Best Bang For the Buck Mods

[Harleyman]

Hi all..Just started with my new copy of SH Gold..This is a brand new sim for me as in I have never dont this before and am beginning to learn my way around...Slightly....LOL

I completed the first lesson just doing basic manaurvers to the island checkpoint....The second one I got stuck on as I used all my maching gun ammo on the two boats I sunk..I did however have two out of 4 zeros on fire but all I had left was my cannon.... Never could complete..But I know better next time......But I ramble..Sorry...


My question is this...What are the best mods to install for SH4 Gold for a newbie like me? There seem to be many and most are just out of my league for now so I will pass on them......I would like more maching gun ammo and perhaps faster loading time.....


Should I even worry about RSRD at this learning curb I'm facing?








Thanks for any tips on that...


My next newbie mission is a torpedo attack.......AHHH EEEKKK...Thats what I'm talking about...Lets get on with the mayhem...LOL


Thanks

[Soundman]

It all depends on how you wish to play the game. I suggest either TMO or Real Fleetboat. Read the threads in the Mods section of the forum to research what each one will change within the game. Once you have done that if you are not familiar with JSGME (a great utility for installing and uninstalling mods) use that to play your choice. The great benefit of using JSGME, is that you can easily try them all to see what your preference is. I would also suggest one of the graphics mods, either Enviromental 5.0 or PE4. I would not wait to put those babies in, they both improve the graphics drastically. Again, try them both and see what you prefer. And yes, RSRDC is good. You will not see as many targets, so you may wish to hold off a while on that one, in order to have more targets to practice on. There is much more info available in the mods forum.

[banjo]

I would do this--

Play stock for a couple of weeks until you are sharp with everything. Then add TMO and RSRDC. Carefully read the TMO readme so you can make whatever changes you want (like tails on your map contacts, external camera, difficulty, etc).

Both TMO and RFB have enviromental mods built in so I'd play them unmodded for a while. They both look great out of the box.

[Harleyman]

Ok then....Thanks men......As soon as I get some time later tonight I now know where to continue my reading and learning....Thanks a bunch....But now I'm going after that dang turkey again....LOL

[Sledgehammer427]

wheres Rockin Robbins to explain the two soopermods?

*RR thats your call*

but it also depends on how you are targeting your ships... because if you are using casual "auto" targeting, all you have to do is lock and shoot.

if you like...you can manual target, this offers a better feeling of satisfaction IMO (in my opinion,)
its really simple, and really over exaggerated.

1. Identify the ship, just lock, and flip thru the manual until you see the ship in the manual, click on the checkmark.
2. when you click on the check, the stadimeter (range-finder) will show up. in stock, line up the bottom of the ship to the very tip-top of the masts. try to be as exact as possble, one pixel could make a miss...press the send to TDC button
3.My guess is that you are on a good track, in place in the targets path, but not where it will hit you. wait until the target reaches 15-20 degrees from your intial rangefinding observation, (like if it was at 45 degrees, wait until 25 degrees, or something like that.) press the send button
4. take another rangefinding observation, then move to your speed dial on the top. hot the clock button and it will give you a speed and bearing estimate, now, if you use it, thats up to you, preess the send to TDC button again.
5. i "eyeball" my AOB reading, but i am 90% accurate. just turn the AOB dial until you are comfortable with how it looks, PS, youll never be truly comfortable with your readings, use what looks best!

hope i have helped!

[Rockin Robbins]

Hey there! The two supermods......where do I keep that stuff. Oh, yeah, in my brain. Then it's in mortal danger.:yep:

Trigger Maru Overhauled
Unfortunately with TMO, right now it's not in development and we're just waiting for a patch or another mod that just breaks it. Trigger Maru Overhauled is the reaction of Ducimus, he of the iron bars right now, and his first reaction to SH4 after migration from SH3, "what the @#$# is this wussy game?*" So he started mixing around in the guts of SH4 to see if there were any familiar handles he could tweak. Mwa-ha-ha, he found dozens and dozens and a monster was born: Trigger Maru.

Now Trigger Maru has nothing to do with reality as far as it's main point of evil, demented genius: the enemy AI. Enemy escorts have each been issued a clone of Superman, who uses his x-ray vision and super hearing to detect you in all sorts of impossible situations. They can and will depth charge you with deadly accuracy without even pinging when you are "safely" creeping away at silent running below the thermal "barrier." If a DD gets a visual on you from three miles, don't plan on letting him fire more than three times. If you're not down before then you surely will be in a few seconds.....but in many pieces.

The TMO submarine itself, however, is the epitome of realism. The TMO plotting system is by far the finest method yet, preserving the ability to check your solution in the attack screen, but not giving you too much information. All friend/foe/neutral colors, all target silhouettes, all ID text beside the contact are gone! There is no velocity vector to give you the exact course. You have to work out all that info yourself! Before Observer jumps on me, there is one defect in the TMO plotting system and it's hardwired. There's no fix for it. For visual sightings the pip is placed on the map in its exact real location. You can just take your compass and measure the perfect range. If you have radar or take sonar ranges, that isn't an issue because you would have that information anyway.

The TMO keyboard layout is similarly a work of genius. People say that it resembles the SH3 layout. They're right, but to leave it there is to do the work a grave disservice. There are two keys to cycle through the torpedo tubes, "q" for the forward tubes and "y" for the aft tubes. Just think how useful THAT is. And the attack screen, which is nearly forgotten by many players, but crucial for accuracy, is only an F6 keystroke away. I use it every day, especially in my Real Fleet Boat installation.

The interior of the sub is way ahead of its time in realism. All gauges work, especially the tachometers, which I couldn't live without in silent running. I cheat a bit and run the motors up to 100 RPM to make about three knots with very little loss of stealth.

So if you want the most challenging SH4 and a great submarine, TMO is a great choice. Just move quickly before something kills it.

Real Fleet Boat
Where TMO was the product of one now burned out individual who is presently talking to himself and drooling a lot* (not really:rotfl:), Real Fleet Boat is a team product. It is a hippie commune, safely isolated on another website so they don't hurt anyone around here:lol:. This website, Submarine Sim Central (http://forum.kickinbak.com/index.php), recently renamed from Silent Hunter Modding (hey, hippies forget the name of their site occasionally, then they have to make up a new one), is a public website, where all development threads can be browsed and even contributed to by the public. For instance the Ship Damage Model Mod (http://forum.kickinbak.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=623) thread, stretching from its concept on June 12, through 482 posts showing tests and details in excruciating detail through the present day can be analyzed by anyone who cares to. By the way, the NYGM ship damage model is still a work in progress, with warships not even touched yet and everything being tweaked daily. This is true open source modding, with the products and procedures open to the benefit of all. Modding is not always done that way, you know, but in spite of their p-r-i-ckly exterior faces on Subsim, the RFB Team really are the forces of good and niceness in a world of evil and rottenness. And they have the advantage of the services of yours truly, court jester, gadfly, raconteur and occasional writer of subnuclear mods that break their precious Ship Damage Model Mod into a million pieces. With friends like me they don’t need enemies. Only a few of them apprehend that, though, so I’d appreciate it if you’d keep that under your hat.

Real Fleet Boat is modeled on reality itself. If something is found not to be realistic, it is changed. That means in 1942 you could well hit four for four and find that you have four duds. They may pass harmlessly below the keel of your victim. If you’re on the surface and think you’re doing battle with that escort, say your prayers. You’re fish food in minutes as even machine guns hole your sub and kill your crew on deck. Your deck gun is going to take several dozen shots (I mean 80 or more!) and a half hour to sink a 1000 ton target. In the meantime, you’re just waiting to be plastered by a plane called in by your intended victim. If you submerge, that plane can see you below the surface if conditions are right and bomb you with deadly accuracy at periscope depth and sometimes below.

As far as the submarine itself goes, Ducimus worked very hard to bring almost all the goodies that were admirable in TMO to the RFB sub. Then the resulting superior product was further wrenched into shape with clickable just about everything, even more detail, animated fans…The RFB sub is magnificent and much better than any previous submarine in SH4, including TMO. The TMO plotting system and keyboard layout have not been made available to RFB officially yet, although Orion 2012 and I have those available. TMOplot is still in need of some small tweaking, but it works perfectly. TMOkeys is just a bit different from Ducimus’ version in that the semicolon has been restored to radar depth, as he originally had it and it presently contains the addition of shift-I for “somebody the @#$$ identify that target. I can’t find the freakin’ thing in the manual!” Shift-i may vanish if I am to obtain official permission to include it as optional install material in the RFB package itself. We’re still fighting about that. I had Luke down on the ground with his arm levered behind and was applying pain when I discovered he liked pain. I really don’t know what to do now.

The enemy AI of RFB is exactly stock with no changes. If you find the enemy a bunch of wusses now, they aren’t going to change with RFB. However, the RFB boat has much more realistic periscopes (you can’t see anywhere near as well) a tweaked nighttime (dark as the inside of your closet), nasty defective torpedoes (read the story at the beginning of the RFB manual. It really happened to me in my career.) I’m thinking the addition of TMO Supermen AI would just make survival impossible in RFB. In my opinion, the gameplay balance is much better than stock and much more exciting.

Because RFB is the product of a dynamic, changeable team, and is under current development, it is truly the supermod of the future for fleet boats. The really excellent parts of TMO have already been adapted or built into RFB, with the exception of the AI. My dream is to cook up a tweakable AI module with selectable parameters based on the AI of TMO. Ducimus’ documentation is between his ears and he’s truly and totally retired right now. When last seen he was sitting naked in a cold bath, repeating over and over again, “the little bird flew up, and flew away!*” I wish we could get his cooperation but the situation looks doubtful. I believe he is well and truly retired and cares not what happens with TMO. That is all the more reason to go with RFB and await the options available in the future.

Have I rambled enough? Yes.

*all characterizations of "Ducimus" are fanciful products of a demented imagination and do not intentionally bear resemblance to any person now or ever living or dead.:)