Newbie with time compression question

[rossikle]

Hi All,

Wonderful forum. Thanks for letting me be a part of it. I have been looking around and can't seem to get this question figured out, so I apologize if the answer exists.

I've never been quite clear on what the game is about, except to win. As a result, when I get my mission, I turn up time compression to full blast (8219 or something, I think) and zoom to my ordered destination, not trying to kill anything along the way. But time compression keeps dropping back to low with every single identification so I am constantly rapidly pressing my + button or it takes bloody FOREVER to arrive at my destination.

This constant tapping of the the + key...is this normal? If I just leave it on time compression 1, I won't reach my destination for LITERALLY a week. Makes me think I'm missing something.

Also, I can complete the whole game just by reaching my destinations, finding the nearest enemy harbor and blast a ton of ships that all just sit there. Why would I try for a convoy that includes 3-4 bad guys with them and are way harder to hit in the first place? Again, I must be missing something.

Any enlightenment on these questions would be a Godsend and greatly appreciated. Cheers,

Ross

[slipf18]

Well...

You can chase around unescorted merchants all day long and find harbor after harbor with anchored warships to sink...

But for me it is the challenge of sinking a couple merchants being escorted by 4 destroyers and getting away with it that presents the challenge...

On compression yes a lot of plus key until you get where you want to go. If the game didn't reduce compression down to 8 every time you had a contact then you would be dead before you realized there was a contact.

[cdrsubron7]

Originally Posted by rossikle

Hi All,

Wonderful forum. Thanks for letting me be a part of it. I have been looking around and can't seem to get this question figured out, so I apologize if the answer exists.

I've never been quite clear on what the game is about, except to win. As a result, when I get my mission, I turn up time compression to full blast (8219 or something, I think) and zoom to my ordered destination, not trying to kill anything along the way. But time compression keeps dropping back to low with every single identification so I am constantly rapidly pressing my + button or it takes bloody FOREVER to arrive at my destination.

This constant tapping of the the + key...is this normal? If I just leave it on time compression 1, I won't reach my destination for LITERALLY a week. Makes me think I'm missing something.

Also, I can complete the whole game just by reaching my destinations, finding the nearest enemy harbor and blast a ton of ships that all just sit there. Why would I try for a convoy that includes 3-4 bad guys with them and are way harder to hit in the first place? Again, I must be missing something.

Any enlightenment on these questions would be a Godsend and greatly appreciated. Cheers,

Ross

First, Welcome to our little insane asylum. Happy to have you aboard.

TC is basically a tool. It gets you from point A to Point B quicker. The Pacific Ocean is a big place. Without TC as you say the game would take forever to play, so the ability to speed up time is a plus. It like anything else in any game you'll play. You just have to learn how to use and when not to.

The people who have made this game and the modders who have improved on it so much have to tried to make it as realistic as possible hence the interruptions like radio messages and other things.

I once read somewhere that submarine warfare being described as two weeks of boredom followed by fifteen minutes of sheer terror. Believe me when I say that, I've spent many playing hours SH4 using TC and nothing happens and then you make contact with a Task Force and the adrenaline kick in and you get excited as all hell.

When using TC like when I first leave on patrol I raise the rate of TC to a high setting so I can get to the action quicker. One of the things about patrolling is that you have to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way, sometimes you'll feel like you're tripping over the ship contacts and other times there is nothing which is boring. Once I reach my patrol area I use a very low setting of TC just to keep the game moving.

You say you like attacking Japanese harbors to sink your tonnage. After awhile you'll get bored with that. For one thing there is no challenge is sinking non-moving ships. Now when you attack a task force or large convoy and sink ships you'll feel as you've really accomplished something. If you really want to really get a feel of what it was like to patrol in a submarine in the Pacific in WW II try reading some of the many submarine books that have been written by the people who made the patrols and were in the submarines, it really gives you a different perspective.

Of course, if your basically just starting out, you're going to have many questions and the Subsim Forums are the place to ask. Everybody here likes to help out the new players. You'll find this place and the people here are truly fantastic.

