophone page for more info.
Contact reports
In addition to sending contact reports, you may also receive them from BdU whenever you are in range of
convoys that have been discovered by friendly forces. They will typically contain the information of
roughly where the convoy is (in which grid), a rough heading, its speed in knots, and the type of convoy ranging from enemy task force to neutral convoy. It then becomes your task to track down the convoy and
engage it.
Radar switch workaround
Many people have reported the command Turn off under the RA Radar menu to be totally or partially
ineffective. This bug can be quite dangerous, as you are lured into a false sense of safety that the radar is
off, while it's in fact acting like a homing beacon for any ship or aircraft equipped with a radar set to
detect and track you on.
There are two ways of switching off the radar, which will leave the radar switched off.
1. Relieve the RA.
Make sure there is no one manning the radio/radar set in the crew management screen.
2. Click the off switch in the radio room
Go to the radio room by right-clicking on the RA icon, then click the off switch located on the
radar set. This will switch off the radar, and leave it switched off until you either man the radar
again, or demand the RA to operate it.
14 ] Crew Management
Basics
Crew management is an important part of the game. Each crew member has a level of endurance that
continually decreases while he is on station. The less endurance a crew member has, the more inefficient
he is at his job. For example, a tired sonar operator is more likely to miss sound targets than one who is
fully rested.
Note that the red exclamation mark looks more threatening than it is. The only thing that happens is that
the crewman gets less efficient - he won't die or something of that sort. I've been very nasty to some
crewman on purpose, and I have never seen the endurance line go below 30-40%.
To recover endurance, assign the crew member to quarters.
Higher ranking crew members have more endurance and can stay on station longer. Higher ranking crew
members also take longer to recuperate; rotate your officers often to keep them healthy. A junior officer
can be used as the "whipping boy" to boost efficiency in a compartment while the more senior officers
sleep. The junior officer still provides a boost no matter how fatigued he is and he won't mutiny.
Certain medals will reduce or eliminate a crewman's fatigue.
It is also possible to modify the game files to remove the fatigue system completely if desired.
Time Compression
Crew endurance is frozen when running with any time compression greater than 32 (i.e. 64 and up).
While this means that your crew will not become fatigued during this time, it also means that crew in
quarters will not recover any endurance.
Crew Deployment
Some crew members have small yellow icons under their sprite. This means he´s good at certain tasks.
Below is a list of available qualifications (with the German name given in brackets):









Watchman (Wachgänger)
Gunner (Schütze)
Flakgunner (Flakschütze)
Radioman/Sonarman (Funker)
Helmsman (Steuermanm)
Machinist (Maschinist)
Torpedoman (Torpedoschütze)
Medic (Sanitäter)
Repair (Mechaniker)
When crew are deployed to certain areas of the U-Boat, the "efficiency bar" will change to indicate the
current performance of that area. The "efficiency bar" is black when there are no crew deployed to fully
green, when it is at maximum efficiency. Placing a "qualified" crew member in the appropriate area will
increase the efficiency of that area far more than placing just any crew there. This is in the same way that
placing an officier (with more experience) will help more than a lowly sailor.
The type of "qualification" an area requires is shown by the small yellow icon next to the area name.
Note that it doesn't make sense to give an officer the "Radioman/Sonarman" qualification, as officers may
not be placed in the radioroom (only petty officers and sailors); accordingly, the game does not allow it.
Each time the crew returns from a mission, there will typically be one additional "qualification" to
allocate.
15 ] Locating Targets
Locating targets can be done in several ways. You can be appraised of ship and convoy positions via
radio, you can locate ships using the hydrophone or radar, or you can rely on your watch crew to locate
targets visually.
Radio messages
Contact report shown on map
Periodically you may receive radio messages from BdU advising of single contacts or convoys in your
area.
These messages will not generally appear in your radio log (except for convoy sightings), but will result
in a contact marker being placed on the Navigation Map. This is a square box for a merchant ship, or a
diamond shaped one for a warship. The icon includes a "tail" which represents the wake of the ship and
can be used to find the course.
Clicking on the contact will show various information:




The time of the report
The type of contact. Usually this will simply say "Ship"
The approximate course of the contact (e.g., SW, ENE etc)
The approximate speed of the contact
The possible speed ranges are given below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Slow: 1-6 kts
Medium: 7-14 kts
Fast: 15-24 kts
Very Fast: 25+ kts
Most merchant contacts will be reported at either slow or medium speed. In general, runing an intercept
based on a speed of 6kts for slow, and 10kts for medium will enable you to find your target.
Note that although the course given is an approximation, the "tail" shown on the contact icon is a very
accurate measure of the course. If you are careful, you can plot a course within a few degrees of the real
course using the ruler tool on the map.
See Intercepting Targets for information on running an intercept course.
Watch Crew
When running on the surface, your watch crew will automatically report contacts that are in visual range.
A contact icon, identical to that shown above for a Radio Contact, will be shown on the map and the
contact bearing will be shown in a message from your crew.
A commonly asked question is whether there's any benefit to manually moving your watch officer (WO),
when surfaced, to his position on the conning tower, especially when the watch crew is already rated at or
near maximum efficiency.
The answer is that with the WO in his watch position, you will be informed of the bearing and distance of
spotted ships. Without him, you will simple receive a "ship spotted" message with no additional
information.
Hydrophones
Hydrophone range
Hydrophones are, in essence, underwater microphones. They allow you to detect targets from
approximately 20km away. In order to use the hydrophones, your sub must be submerged. Note that your
hydrophone range is affected by several factors:


Speed of the U-Boat - Ideally, you should be running at Ahead Slow or even All Stop to maximise
your hydrophone range.
Depth of the U-Boat - Ideally, you should be between periscope deep (11-12 meters) and 25
meters; but also you can obtain best results at 50 meters & 70 meters; maybe thermal layers?
Contact reporting
If you have a crew member assigned to the sonar room, he will report hydrophone contacts to you. If your
realism settings do not include "No map contact update" these contacts will be indicated by black lines
extending from your sub in the direction of the contact. The length of the line represents an approximate
distance to the target.
Note that currently in patch 1.3 a bug exists whereby sonar contacts are not reported. Solved in patch
1.4b. The contact lines will, however, still appear on your map and time compression will be dropped to
8x if you are running higher compression at the moment of contact.
Manual Operation
To operate the hydrophone manually, sit at the hydrophone station (hotkey H) and rotate the dial by
clicking around the perimeter. As the needle rotates around the dial, listen for the sounds of ship engines.
The loundness of the sound is an indication of the range of the target.
Be aware that if your own U-boat has its electic motors operating, then you will hear screw noise at 180°.
This is your own vessel! You can avoid this by changing to All Stop when you wish to listen with your
hydrophones.
Radar
Radar Screen
Manual operation
To operate the radar manually, use the switches and the wheel. The upper left switch is power on/off. The
sweep/focus changes it from automatic search to manual search. In sweep mode, the wheel rotates
continuously. In focus mode, you can click on the wheel much like the sonar station wheel to turn it
clockwise or counterclockwise. The range switch changes it from short range band (left) to long range
band (right). The display has both range scales marked in hundreds of meters, and the rollover numbers at
the bottom left will give you exact range in meters to a contact that is picked up.
Detecting a contact
Radar Contact showing spike
The display is an oscilloscope. When you find a contact, the display will have a spike.
The vertical location of the spike on the occilloscope indicates a rough range to the target. The little
display in the bottom left will give you the exact range to the target.
To find the bearing, you're supposed to read the numbers on the dial behind the wheel (radar wheel), but a
bug causes the numbers to be reversed. The radioman will call out the correct bearing, but the numbers
are backwards.
The FuMO29 only covers a few degrees span to the front of the boat, but that wheel will still turn a
complete circle, even though it can't possibly pick up anything for most of that time. You'll be better off
just doing it manually when you're really looking for something. Once you get the FuMO30, it mounts the
antenna on a rotating mount, so you get full coverage that way.
Because the radar is on by default when you load a saved game, you must manually turn it off. If you
return to the station, it will automatically turn on again.
16 ] Hunting Grounds
The Supercavitation shipping lane
If you are having troubles locating targets, try this out. This helper assumes you are sailing from the
western coast - aka occupied France - from Brest, Lorient, St. Nazaire, etc. and that you are utilizing
Silent Hunter with the 1.2 patch with no mods. I am not aware of any mods that interfere with this
strategy but you never know.
Receive your orders and exfiltrate the sub pen. Plot a course for grid BF 13. Upon reaching BF 13, run a
diagonal course between BF 13 and BF 15, repeatedly.
This is a major pipe of merchant and convoy travel that remains throughout the game years. You will
continually receive updates via your map screen (F5) and every 12 hours you can submerge and usually
detect a lone merchant or possibly even a full convoy if you aren't too busy cleaning up the updates you
receive. It is not uncommon to patrol this area and exhaust your torpedos in two to three days, to say
nothing of your deck gun. Enemy aircraft will appear to cover this area usually after 1941 but if you stay
sharp they are a minimal threat. In fact, they appear less often in BF 15, making it a perfect gridsquare to
recharge batteries in.
It is possible to radio contacts in to BdU from here and see Luftwaffe attacks, but they happen about 1 in
7 tries.
You can exhaust your torpedo load here and continue onward to your patrol grid, having utilized a
minimum of diesel fuel, provided you never exceed Ahead Standard for long periods of time.
This area is minimally policed by the Allies. You will rarely encounter a lone corvette or destroyer.
There are depths of + 100 meters in this area, making for good escape.
You are close to home port. :)
See this map example: http://www.xlr8films.org/sh3/patrolzone.bmp
The Alyebard areas
Also the AM 51, AM 52 gridsquares are a good places to hunt convoys inbound to the North Channel
(between Ireland and Scotland) You will receive updates in your map screen (F5), also if you are not so
impatient every two or three days you can detect a big convoy. And deeps are good enought, more than
1000 meters. AM 53 is a good place, but is more patrolled by the enemy and have shallow waters. And
this area is avalaible from bases in Germany and from France
You can PM or EM at subsim with any questions.
Mediterranean hunting grounds
Well, there are two bottlenecks in the Mediterranian. One is obviously the Gibraltar strait and the other is
between Sicily and the North of Africa. Every convoy, taskforce or lone merchant will be forced to pass a
few km from you.
U-Flak hunting grounds
Around Scapa Flow seems to be pretty good - all but the channel to the south. There seems to be a lot of
biplanes and a smaller number of hurricanes.
In my experinces I have found BF13(yes the hot spot) to be loaded with aircraft later in the
war(Suderlands and Huracanes). There are calm seas almost all of the time. And I have not seen many
DD's.
Good Luck and Good Hunting, Wilhelm.
Moored capital ships (spoiler)
Below are the dates and locations of moored capital ships, extracted from the game data files and listed in
chronological order. Note that the dates only seem approximate.












1939/09/15 - 1939/10/10, Auxiliary Cruiser, Scapa Flow
1939/10/04 - 1939/10/14, Battleship Revenge, Scapa Flow
1939/11/01 - 1940/01/05, Battleship Nelson, Loch Ewe
1940/03/01 - 1940/05/01, Auxiliary Cruiser, Scapa Flow
1940/03/07 - 1940/04/25, Aircraft Carrier Illustrious, Scapa Flow
1940/04/01 - 1940/06/01, Auxiliary Cruiser, Scapa Flow
1940/05/17 - 1945/01/01, Fiji Light Cruiser, Loch Ewe
1940/05/24 - 1940/06/30, Dido Light Cruiser, Scapa Flow
1940/12/11 - 1940/12/31, Battleship King George V, Scapa Flow
1941/02/01 - 1941/02/17, Auxiliary Cruiser, Scapa Flow
1941/02/10 - 1941/03/20, Auxiliary Cruiser, Scapa Flow
1942/02/03 - 1942/02/28, Battleship King George V, Scapa Flow
16 ] Intercepting Targets
Learning to Intercept targets is crucial for success in Silent Hunter III.
Introduction
The goal of a good intercept is to get you into firing range (500-700 meters) with the ship passing right in
front of you.
Ideally, your boat should be at exactly 90° to the path of the target facing it as it passes by. This allows
you to fire fire your torpedos at 0° Gyro angle. Gyro angles within 10° of 0 work well. Beyond that, your
torpedo may fail, or hit at a bad angle. Ensuring that your range is within the 500-700m range, directly
abeam of the target, will make your limited supplies of torpedos much more effective.
Plotting the target's course and speed
In order to reach an ideal intercept position, you need to know the target's speed and heading. Both can be
determined by submerging at low speed or stopped and taking several hydrophone readings. Note that
you must have the No map contact update realism setting disabled for this to work.
You should take several hydrophone readings over time. Zoom in on the end of the black or grey sonar
contact line and put an X with the marker there. Ensure that you are zoomed in far enough to see the grid
lines, or you won't get a very accurate position fix. Even so, you will be off. The farther the contact, the
larger the error. The error will always be one of range, the bearing is accurate.
You should note the exact time of each mark that you make, to be able to later determine the target speed.
If possible, try to make each mark at an interval of 3 minutes and 15 seconds. This allows you to use the 3
minute rule to easily calculate the target's speed. In any case, you must know the elapsed time between
your marks if you want to know the speed of the target. With hydrophone readings, the updates come
about every minute. If you ask the sonarman to follow the nearest contact, they come every 15 seconds or
so. So keep in mind the 3 minute rule will be a rough estimate of speed. If you are moving and the target
is moving, you can just turn time compression to 64 and eyeball it. You can say pretty fast if the target is
moving much faster than you. Getting an exact speed with timing is much faster in game time and will
allow you to intecept fast moving targets more often. Fast, for merchants anyway.
Once you have at least 3 marks on the map that are about kilometer or more apart, use the ruler to draw a
line from the first one through the last one. This is the ships estimated course. The ships real course will
be +/- 5° and +/- 500 meters at 15 Kilometers. Keep in mind this course is an estimate and plan to update
it accordingly.
You can now calculate your targets speed (distance = rate x time), or using the 3 minute rule.
Finding the intercept point
A line from your ship that meets the target's course line at 90° is the closest intercept course you have to
the target's course. If the target is more or less coming at you, just plot a course that takes you right into
its path, minus about 500 meters. Using the target's calculated speed you can determine approximately
when the target will arrive near your intercept point. Ensure that your U-boat has enough speed to reach
that point well before the target!
It is important not to take a diagonal path compared to the targets course. This will not leave you in a
good firing position and you will waste many torpedos.
Once you get the hang of it, you may want to take a diagonal path to get you further ahead of the target,
then make your turn to 90° at the end.
Example intercept
Sub starts (A) and takes several readings on target (C). Gray lines represent sonar readings. Sub moves to
intercept location (B) and arrives early. Target arrives at (D) as sub is settling into position and getting
final readings on exact course.
Running a Box Pattern Intercept
If you can't make it into the ships path in time or the target is moving away from you, you need to run a
box pattern to get where you need to be. Mark out a course that is exactly parallel to your target's course.
Make sure that this course is at least 2KM from the targets course at night or in bad weather. Go at least 5
KM out in clear weather during the day to stay beyond visual range. Surface your boat and make flank
speed along this course until you have enough lead to get into position and be submerged when the target
arrives. You should stop once in a while and submerge to confirm that the target is still on course. It
might take you a full day or more running at top speed on the surface to outflank the target. That's what
flank speed is for.
It might also be impossible to overake the target, even at top speed. In that case, dive and set ahead slow
the opposite direction along the targets course and hope it's a well travel sea lane.
Example box pattern intercept
Sub (A) can't directly intercept target (b) so it runs a box intecept to arrive at (C) before the target. Don't
forget to submerge to get sonar readings an confirm the target is still on course.
--SaintD 11:28, 12 May 2005 (EEST)
Claren's Easy Course-to-Target Plotting Method
Here's an alternative tutorial to show you how easy it is to plot the interception of a target ship whose
current position and heading is know and that is assumed to be on a constant course at a constant speed.
Everything in this tutorial involves very simple rules of math and the use of the standard tools available in
SH3's Navigation Map screen.
What is needed to be done is to simply draw a triangle. One side of the triangle will equal the distance
your U-Boat can travel in one hour. The second side of the triangle will equal the distance the target can
travel in one hour. The the triangle's third line can then be drawn, extending from your U-Boat's current
position to the estimated point of the target's interception.
These illustrations will demonstrate the steps that are need to be done:
The following picture may be confusing, as the ruler line really should be reversed, with "9.0" appearing
where "0.0" is showing and vice versa. However, you'll probably find it is easier to reverse the line made
to mark the "17.0" mark, than to draw a new ruler line on top of the previous one, as the ruler tool
activates the old line as soon as you hover the mouse near it, instead of drawing a new line.
Below we have determined the assumed intersection point. If your U-Boat is moving at a constant 17
knots from its current position, heading for the "0.0" mark and the target is moving at 9 knots along the
ruler line, which is parallel to the target's assumed course, your U-boat will intercept with the target ship
at the "0.0" mark.
Now you can extend the lines to any distance as the proportion of the triangle will remain the same.
The fact that your U-boat's course ends up exactly at the end of the first protractor line is just a
coincidence. What is important is that your U-Boat's course is going through the "0.0" mark at the ruler
line simulating the target's line of movement, as shown in the round magnified inset in the upper right
corner of the picture above.
And there you have it! Good luck!
See also
How to determine Distance Traveled given speed and time.
17 ] Identifying Targets
Determining nationality
Because attacking neutral or friendly units will result in massive loss of renown, it is imperitive that you
identify your targets before attacking.
There are several methods you can use to identify a ship as friend or foe:


By colour on the navigation map. If you have auto map updates turned on in your realism settings,
friendly ships will be blue, neutral ships will be green, enemy ships will be red, and unknown
contacts will be black.
By the flag on the ship. All ships carry the flag of their native country. Visually identifying the
flag is the only way to identify a target at 100% realism.
Note that countries enter the war at different times, so a ship that is neutral in 1939 may be an enemy in
1941.
See the Flags page to positively identify a ship. For help in determining whether a particular nationality is
friend or foe, based on the date, refer to the Nationality Status Timeline.
Determining general ship type
Information regarding the general type of a contact will be supplied to you by either the Sonar Operator,
in case of contacts detected by your hydrophones, or Watch Officer if the contact is sighted visually.
This initial information, before a proper recognition check is performed, will tell you only the basic type such as destroyer, merchant ship, patrol craft etc.
The information also appears automatically when viewing a contract through the binoculars, UZO or
periscopes. To disable this feature, see Disabling Ship Recognition.
Determining specific ship name or type
To determine the specific ship type, you must visually compare the profile of the ship with the images in
the Ship Recognition Manuals. There is a different recognition manual for every country in the war and a
separate one for merchants. The one for merchants says "Handelsschiffe" on the manual's cover.
Alternatively, at lower Realism levels, you can ask the Weapons Officer to identify the ship.
It is possible to modify SH3 to disable automatic recognition of ships by the Weapons Officer (when
selecting "Identifying Target"). See Disabling Ship Recognition for more information.
Flags
Australia
Free French
Brazil
Germany
Canada
Navy jack
Merchant flag
France
Greece
India
Similar to depicted flag
Italy
New Zealand
Navy jack
Navy jack
Merchant flag
Japan
Merchant flag
Norway
Navy jack
Poland
Merchant flag
Netherlands
Romania
Merchant flag
Sweden
South Africa
United Kingdom
Navy jack
Navy jack
Merchant flag
Soviet Union
Merchant flag
United States of America
Navy jack
Nationality Status Timeline
18 ] Deck Gun
The deck gun appeared on all U-Boat models from the U-Boat model VII onward with the exception of
the U-Boat model XXI and an in-game representation of U-flak, model VIIC and derivatives with
VIIC/IV type conning tower. The deck gun is considered to be an Auxillary Weapon for use against
unarmed (and usually individual) ships; torpedoes should be used against any armed ships or in convoys
whenever possible, and the flak gun(s) against aircraft.
Operating the Deck Gun
1. Surface the boat
2. Order the crew to man the gun. Click Watch Officer --> Crew on Deck --> Man the Deck Gun
(or Man the Deck and Flak Gun). Alternately, you can double-click the deck casing location in
the Crew Management screen. Even if you plan to man the gun yourself, a crew must be assigned
to the gun in order to actually use the gun.
3. If you are letting the crew man the deck gun, select the range at which they will fire on targets.
Ranges are available by clicking Watch Officer --> Deck Gun. You can also have the crew target
specific areas of the ship through the same menu. When the crew is using the deck gun, and you
have multiple targets, you can change the target using the binoculars and pressing space.
4. If you plan to man the gun yourself, go to the Deck Gun Station (shortcut "F10"), aim the gun and
fire by pressing the spacebar. Press TAB and you will be using the Deck Gun aiming scope. TAB
again will zoom it. (On some systems, you can use the mouse-wheel to zoom in and out.) Use
arrows up/down to adjust the range (the distance listed on the scope will go up/down). The arrows
left/right will change the direction (although using the mouse is often easier). When using the
arrow keys, pressing "shift" will accelerate the amount moved (useful for adjusting the range) and
"control" will reduce it (useful for making minor corrections to the firing direction).
5. When firing manually, try to aim at vulnerable areas, which are usually placed near the middle of
the ship below the waterline. To hit under the waterline you need to aim "short". If the projectile
strikes the hull under the waterline, you will hear an explosion. If there's only a fountain of water
but no explosion it means, that you are aiming too short.
Weather And the Deck Gun
Due to "storms", you cannot man the deck gun if the windspeed is 7 metres/second or more. Even in
lower wind speeds, the rocking of the boat may be more than the stabiliser of the deck gun can handle,
and you might have occasionally have problems overshooting your target.
Flak Gun
The flak gun (die Fliegerabwehrkanone) is used to ward off and hopefully shoot down attacking aircraft.
Depending on your particular U-boat and conning tower configuration, you may have none, one, two or
even three flak guns onboard. Award not only the petty officers designated as flak gunners the Flak
gunner qualification, but also give it to an officer to place on the bridge to boost the efficiency of the flak
crew.
Having at least one skilled Flak gunner with each flak dramatically improves performance, especially
reloading times. It's particularly visible with the use of 3,7cm C/30 heavy flak which is manually
reloaded. Also try to mount double flaks (Flakzwilligs) as soon as they are available, since they have
double rate of fire, double magazine capacity and double ammo stock as single versions.
You can attack waterborne targets with flak guns, but only by manning them personally.
Light flaks (2cm C/30, C30 Flakzwilling (double), C/38, C/38 Flakzwilling (double), C/38 Flakvierling
(quadruple - mounted as heavy flak)) can be used to engage small boats like Elco torpedo boat, fishing
boat, trawler, tug boat and small costal vessel. Firing at larger targets will do no real damage.
Heavy flaks (3,7 cm C/30, M42 and double M42) can be also used to attack larger ships with the use of
AP ammo. Be prepared however that it can take 100+ rounds to sink a ship of coastal merchant size(if
you aim at the cargo on deck you can take down a costal merchant in less than 30 shots. Aim at the
forward cargo till it explodes and then go to the aft. Once the aft cargo explodes the ship will usually sink
very quickly. I've only tried this with m42 AA and AP both work well.), so it's rather emergency usage
and bad idea against an armed merchant (at least until rapid firing M42 comes into action). The AA
ammo it's quite ineffective against waterborne targets.
U-Flak
U-Flak is a term used to describe an experimental configuration used during WWII. In response to the
increase in the threat from allied aeroplanes, several Type-VIIC U-boats were converted so that they
bristled with flak guns. Four of these actually saw service (U-256, U-441, U-621 and U-953), and a
further three conversions were started (U-211, U-263 and U-271). However, due to the lack of success,
the project was scrapped and all seven U-boats in question were converted back to normal attack vessels.
In Silent Hunter III, you can recreate the U-Flak with any Type-VIIC U-boat by fitting it with the VIIC/4
conning tower option and your choice of three heavy flak gun batteries. Three C/38 Flakvierling
installations is typical, but you are free to choose other combinations.
The Sleeping Flak Gunner Bug
You may have the best and even specialized flak gunner(s) this side of the Atlantic but you may
experience having them do absolutely nothing behind the guns, while your UBoat take an aerial
pounding. This is known as the "Sleeping Flak Gunner Bug" (Copyright 2005, Fishmachine). It's been in
SH3 since the start and has yet to be corrected.
This bug occurs with many different conning tower/flak gun configurations and happens to different
players randomly. Some people experience it all of the time and some never do.
Here are some methods players have reported to overcome the sleeping flak gunner bug:

Toggle between your flak station(s) and the bridge by pressing a key combination such as
<F><F4><G><F4><T><F4>. The sleeping flak gunner(s) AI will wake up after this manual
manning of the guns and your return to the bridge. Sometimes it's enough to man one gun and
then switch back to the bridge to awaken all of the gunners. Sometimes you've to go through them
all.

Man and fire the flak gun(s) at least for a couple of rounds and switch back to bridge. If you're in a
real hurry, you may want to take down the planes yourself instead of dealing with this bug.

View the target aircraft through your binoculars and hit the SPACEBAR on your keyboard. This
assigns the target to the flak gun crew.
19 ] Torpedoes
Minimum Range
The minimum (arming) range for the torpedoes in SH3 is officially stated as 300m. However, some
[subsim.com (http://www.subsim.com)] forum members have reported success at as little as 250m if using
Magnetic instead of Impact triggering.
Note that this arming distance is not affected by the speed setting of your torpedoes.
Firing torpedoes
Opening tube doors
It is imperative that you open your torpedo tube doors before firing. The doors take approximately 3
seconds to open. If they are not open when you fire, they will automatically open, but this will cause a
delay before the torpedoes are actually launched. The delay is normally enough to cause the torpedo to
miss astern.
There are five ways to open your torpedo tubes:





Use the hotkey ‘Q’ to open the selected tube door(s). Normally this will open a single selected
tube, however if you have a salvo selected then all relevant tube doors will be opened. Note that if
you open a tube, then change your tube selection and open the new tube, the first tube will close.
From the Command Room (F2), click on the conning tower. There you can find the torpedo
switches. Clicking on the switches will cause the corresponding tube to open.
From the Command Room (F2), right click on your weapons officer. Look up and find another set
of torpedo door switches.
From the Command Room (F2), click on the conning tower. Then click on the attack periscope.
Then look down to find a third set of switches.
Finally from the TDC screen (F6) you can select each tube one at a time and press ‘Q’. This is
different from the first method in that the tubes will not close when you select another. This last
method is fastest and easiest in rough weather.
There is some confusion on when a tube door will close automatically and when it wont. This has led
some to think that there is a time delay. This confusion is caused because the rules for this are
unnecessarily complex. So here is a list of exactly when a door will close and when not:






The selected tubes door will close whenever you select a new tube with the ‘Y’ key. The newly
selected tube will stay open.
The selected tubes door will close whenever you press the 'W' key.
The selected tubes door will close whenever you fire a torpedo.
The selected tubes door will close whenever you select a different tube from an attack scope.
The selected tubes door will not close when you select a different tube from the TDC (F6) screen.
Tube doors do not have any time limit for staying open.
Setting Impact or Magnetic triggering
Pistol types
Torpedoes can be set to trigger using either the Impact or Magnetic pistol. Use the Pistol knob on the
TDC screen (F6) to change the pistol type, highlighted in red in the picture.
An Impact pistol will only trigger the torpedo if a direct hit is made on the target. A hit at a very shallow
angle (glancing blow) may fail to detonate the torpedo using this pistol type so you should always attempt
to hit the target at an angle of 90° or as close as practical.
The Magnetic pistol relies on detecting the metal bulk of the target to detonate the torpedo. When using
the magnetic pistol, you should set the depth of your torpedo to one or two metres below the keel of the
vessel. See the Torpedo Depth section below.
In general magnetic triggering will provide better results, especially for attacks where a close-to-90°
angle is not possible. Note though, that early in the war the magnetic pistols were notoriously unreliably
and in fact for a period U-Boats were directed to use Impact triggering at all times. Later in the war
reliability improved.
Even when a torpedo is set to use the Magnetic pistol, the Impact pistol is still active. If the torpedo
directly strikes the target it will still detonate.
Finding the keel depth from the recognition manual
Torpedo depth
For torpedoes using their Magnetic pistol, you should generally set the running depth to one or two
metres below the keel. This will maximise the damage and increase your chance of sinking the target with
a single torpedo.
Setting the torpedo running depth
For impact pistols, you need to ensure that the running depth is shallow enough to physically hit the side
of the hull.
The keel depth (draft) can be found from the recognition manual as shown in the image.
To set the depth, use the Depth dial on the TDC (F6) screen as shown. In the example, the draft of the C2
Cargo ship is 7.8m. Therefore the running depth is set to approximately 9.8 meters and the torpedo is
using the Magnetic pistol.
Note that in rough weather, extra care must be taken when setting the running depth. In large swells the
target vessel will move up and down several metres, and setting a running depth below the keel can be
risky because of this. Your standard 2m below-the-keel running depth may end up either striking the hull
directly or passing harmlessly beneath the target due to the swell. In this case it is safer to set a very
shallow running depth. The damage inflicted may not be as great, but the chance of actually getting a hit
will be increased.
An unusual situation where torpedo running depth is crucially important, is if there is a smaller ship in
front of a much juicier targer. In this case, you can often use a Magnetic pistol, and set a running depth
deep enough that the detonator won't be triggered by the smaller ship. In this way, you can shoot straight
underneath a coastal merchant etc to reach a larger cargo vessel.
-Added by FarsideMagnetic Pistol Torp Running Depths
You will find that weather affects the running depth of your torpedo greatly. These calculations will
ONLY work with Magnetic Torpedos
If its calm (0-3m/s winds) set your torpedo to run 0.5 metres under the keel depth. I found that this depth
is perfect for this weather.
If its overcast and slightly windy (4-8m/s winds) set your torp to run 1 metre under the keel of the target
ship.
If there are heavy winds (9+m/s winds) torp firing can be quite difficult at this time, if the target ship hits
a wave, its keel depth will radically rise or fall accordingly. when making these attacks i am usually
directly infront or behind my target (better accuracy and hitrate, i've found)
Impact Pistol Torp Running Depth
The main thing about this is make sure you're at a right angle to your target (no less than 60degrees and
no more than 120degrees [if you are less or more that 60/120 use a magnetic torp and follow the above
instructions accordingly]) once lined up put in the data (or have the weapons officer do it automatically)
set the torp to impact AT NO MORE THAN ABOUT 6 METRES UNDER THE WATER LINE also,
dependant on the keel size of the ship, adjust accordingly
Reloading torpedoes
Your torpedoes will reload as long as you have the auto-reload option enabled on your Weapons
Management screen (shortcut key "I"). However be aware of the following:


Torpedoes will not be reloaded if you are in Silent Running mode
Torpedoes will not be reloaded if you do not have enough crew in the relevant torpedo
compartment. There is no warning about this, so you should check to make sure that the torpedoes
are actually loading!
To check if the reload process is underway, hover your mouse over the torpedo tubes (again, on the
Weapons Management screen). You should see a countdown, based on when the torpedo will be loaded
and ready to fire. If all torpedoes are showing as Queued for loading, then you are probably in Silent
Running mode. If you see a message warning you that there are not enough crew in the torpedo
compartment, then go to Crew Management (F7) and add some crew members to the compartment.
Torpedo loading speed depends on the number of people in the compartment, as well as their skill and
fatigue levels. Having Torpedo qualified crew-members in the compartment will speed loading
considerably. This is worth remembering when drifting in a convoy waiting for your fish to reload! The
estimating time for a torpedo to be reloaded (with full crew is about 10 min).
Also found a bug. When more than one tube is waiting to be reloaded, simply draging the awaiting
torpedo(es) to a vacant place will reload it (them) instantly. This doesn't happens with the curently
loading torp.
Loading external torpedoes
Most U-boats come with an inventory of external torpedoes. These torpedoes are initially stored under the
U-boat's upper deck but not within the U-boat's hull. As such, they can only be loaded below deck, into
the bow/stern torpedo compartment, when the U-boat is surfaced.
In addition, loading external torpedoes will not take place if you are rigged for silent running, if there is
no available reserve torpedo space below deck or if there is insufficient crew in the torpedo room. If you
dive below surface while external torpedoes are loading, SH3 will cancel the loading process and you will
have to start again from scratch.
To load external torpedoes, display the WEAPONS MANAGEMENT screen, click on an external
torpedo and drag it to a vacant reserve space. Bow and stern external torpedoes can only be loaded to
their respective torpedo compartments below; ie you cannot move an external torpedo from the rear
compartment into your front torpedo tubes. Note that when moving, the torpedo will still be shown in its
previous external location, but you can hover your mouse over it to check that it actually moving.
The more efficient the torpedo room crew (indicated by the efficiency meter's green bar under the torpedo
room compartment heading on the CREW AND DAMAGE MANAGEMENT screen), the faster external
torpedoes will load. To determine how much time remains for an external torpedo to be loaded, display
the WEAPONS MANAGEMENT screen and click on the slightly grayed out external torpedo currently
being loaded. As loading progesses, you will also notice the torpedo slowly being blacked out with a
progress bar. The estimated time for an external torpedo to be moved from outside to the inside is about
1h.
Torpedo Types
Torpedo summary
Model
Availability Propulsion Speed/kts Range/m
TI
Before 1939 Steam
44 (fast)
5000 (fast) Leaves a visible trail of bubbles
TII
Before 1939 Electric
30
3000
TIII
May 1941
Electric
30
5000
TI FaT I
May 1941
Steam
44 (fast)
5000 (fast) Ladder pattern, visible trail of bubbles
Electric
30
5000
TIII FaT II Sept 1942
Notes
Ladder pattern
Steam Torpedos
The steam powered torpedos leave a visible trail of bubbles on the surface which may be detected.
However, at short range (< 800m) or in poor visibilty they're unlikely to be detected in time for evasive
manoevours. The TI may be set a three different running speeds with the faster speeds reducing range. In
most cases the fast setting is prefered since it increases the probability of a hit.
TI speeds
Speed setting Speed/kts Range/m
Slow
30
12500
Medium
40
7500
Fast
44
5000
Experience suggests that these torpedoes are reliable. Very rough seas may cause a magnetic pistol to
detonate prematurely, particularly if the running depth is shallow (i.e., closer to the wave surface where
the torpedo is more likely to be disturbed by wave action).
Electric Torpedos
Electric torpedoes are preferred for daylight attacks since they do not leave a trail of bubbles. The TII
runs at a fixed speed of 30 kts with a maximum range of 3000 m. The TIII is an improvement on the TII
with a greater range of 5000 m.
The TII suffers from the same magnetic pistol problem in heavy seas as the TI.
Flächenabsuchender Torpedos (FaT)
An example TI FaT I ladder pattern
The flächenabsuchender (area-searching) torpedoes are regular torpedoes with a more advanced guidance
system. Should the torpedo miss the target it will proceed to make a series of turns and straight runs in a
ladder pattern.
There are two type of FaT: The TI based FaT I and the TIII based FaT II.
To use a FaT:
1. Set up the usual torpedo parameters on the TDC screen (running depth, pistol type etc.).
2. Click the small button labelled 'FaT' above the torpedo indicator light.
3. Set the Straight run length -- how long the torpedo will travel in a straight line before entering the
ladder pattern.
4. Set the 2nd gyroangle -- the orientation of tha pattern (either 90° starboard or 90° port).
5. Set the leg -- the length of each leg of the ladder (either 800 m or 1800 m).
6. Click the 'FaT' button again to switch back to the other torpedo settings.
Hints for effective use:



Use against convoys.
Fire from abeam (i.e., perpendicular to the course of the target) since the 2nd gyroangle can only
be a right angle.
Aim to hit the target during the initial straight run.
20 ] Automatic Targeting
With the Manual Targeting option disabled in Realism Settings the targeting process is very simple.
All the player must do is point the periscope at the target and launch a torpedo. It is not necessary to find
the range, AOB or speed of the target manually, as the entire process of plotting a solution is handled
automatically by the game.
Be sure to open the torpedo tube before you fire ('Q' key, or right click the weapons officer to enter his
station, and flip the relevant switch). If you don't, it will take a few seconds to open and possibly spoil
your shot. If you don't have the target locked, and you forgot to open the door, try to keep the crosshairs
on target until the torpedo is launched.
Even with Automatic Targeting you can still alter torpedo speed, depth and detonator type (impact or
magnetic)
Also, if you have a mixed load of torpedoes which have different speeds you need to click on the speed
setting dial in the F6 TDC screen when switching tubes to update the firing solution.
e.g. you fire a T1 then switch to a TII in another tube, you`ll need to click on the speed setting dial (even
though the TII only has one speed) to get an accurate solution.
Periscope display
Hit probability indicator
In automatic targeting mode, the periscope or UZO will show a small coloured triangle when a contact is
visible and centred in the optics.
The triange can have three colours; green, orange or red, which correspond approximately to the chance
of making a successful shot. The colour changes depending on the required Gyro angle of the torpedo
when it leaves the U-Boat.



Green - Gyro angle of +/-5°; that is from 355° to 004°.
Orange - Gyro angle of +/15°; that is from 315° to 044°
Red - Gyro angle of more than 15° in either direction.
In general, the smaller the gyro angle, the more chance of a successful hit, but this can still be affected by
target range, torpedo settings etc.
21 ] Manual Targeting
General Targeting Considerations
In short, the Torpedo Data Computer (TDC) is used to calculate a gyro angle for your torpedos. The gyro
angle, in turn, determines the course a torpedo will take after leaving your u-boat en route to hitting a
moving target.
The TDC requires four pieces of information to calculate the correct gyro angle:
1. Angle on bow (AoB) - This is the direction of travel of the target relative to your u-boat's
direction. See Angle on bow for more information.
2. Bearing - This is the angle at which you observe the target.
3. Speed - This is the speed of the target. More precisely, it is the relative speed between you and the
target.
4. Range - Although it does not effect the gyro angle as much as the three above, range DOES have
an effect on the angle and thus checking the range prior to shooting is always a good idea.
There are two methods for entering the required data into the TDC, the Notepad Method, and Full
Manual.
Notepad Method
The notepad method is the "standard" SH3 method of performing a manual attack. The notepad is visible
in the top right-hand corner when you are at the attack (F3) or observation (O) periscope, or UZO (F6, if
surfaced) stations. The following steps are much easier if you lock the target in your periscope or UZO
using the 'L' shortcut key.
To use the notepad, you must perform the following four steps in the correct order:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Identify the target
Find the range
Estimate the AOB
Determine the speed
It is possible to use the notepad to enter just some of the targeting data. However each step is dependent
on the earlier ones in the list, so you cannot, for example, determine the speed without having first
estimated the AOB. You can, however, use the notepad to calculate the range and AOB, but then enter the
speed directly into the TDC without using the notepad's target-speed tool. See the TDC page for more
information.
Identifying the target
Identify the target
Once you have your target visible through your scope or UZO, press N to bring up the recognition
manuals. Find the correct vessel, and tick the square box in the lower right-hand corner. Until you do this,
none of the other functions will be possible.
It is worth noting the Draft of the vessel while you have the recognition manual open. This will be useful
if using magnetic triggers on your torpedoes.
Finding the range with the stadimeter
Find the range
To find the range, you can use the stadimeter control. Click the word Range on the notepad to open the
correct page. Using your mouse within the periscope view, put the central cross hair on the waterline of
the target, and then click once on the stadimeter control icon in the corner of the notepad page.
This changes your cursor to a line which can move and down within the periscope view. The idea is to
move this line up to the top of the highest mast of the vessel, and then click again. By taking the angle
between the centre-line and the line you've just set, along with the known height of the mast from the
recognition manual, the game can automatically calculate the range.
See the Stadimeter page for more detailed instructions on finding the range.
Once you have an estimated range, click the tickbox to send that range back to the main notepad page.
Estimating the Angle on Bow
Estimate the AOB
Click on the words Angle on bow on the notepad to bring up the AOB page. Here you can estimate your
angle on bow from the target, and mark it by dragging the icon around the ship on the diagram. Note that
the central vessel in the diagram is your target, and you are estimating where your U-Boat is, in relation to
that target.
To assist in determining the AOB, you can use the AOB page on the recognition manual. You can also
calculate it before-hand using knowledge of the target course and bearing from your U-Boat.
Once satisfied with your estimated AOB, click the tickbox to send that range back to the main notepad
page.
Determine the speed
The final step in the process is to determine the speed of the target. The notepad includes a tool to assist
you in doing that. Click the word Speed and a small timer icon will appear. By clicking this, you will start
a timer and, as long as you have the target locked the system will begin tracking how far across your field
of view the target moves. Use the Stopwatch to monitor the duration of your timing. After a suitable
length of time - perhaps 15 seconds, you can click anywhere to stop the timer and the speed will be
displayed.
It is important that you are stopped or moving very slowly for this to be accurate. In addition, you will not
get accurate results if the target is moving directly towards you, or away from you. Ideally for this to be
accurate, you should be at All Stop, at a 90° AOB from the target.
In general, the notepad device for determining target speed is only of limited use. It's worthwhile learning
additional techniques such as the Three Minute Rule to accurately detect your target's speed.
As before, you should click the tickbox to send the speed to the main notepad page.
Taking the shot
It is important that once back on the main notepad page, you click the tickbox a final time to send the
complete set of the data to the TDC. If you update any of the data subsequently, you must ensure that you
click the main tickbox again or that new information will not be used.
Full Manual TDC
Paul "Wazoo" Wasserman has put together an excellent tutorial on doing manual targetting at: Wazoo's
Manual Charting & Targeting Tutorial (http://www.paulwasserman.net/SHIII/)
The AOB can be found easily using Etchasketch’s AoB Finder
Wheel (http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=30852&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0) a
hand held circular slide rule type tool. See Web Version (http://www.dangerinc.net/wheel.swf)
Ramming
Because of the way the german subs were built(or the way SH-III models damage) [edit: This is certainly
not a realistic tactic, it results from a buggy/incomplete implementation of damage models] it is possible
to ram a ship sinking it within moments. This works especially well with ships with shallow draft like
most warships. One way to ram is to lie submerged a few hundred meters off the path of a ship. Steaming
toward it and blowing the balast tank at the right moment takes a little practice but is very effective.
Another way is to lure a warship by running the engine loudly. It is important to keep running the engine
so maneuvering is possible. Some warships will not sail directly toward the U-boat but try to go close and
fire depth charges with the side catapults. When the ship is too close to change direction blowing the
ballast will raise the U-boat hull under the keel of the target and drive the conning tower into the
side/front/back of the ship, destroying it. Keeping men in the repair station is a good idea and lowering
the periscope will in some situations save it from damage. Take a look at the hull integrity before trying
this. The typical loss is 20%-40% but can be as high as 60%

Note: This no longer works in 1.4*
22 ] Ship Weak Spots
This page will show you where to target ships for maximum effect. In general, under the keel shots and
impacts to fuel and ammunition bunkers are the safest ways to quickly sink ships. For faster sinkings
consult http://www.subsim.com/subsim_files/patches/fullvulnmod.zip in-game for the locations that yield
the most damage to the ship. This is a very useful download and helps to conserve deck gun ammo.
Torpedoes
The primary objective of the explosive charge in the torpedo is to blow a hole below the waterline for the
water to flow in through, to reduce or fully remove a ship's buoyancy. However, as all ships have engines
and thus also fuel storages, this opens up new possibilities. The fuel used by most ships is oil. Some use
diesel. Both fuels may under the right circumstances explode. A single well-aimed torpedo to the fuel
bunker has the potential of igniting the fuel and blowing up the ship. The same is true for the ammo
bunkers of warships.
See our Torpedoes page for more information.
Deck gun
In contrast to the torpedo attack, there is no definite truth in how to attack a ship with the deck gun. The
preferred spot to aim at is obviously below the waterline, to allow water to flow in. Aim 200-300 metres
in front of the target to allow the shell to descend enough and strike the hull beneath the waterline. You
will see an explosion as the shell impacts, shortly followed by a column of water from where the shell
entered the water. It is possible, also with the deck gun, to strike one of the more critical areas, such as
fuel and ammunition bunkers, to blow it up.
Flak gun
Used to blow up cargo aboard merchants that are already damaged. Secondary explosions might bring
down the ship. Saves a few 88mm's as well and is "fun" to do. For more fun, use double or quadruple
20mm's.
Merchants




Propulsion (rearside of ship)
Engine Room (under chimney)
Fuel Tank (near Engine Room)
Keel (under ship)
C2 Cargo
Your best chance at sinking the C2 in one shot is hitting the engine room right behind the fuel tank.
Set your torpedoes to about 3 meters and set triggers to impact. The periscope when locked targets just a
bit too far ahead.
C3 Cargo
Your best chance at sinking the C3 in one shot is hitting the engine room right behind the fuel tank.
Set your torpedoes to about 3 meters and set triggers to impact. Target the bridge. The C3 is forgiving in
that a shot too far ahead is almost as likely to sink the ship. However I don't recommend doing this on
purpose. If you aim for the bridge, a shot too far back will disable the ship, and a shot too far forward will
hit the fuel bunker.
Small Tanker
Your best chance at sinking the Small Tanker in one shot is hitting the engine room right behind the fuel
tank.
Set your torpedoes to about 1 meter and set triggers to impact. The target location is well aft of centre.
T2 Tanker
Your best chance at sinking the T2 in one shot is hitting the engine room right behind the fuel tank.
However, there are times that the torpedo would simply bounce off the stern due to the curving of the
hull. In that case a hit to the fuel tank will sink a T2 as well. Set your torpedoes to about 3 meters and set
triggers to impact. The target location is well aft of centre.
Liberty Cargo
I recomend setting the torpedos to 3 meters and impact. Aim for the junction between the fuel bunker and
the engine room.
Small Merchant
Sinking the small merchant is very easy. Hit anywhere above the keel and the ship will eventually go
down. For maximum reliability I suggest 3 meters depth and impact triggers.
Coastal Merchant
See notes on Small merchant.
Warships






1 - Propulsion
2 - Aft Ammo Bunker
3 - Engine Room
4 - Fuel Tank
5 - Fore Ammo Bunker
6 - Keel
British
Auxiliary Cruiser
Aim for either the forward or aft Ammo Bunkers. 1 good shot to either one and she'll sink like a stone.
Revenge Battleship
Again, aim for either the forward or aft Ammo Bunkers. 1 good shot to either one and she'll sink like a
stone. Most capital ships can be sunk like this with a single torpedo.
23 ] ESCAPING
Surfaced
If you have been detected, always crash dive! Especially if it is an aeroplane.
However, Crash dive order makes your boat dive as soon as possible until she's at 70m. If you're in
shallow waters you might have not enough water under you. If that's the case you'll end hitting the sea
bottom while moving fast and with a quick sinking rate. This will lead to three nasty things:
1- you will get stuck at the bottom, as your speed will reduce to 0 knots very fast. It's hard to get the
submarine up from the bottom if you've hit it with violence. Hitting the bottom with violence means
losing your maneouverability. This is a BAD thing to happen.
2- you will make a LOUD noise, giving away your position to nearby escorts which may be listening for
you. You don't want this to happen, even more because as it's said in #1, you're losing your
maneouverability at the same time and can't avoid a possible depth charge run. This is a BAD thing to
happen.
3- and you will cause some very serious damage to your submarine. Hull integrity will be seriously hit.
Many systems will be damaged or destroyed...and you will probably get some serious floods which make
the thing even worse. For sure; This is a VERY BAD thing to happen.
So, if you're in shallow waters I strongly advice you to know how much water is between you and the
bottom of the sea. If you're in a real hurry you can do an emergency measure: hit the Crash Dive key ,and
then press the periscope depth key a couple or three times as soon as your boat is crossing the 7m line. By
doing this the boat will go down to between 15-20m (the initial sink rate is too strong to compensate for it
at 12 meters), and then will try to go up to periscope depth. You can micromanage the real depth you
want to be at from this point onwards.
This way you'll achieve a quick dive, not risking to hit the bottom at the same time.
Submerged
If you have been detected when you are submerged then dive, depth is your friend. Set your U-Boat to
silent running. If you hear "Depth Charges in the water", and there is a destroyer above you then
immediately set the speed to flank and turn. But be careful - sometimes destroyers drop bombs where
they think you are, and such maneuver will give your real position away.
Maneuvering the U-Boat means making a sudden course change. There are some specific maneuvers
available from the Lead Engineer menu ("knuckles"), or even simply hitting the short-cut keys for hard-astarboard or hard-a-port will help.
Once the depth charges have been dropped and are going off nearby, there is no point staying silent though the enemy may have a lock on you, he cannot hear you while the depth charges are going off, and
he will also most likely lose hydrophone contact, while he's on an high speed attack run, because the
hydrophone does not work above 12 kts. You should use this opportunity to move quickly and change
course, before going silent again. Hopefully the enemy will lose you at this point.
Always keep in mind that evading one destroyer may sometimes be relatively easy. Two or three enemy
ships working in tandem are a very different subject altogether, because one or two can listen while the
other one is depth charging you. Therefore keep yourself out of trouble and stay away if you see two or
more enemys close together.
Thermal Layers
The seawater has a temperature which may change according to depth. For example, if you go to a lake,
often the top few centimetres are warm, whereas the water deeper down is quite cold. The same applies in
the ocean, and sometimes there are layers of different temperatures at different levels.
When the enemy is trying to detect you, they will "ping" and then listen for the echo of this accoustic
signal off the hull of your U-Boat. However, if there is a change in the temperature of the water, the
signal can be bent, absorbed or distorted, causing the reflection to appear to come from the wrong
direction (or masking the reflection altogether).
If you dive below a thermal boundary, then your chances of not being detected (or mis-detected) improve.
Obviously, the deeper you go, the better your chances, but diving deep is always a risk.
Category:Terminology
The terminology category contains articles offering basic terminology information, describing terms
which you may come across throughout the game and this manual.
For wiki entries which give basic terminology information, add a [[Category:Terminology]] tag to the
bottom of the article.
Terms without their own article

BB - Battleship

Bow - The front section of a ship or boat.

Conning Tower - The raised superstructure on the U-boat. (The word conning comes from the
word con, meaning to guide or steer a vessel.)

DC - Depth Charge(s) (German = Wasserbombe(n))

DD - Destroyer

DiD - Dead-is-dead. A style of playing where you do not reload an old saved game, if your UBoat is destroyed, but rather start a completely new campaign with a new U-Boat captain.

Port - The left-hand side of a ship or aircraft facing forward. Also called portside, larboard.

Solution - A "firing solution" is the result of a series of calculations that determines the trajectory
of a torpedo. A valid solution will result in the torpedo impacting the target.

Starboard - The right-hand side of a ship or aircraft facing forward.

Stern - The rear section of a ship or boat.

