I must be a total "noob"

[ckyidr]

Right I have a few questions about the game, i've been playing it for the last week and I've just realised I know very little about it. The manual is useless. And "Submarine School" is also very limited. I think the Sonar and Radar tutorial was removed in 1.2, so I don't have a clue how to use them.

I suppose the very first question is, how do enemy ship detect me, and how do I avoid it. Obviously there is visually, i.e. if i'm surfaced or if they see my periscope. But what about when i'm submerged, I'd be trying to sneak away with "Silent Running" on, only going 1/3 ahead, sometime's i'd be detected and sometimes not.

Q2. What are the circles around contacts on the map indicating? Outer circle visual range, inner circle sonar range?
http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/2549/sh46bz3.jpg

Q3. Managment of the crew. Each compartment has three rows of men, numbered 1-3 what does this mean?. I remember in SH3 there was a compartment where you could move men and they could rest there. How do your rest your men SH4. Sometime i'd be traveling along and all of a sudden my sub stops. I go to the crew managment screen and very one is asleep!.

[mookiemookie]

As far as your first question, it can be touch and go. A lot of it depends on variables out of your contol, such as the skill of the destroyer looking for you and the weather (rougher seas and the associated noise make it harder for them to find you on their sonar gear). The things that you can do are to go quiet (silent running mode on), go deep, and go slow (no more than 2 kts). Try and show a low profile to them. If you're a destroyer, it's much harder to find a submarine that's headed directly towards you, or directly away. Try not to show them a broadside angle on your sub, as it presents a larger target for pings to bounce off of.

Q2: You're exactly right. The reason why they're sonar-blind in their aft is due to the noise of their own engines.

Q3: This is new in SH4. Each one of the rows represents a shift. The crew automatically changes shifts every 8 hours, so there's no more of the micromanaging and putting sleepy crewmen to bed as if you were their nanny. If you call battle stations everyone is awake and each compartment gets a boost to performance, but nobody sleeps and thus no one restores fatigue. So if you call everyone to general quarters, make sure you don't forget to let them stand down once the threat is over.

[U-Bones]

Q3: This is new in SH4. Each one of the rows represents a shift. The crew automatically changes shifts every 8 hours, so there's no more of the micromanaging and putting sleepy crewmen to bed as if you were their nanny. If you call battle stations everyone is awake and each compartment gets a boost to performance, but nobody sleeps and thus no one restores fatigue. So if you call everyone to general quarters, make sure you don't forget to let them stand down once the threat is over.

I will add that the active shift or row has a darker background. Battlestations sets all rows as active or dark. Manning guns or activating Damage Control darkens the corresponding sections.

[-Pv-]

Shift changes are 4 hours not 8 and change at fixed times during the 24 hour period within 11 minutes of the hour.

Some hints:

Use Battle Stations and Repair Crew commands only when necessary.

While in base, use your renoun to purchase extra crew with high skills in mechanical/electrical for the Damage Control and repairs will go better (it will never be perfect- some things cannot be repaired.) Also use that opportunity to slowly replace weakest crew

Only compartments/equipment manned with normal active crew gets repaired. The Damage control party boosts repair, but active crew assigned to a station are necessary.

Place crew with highest leadership skills in 1st (larger icon) slot in each compartment.

Inspect your crew once in a while. You can make them better by resting them when they need it or rotating the members of the shifts.

Tweak the initial assignment the computer gives you which is not the best. By shifting crew around, you can better balance the talent between shifts so you don't have a consistantly weak crew at the same time every day. Use the status bars to see when you have improved them or not.

Do not patrol on the surface for extended period in weather where the water flows over the bridge. This tires out the crew.

Keep wounded crew off duty. Better yet, don't let them get wounded.

There are two ways to rest crew:
1) Drag them foward one step in the watch sequence (from I to II, II to III, III to I, etc.) The next crew in sequence after active (dark grey) is the one that sleeps. If individuals get too tired, the computer will force them to rest. It is good to avoid this as a sleeping crew in an active watch weakens the watch.
2) Drag a crew member sideways in an inactive watch. Note, this may force two crew to sleep if they are tired enough. If they are not tired enough, you cannot force them to sleep.
-Pv-

[FAdmiral]

I would suggest that you play one of the single patrols before you attempt
the campaign. In this way, you will learn how to do it all but if you make a
mistake, you are not out the entire campaign, just a single patrol. Then you can
start over again and it operates the same as a patrol in the campaign....

JIM

[mookiemookie]

Thank you for correcting me on the crew shifts, Pv. I was unaware that it was 4 hours!

ckyidr, in order to get better at evasion, you might want to take a look at this thread from the SH3 boards. Sure its SH3, and it deals with the GWX mod which made destroyers a lot tougher, but the same techniques will work for you in SH4:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=395451&postcount=1