[fireftr18]

Welcome aboard rossikle!

Like cdrsubron7 said, we like new people to harass and make fun of, I mean help and share our vast wealth of knowledge. Seriously, you will have a lot of questions and we're all glad to help.
cdrsubron7 made a lot of good points. To add to them, with the stock game, time compression is great, but the constant contacts become irritating. Some mods address that. Stay on patrol, don't do the harbor raiding, stalking a convoy or single ship, then lining up for the best shot is the challenge that makes the game enjoyable. Make generous use of the tutorials, they make a good opportunity to practice and work on different aspects of the simulation. When you feel like you're ready, start adding the mods, especially one of the super mods. They take an already great game and make it better.

In case you haven't noticed yet, I'm the self appointed, unofficial assigner of jobs at Subsim. Go tighten the radio antenna.

[THEBERBSTER]

A Warm Welcome To The Subsim Community > rossikle
Subsim <> How To Donate <> See The Benefits <> Support The Community
SH4 <> TUTORIALS <> HOW TO DO IT <> INFO <> DOWNLOAD LINKS

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by rossikle

Hi All,

Wonderful forum. Thanks for letting me be a part of it. I have been looking around and can't seem to get this question figured out, so I apologize if the answer exists.

I've never been quite clear on what the game is about, except to win. As a result, when I get my mission, I turn up time compression to full blast (8219 or something, I think) and zoom to my ordered destination, not trying to kill anything along the way. But time compression keeps dropping back to low with every single identification so I am constantly rapidly pressing my + button or it takes bloody FOREVER to arrive at my destination.

This constant tapping of the the + key...is this normal? If I just leave it on time compression 1, I won't reach my destination for LITERALLY a week. Makes me think I'm missing something.

Also, I can complete the whole game just by reaching my destinations, finding the nearest enemy harbor and blast a ton of ships that all just sit there. Why would I try for a convoy that includes 3-4 bad guys with them and are way harder to hit in the first place? Again, I must be missing something.

Any enlightenment on these questions would be a Godsend and greatly appreciated. Cheers,

Ross

Sailor, you're new around here and I'm checking out the new Vivaldi browser, so I'll be gentle.

This here......is something called a simulation. Simulation is really just a fancified word we use for "game" when we want to tell our wives we don't play kiddie games on our computers. But deep down, there is a meaning to the word. Simulation means we're wanting to ask the question, "What if we were there?" What if we were all cooped up in a people tube with a bunch of smelly buddies told to go out and sink some Jap shipping. Oh yeah, don't get killed if you can help it. That personal concern as an afterthought just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, don't it?

So you encounter convoys and sink ships (dancing with the escorts when necessary) because you are ordered to, sailor! It's your job and if you don't do it you'll be pounding some God forsaken beach somewhere nobody ever heard of and that ain't safe either. At least in your sub you have some measure of control.

In the [strike]game[/strike] simulation, harbors are botched. Real harbors had sub nets. Real harbors had shore guns. Real harbors were protected by aircraft. Real harbors were so dangerous that almost no harbors were raided during the entire war. Photo missions to photo harbors? Don't make me laugh. In fact, when Gene Fluckey (Lucky Fluckey--now you know how to pronounce it!) DID pull off a harbor raid, sneaking in through 20 miles of shallow water with unmarked channel and merely shelled a harbor and sank fishing boats, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Good thing he's dead right now because if he were alive he'd come and kick my butt all the way to China. According to him the medal belongs to the boat and the men who served in her.

So when you go out to attack lousily constructed harbors that are sitting ducks, you're PLAYING a GAME and we have to spill the beans to your wife. But when you attack convoys like the real submarines did in the war, you're OPERATING a SIMULATION, a higher and more worthwhile use of a computer and of your time. Your time on Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific now constitutes historically plausible research into whether you have the cajones to do what the boys in the people tubes did in World War II.

That is all. Dismissed. (why do I hear Colonel Klink's voice as I type that?)

I'll deal with the time compression thing in another post.

[Rockin Robbins]

Okay, you aren't just a helpless victim of time compression. I'll show you how to gain control over it. Along with that will come some measure of danger and I'll explain that as I go along.

/Wolves of the Pacific/Data\Config/Main.cfg is a catch-all configuration file that controls lots of game settings, among them, time compression.(I'm using the slash instead of backslash because Vivaldi is using a character set by default that renders a backslash as a Yen symbol.)

Let's look at the beginning of the file:

[SETTINGS]
LoadingMovie=No
VoiceCommand=No
DisableMessages=No
EventCamera=No

[TIME COMPRESSION]
TimeStop=0
RealTime=1
LandProximity=4
CriticalDamage=1
CrewEfficiency=128;1
AirEnemyDetected=1
SoundEffects=2
CharacterAnim=4
EnemyDetected=8
RadioReport=8
Particles=8
PrayState=8
HunterState=32
3DRender=32
Maximum=8192

Now, Main.cfg is a text file, so you can open it with Notepad, or I use Notepad++. We're interested in the [TIME COMPRESSION] section. Here we see the maximum TC values permitted for different game states.The game automatically ratchets down that value if encountering various situations. If you are already at a lower value nothing happens.

Time stop is what happens when you hit the backspace key. Some supermods, TMO especially, set this to 1 so that backspace returns you to real time. It's a matter of personal preference and I like 1. Real time is 1 and I don't see why that should be changed.

Then there's encountering land in your path, which by default drops you to 4x. This is designed to save your skinny hide from becoming a beached whale. I'd leave it but you can do what you want.

I'm not sure what the effect of the Crew Efficiency parameter is and have always left it alone. Air Enemy detection is a safety consideration to prevent you from becoming fish food at 8192 times speed! Most probably a good thing to leave......

But Sound Effects and Character Animation are annoyances. You can set them to whatever time compression you like to run normally and they won't drop you out any more.

Enemy Detected is two things. First, it's a fish food preventer because enemies attacking with full 1x TC capability when you're at 8192, blissfully unaware of their presence is harmful to your health. Second, blasting by them and being fortunate enough to avoid feeding said fishies denies you the opportunity to attack the enemy. They aren't ALL accompanied by a swarm of angry DDs, you know.

Radio Reports are predominately garbage. Chase after them and you find empty ocean most of the time. You can safely set that to your preferred normal TC.

Particles is usually fog. Fog is great hunting weather. I like to check out my surroundings in that situation because if the enemy is there he is vulnerable. But you may want to set that for your normal TC preference.

Pray (sic--should be Prey) State and Hunter State are for when you are in combat. I'd leave them alone. Note: entering any TC at all in TC gives the enemy a huge advantage.

3DRender is the maximum TC allowed when you are on deck. You can leave that alone without any problems.

Edit the file as you want and save it. I'd make a backup of the original and call it main.cfg.backup, then save the changed file as main.cfg.

Now the game won't drop out of TC so much. If it does, you know it's something important you have to pay attention to.

One of the greatest things about Silent Hunter 4 is how the devs chose to control the engine with text files containing the parameters of the simulation. Learning to control those is part of playing......ahem.......using the simulation to obtain the data you seek.

Happy researching!

[Aktungbby]

rossikle!

[Rockin Robbins]

And welcome aboard, rossikle! Great to have you here.

Danger! Tweaking configuration files is the beginning of a hopeless addiction to modding the game and unavoidable insanity. Compulsive Tweak Disorder is a terrible, incurable and invariably fatal disease.

[Captain Dave]

I've got CTD bad then.

[rossikle]

Wow, what a warm and wonderful welcome. Much appreciated, as is all the great explanations. I look forward to the time I become well-versed enough to be able to give advice to some yet-as-unknown newbie on here.

Ross

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim Ross

[Sidekikd34]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

But Sound Effects and Character Animation are annoyances. You can set them to whatever time compression you like to run normally and they won't drop you out any more.

Particles is usually fog. Fog is great hunting weather. I like to check out my surroundings in that situation because if the enemy is there he is vulnerable. But you may want to set that for your normal TC preference.

If I may contribute my 2c, I think Sound Effects, Character Animation, and Particles refer to the TC limits at which these are rendered, not a TC they return you to. Setting them higher would cause those things to be generated at higher TC. Particles are also smoke I think, based on the fact that smoke from fire goes away if TC is higher than 8x when viewed on deck or periscope.

[KaleunMarco]

hey rockin robbin,

nice explanation of the main time compression. thank you.
follow-up question, if you know:
situation: pacific theater, surface contact has been made with an enemy convoy. however you are in an area that is not conducive for an underwater attack that will allow an opportunity for you to successfully escape. so....you track the convoy staying just out of their visual detection range. now the problem: using TC at this point becomes very tedious because you can scale up to 16 but as soon as a redetection by your crew is announced, TC returns to 1. i can see only two solutions: a. speed ahead of the convoy and wait for them. this give them the opportunity to zig-zag and lose you. or 2. somehow change the TC settings that allow you to remain within range and run consistently at one TC rather than bouncing from 16 to 1 every minute.

let me know what you think.

mark

[Rockin Robbins]

Hey Mark! Sounds like your Enemy Detected=1. Change it to 8 or 16 and your TC will only drop to that if you are set above that.

If you have radar, it's easy to remain out of sight and take position in front of the convoy while remaining constantly in contact. Then you can be instantly aware if the convoy changes course and change your course to intercept.

I like to set up five miles ahead of the convoy 2000 yards from the track of the outside escort. I'll set up for a stern shot with high speed torpedoes and generally I'm using the Dick O'Kane technique so I don't have to be bothered with identifying ships. Using the stadimeter outside 1000 yards is a lose-lose proposition anyway. I want a less than 3000 yard shot to the largest target in the convoy.

I shoot 2 for my first shots at the convoy at the largest target. I really don't care if I sink anything. These shots are escort bait. If they hit and damage a ship that's a bonus. We want those torpedoes to be seen and suck all the escorts to your side of the convoy.

That's why we do a stern shot from 3000 yards. Shoot and immediately pop to the surface, running away from the convoy at ahead emergency. Now you have 90 minutes to get to the other side of the convoy and attack totally unguarded ships from a close, guaranteed to hit and sink location.

Same deal. But now you can sneak in to less than a thousand yards from your target. It's important that you only be detected by things going boom. Then, whatever you do, do it quickly, pop to the surface and run away before those escorts buy a vowel and charge to your side of the convoy. Because guess what? You're headed to the other side again for an unhindered attack.

You can nibble until the convoy is gone. Start at sundown and you can go all night without the normal danger--this is important in TMO and FOTRS flavors. Things that are duck soup in the stock game and RFB will get you killed with TMO or FOTRS.

And think about it. This is a good reason the U-boats, with their bragged about superior deep diving ability, were unsuccessful, while US boats with lesser diving ability were successful. You, in a U-boat, attack a convoy. Lacking the speed to get out before the escorts arrive you dive deep. Ha, ha! you say, we can dive to 500 meters and not get killed!

But that is not the point. The DDs loiter over you, dropping ineffectual ash cans on you for several hours. What harm can you do now? None. You are on vacation from the war, completely harmless. If they get lucky you die for nothing, being as harmless as a civilian. If they give up after four hours, they steam back to the convoy at 30+ knots. You can never reacquire the convoy again.

However, the American boat fights. It has the speed to maneuver quickly after the shot, preventing the escorts from attacking. It has the speed to end around while the escorts are depth charging your last known position and attack again, unopposed. And the American boat carries enough torpedoes to finish the job, unlike the smaller but deeper diving and slower U-boat.

American boats fight and bring plenty of killing power to that fight. U-boats are under armed, slow and dive deep, giving crews an inflated idea of their own safety to lure them into hiding instead of fighting.

As a submarine, your job is to be dangerous. A hiding submarine at 500 meters, clawing for mere survival, is NOT dangerous. They are withdrawn from the war.