Important sections

The manual is split into several sections, and I will not go through them all here check the Table of Contents for the full list. However, the important sections if you are new to the editor are these ones: Creating a Single-player mission If you are new to the mission editor, this chapter will explain how to create a simple mission. It assumes no prior knowledge. The idea of this section is to get you making missions as quickly and simply as possible. Creating a Multi-player mission This chapter describes how to create a multi-player mission for LAN or online play. It builds on the single player version, and tells you what extra things you need to do to make a multi-player mission. Mission editor concepts Here, the basic concepts used in the editor are explained. How to implement This section gives step-by-step instructions on how to put certain mission features into your game.
Mission Editor Reference This section goes through all the menus, buttons and icons that you will find in the Mission Editor. If you are wondering what something means or how to use it, this is the place to look. The SH3 Mission Editor is a bit rough in places, and there are a few quirks which can easily catch the novice unawares. If there is something important to note, it will be marked with a warning sign like the one shown here.

2 Acknowledgements

This manual was created in response to the needs of the online mission design workshops given for members of www.34thflotilla.com. It has been created by drawing on the experience of the community and various pieces of documentation. In particular, the author has used some material from RedDevil, Drebbel, edpet23, Gizzmoe, Neal Stevens, and other contributors to www.subsim.com and www.silenthunteriii.co.uk. He is also grateful to members of www.34thflotilla.com, members of www.sturmgruppewulf.co.uk and everyone on the Silent Hunter III Community Manual project. Silent Hunter III is 2005 Ubisoft Entertainment. Silent Hunter, Ubisoft and ubi.com are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. This manual is provided for free as a service to the community. Feel free to distribute it, copy it, host it, print it, or whatever, as you wish. I do not ask for any money, credit or thanks, but if you would like to offer me a job as a technical writer, then let me know!

3 Updates

This manual is being actively worked on. If you have comments, suggestions, requests or anything else pertaining to this document, please let me know. The sections below that are highlighted in cyan, and are marked TBD are sections that I am working on at the moment, so I know about them, and will get to them as soon as I can. Thanks for your patience.
4 Creating a Single-player mission
This section shows you how to create a very simple, single-player mission. It has been kept as simple as possible, to get you started as quickly as possible. On the other hand, it assumes nothing, and will take you through the creation process step by step. Once you have a mission working, you can then refer to Section 6 below in order to find out how to add the more advanced features that youd like to put into your missions.

Building the mission

The basic premise of most missions is simple: place some ships, place a U-Boat, and then let the player sink those ships.

Setting up

Start the Mission Editor. It will open with a blank work area, menu bar and controls at the top and a Tools Panel on the right. Start creating the mission by selecting New from the File menu, or by clicking the New icon, just under it. A window will appear, requesting that you enter the starting date and time for the mission. Choose sensible values; in this example we shall make the mission start at a quarter to six in the evening, on the 13th May, 1942. (You will have the opportunity to change this later, so you dont have to be too careful here.)
The press Select, and the world map will appear.

Navigating about the map

The map is very large, so moving around it can be tricky. The mouse wheel will allow you to zoom in/out and the scroll bars on the sides of the map will let you pan about. However, when zoomed in close (which is typical when creating a mission), the scrollbars are not particularly useful, as they jump too much. However, there are some alternative ways to navigate about the map. In the control bar at the top of the editor, there are three icons, as follows:
1. Radius-ruler tool. When selected, you can measure the distances between points on the map. Move the mouse cursor to one position, press the left mouse button, and drag it to the other position. A black line will be shown with the distance in kilometres printed beside is. This function will override the Pan-View function. 2. Times. When selected, the estimated time of arrival for units will be printed above each waypoint. This is useful to check that the mission will not require an inordinate amount of time. 3. Pan-View function. When selected, you can click-hold-and-drag the map about. When zoomed in, this is the easiest way of moving around. As these controls are used often, it is useful to note a couple of keyboard shortcuts for toggling them on and off.

Make sure that the waypoints take the ships far enough. Although you might be able to complete the mission in 30 minutes, another player might not, and then the ships will disappear or stop when they reach their final waypoint (there is a check-box in the group properties that will let you control which of these two eventualities will come to pass). We now have a ship group, ready for our U-Boat to intercept. 12

Placing the U-Boat

In addition to any shipping, you must also place the players U-Boat. The selection of U-Boats can be found in the Sub tab of the Tools Panel. Just like the ships, drag one out of the German Roster and onto the map. The unit properties will appear, and we should set a few things here. Most importantly, the Human Control check box must be ticked. This lets the game know that this is the unit that the player will run. You can set the speed if you like, but the mission will start with the U-Boat engines All Stop, so it will just slow down to zero anyway. The Height parameter can be set to 0 for a boat on the surface, or a negative number for a submerged boat. A good value to start with is 15 m, as this is just below periscope depth, so there is no risk of the U-Boat being out of the water, even in rough weather. Of course you could make it deeper or shallower, as you see fit. Also change the Unit Name to something more appropriate. This will be displayed to the player on their Crew Management screen and in any received radio messages. Accept the changes and then create a waypoint for the U-Boat. Set the heading of the U-Boat to match the direction to the waypoint.
The targets and the U-Boat are now in place, and we are ready to move onto the final stage of the mission construction.
Setting the mission parameters
The final part of the mission construction, is setting the overall mission parameters. These can be found in the Mission menu. First, select Mission Parameters. This will bring up an editing window for the missions description, date/time and weather conditions.
The Title is not actually used the players never see it. However it can be used as a way of injecting a comment about the mission or something similar. On the other hand, Briefing is very important. Make it informative! This is what the player reads when deciding whether or not to play the mission. It is also what he or she would read while the mission is loading (which takes a while, so make it
something more than just a few words). The Briefing should instruct the player on what he or she should do when the mission starts. Dont leave the player guessing! If you want, you can change the date/time here. You can also set the weather. The conditions of the atmosphere and sea have a big impact on the game. They will determine at what range visible contact will be possible, alter the chances of the UBoat being detected underwater, govern whether or not Flak- and deck-guns may be used and alter the mood of the mission (see Section 9.1). Once satisfied, select Accept. Now select Mission Objectives. This is where you can set what the player actually needs to do in the mission. Click on Add Objective and give it a name. This will be printed on the orders screen in the game, so word it carefully.

The easiest mission objective is simply to sink something. The default objective is to sink some tonnage, which is perfect for most missions, so simply leave the defaults as they are. The final step is to validate the mission. This is where the Mission Editor performs a range of internal checks on the mission, to check it for consistency, playability and so on. To do this, select Mission Validate Mission. A window will pop up. Simply click on check mission, and examine the results.
If the mission passes the tests, then the only message that will appear will be the Mission Title. If there are warnings or errors, you will need to deal with them before you can save the mission. Typically it is better to validate your mission as you go along. That will make it easier to figure out to which part the messages apply. It will also mean you can save as you go along. Now save the mission. We shall call this mission Encounter.mis.

Installing the mission

The mission file needs to be placed in a folder with the same name as the mission file, located in the appropriate language of the data\SingleMissions folder. In our example, this would be: \SilentHunterIII\data\SingleMissions\English\Encounter\Encounter.mis Typically you would save the mission directly to this location, but you can move it in as well. You can also save it to the equivalent German (or other language) directory. Ideally, you will have translated all the text and made a separate version, but the only difference between to the two folders is that if the player has their language set to German, only the missions in the German folder will show up in the list. 16
Note that the file name is the name that will appear in the missions list in the game, so choose a suitable filename, Encounter is okay file_1 is not so good.

Playing the mission

Now it is time to play your new mission either for you own enjoyment or because you are testing it before you let your friends loose on it. Start-up Silent Hunter III and go to the Single-Player missions. Your new creation should now appear in the list. Notice that for a Single Player mission, the U-Boat type is that specified in the mission, by the type of U-Boat that you deployed. The name displayed in the list is the filename (not the title in the mission parameters window). Also, the description shown here (and on the following loading screen, as well as on the in-boat mission orders) is the same as what you typed into the Briefing in the mission parameters window.

Then set your difficulty level, press start and your (hopefully!) loading. If all has gone well, youll soon be playing your newly created mission. Of course, when you do so, it is wise to have a piece of paper and a pencil to hand, in case you notice any minor problems in your creation. Jot them down and go back to fix them later.

Have a lot of fun!

5 Creating a Multi-player mission
Making a multi-player mission is as easy as creating a single player mission. The only difference is that you need to add more human-playable U-Boats! When playing a multiplayer mission, the player is often allowed to choose the U-Boat type that he or she plays. That means that the U-Boat type that you put into the mission may be over-ruled when the mission is played. Multiplayer missions may have up to eight players. Therefore, unless you wish to limit the number of players to an exact number, you must put in a total of eight UBoats, even if all of them are not necessarily going to be used. Each U-Boat should have its own waypoint and starting direction. These need to be set so that U-Boats dont easily collide (so try not to make the U-Boat routes cross each other). The U-Boats should also be arranged such that no one U-Boat has a major advantage in position over the others (unless you are specifically trying to do such a thing). Bear in mind that mission objectives are shared between the players. This means that what works for a single player mission may not be suitable for a multi-player mission and vice versa.
6 Mission editor concepts
This section discusses how a mission is put together and what the basic concepts are. It is not a how-to, but rather a look at the overall structure, which will help you get a feel for how the system works.

Units and waypoints

All ships, U-Boats, aeroplanes, subnets, minefields, aerodromes, and so on are units. Every unit must have at least one waypoint, regardless as to whether it can move or not (yes, even a shore-emplacement needs a waypoint!) Waypoints for moving units may be specified as circular areas, thus randomising the paths somewhat. Speeds can also be changed at the waypoint. Waypoints must be separated from each other by at least 1000 metres.

Distance and speed

In general, distances within the Mission Editor (and the game) are in either metres or kilometres. The rule is: 1 kilometre (km) = 1000 metres (m)
For those more familiar with the old Imperial system, 1 km = = = 3280.8399 feet 1093.6133 yards 0.621371192 miles
Speeds are given in knots (kt). A knot is one nautical mile per hour, and a nautical mile is defined as being exactly 1852 m. That means: 1 kt = = = = 1.852 km/h 0.5144444 m/s 1.687810 foot/second 1.150779 mph

Ships that patrol in loops
While some ships will travel from port to port, with fixed end-point destinations, for others it is desirable to have them simply patrolling in a circle. A good example of this is the destroyer that guards a harbour entrance. However, there is no need to put in 50,000 way points to keep a ship there for months on end, simply use the loopback feature of the waypoints. For instructions on how to do this, see the Loopback section of Section 11.10.2.
Ships that can take different routes
In addition to using loopback for cyclic paths, you can also use it to make ships take alternate routes. In a way, you are not looping back, but looping forwards. Thus, to make a ship take a random path around something, put in one route, and then short-cut it with a loopback from the earlier waypoint, forward to the later waypoint. Heres an example of a convoy route that may go either north or south of Bjrnya.
Note that the shortcut route must be a straight line. You cannot put intermediate waypoints on the shortcut! For instructions on how to do this, see the Loopback section of Section 11.10.2.
How to spawn a Random Generated Group
Random(ly) Generated Groups (RGGs) are a way of creating groups of units with random units therein. It is useful for put random units into missions, but bear in mind that RGGs are really intended for campaign use. This section is a tutorial for placing an RGG in your mission, for details on the RGG controls, refer to Section 11.9. A random group is placed on the map by clicking on the desired location, rightclicking and selecting the Add Random Generated Group menu option. (See Section 11.5.3.) Place waypoints as you would for any unit or group. When placing the group, make sure any human-controlled U-Boats are at least 20 km away from it. If you put a player unit to close to it at the start of the mission, it will not spawn a group (to avoid units suddenly appearing in the game). For air units, make this distance even larger perhaps 30 km which is actually not as much of a problem, as aeroplanes travel a lot faster. Left-click on the RGG icon to select it, and then right-click to bring up the RGG menu. Choose the Define Group Contents option. Choose the units for the group. You must have a minimum of one ship, which will act as the leader. Each ship may be given an individual spawn probability; however the spawn probability of the leader is irrelevant, as it will always spawn.
For instance, in the example shown here, there will always be a King George V battleship and two V&W destroyers. However, on average, only every second group that is spawned will have a Clemson destroyer too. Obviously, you can make groups as routine or as random as you want. While random groups can be lots of fun owing to the we-dont-know-whats-out-there factor it also has the potential to be unbalanced, so do be careful, especially on a limited mission. Note that under Group Settings at the bottom of that window, there is a section for the formation spacing and the number of columns. Ensure that the formation spacing is larger, if there are large ships in the group (for example passenger liners, T3 tankers, and so on). 500 m is usually plenty. When you are happy with the composition of the group, click Accept. From the main menu, select Mission starting date and time. Parameters and check your missions

Fix the waypoint

Now select the single waypoint you added and move it to somewhere that the ship would move to, should it be attacked and start to move. If you leave it over land, the ship will move up to the shore line and stop.

Icebergs

For a bit of extra atmosphere in the far north (or far south!) dont forget icebergs. To place them, you simply drag them out of the Environmental folder in the Tools Panel like a normal unit.
In properties, you should set the speed to something slow 1 km/h is typical for icebergs. They generally move in a direction away from the pole where they originated, although wind conditions will affect this. In the game, an iceberg moves to its waypoint so its up to you to choose appropriate waypoints to make it realistic.
Missions in different languages
When a mission is saved, it is placed in one of the language directories in the data\SingleMissions or data\MultiMissions folders. This does not depend on the
language in which the mission is written, but rather whether it will appear in the game for the selected language. That is, if the player has selected German as their language in the game, then only missions placed in the SingleMissions\German and MultiMissions\German folders will appear. This is regardless as to whether those missions are written in German or English or anything else. This means, that a German player can put an English mission into his or her German folders and still see it. Of course, the other side of this is that if you, as a mission developer, wish to develop a mission for multiple languages, that appear in the correct manner depending on the players language choice, you must create multiple version of the mission (that is, change the mission briefings, radio messages, and so on) and then create a distribution (say, a zip file) that will place them into the correct folders in the players game installation.

