Good mods for SH2 and DC 1.1 ?

[Wim Libaers]

Hello,

I just started with SH2. Now I'm wondering which mods are recommended. I'm not looking for different campaigns, just things that will improve the basic game (already patched to 1.1).

I've found a few things on the subsim downloads page http://www.subsim.com/subsim_files/patches2005.html#sh2 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/../subsim_files/patches2005.html#sh2) . Besides updated gauges, which I assume will not cause conflicts, there are some others I find interesting:

Silent Hunter II Realism Pack v1.4
Vicker's Secondary Explosion Effects
Vicker's Torpedo Wake & Oil Slick display v3.0
Projekt Messerwetzer 1.03

Will these all work with 1.1 patched versions of the game? The Vickers mods refer to an older version of the realism pack. And does Messerwetzer add anything good for single player games? Other recommendations?

Same for Destroyer Command. The selection of available mods seems smaller, any must-have stuff?

[Sailor Steve]

Yes, they all work with the patched version. In fact, Messerwetzer requires it. The 'older' Vickers mods are unavailable, so don't worry about using the wrong ones; you can't. Messerwetzer allows you to manually control the dive planes, which is unrealistic but fun. So the answer is yes, it does add things to the single-player game.

I also highly recommend the DBSM (Das Boot Sound Mod). It adds wonders to the immersion.

Of course I answered in the other forum before I noticed your 'disclaimer', so this is a copy of my reply there.

[Wim Libaers]

Thanks, I've already added Messerwetzer, and will try a few missions to test it as they suggest.

Now, about the "Silent Hunter II Realism Pack v1.4", that's the uboatmod21.zip file. Apparently, the author has made an extra update, uboatmod22.zip. Located here:
http://www.trekweb.com/~jasonb/articles/silent_hunter_ii.shtml

It claims to make torpedo damage more realistic, but the author does note that it allows much higher scores than realistic in the campaign. Any recommendations about that? It does seem to me that some ships require lots of hits to damage them.

[Hitman]

In general terms,the best gameplay mod for SH2was CB's DesV5 mod, which was available here long ago: www.ebort.com (http://www.ebort.com)
However Chris removed all SH2 mods from his web, so you probably would need to contact him to get the mod, or get it from someone who has it. I have it somewhere on a backup CD, but can't find it now :-?

[Wim Libaers]

That one doesn't seem to be easily available anywhere, I've also found Fletcher's realism mod 2.3 (http://www.freewebs.com/navalsims/downloads.htm) (newer than the 2.1 at the Subsim page) which is supposed to be good, but it changes lots of things and it looks like some things might overlap with the uboatmod 2.1 or 2.2. I'm not looking for some perfect SH2 version, just some enhancements that improve the game while not ruining the balance. Some ships do seem to have incredible torpedo resistance.

I already installed the Vickers mods, as they do not seem to have any balance-affecting problems, just more special effects.

[Palindromeria]

you will find that the pm 1.03 also adds secondary and magazine explosions.
ships also take much much more damage when they collide.

attacked and panicking convoys tend to bump each other quite a bit in sh2.
Often times such convoys sink themselves with the pm1.03 install :-?
meanwhile the 3 dd that are trying to attack you also collide
and poof youve escaped.
kinda weird gameplay IMO

it drastically improves online stability, however.

so long as there are no collisions :)

[Wim Libaers]

I noticed that, yes. Sometimes a burning ship with serious but not fatal damage (something like 85 in the deck gun display) would suddenly blow up.

On the other hand, sometimes the torpedoes seem very weak, for example on the first single mission I hit an auxiliary cruiser with two torpedoes, which did absolutely no damage at all. OK, so the mission information did state that those ships were hard to sink due to being full of empty barrels, but still, two good hits should scratch the paint a bit :hmm:

Aircraft alerts also seem quite late. Reminds me of Falcon 4: "Archer inb... BOOM!"
I usually get the warning about spotted aircraft when it is right above me and the depth charges have already hit the water. :dead: