[I'm goin' down]

Brief overview:

1. To activate a mod, go to SH4 mods worshop forum and open the sticky thread SH4 Popular Mods, etc. ....

2. Find the link to JGSME, download and open it. JGSME is a program. You download it. It stores your mods, which you can then acitvate if you choose to do so. It is very simple to use.

3. As for mods, when you find a mod you want to try out, you download it. Then it can be activated by JGSME. Once activated it becomes incorporated into the game until you deactivate it.

4. How do you activate a downloaded mod via JGSME? It is not hard, but it is difficult to explain without being able to visualize it. That can be done using screen shots. Someone asked this question awhile ago, and one of the replies contained screen shots on how to activate mods using JGSME. Hopefully, a link to that thread or a copy the procedure using screen shots will be included in a reply, as without pictures it is difficult to explain. I am not going to undertake that task. Bottom line, it is not difficult, as I figured it out with a little help from the famous Rockin Robbins, and I was a computer novice at the time.

Trigger Maru Overhauled is a major mod that changes many facets of the game. The changes are listed in the TMO thread in the SH4 mods forum. Its creators have incorporated many mods into one super mod. If you do not want to activate a super mod such as TMO, RFB (Real Fleet Boats) and FOTRS (Fall of the Rising Sun), there are many individual mods to choose from. Webster has a large collection of individual mods that you should look at to get some idea of what modders are capable of. Some mods are not compatible with others. You will pick up basic mod rules to follow as you go.

Version 1.9 of TMO is the most recent version (e.g. TMO 1.9). It is state of the art. It is designed for advanced players who you use manual targeting, but it can be played at any level of difficulty. At 100 percent realism it is a challenge, and the destroyers have ruined many a career.

If you are just starting out, I recommend reading up on and studying the tutorials in the thread in this forum known as the Skipper's Bag of Tools, Tricks, etc. There is a lot to learn. When you get "proficient" at manual targeting, you might want try the Easy Aob mod (runner up for mod of the year, the honor which was awarded to TMO 1.9) and gutted's Solution Solver Program.