7.10 Placing minefields

This advice was written by Neil Stevens on the subsim forums: To place a minefield, open the Mission Editor and click on the Ordnance tab in the Tools Panel. Choose a Country and click on MN Minefield. Drag the Minefield and place it on the map. The icon will look like double triangles. This is not where your minefield will be located. You must first place at least one waypoint. Do that now and drag it about 2000 meters from the Minefield icon. Left-click on the waypoint and then right-click to bring up the Properties. Place a 1 (one) in the Radius box. This will be your minefield. The minefield will be located inside this circle. Click on Accept. Now, click on the Minefield icon and bring up the Properties. Enter a number in the Density box. Try 100, for now. This will give you 100 mines per square km. You will have to experiment with the Min height and Max height boxes. The default values will place the mines just under the waterline. Click on Accept. Now, click on the Minefield icon and then press M on your keyboard and you should see your minefield. Note that you click the Minefield icon, but the mines themselves will be in the radii associated with the waypoints. You can place more WP's and string them out, if you want.

historically accurate, and then let the players see if they can match or beat the historical result. Spice up a harbour; put U-boats in pens and have C-3 cargo ships under those large cranes. Add a fishing ship leaving the piers and then stopping to fish in an area off to the side or have a patrol boat or "Schnellboot" prowl around the entrance to the harbour and be there upon your arrival. And then put in the airraid by the RAF. (See Section 7.7 for information about placing docked ships.)
11 Mission Editor Reference
This section works through the entire Mission Editor as the software is presented. It is not really a useful place to learn how to create missions, but if you are wondering about a particular feature or what some icon or menu means, then it should be all systematically documented here.
11.1.1 SH3 Mission Editor Window
There is only one window for the Mission Editor, although there are several smaller windows that pop-up every now and then for data entry. These will be covered later. The main interface is split into the window border itself, the menu bar, the controls tool bar, the Tools Panel, the map itself and the unit icons that are placed on it. The title bar of the window will show the name of the current mission and, in square brackets after it, will be the working mode. This indicates the types of data to be written when the file is saved and the requirements needed for validating the file. Possible working modes are: [Normal mission]: The mission must have human-controlled units. The save operation saves everything in the scene and validates triggers, objectives and so on. [Random data layer] No validation is performed and only random groups are saved. [Scripted data layer] No validation is performed and everything is saved with the exception of random groups. [Land Units Layer] No validation performed and only land units are saved. [Map notes layer] No validation is performed and only map notes are saved. Normal missions are designed to be single engagements with a limited duration in time. They should focus on limited areas of the map, but there are no limits imposed to the designer. Missions are run over the campaign engine, so you do not need to cover the whole world with shipping and units. The campaign engine itself comprises three layers: The Random Layer includes all the naval traffic, from convoys to local fishing boats The Scripted Layer includes all the warship patrols, hunter-killer groups, military task forces and the mine fields. The Land Unit Layer includes the naval bases, the air bases and the coastal defenses

11.2.6 Performance

The Performance menu is split into two parts: Editing and Simulation. The Editing menu has less options, but they are the same as their counterparts in the Simulation menu, so they wont be discussed separately. Basically the options toggle whether certain items are plotted on the map; just dots and labels for the most part. At first you would think that this was just to save on clutter or something, but that it wouldnt have a great impact on performance as such. Well, thats true enough for a single mission, but try loading the Campaign_RND.mis (File Open Rnd Layer), and youll see why performance is actually an issue. Actually, this is a really good thing to do. It makes you appreciate how much traffic there was during the war (and how much is modelled in the game). 11.2.6.1 Editing These are the items to be plotted when editing the mission that is, the simulation is stopped. Click on the menu items to toggle whether they are displayed. See below for a description of what each option means. 11.2.6.2 Simulation When you run the simulator, you make the editor run the units to plot their positions as time progresses. The simulator is a way of previewing the campaign before actually playing it in the game. It is described in Section 6.1. Click on the menu items to toggle whether they are displayed. See below for a description of what each option means. Note that you can turn the options on and off while the simulation is running (although the simulation will pause while you access the menu). 11.2.6.3 Show WP icons The path of each unit is shown as a dark grey line, and loopback lines are shown in light grey. At each waypoint (vertex in the path), there may be a small black plotted. This is the WP icon. 11.2.6.4 Show WP radius One of the nice things about the waypoint system implemented in SH3, is that when traveling to a waypoint, it is possible to define a circle, and the waypoint will occur randomly within it for each time it is used. This means that some paths can be defined as tight, with little variation (such as a channel or port), and others can be very open (like a convoy turning point in the open Atlantic Ocean). The WP radius is a dark grey circle that is plotted to show where the jitter in the waypoint may lie.
11.2.6.5 Show random instance parent This option only applies to random groups. It plots a dark grey line between the unit and the point from where that unit spawns. It sometimes makes it easier to trace from whence things came, rather than trying to carefully trace back along the waypoints or stopping the simulation to go back to editing mode. 11.2.6.6 Show random instance name This option only applies to random groups. This will show the name of the unit that was spawned by the random group. The name will be the parent name, plus a sequential number of two or more digits, as required. 11.2.6.7 Show random instance path This option only applies to random groups. This shows the path of individual units that have been spawned by a random group. As a new unit is spawned, its individual path is calculated (allowing for randomness at any waypoints). This path is plotted on the map, and if you are running the simulation, you will see the newly created units follow this track.

11.2.7 Help

The last of the menus is the so-called Help menu. This is a complete misnomer. The user will not find any help here. 11.2.7.1 About SH3 Editor Try it. It doesnt even tell you what the date, version number or build number of the editor is! See what I mean about the lack of help? Hence this manual

11.3 Controls tool bar

The controls tool bar is normally located directly under the menu bar. It contains various file, operating mode and simulator controls.

11.3.1 File controls

These are the typical controls for files as you would expect in most applications. There is no are you sure? question with any of these operations. If you havent saved your work, you will lose it! 11.3.1.1 New Mission This is the equivalent of opening a new mission (see Section 11.2.1.1). The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl-N. 11.3.1.2 Open Mission This is the equivalent of opening a pre-existing mission (see Section 11.2.1.2). The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl-O (the letter o, not the number 0).
11.3.1.3 Save Mission This is the equivalent of saving the current mission (see Section 11.2.1.8). The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl-S.

11.3.2 Mode controls

11.3.2.1 Radius-ruler tool When selected, you can measure the distances between points on the map. Move the mouse cursor to one position, press the left mouse button, and drag it to the other position. A black line will be shown with the distance in kilometres printed beside is. This function will override the Pan View function. The keyboard shortcut for toggling this mode on and off is R. 11.3.2.2 Times When selected, the estimated time of arrival (ETA) for units will be printed above each waypoint. This is useful to check that the mission will not require an inordinate amount of time. The ETA is based on the unit speed, time of departure and distance to travel. It can be used to synchronise the arrival of multiple units at one location, such as an assembling convoy or recreating an historic battle encounter. 11.3.2.3 Pan-View function When selected, you can click-hold-and-drag the map about. When zoomed in, this is the easiest way of moving around. You can use the spacebar as a keyboard shortcut for toggling this mode on and off. If neither theRadius-rule or Pan-View functions are selected, then the mouse can be used for selecting and deselecting units on the map (see Section 11.5).
11.3.3 Simulator controls
There are several controls in the tool bar which are used to control the simulator. See also Section 6.3 for more general information. 11.3.3.1 Time Filter Start/End These are the year and month of the start and end of the filter. Only units which exist during this time are show, and they are rendered in allied/axis/neutral colours as they would be at the filter start time. 11.3.3.2 Play Causes the simulator to start running. While it is running, it is not possible to perform all editing functions. 11.3.3.3 Pause Causes the simulator to temporarily stop. Press it again to start the simulator from the point at which it was paused. 11.3.3.4 Stop Terminated the simulator and resets all units back to their starting positions.

Spawn Probability and the Repeat Interval, you can control the sporadicity of the unit generation.
11.9.4 Define Group Contents
This menu item brings up a window which allows you to control the contents of the randomly spawned groups.
Select the settings of the unit to add and then press Add Entry to add it to the list. If Add Entry is not pressed, then the settings will apply to the currently selected entry when either a different entry is selected or Accept is pressed. Country: Nationality of the unit. Depending on the date, this will affect whether the unit is Allied, Axis or neutral. Unit Class: Once the nationality is selected the Unit Class menu will contain the types of units available to that nation. Additionally, there are GENERIC units that will result in the random select of any unit of the appropriate type at run time. Units No: The number of units that will be spawned. Spawn Probability: The chance that these units will actually appear in a given random group. For example at 100%, the unit will always be there. At 50%, the unit will only appear half the time.
Crew Rating: Defines how competent the crew is. The more experienced the crew, the better they will be at repairing damage, firing the deck guns, and so on. Units Version Date: Some units come with multiple version, improving as the war went on. This allows you to control this aspect of the unit. Internal Cargo: See Section 11.6.2. External Cargo: See Section 11.6.2. Loadout: (air units only) What bombs are carried. Aeroplanes with the basic loadout will only act as reconnaissance or machine gun strafing. Position as escort: For destroyers and some other ships, there is a choice between putting the unit in the convoy proper or locating it outside the columns in the traditional escort position.
Group Settings These control the placement of the convoy units and define the group leader. The Group Leader will always spawn, regardless of its spawn probability. Game behaviour is undefined if there are not enough ships to fill all the columns. The formation spacing must be large enough to accommodate a safe distance between ships. 300 metres is not enough for larger ships like T3 Tankers or Passenger Liners. To be safe in all circumstances, use 500 metres.

11.9.5 Centre View

The last item in the waypoint menu is Centre View, which will cause the map to shift so that this waypoint is in the centre. The keyboard shortcut for this is X.

11.10 Waypoint icons

Waypoint icons, when selected will either be red (for intermediate waypoints) or black-and-white-cheques for the final waypoint. They will be numbered WP1, WP2, and so on. If you click on a waypoint and the right click, there are three options.

11.10.1 Add Waypoint

This will allow you to place an additional waypoint. If you select this for the final waypoint, you will get a black line between it and your mouse cursor. When you left click, you will put a new waypoint at that location, and another black line will appear. Thus, you can string way points out as much as you want to draw the path for the object. Note that waypoints must be at least 1000 metres apart from one another. If they are not, the mission validation process will warn you. Once you have finished adding waypoints, right click to stop.
If you select Add Waypoint for an intermediate waypoint, a new waypoint will be inserted exactly halfway between that waypoint and the next one. If you are zoomed out, and you click on a group of waypoints, then you may not get the last one. If this happens, when you select Add Waypoint, it will just add another into this cluster, rather than giving you the black line allowing to place new ones at the end. Superficially it looks like its not working but it is, and not in the way you intended!

11.10.2 Properties

If you select the waypoint Properties menu item, a window will appear which will show you the parameters that are set when the unit reaches that waypoint.
Unit Name: is the name of the unit, to whom this waypoint belongs. You cannot change this. Speed: is the new speed the unit will adopt on reaching this waypoint. This is useful for making ships speed up and slow down (for example, as they arrive and leave port). Height: is normally greyed-out for ships, but may be set for certain units such as aeroplanes (positive numbers only!) or U-Boats (negative numbers only, or zero for surfaced). Loop to Waypoint: is normally set to Do not loop. This means that the unit, on reaching this waypoint, will simply move on to the next one. However, it is possible to set this so that the unit may loop to another earlier waypoint. Loop Probability: is the percentage chance that the unit will go to the alternative waypoint, rather than the next one. A zero percent chance is the same as Do no loop, and a 100 percent chance guarantees a loop. This is useful for patrolling ships and chances of alternative routes. See Sections 7.1 and 7.3 for ideas. Radius: defines a circle around the waypoint position. When a ship is going to this waypoint, it actually heads to random point anywhere within this circle. For ships that must traverse a particular path, then this should be zero, but to randomise the courses, this Radius tool is extremely useful.

11.10.3 Centre View

11.11 Status Bar
When the mouse cursor is over the map, the coordinates will be displayed in the status bar underneath the map itself. The map itself is flat, so the values in metres are linear (thus allowing the preservation of circular geometry in the game. The Longitude and Latitude are also given, but these, and thus the coastlines, are distorted as you approach the poles. This generally isnt a problem, but for the fanatical sub-simmer, who plots a great-circle course for him- or herself, will actually find that the straight line would have been shorter (and quicker)! Coordinates are measured in metres and degrees. North and East are positive numbers, South and West are negative. A useful feature is the height check. If the mouse is in the map area, press and hold H. This will cause an additional display to appear in the status bar below the map, showing the height above sea level. This will be positive for land masses and negative for bodies of water. This is a useful feature, as it allows the mission designer to check the actual depth where the mission will take place, to ensure that there is enough depth for the U-Boat(s) to dive.

SH3 COMMANDER

Release 3

USER GUIDE
SH3 Commander User Guide Release 3

Contents

Contents.... 2 Introduction..... 3 SH3 Commander minimum requirements.... 3 Mod compatibility.... 3 Installation..... 3 Microsoft Vista Users.... 3 Rolling back SH3 Commander... 3 Running SH3 Commander.... 4 Customising SH3 Commander and Silent Hunter III.. 4 General Settings.... 5 Career Options.... 6 Text Settings.... 7 Gameplay Settings... 8 Time Compression... 9 Personnel Files.... 10 Starting A New Career.... 11 Starting A Single Mission.... 12 Playing An Existing Career.... 13 Changing your career status... 14 Changing your next patrol grid... 14 Actions.... 15 Crew Manager.... 16 The Nightclub..... 18 General Features and Inclusions... 19 Features.... 19 NewsMod/RadioMod... 19 Random Ship Tonnage Mod.... 20 General Mod Inclusions.... 20 Version History.... 21 License Agreement, Copyright and Release Information... 28 Acknowledgements.... 28 Troubleshooting.... 29

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Introduction
SH3 Commander has been developed to serve several purposes. It: provides an historically-based framework around Silent Hunter III, such as adding Commander retirements, crew inward/outward transfers, and crew medal availability based on real criteria; removes static gameplay behaviour by allowing changes to be made to game files based on the career date - ship skins, aircraft roundels, sensor settings etc etc can all be changed as the war progresses, just like they did in real life; reduces gameplay certainty by supporting randomisation of any game setting in addition to simulating real life events such as malfunctions and sabotage; extends Silent Hunter III by giving your Commander a true identity. SH3 Commander builds a full profile of your Commander, including date and place of birth, enlistment date, promotion dates, and other key attributes, which are all including in the Personnel File feature.
SH3 Commander minimum requirements
To run SH3 Commander you must have installed: Windows XP, 2000 or Vista; Silent Hunter III with patch 1.4b. Attempting to run SH3 Commander on other operating systems or with earlier versions of Silent Hunter III is not supported and will result in game instability.

Mod compatibility

SH3 Commander can be used with all known mods. However, some mods may require replacement of certain SH3 Commander files, and/or may recommend specific settings. Be sure to check the associated mod readme files. You do not need to have any specific mods installed to use SH3 Commander.

Installation

To install SH3 Commander click on the installation file and follow the instructions. SH3 Commander can be installed anywhere and is totally independent of Silent Hunter III.

Microsoft Vista Users

If you intend running SH3 Commander on Microsoft Vista and have installed Silent Hunter III in your Program Files folder, then you must run SH3 Commander as administrator. To do this, after installing SH3 Commander, right-click on SH3Cmdr.exe in Windows Explorer and select "Run as Administrator". Alternatively, right-click on SH3Cmdr.exe and select "Properties". In the properties window select the "Compatibility" tab and check "Run this program in compatibility mode" and in the box below select "Windows XP (Service Pack 2)". In some instances you may need to apply both solutions.
Rolling back SH3 Commander
Rolling back SH3 Commander, or Rollback, are terms given to removing from Silent Hunter III the modifications that SH3 Commander has made. This can be achieved by clicking the

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icon from within SH3 Commander. This icon will only be visible if there are SH3 Commander modifications present in Silent Hunter III. In order to avoid any potential file integrity problems, it is imperative that you ALWAYS perform a rollback BEFORE: enabling or disabling any mods, either via JSGME or manually; uninstalling or reinstalling Silent Hunter III; uninstalling SH3 Commander. Your Commander career history information and SH3 Commander options are stored in a file called 'SH3Cmdr.ini'. If you want to preserve this data, you must never delete this file. Uninstalling SH3 Commander through Windows Add or Remove Programs will not delete this file.

Running SH3 Commander

Prior to running SH3 Commander you must have run Silent Hunter III at least once in order to set up your Silent Hunter III data files. To run SH3 Commander, click on the icon installed on your desktop, or click on SH3Cmdr.exe located in the SH3 Commander folder.
Customising SH3 Commander and Silent Hunter III
When you open SH3 Commander you will see the below screen.

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To customise SH3 Commander and Silent Hunter III click on the Options screen will appear:

icon. The SH3

General Settings
SH3 Path: By default SH3 Commander will connect to your default installation of Silent Hunter III. You can change this by clicking the button and selecting any other valid Silent Hunter III installation. If you change the path, SH3 Commander will refresh when you click OK or Apply. This may take a second or two. To ensure maximum flexibility and compatibility it is recommended that you have a dedicated installation of SH3 Commander for each installation of Silent Hunter III. Skip intro movies: Select this option to skip playback of the introduction movies when loading Silent Hunter III. Rollback automatically after exiting SH3: Select this option to automatically remove from Silent Hunter III the SH3 Commander-based mods when Silent Hunter III is exited. If unselected you must manually click the icon to remove the files.
Use system fonts: SH3 Commander installs and uses a font titled Desyrel that emulates the handwritten nature of original Wehrpasses. Should you find the font hard to read, then select this option to force SH3 Commander to use native system fonts. Note: you should not delete Desyrel from your systems font folder, however if you do, you can find a copy in your.\SH3 Commander\Fonts folder. Show tips on startup: Select this option to show handy tips on using SH3 Commander each time SH3 Commander is opened.

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Career Options
Start patrols at sea: Select this option to start your patrols just out to sea, away from the port itself. You can still dock in your port with this option selected. See "General Features and Inclusions" section for more detail. Simulate a realistic career length: Select this option to automatically retire the Commander after a random number of patrols (based on the number of days spent at sea and the minimum and maximum number of patrols completed by real commanders). If you select this option, please be aware that the randomisation occurs every time you launch a career using SH3 Commander, but not when your career is mid-patrol. So, if you like to tinker between patrols without actually starting a patrol be aware of this and uncheck this option prior to launching Silent Hunter III. Simulate realistic crew transfers: Select this option to simulate the transfer of crewman in to and out of your U-boat. At the beginning of each patrol, 0, 1 or 2 crewmen may be transferred out of your U-boat for various reasons and a similar amount may be transferred in. Note that you may still be required to "top up" your crew from time to time, as not all crew procurements can be done through the usual bureaucratic paperwork. Like the 'realistic career length' option, randomisation occurs every time you launch a career using SH3 Commander, unless your career is mid-patrol. Use historic U-boat availability dates: See "General Features and Inclusions" section for more detail. Randomise number of days spent in base: Select this option to randomise the number of days spent in base between patrols. The randomisation is based on actual averages. You can alter the parameters by editing the 'RNDDAYSINBASE' block in 'SH3 options.cfg' located in your SH3 Commander\Cfg folder. Set number of days spent in base to: Select this option to set a specific number of days that you would like to spend in base between patrols.

