new player: question about mods and game.

[boonie]

Hi i am a new sh4 player, need some advice on what mods to take:

I am pretty much satisfied with the stock v1.5 so far but there are several stuff that i would like changed by adding mods:

i) when trying to manual tdc, the range finder is completely faulty and only gives wrong distance info even when target is in obscene close range. I have to literally clock in the wrong stadimeter position in order to get a correct range return.

ii) the torpedo spread adjustment knob is too small (under hi resolution screen settings) and it takes alot of nudging with my mouse to set the correct spread angle. need a mod that can make this process faster.

iii) in certain foggy conditions, i can see them boats just fine but i cant lock them to start the tdc process.. what mod fix this? have tried getting closer to them but still cant get a lock at below 1000m. (this is game breaking for me.. i really hope theres a mod to fix this, please help)

iv) when i installed a twin 20mm mg on the balao/gar/tambo class and try to fire the guns, a big part of my view gets blocked completely by the conn tower structure... . (using the starting black conn tower). Is there a mod for this?

question about sh4:
i) what is the radius around the yellow star that i need to stick to for those patrol assignment?

[Hylander_1314]

Well, I haven't played stock in ages, so I don't remember the range you should operate in for patrol assignments. Usually the orders should state the range you need to stay in to gain the renown for accomplishing the patrol.

Should also give you the required time to stay there too.

If you pop over to the SH4 mods forum, there is a sticky at the top of the page for new players to peruse. It has everything you can think of for mods.

The big Megamods are,

RFB (Real Fleet Boat)

TMO (Trigger Maru Overhauled)

FOTRS (Fall Of The Rising Sun)

GFO (Game Fixes Only)

And there is an add on that works with them for historical battles, and dwindling Japanese vessels as the war wears on:

RSRD (Run Silent Run Deep)

Don't know how much hard drive space you have, there is MultiSH4, that lets you run different megamods at the same time without having to re-install the game for the different mods.

For manual targeting improvement, look at Cap'n Scurvy's Optical Correction Mod. It addresses a lot of issues concerning targeting, but follow his instructions as it can be a little daunting if you're new to SH4.

[Armistead]

Do yourself a favor, load a supermod, stock is basically bugged and unrealistic..

[Sailor Steve]

Agreed. Stock is a bad idea.

[magic452]

If you stay with stock you must stay within 50Nm. of the star for 48 hours I think it is????? Don't go outside or you start the 48 hours again.

But with the above.

i) the OTC mod or Max optics mod will help with this.

ii) Not much you can do with this try 1920x1080, works pretty good for me.

iii) That is a game bug more or less not much help here either.
Best thing to do is learn a zero gyro angle shooting method such as O'Kane or vector analysis method. See Rockin Robins bag of tricks thread.

iv This is something you have to live with till you get a cut down tower.


Not much help was I.

Magic

[boonie]

which of the megamods give the most accurate stadimeter?

i have read the TMO manual and RFB manual, they dont seems to state any fix for the stadimeter bugs..

[Armistead]

I've never had a problem with the stad measurement, only as good as how accurate you are taking measurements, but I agree it can be off a few hundred yards.

However, I now use OTC mod with TMO which corrects stad and many other issues for realism, plus with this setup you get a working TDC and radar that is more realistic.

[doulos05]

I've repeated this question a couple places, but haven't seen an answer yet. Does OTC work with FOTRS? Is there a possibility of getting it working with FOTRS?

[boonie]

decided to go with RFB + OTC + max optics. thanks for the suggestions.

i didnt look into FOTRS and GFO because they didnt have a seperate dowloadable manuals so i cant see what they offer before implementing (no time to test them all really, cba tbh).

what other graphic mods/sound mods that add more realism/eye candy? suggestions please

[boonie]

Originally Posted by magic452

iii) That is a game bug more or less not much help here either.
Best thing to do is learn a zero gyro angle shooting method such as O'Kane or vector analysis method. See Rockin Robins bag of tricks thread.