TC - Time Compression
Articles in category "Terminology"
There are 6 articles in this category.
A

Angle on bow

Flak Gun
F
G

Gyro angle

Relative Bearing


Three Minute Rule
True Bearing
R
T
Mods
From SilentHunterIII
Mods are a fun way to enhance the SHIII experience either by modifying existing values and variables, or
adding entirely new ones.
Installing mods
You should always try to install an SH3 mod while docked in port between missions. Otherwise you run a
risk of corrupting your on-going career. If this does happen it may be possible to restore your career.
A first class util to install and manage all your mods is available at:
jsgme.zip (http://members.iinet.net.au/~jscones/software/products/jsgme.zip) Currently version 1.3.0
Mods List
Operations
An up-and-coming mod to create a living, populated world for the SH3 player. Now included in Real UBoat.
Real U-Boat
A realism mod for single player SH3, affecting many aspects of the game
World Mod
Latest version now available
Improved U-Boat
An "all in one" mod for SH3, incorporating Real U-Boat and many other mods.
Mod Download Sites



Please visit subsim.com for mods.
Please visit realsimulation.com (http://u-boat.realsimulation.com/) for mods.
Please visit timetraveller's SH3 Command Room (http://www.delraydepot.com/tt/sh3.htm) for
mods.
Modding
From SilentHunterIII
Modders make modifications. Its main goal and purpose: "To bring a nice product to a higher level". Visit
subsim.com (http://www.subsim.com) for some great mods!
File Extensions













.dat = Data
.cfg = Configuration
.sim = Simulation file
.sns = Sensors
.dsd = Sounds source
.eqp = Equipment configuration file
.cam = Camera file
.val = FastGen Height control
.zon = SH3 Zones control
.tga = Graphics file
.ogg = Audio\ sound file
.log = Log
.mis = Single mission or campaign
Most binary files (.dat, .sim) share a proprietary format. Modders may wish to share their findings on this
file format guide.
As for the other files, most are plain "ini" configuration files.
Campaign consist of three files



campaign_RND.mis = Random objects (ships, aircraft, etc...)
campaign_LND.mis = Land objects (naval bases, air bases, etc...)
campaign_SCR.mis = Scripted objects (ships, aircraft, etc...)
Directory structure
Browse the primary directory folders

Version 1.0
- root_v10 | data_v10 | cfg_v10

Version 1.1
- root_v11 | data_v11 | cfg_v10

Version 1.2
- root_v12 | data_v12 | cfg_v10

Version 1.3
- root_v13 | data_v13 | cfg_v10

Version 1.4
- root_v14 | data_v14 | cfg_v10
3rd Party tools




NotePad = Default Windows text editor. A free, open source, replacement could be
NotePad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/)
Unpacker = .dat File viewer Download
SH3_Unpacker (http://www.delraydepot.com/tt/SH3Unpacker_build140.zip) and Modder's SDK
for Silent Hunter III (http://www.delraydepot.com/tt/sh3sdk.htm)
WinMerge = Compares text files (such as configuration files). Free and open source. WinMerge
homepage (http://winmerge.sourceforge.net/)
HexCompare HexCmp is a perfect combination of hex editor and binary files comparison utility.
It will help you to:



view and edit binary files up to 2Gb long;
quickly search for binary/text patterns in files;
see differences between files highlighted with colors;

For more details and free trial version see - HexCmp (http://www.fairdell.com/hexcmp/)
Software Development Kit
Not released yet
Objects already in game or wishing they would
Some objects are already available in Silent Hunter 3 (v1.3) later on we might be able to produce our own
object. Although we need a SDK (Software Developement Kit) we might start collecting data and
resources.



Land
Air
Sea
o
Submarines
Mission Editor
Beginner's tutorial
Red Devil's Mission Creation Basics (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/dominicobaggio/Missioncreation1.html)
is the tutorial to read to start you off on your SH3 mission maker career.
Reminder: mission folder and file naming convention
Your mission file and folder must have the exact same name, with '.mis' appended onto the mission file
name. For example, if you create a mission file named 'Tin Cans.mis' , it must be placed in a folder
named 'Tin Cans' . Otherwise, the mission will not run.
World map in editor is warped and places objects in the wrong location
This happens when you've got the Display Resolution Override DLL
mod (http://www.communitymanuals.com/shiii/index.php?title=Display_Resolution#Display_Resolution)
installed. To resolve the problem, edit and save the following 3-line BAT file in your SH3 folder and
execute it from now on to run the SH3 mission editor:
ren d3d9.dll d3d9.tmp
Sh3MissionEditor
ren d3d9.tmp d3d9.dll
Mission editing forum
Try SubSim's Mission Designer's Forum (http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=45)
File Media.cfg
If you look inside mission folders that officially came with the game, you'll see a file named Media.cfg.
According to the SH3 developer team, this file defines what loading screen to display and the path or the
pixel position of the loading bar on the loading screen. However, the file is totally optional and you do
NOT need to include it when producing user made missions.
The default loading screen is file \SilentHunterIII\data\Menu\Loading\Map.tga. That's the screen you see
every time a mission or patrol is loading.
Objective status in trigger definitions
You might not know it from working with the mission editor but there are 3 possible settings for an
objective's status: completed, failed and neither of those two. That third choice can be very useful,
depending on your mission's logic. You can set it by making sure the objective status drop-down box in
the trigger definition is blank.
Sometimes, however, the drop down box only lets you select between COMPLETED and FAILED. One
simple way to resolve this is to manually edit your mission file with a text editor. Find the trigger
definition within the file and set the trigger's ObjState= statement to one of the following values:
0 - means completed
1 - means failed
-1 - means neither passed nor failed
Is your mission causing some players to CTD (crash to desktop)?
Some unofficial SH3 mods add new ship classes to the game. If you have such a mod installed and
incorporated one of its newly introduced ship classes into your mission, someone else who doesn't have
that mod installed who tries running your mission will have their SH3 session CTD when the mission
loads.
There are 2 ways to resolve this problem. Either make sure you only use ship classes that are officially
supplied in SH3 or distribute your mission with documentation that clearly states which unofficial mods
are prerequisites for your mission's execution.
RUM Missions
What are RUMs?
RUM stands for "Reenacted Uboat Mission".
A RUM is an SH3 mission that portrays a real historical event involving Uboats, that took place during
WWII.
Playing a RUM does not mean that events will unfold as they actually occurred. It is up to the player to
determine what courses of action to take during the mission.
A RUM may be easy or complex, short or long, fun or even sometimes boring, depending on the
historical scenario being reenacted and on the mission maker's creative skills. One things a RUM should
always be, however, is informative. Each RUM comes packaged along with a History file, viewable with
your WEB browser, that documents the actual events that took place.
As a rule, you should always play the RUM before you read the History file. That way, you can compare
your mission's outcome with what actually happened. Of course, those people who always read the last
page of a book first might ignore this advice. That's up to you.
What RUMs are currently available?
RUM mission makers should add their missions to the list below, as they become available:

"RUM 400121,U22" - singleplayer, by The Avon Lady (added October 11, 2005): mirror
#1 (http://www.filefront.com/?filepath=/theofpfaq/sh3/SH3_Mission_RUM400121U22_SP.rar)
How do you install a RUM?
Read the ReadMe file that's included in the RUM archive. If the RUM's author did not include a ReadMe
file, contact the author.
What's needed to create and package a RUM?
SH3 mission editing knowledge
If you're not familiar with SH3's mission editor, Red Devil has an excellent Mission Creation Basics
tutorial (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/dominicobaggio/Missioncreation1.html) to get you started. Once you
get the hang of producing SH3 missions, your best place to find more advanced information is on
SubSim's Mission Designer's Forum (http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=45).
Can RUMs reference ship and object classes introduced by mods?
Why not! Just make certain to accurately document this in the ReadMe.txt file enclosed in the RUM
archive file. Be aware, of course, that anyone missing such mod-introduced objects referenced by your
RUM, will not be able to play your mission. This reduces the scope of your audience. Furthermore, when
trying to play a mission requiring a mod and the mod is not installed, SH3 will CTD when it attempts to
load the mission.
Use WinRAR to package your RUM
RUMs should be distributed as RAR archive files, created with WinRAR (http://www.rarlabs.com/). Use
the following file naming convention for the RAR file:
SH3_Mission_RUMyymmdduuuuu_pp.rar
where:
- "yymmdd" is the historical date on which the mission takes place.
- "uuuuu" is the Uboat involved in the mission.
- "pp" is either "SP" for singleplayer or "MP" for multiplayer mission.
Example: file "SH3_Mission_RUM400121U22_SP.rar" contains a singleplayer RUM involving Uboat U22, which takes place on January 21, 1940.
What files should each RUM archive contain?
Each RUM archive should include this RUM ReadMe.txt
file (http://www.theavonlady.org/thesh3faq/RUM/ReadMe.txt) (updated October 11, 2005) and the RUM
mission folder. RUM mission folders have the following naming convention:
RUM yymmdd,uuuuu
where:
- RUM indicates this being a RUM mission.
- "yymmdd" is the historical date on which the mission takes place.
- "uuuuu" is the Uboat involved in the mission.
Example: "RUM 400121,U22" defines a mission involving Uboat U-22, which takes place on January 21,
1940.
By adhering to this naming convention, RUMs will be easily identifiable in SH3's in-game mission list
and will be listed in chronological order.
The following 3 files should be contained within the RUM folder:



the mission's MIS file.
History.htm, an HTML file, viewable with a WEB browser, that contains a synopsis of the actual
historical events reenacted by the RUM.
rumbanner.jpg, a picture file, displayed as the top-of-page banner when viewing the History file.
You should download and use this History file
template (http://www.filefront.com/?filepath=/theofpfaq/sh3/SH3_Document_RUMHistoryFileTemplate.r
ar) to create your RUM's History file. Please adhere to this general template format, so that all RUM
history files will retain a consistent look and feel. Note the use of TrueType font "GF Halda Normal".
This freeware font is an old typewriter font, similar to the font SH3 uses in-game. You can download the
font from here (http://www.filefront.com/?filepath=/theofpfaq/misc/Font_GFHaldaTypewriter.zip) or
Google for it (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22GF+Halda+Normal%22), to find it
elsewhere.
Your RUM archive can include one of the RUM banner pictures listed below or you can create your own.
RUM banners should be 740 x 200 pixel JPG files. The banner should include the text "SH3 Reenacted
Uboat Missions". The banner of your choice should be distributed within your RUM archive file, in the
RUM mission folder. Your RUM History file should link to this local banner file and not to a copy of the
banner file on the Internet. Otherwise, players who are not connected to the Internet will be unable to
view the banner when reading the History file.
List of available RUM banners:
Please upload all contributed banners to The Community Manual or to Image
Shack (http://imageshack.us/) for easy access for all potential RUM mission makers.







Original RUM banner, by The Avon Lady
Dowly's 1st RUM banner, by Dowly
Dowly's 2nd RUM banner, by Dowly
Dowly's 3rd RUM banner, by Dowly
CCIP's 1st RUM banner, by CCIP
CCIP's 2nd RUM banner, by CCIP
CCIP's 3rd RUM banner, by CCIP
Where can I upload my released RUM archive file to?



U-Boot.RealSimulation.com (http://u-boot.realsimulation.com/), a popular and comprehensive
SH3 file host.
RapidShare (http://rapidshare.de/). However, files there are subject to deletion if no one
downloads a copy for 30 consecutive days.
Email your RUM archive file to The Avon Lady at theavonlady@theavonlady.com. Set the
subject field to "Please host my RUM file". She'll do her best to mirror the file for you ASAP.
Who initiated the RUM concept?
The Avon Lady. She was reading up on incidents of ships sunk and lives lost to U-boats in Allied
convoys and thought it relevant that SH3 players get a perspective on how a game like SH3 can reflect
historical events and the people that were involved.
FAQ
Q. How do I take a screenshot?
A. Ctrl-F11. See Screenshots for more information.
Q. Is there a list of all of the shortcut keys?
A1. A comprehensive list is available in the Shortcut keys section.
A2. Hit the F1 key while in the game.
Q. What should I know about the Gramophone?
SH3 lets you add custom music to its gramophone folder. OGG audio files are supported. SH3's
developers informed UbiSoft support that playing MP3s is not recommended, after many SH3 players
reported the gramophone stopping to play MP3 tracks after about 20 seconds. You'll find some readymade custom gramophone audio packs on SubSim's file downloads
page (http://www.subsim.com/subsim_files/patches.html). The gramophone folder is located at:
\SilentHunterIII\data\Sound\Gramophone.
If you're runniing SH3 version 1.2 or below and you have shut off SH3's in-game music, the gramophone
won't work. This problem has been rectified in SH3 version 1.3 and above.
Q. What is the replay folder for?
Q. What do the Graphics Options effect? eg. particle density, synchronise,...
A: PARTICLE DENSITY - affects the appearance of smoke from stacks and guns, explosions including
shell and torpedo hits, and bow-spray. If you decrease the setting they will look less spectacular but you
may free up some computing power.
Q. Why are the lights red at night
A. The internal lighting of the U-Boat was red during deep twilight and at night to help protect the nightvision of the crew. Night vision is a physiological effect where the human eye is more sensitive to light,
when it has been in darkness for a while. When exposed to normal lighting, the eyes are at first dazzled
before they get used to it. When it goes dark again, it takes a while for the eyes to be dark adapted once
more (typically 30 minutes or so). Red light doesn't affect night vision as much as white light.
As the crew would need to have dark adapted vision when they looked through the periscope or were on
the bridge at night, the internal lighting was turned to red to assist with this.
In SH3 the same is done. It serves to remind the player that sunset (or sunrise) has occurred, and adds to
the atmosphere of the game. It makes no difference as such, but there is no way to disable it either.
Q. Can I shoot ships with the Flak-gun on my U-Boat.
A. Yes, but it is very ineffective. See the section of Flak Gun for more information.
Known bugs
From SilentHunterIII
1. When returning from a mission in campaign mode, if you get too close to the starting point of a
mission (dock)... you will not recieve any credit for anything you accomplished and you will not
be awarded any points.
2. When observing tug boats up close, smoke does not come out of the smoke stack. Instead it comes
from over the bridge.
3. The watch crew does nothing when they are submerged in a large wave.
4. Sometimes the uboat will stop running and you have to reset the course or change the speed
setting to get it moving again.
o Note: The above bugs still exist after the 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4b patches are loaded.
5. When watching planes in the closeup camera mode - there are graphic inconsistencies.
6. PT boats shoot themselves and sometimes sink.
7. The periscope can be used as a directional microphone.
8. Lighthouse lights shine through everything: buildings, crews' bodies, etc.
9. Snorkels have no wakes.
10. The sound is EXTREMELY directional. Background sounds, such as the ocean heard from the
conning tower, that should always be audible regardless of personal facing, fade or disappear
altogether when facing certain directions.
11. Light sources, such as burning ships and lights from windows, are not as visible from long
distances as they should be nor do they light up the night as they should. Smoking a ciggy on deck
could betray a ship to a submarine. Burning wrecks should reflect off surrounding ships.
12. Nvidia cards when using AA (Anti-aliasing) switches the sun glare off.
13. It is possible to sink destroyers by ramming them with your conning tower. With a little practice
this can be done several times during a mission. Ships sunk this way will not register on your
tonnage tally.
14. The type IXD2 sub should have around double the range that it currently has in game.
15. The type XXI subs have buggy battery modelling. The batteries should both last longer and take
less time to recharge.
16. The type XXI subs' snorkel model is seen by planes as being as large as a surfaced sub, and hence
attracts aircraft far disproportionately to its size.
17. When reloading a saved game near areas where there are vessels on scripted waypoints (e.g. near
ports with harbour traffic), the waypoints are NOT reloaded by the game, so the affected ships
will forget their orders and do stupid things such as plowing into the land, etc. Workaround: Don't
save/reload near these areas, wait till you get out of range.
Nitpicks
From SilentHunterIII
Note that some of these have been fixed by the various patches and mods that are now freely available
1. Ports are empty except for the player's sub.
2. The campaign gets boring after a while with no specific missions other than to find ships and sink
them.
3. No people on other ships, apart from sailors manning the various gun turrets on destroyers and
battleships. No sailors running and swimming for their lives.
4. No life rafts from slowly sinking ships; no people in the water.
The developers in an interview stated: "No, we will not have them. We admit that it would greatly add to
the realism of the game. The problem is one of efficiency - to add lifeboats or survivors in the game at the
level of realism we strive for would consume too much of the available resources (development time and
processor power). One other reason is the sensitive, moral aspect of including survivors that can be killed
or left to die. It is our choice not to do it and we expect you to understand our decision."
5. When observing planes in close up camera mode - the graphics are of poor quality in comparison to the
ships.
6. Can't see pilots in aircraft.
7. The fire key (Enter) and the speed action key (Shift) are too close together. The time compression key
(+) and the fire key (Enter) on the number pad are too close together. It is too easy to accidentally fire a
torpedo when trying to increase time compression or speed action up.
b. It shouldn't be so easy to accidentally fire a torpedo.
combo (e.g. Ctrl+Enter), or a double-tap.
8. PT boats never use their torpedoes.
Make the fire key a
9. Torpedo bombers never use their torpedoes.
Spoilers
From SilentHunterIII
Getting Extra-Renown (Hacking)
Go to that career and open both patol files. One will have the renown for the last patrol at the bottom, lets
say you got 1100. Add 30000 to that so it says 31100. Now the other patrol file at the bottom will have
your total renown, 9000. Add 30000 to that so it says 39000. Save both but be SURE you ADD the
SAME exact number to both patrol files, that is the key.
You also have to be in port or else it will not let you play the game and crash at startup. And the place
where you edit it is in My Documents. It will say SHIII and then go to cfg. and then Careers and then
your career name and then go to something that says like Career_0 and then it will say renown a little
more than halfway down, and then edit it to how much you want. Then when you start it up you have to
start it in the save that says, "In Base After mission" or you won't get your renown for some reason.
(copied from [FOX]Bort and Wulfmann posts from subsim forum)
If you load the save that says "In Base Before mission" you only need to edit a file named Patrols_0
Simply change the DeltaRenown value EG DeltaRenown=150.000000 will give 150 renown