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Use real ship names in patrol logs: Select this option to replace the generic Silent Hunter III ship names (ie C3 Cargo) in the patrol logs with real ship names and (where known) cargo and crew details. Ship names will be added whenever you generate a Personnel File. Generate a Personnel File after each patrol and you'll always be up-to-date with real ship names. These ship names will display in both the SH3 Commander Personnel Files and Silent Hunter III itself. More ship names and classes can be added to SH3 Commander - see the instructions outlined in 'Ship names.cfg', located in your SH3 Commander\Cfg folder. Note that if you've changed your Silent Hunter III language preference at any time, this will impact the insertion of ship names. Only logs created using the current selected language will be updated. Unfortunately, Silent Hunter III isn't flexible enough to record different ship names during a patrol, so the standard names will always be recorded. Randomise gramophone tracks: Select this option to randomise the playing order of your gramophone tracks. Each time you load a career your tracks will be played in a different (random) order.

Text Settings

Hull Integrity % text: Some mods remove the Hull Integrity percentage figure from the game. This option allows you to show or hide the text regardless of what mods you install.

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Gameplay Settings
Use fatigue model: SH3 Commander comes with five different type of fatigue handling models, with the ability to add your own fatigue models. To add you own fatigue model, open up 'Crew fatigue models.cfg', located in your SH3 Commander\Cfg folder. Copy one of the existing blocks of values and paste at the end of the file. Update the number of this new block (the value contained between []) to be the last number plus 1. Then change all the values accordingly or add new keys as required (keys must be valid Basic.cfg CREW_* keys). What you enter for 'Desc' will be what is displayed as an option in SH3 Commander. Adjust water clarity: Select this option to make your water more opaque or transparent. 0 is opaque, 20 is transparent. The stock Silent Hunter III setting is 18. Set wave height: Select "Seasonal" for wave height to be set based on the time of the year higher waves during winter and lower waves during summer. Seasonal wave heights can be edited through 'SH3 options.cfg' located in your SH3 Commander\Cfg folder). Min. 88mm deck gun reload time: Select this option to adjust the reload time, in seconds, of your 88mm deck gun. Note that the time you choose is the minimum reload time. The actual reload time is dependant on crew efficiency so may be slower than what you choose. Min. 105mm deck gun reload time: Select this option to adjust the reload time, in seconds, of your 105mm deck gun. Note that the time you choose is the minimum reload time. The actual reload time is dependant on crew efficiency so may be slower than what you choose. Model effects: Select this option to model the effects of equipment malfunctions and/or sabotage. With this option selected you will need to make decisions like a real Commander if you identify faulty equipment, which can include damaged lens seals, damaged clutching/transmission components, leaking fuel tanks, worn batteries, faulty valves and seals, to name a few. Can you continue the patrol, or should you abort? The choice is yours. Randomise ship tonnage: See "General Features and Inclusions" section for more detail.

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Randomise U-boat crush depth: SH3 Commander will set the theoretical crush depth, with minor randomisation, for all U-boat types and variations. Editable through 'SH3 options.cfg' located in your SH3 Commander\Cfg folder.

Time Compression

This screen allows you to adjust Silent Hunter IIIs time compression settings. Please read the Troubleshooting section first as certain settings have adverse impacts on Silent Hunter III. Press the Reset button to return the selected events time compression value back to the default Silent Hunter III value.

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Personnel Files
This screen allows you to change the fonts and background of your Personnel Files (see Actions section). Press the Reset button to return all fonts and images back to the default SH3 Commander settings.

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Starting A New Career
By selecting 'New career' from the list presented on the left hand side of the main SH3 Commander screen, you can enter details in preparation for the commencement of a new career in Silent Hunter III. Enter a new Commander name or click the RN button to have SH3 Commander generate one from over 1.7+ billion possible combinations based on the names of actual U-boat crewmen and Commanders. Select your preferred start month and year, which can be any time during the war (this is dependant on what mods you have installed). Select a Flotilla and a U-boat type/variant, which can be any one that was available in your selected flotilla up to the selected career start date. Enter a U-boat number or leave blank to use one generated by Silent Hunter III. Select a crew configuration model to use, and click the check box if you wish to use unique (random) German crew names plus randomised crew experience. Enter a patrol grid or leave blank to use one generated by Silent Hunter III.
When finished setting up your new career, click and Silent Hunter III will load. When you start your new career in Silent Hunter III, your new career name should already be highlighted. Simply select it and then select the same year and Flotilla as you did in SH3 Commander and you're away! Your career will start on the first day of the same month as selected in SH3 Commander.

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SH3 Commander includes a Realistic crew configuration that is based on actual U-boat crew composition. In addition, you can import your own crew configurations for using with new careers and missions. To import your own crew configurations, simply add your crew configuration files into a descriptively named sub-folder under the SH3 Commander\Crew folder. For example, to add the real crew of U-97, create the following structure: SH3 Commander\Crew\U-97\data\Cfg and then add the appropriate crew_config_*.cfg files. U-97 will then appear as an option in the "Use Crew" list box. You can alter the randomised crew experience parameters by editing the 'CREW SETUP' block in 'SH3 options.cfg' located in your SH3 Commander\Cfg folder.

Starting A Single Mission
By selecting 'Single mission' you can prepare Silent Hunter III in anticipation of undertaking an individual mission. If you choose to play a single mission, select the month, year, Flotilla and U-boat type that are relevant to the mission that you wish to undertake. Select a crew configuration model to use, and click the check box if you wish to use unique (random) German crew names plus randomised crew experience.
When finished, click and SH3 Commander will load up the necessary files and Silent Hunter III will automatically start. Then simply select the corresponding mission, year and Uboat type.

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Playing An Existing Career
Selecting an existing career will provide a snapshot of that career. From here, by clicking on the various links and actions you can: change your U-boat number, remove your deck gun, change your next patrol grid, update your Personnel File, enter the Crew Manager, go to the Nightclub to catch up on gossip, or delete the selected career from your hard drive.
Once you're ready, click and SH3 Commander will load up the necessary files based on the details of the career, and then Silent Hunter III will start, automatically defaulting to the Commander that you selected. Once in the game, just load up the saved campaign for the career that you selected in SH3 Commander and you're ready to go on patrol! Notes: 1. SH3 Commander loads files based on the current career date and anticipated next patrol start date, so make sure that you exit the game after every patrol. Then, when you want to start a new patrol, just launch SH3 Commander and choose the career or mission that you want to play. But don't worry if you forget to launch the game via SH3 Commander once in a while - it won't cause serious problems. It just means that you may see a news file from the wrong date, or your boat may have deeper crush depth characteristics, etc. These problems are minor, temporary and will disappear as soon as you update the game by running SH3 Commander again. 2. To avoid conflicts, game instability or other unexpected behaviour, always ensure that you select the corresponding career when Silent Hunter III has loaded. 3. SH3 Commander automatically recognises when you are docked at a milk cow or other friendly base and will automatically adjust the number of days spent in base to 1 without

NewsMod/RadioMod

This mod works via SH3 Commander to give the player: Monthly news reports that appear when loading a patrol, and during the patrol. A map of Europe and the Mediterranean which updates based on the progress of the war. Historical radio broadcasts that appear at their correct dates. These play via the gramophone. NewsMod maps and text by Beery. German translations by Nico71. U-boat losses source: 'Iron Coffins' by Herbert Werner.

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Random Ship Tonnage Mod
This mod is based on an analysis of merchant ships sunk, damaged or totalled from 3 September 1939 through to the end of the war. The results are randomised to provide a variation in ship tonnage during each patrol. The variations are limited in order to keep the tonnage as close to historical accuracy as possible, within the limitations of the Silent Hunter III engine. Not all current tanker, cargo ship, passenger liner and transport tonnage is randomised. New ships can be added as required - see instructions outlined in 'Ship displacements.cfg', located in your SH3 Commander\Cfg folder. When using the Museum feature in Silent Hunter III you can get an idea of the new tonnage values for the different types of ships, but keep in mind the tonnage values will vary from month-to-month and year-to-year. Random Tonnage Mod by Observer. Re-developed for SH3 Commander by Jaesen Jones with tweaks by Beery.

General Mod Inclusions

Correct 1939 Flotilla names (1st Flotilla is named 'Weddigen', 2nd is 'Saltzwedel' and 7th is 'Wegener') by Beery. Correct available U-boat numbers for all U-boat types by Beery. Correct availability dates for U-boats based on the historical date each Flotilla (1st, 2nd, 7th or 11th) received the boats by Beery. U-boat availability dates by Flotilla are outlined in the table below. Should you not wish to observe historic U-boat availability, ensure that the "Use historic U-boat availability dates" option is not selected and that you've performed a rollback to remove any residual dates from Silent Hunter III. You can edit 'U-boat availability.cfg', located in your SH3 Commander\Cfg folder. Follow the instructions outlined in the header of the file. This feature is turned OFF by default.
Flotilla 1st 2nd 7th 11th 1939 IIASep VIIBSep IXBOct VIIBSep 1940 IIDSep 1941 VIICMar VIIBJun IXCJan VIICAug VIICJun 1944 VIIC/41Jun IXC/40Jul VIIC/41Jun VIIC/41Jun XXIJul 1945

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Added ability to change the Patrol Log "Grid" column title through SH3 Commander, in the same manner as the other two column titles (via SH3Cmdr_*.txt file) Added ability to modify date format used in Patrol Log (via SH3Cmdr_*.txt file) Demotions now recorded in Personnel File
3.0.0 New graphical interface New user guide Added ability to continue career with new commander Now transfers crew IN to u-boat as well as out (when realistic crew transfers option is selected) Added ability to recognise user-added patrol log text and include in Personnel Files Added link to the FAQ on the TC adjust screen reminding users to read the FAQ first Added ability to start careers anytime during 1939. For this feature to be available, players must have installed a mod that adds pre-September 1939 start dates Improved handling of SH3's NULL patrol grid problem. When in port, users will not be able to adjust NULL grids because SH3 will just overwrite it again with NULL. However, if saved in-patrol SH3 Commander will support NULL grid changes in exactly the same way as it supports any other grid change Personnel File fonts and background image can now be changed through SH3 Commander Options Replaced hard-coded absolute offsets to binary files with dynamic searching. Note however that offsets will still be required for the randomised and static events files (less chance of ambiguity and confusion) Removed SS## patrol grid masking providing compatibility with non-gridded theatres Submarines now included in "Use real ship names" feature New option: "SH3 Path". Previous /l: switch no longer supported New option: "Skip intro movies" New option: "Rollback automatically after exiting SH3" New option: "Randomise ship tonnage" New option: "Randomise U-boat crush depth" Randomised renown linked to randomised tonnage Personnel File Postings now list each back-and-forth Flotilla transfer Added rank, medals, badges and qualification graphics to Crew List Many internal code enhancements 2.7.0 (9 Dec 2006) Now reminds player after exiting SH3 to rollback SH3 Commander Modelling the effects of malfunctions or malfunctions+sabotage are now Gameplay settings under SH3 Options Enhanced crew fatigue model functionality to include other related Basic.cfg file settings Now groups Personnel Files by save data folder name Added new ship classes and names to Ship names.cfg Removed fatigue model - Grey Wolves 24 Hour Removed UpdtCars.exe (no longer required) Minor adjustments to main interface Minor adjustments to most Cfg files 2.6.1 (18 Sep 2006) Read-only attribute now automatically removed from any file that SH3 Commander modifies Number of days spent in base can now be between 0 and 2075 (ie the length of the war in Europe)

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"Medals and renown.cfg" file renamed to "Basic changes.cfg" to reflect true scope of the file Added new fatigue model - Grey Wolves 8 Hour Minor code revisions
2.4.1 (special release) Now filters out non-SH3 added entries in the Log_x.cfg files 2.4.0 (21 Jan 2006) Added new career action - "Go to Nightclub." and slightly renamed other existing actions Added ability to remove the deck gun from your U-boat When starting a new career a U-boat can now be selected from any U-boat type and variant available to the selected Flotilla up to the selected career start date Added ability to set U-boat number when starting a new career Selected Flotilla and U-boat type no longer reset when year or month is changed Use of historic U-boat availability dates is now a selectable option Now rolls back changes made by the "Randomise gramophone tracks" option Now saves Personnel Files to user's "My Documents" folder Added ability to import user defined crew configurations for using with new careers and missions Added ability to modify the renown awarded in "Ship displacements.cfg" Added new wave height selection - "Seasonal" Added an extra 40,454 first names and 41,786 last names to the names lists to reflect the names of (almost) every person to serve on a U-boat. Now provides 1.7+ billion crew name combinations! Added an extra 1,300 towns to the birth place list to reflect the birth places of almost all U-boat Commanders Realistic crew now has more voice and complexion variety Minor interface tweaks and code improvements 2.3.0 (6 Nov 2005) Crew Manager component updated: promoting, demoting or awarding any medal or badge now has the same effect as if awarded via SH3 SH3 ship class labels now included with real ship names in patrol logs Added ability to randomise gramophone tracks (based on original concept of JXP's) Added ability to adjust wave height (based on original concept of TimeTraveller's) Now uses EnglishNames.cfg for comparing ship labels when French language is selected New surrender feature added for "dead" careers Now recognises new careers which are mid-first patrol Now works around the SH3 bug which in some instances writes career start dates as 0's Added ability to adjust time compression values Added ability to modify Basic.cfg renown, medals and promotion values (via editable cfg file) When starting a new career, selected year and Flotilla are added to the SH3 new career screen Now uses correct date for copying files when continuing careers mid-patrol Health status of crewmen now included on Crew Manager screen and in Crew Lists Added "Summary" title to Personnel File First names, last names and place names now sourced from.lst files in cfg folder. Unlimited names can be added (SH3Cmdr.ini listed names no longer used) Captain's Log reformatted to look more like a real Kriegstagebuch

