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Just picked up Silent Hunter 3 finally as my exams are over, so far it seems to be very well made. A great example of making an enjoyable game rather than just a dry simulation.

However I have a couple of questions about it and I know quite a few people here play it. Perhaps somebody wouldn't mind answering them:

Firstly the UZO (the bridge torpedo aiming device), when I try to use this all I see is completely opaque white fog. I get the feeling that this might be meant to be spray from the bow of the boat, but it happens even while moving slowly and stops very abruptly while looking from side to side, leading me to think its a bug. I also remember Shep mentioning a fog bug of some sort, does this have anything to do with it?

Also I'm fairly sure I heard that historically the most effective method of U-boat attack was using torpedos at night while surfaced. Are there any tips for doing this effectively in the game? Is there some way of finding the ships in the dark without relying on "scanning" for them with the periscope and looking for the lock indicator? (Yes I use auto torpedos... to my shame)

And lastly, is there a way to get the AI gunners on the deck gun to illuminate a target with star shells without you have to get on the gun and do it manually? Also what is the proper procedure for getting the star shells to burst at the right distance to illuminate your target?

Just picked up Silent Hunter 3 finally as my exams are over, so far it seems to be very well made. A great example of making an enjoyable game rather than just a dry simulation.

However I have a couple of questions about it and I know quite a few people here play it. Perhaps somebody wouldn't mind answering them:

Aaron Ash wrote:Firstly the UZO (the bridge torpedo aiming device), when I try to use this all I see is completely opaque white fog. I get the feeling that this might be meant to be spray from the bow of the boat, but it happens even while moving slowly and stops very abruptly while looking from side to side, leading me to think its a bug.

Known issue with NVidia cards. There is a key combination to turn off the spray particles because of this in the 1.2 patch (European version at least.).

Aaron Ash wrote:Also I'm fairly sure I heard that historically the most effective method of U-boat attack was using torpedos at night while surfaced. Are there any tips for doing this effectively in the game? Is there some way of finding the ships in the dark without relying on "scanning" for them with the periscope and looking for the lock indicator? (Yes I use auto torpedos... to my shame)

Use the Watch Officer to give you the bearing to the target, and hope you can actually spot it!

Aaron Ash wrote:And lastly, is there a way to get the AI gunners on the deck gun to illuminate a target with star shells without you have to get on the gun and do it manually? Also what is the proper procedure for getting the star shells to burst at the right distance to illuminate your target?

Not as far as I know to both. I don't think the second is possible at the moment.

How to spot a ship? Use your hydrophones for detection, plot his course, then park your boat along it. It will come right at ya, and at a perfect angle to boot.

Of course, the watchmen aboard enemy ships, merchant and war alike, seem to have NVG's. After a few attemps, I gave up on surface attacks, since all too many times the enemy would spot me from miles away and start the shelling.