Magic

i have made an excel sheet with all the tan, sine and inverse sine calculation that will give me the correct bearing to shoot using the constant bearing method.

The shot is very accurate but only the 0 degree trajectory is accurate, when trying to calculate an accurate constant bearing shot with torpedo spread angles incorporated the aim bearing is not true due to the gyro angle and extra time and length spent by the torpedo turning in the water. Is there a link that shows how calculate this additional gyro vector?

[boonie]

Just loaded Real Fleet Boat mod (RFB) 2.0 with patch, started a submarine school mission to check things out.

I really dont like the nav map. With "No map contact update" disabled i still have to update the contact info constantly using the scopes or the icon in the map disappear. Why do they have to make it into such a degree of micromanagement nightmare? x1

edit:
-also the sonar cant pick up the 2 torpedo boat speeding in front of me in the navigation training school mission..lol. nice "realism". x2
2nd edit:
-found out the stock game also have this 'feature' of not being able to detect the 2 torpedo speed boat .. i thought RFB introduced this bug, very sorry.

[boonie]

i think i will just stick to OTC at the moment.. both TMO and RFB seems to have changed the nav map to be too labor intensive for my taste. i would love to have the rest of their features though but apparently they are all bundled together...

[Hylander_1314]

Originally Posted by boonie

decided to go with RFB + OTC + max optics. thanks for the suggestions.

You shouldn't need MaxOptics on top of OTC. Also, be careful using mods on top of mods, as it might, can, or will break things.

i didnt look into FOTRS and GFO because they didnt have a seperate dowloadable manuals so i cant see what they offer before implementing (no time to test them all really, cba tbh).

FOTRS is based on TMO, and mostly adds new ships, and has a DD add on that adds more escorts, but it also adds more planes, and other ships.

GFO mod just fixes the basics so players can play the vanilla game without a megamod.

what other graphic mods/sound mods that add more realism/eye candy? suggestions please

Navmap Makeover is a cool mod for the main map, and has an optional airbase add on.

New large lifeboat mod is nice combined with Webster's lifeboat lifeboat speed mod.

Webster's Smaller Rain mod.

There are many more, especially sub skins. Foobar did a ton of them.

Just be careful with enviornment mods, as they can mess up the AI sensors.

[boonie]

Originally Posted by Hylander_1314

You shouldn't need MaxOptics on top of OTC. Also, be careful using mods on top of mods, as it might, can, or will break things.



FOTRS is based on TMO, and mostly adds new ships, and has a DD add on that adds more escorts, but it also adds more planes, and other ships.

GFO mod just fixes the basics so players can play the vanilla game without a megamod.



Navmap Makeover is a cool mod for the main map, and has an optional airbase add on.

New large lifeboat mod is nice combined with Webster's lifeboat lifeboat speed mod.

Webster's Smaller Rain mod.

There are many more, especially sub skins. Foobar did a ton of them.

Just be careful with enviornment mods, as they can mess up the AI sensors.

going to give max optic + RFB another try.. i am going to miss the great stadimeter accuracy from OTC though. maybe under 1680 resolution the stadimeter wont fail so abruptly. I just learned that under different res settings all the scopes have varying degree of faults.. maybe 1920 res was the cause.

[Hylander_1314]

Honestly, I would use the OTC mod over MaxOptics, as OTC corrects a lot of those issues. The modder has different resolution files that you load so that everything is adjusted to work with a specific resolution.

The only downside, is that it moves the Conning Tower back so that everything is centered on the middle of the sub, because the CT is set forward normally, but it skewed the range measurements. But it does work rather well if installed as per the instructions. And I noticed a marked increase in frame rates too.

The other thing, is with the megamods, try not to use too many files that overwrite core game / mod files. Art files just change graphics. I try to avoid mods that change .mis, .dat, .sim, and other files. The readme files should warn against doing it, as it can break things in the game.

If all they alter or replace are tga, or dds files, those are just artwork, or eye candy.