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Improved HTML code
2.2.0 (18 Oct 2005) Improved insertion of date based variable menu text. No more need to include *_menu.txt files in the Date folder structure Now recognises when a career is "mid-patrol" and ignores realistic career length and realistic crew transfer options accordingly "U-Boat Aces" listing now includes other player Commanders (marked with single asterisk) Added "Use real ship names" option which if selected replaces standard SH3 ship labels in patrol logs with real ship names Improved random tonnage calculations Now randomises the time Escorts spend looking for U-Boats after losing contact "Randomise crew names" renamed to "Use realistic crew configurations". Functionality is unchanged Moving the mouse cursor over text "hidden" under the Commander's image now shows the text Improved the robustness of recording a Commander's pre-career history Improved the insertion method of Basic.cfg modifications Modders can now use a /nolaunch switch to stop SH3 loading (ie for mod testing purposes) 2.1.0 (2 Oct 2005) Now allows for the Silent Hunter III installation path to be forced via a /l switch, or manually entered if SH3 Commander cannot find it To accommodate future growth, career options are now contained in a pop-up menu, retitled "Actions" Now recognises and supports French text language setting in Silent Hunter III Added realistic crew transfers option; you may lose up to one crewman per patrol Added ability to force (corrected) ranks, medals and badges to display in Silent Hunter III in English (with American or British ranks) or German, regardless of in-game language setting Added ability to adjust deck gun reload times Added ability to adjust water density Now displays last patrol end date on existing career screen to allow for easier "specific days in base" calculations when wanting a specific next patrol start date Added new fatigue model based on RUb's 1x TC model Added new background image for generated HTML files Added new banner image 2.0.0 (20 Sep 2005) New interface Now provides better integration with Silent Hunter III by linking Date/Flotilla/U-Boat selection to that allowed by Silent Hunter III when starting a new career (no more selecting XXI U-Boat in 33 Flotilla in 1939) Added ability to start new careers in any month between 9/39 and 5/45 Added ability to randomise or set specific days spent in base Added ability to include (or remove) the "Hull Integrity %" text Added ability to use any one of three different types of fatigue handling models, with ability to add your own fatigue models Added ability to change next patrol grid Added ability to delete selected career from the hard drive Added ability to return Commanders from retirement

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Added ability to replace default crew configuration files with historically accurate crew including realistic ranks, qualifications and unique names (ie no more "Adolf Carlewitz" in your new careers) Added unique commander images and other personal details, such as date, place of birth and full commander life history General code improvement New icon
1.0.0 (3 Jun 2005) Added ability for user to select date, U-Boat type and Flotilla 0.0.0.13 (24 May 2005) Initial Release (no prior version was released)

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License Agreement, Copyright and Release Information
The following files are included in the SH3 Commander License Agreement and copyright, outlined in the accompanying JoneSoft.txt file. All files in the SH3 Commander root folder All files in the \Cfg sub-folder, excluding the three names lists All files in the \Gui sub-folder All text files in the \Nightclub sub-folder
Any questions relating to these files can be sent by email to JoneSoft at jonesoft@internode.on.net or jonesoft@jaennahre.com. All other files and included mods remain the copyright of their respective developers. More information on SH3 Commander and included mods can be found by searching the Subsim Silent Hunter III forums. Try out other JoneSoft products, including the JoneSoft Generic Mod Enabler, at http://www.users.on.net/~jscones/software or www.jonesoft.jaennahre.com.

Acknowledgements

Thanks and credit to: Ian "Beery" Cooper for original concept and development input. Boris for R3.0 interface graphics www.ubootwaffe.net for allowing the use of their U-boat crew lists and Gizzmoe for reviewing. Observer for ship tonnage randomiser input as well as the initial exhaustive list of real ship names. Bigboywooly, Sailor Steve and AG124 for more real ship names. BladeHeart for collating the list of U-boat numbers by type and flotilla. Nico71 and Thomas Penz for German translations. Martin and Perdu for French translations. Columbia Pictures for "Das Boot" images. Kalach for selected Nightclub entries. Beery, jcwolf, JonZ, Tikigod, iblitz for the main screen banners added to R2.6. irish1958, ToySoldier, rod_oil, Mil_tera, NealT, Gouldjg, Hemisent, lurker_hlb3 and UBones for pre-release testing. The many Subsim forum members that have provided continued feedback and suggestions.

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I keep getting allocated the same patrol grid. SH3 Commander does not interfere with the allocation of patrol grids. When you complete a patrol, SH3 will allocate the new next patrol grid relative to the month of the last finished patrol, not relative to the month of the next patrol. So if your patrols are short, or you have docked at a milk cow or other friendly base, it is quite possible that SH3 will allocate you the same grid again. SH3 Commander works around this problem by providing you with the ability to manually or randomly set patrol grids. The dates displayed in SH3 Commander are different to the dates in SH3 - I keep going back in time! This will generally occur if you revert to a previous save game. SH3 does not handle reverting to previous save games very well. You may also go back in time if you upgrade equipment after completing a patrol and prior to exiting the career. I've just finished the first patrol in a new career. However, despite sinking ships, none show up in my game summary or Personnel File. This is one of the biggest bugs in the regular game. If you upgrade your U-boat equipment before going on your first patrol it may not record any tonnage for that patrol. To avoid this problem, do not upgrade equipment until *after* completing your first patrol. Likewise, if you save whilst "in the heat of battle", ships which you thought you sunk, but which haven't actually sunk, will not be recorded. To avoid this problem, do not save until you have fully disengaged from battle and are sure that you have seen all "She's going down" (or variation) messages. I have just started a new career, but my new career does not appear in the SH3 Commander career list. In SH3 a career does not actually exist until *after* the first patrol is completed. This is because SH3 creates some files when you start a new career but does not create all files until after your first patrol is finished. However, enough files exist to continue if you save mid-first patrol. Accordingly, SH3 Commander will only list careers that are either mid-first patrol or finished the first patrol. I want to start my career at a rank higher than Leutnant (rank bump). Will SH3 Commander allow me? SH3 Commander reads whatever ranks are in SH3. However, when creating a Commanders pre-SH3 history, SH3 Commander assumes the starting rank will be as SH3 originally set it. It needs to do this for maximum compatibility. Thus, any rank bumping", that is, changing your starting rank to anything higher than the SH3 default, will create gaps between your pre-SH3 history and your SH3 career. This will be evident only if you generate Personnel Files, where you will notice missing promotions. You can alleviate this somewhat by adjusting the pre-SH3 rank labels in SH3Cmdr_*.txt, or simply ensuring that you always start careers at the default rank of Leutnant. I am now getting Invalid argument to date encode errors when I select an existing career. Why does this happen and how can I fix it? This error may appear after you delete save games through SH3. Sometimes, SH3 does not clean up after itself well, resulting in a data integrity problem. To avoid getting this error, always reload your career in SH3 (only needs to be to the barracks screen) after deleting any save games, as doing so allows SH3 to correct the problem.

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