Newbie

[roseman]

Hey newbie here in first post on the Radio Room. There seems to be newbie threads in every thread but no thread devoted to newbies...so here goes.
I’m familiar with 688(I) and have now just installed SH4 Wolves and am studying things on this forum.
I picked up a very reasonably priced copy of SH4 WoP recently and then let the Game Shadow utility do its thing. It produced such a large patch that I was wondering if I have an older copy that may still have the StarForce copyright protection on it. I’m actually afraid to try to copy a DVD now!
Anyway I’m on an ACER Aspire 6920 laptop: os/Vista and I can say all seems to be OK.
Intel Core 2 Duo (2.0 GHz 2MB) 358MB Mobile Intel Graphic Media Accelerator X3100 4GB RAM) and the graphics are just fine with me. I shut everything down before loading the game from its normal set up. Also the upgrade patches from Game Shadow went to the proper folder (I think)... as I can see some changes.
I have some questions to anyone: seems the curser is a bit sluggish in certain stations ie the periscope, but not in others...is that a graphics card issue? All other displays seem well painted and quick. Also noticed a cool angle scale on the attack chart in a tutorial...is that a mod or add on?
My apologies if I didn’t search this topic more thoroughly; the search feature gives many threads that do not display this specific topic.
Thanks for you help in advance and I know I’ll be studying here for a while.

[SteamWake]

Well welcome ! :sunny:
let the Game Shadow utility do its thing


What thing is that? I thought it was just a matchmaking service.

[rditto48801]

Welcome to the forum from another relatively new person.
2.0 ghz CPU is the minimal required by SH4 iirc.
Unless your laptop is specifically made for gaming, it might not have the horsepower to run the game smoothly, so that might be a cause of the sluggish cursor in some spots.

Looking up online, it seems Ubisoft stopped using StarForce in 2006.
There are utilities to remove StarForce once all games using it have been uninstalled.
If your copy of SH4 was made in or after 2006, you might be lucky and not have one with StarForce.



I have learned a few things on these forums, and a few things through trial and error, that might prove useful for you.

I do know that the manual lists stuff that is not in the game, and doesn't list stuff that is in the game.

For example, with manual operation of sonar/hydrophone or radar, Home and End keys, and the mouse wheel, can be used to manually 'aim' them. The mouse wheel is most accurate imo, allowing you to slowly turn them at 1 degree increments, handy for more precise aiming of them.

The moment you 'fire' a torpedo, the TDC apparently stops updating torpedo data. It is best to manually open tube(s) before firing torpedoes, to prevent torpedoes from being launched with targeting data several seconds old.

You can often hear stuff on manual hydrophone use that the sonar operator will not report.
You can manually 'ID' something as a merchant or ship and 'update' it so it will be shown on map (if such a setting is used)

Convoy escorts can be devious little buggers (personal experience).
If there are several of them, beware of them apparently 'getting lazy' and then taking off, as one of them might actually have killed their engines to lurk and listen... or worse, make a (fairly good) attempt at imitating the sound of a merchant (with a 'flaw' for someone that uses hydrophones manualy to investigate the sound of a suddenly detected merchant)


A trick for escorts.
2 torpedoes, 1 at them, one 5 seconds later and aimed ahead of them. They don't speed up, boom. They speed up to avoid the first torpedo and don't turn enough, boom. Or the rare chance they will thread the needle, or have both their tail and nose blasted.


Trying to wait out a depth charge attack might not work to well, I have heard that any ship basically that can deploy depth charges has unlimited depth charges... :o

I have heard of, and encountered, that enemy's sometime can easily spot/see (and hit) a sub at night, even when they, technically, should not even be able to see the sub in general. Heck, I was near Wake once, looking for targets on the way back from patrol, started getting shot at by an apparent shore gun... 6-7nm away, at night... at least I think it was a shore gun, since I saw/heard no evidence of ships, and it was a lone gun firing at me.

It's amazing what silent running, all stop, and thermal layers do to mess up escorts, it is like they don't know what to do when stuff blows up when they don't know where I am even at... or do not even know I am there in the first place.
I guess it kind of goes well with the saying in my signature... :ping:
One minute the enemy ships are all :smug:
Then :ahoy:
Then :gulp:

If knowledge is power, then being unknown is to be invulnerable... (unless at least one of them knows how to actually track down and blast you out of the water, but I am still middle of 1942, so I haven't encountered any good sub hunters yet)

Overall, SH4 is still a good game, despite the not so good manual, and some of the short comings such as in terms of the enemy's ability to spot you easily when they shouldn't be able to spot you easily... there is also the problem with aircraft, some areas have absurd levels of aircraft. Some real WWII subs maybe reported several dozen aircraft spotted during patrol... but try several dozen per day... or a dozen an hour (rough estimate)...
You can either dive a lot and rely a lot on SD radar, or just lurk deep and slow during the day, and doing surface travel during the night.


Well welcome ! :sunny:


What thing is that? I thought it was just a matchmaking service.

I decided to google it.
It seems it does a lot more than matchmaking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameShadow
"GameShadow is a gaming community website and freeware utility that keeps PC gamers up-to-date with patches, game demos, trailers, mods and other content for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 games. GameShadow identifies the exact version of every game installed on a user's PC, then checks its database to determine which updates are available for those games."

[roseman]

Thanks rditto for your response. I did suspect my processor with the curser problem so I’ll live with it.
I’m having trouble with the escort cruisers too; they seem to find me if I go “possum” so I’ve been actively running away which can get nuts after
awhile.
Haven’t worked with sonar too much yet so I’ll check out the mouse wheel next mission.
Any “add ons” or mods you might suggest?

[AVGWarhawk]

'Possum' will not work. Go to silent running and change course every now and then.

Check the mod forums. I recommend you play stock and get a good feel of what the game is then get the 'wow' factor with a mod. For you I recommend TMO as you first mod. It is very good and just a fun mod to use. Later on try RFB with RSRD or perhaps you want to try the German side. Use OM for this. Up top of the page you will see Downlads with a nice yellow sign stating Now Open. You will find these mods there.

[roseman]

Good advice, thanks for the help.

[Akula4745]

Welcome Roseman... you're in good hands here. <G>

Akula4745

[roseman]

Thanks for the welcome Akula.
I'm reading CapnScurvy's High Realism Tutorial now and find it very helpful.
Thanks all

[Frame57]

Yep and run at "silent running" at 1/3 bell under a thermal layer and you should have no problemo...:salute:

[rditto48801]

For starters, I use automatic targeting, and also external camera, with stock, mid 1942.
I am not good at all when it comes to manual targeting, but I have done one patrol with just automatic targeting, stuff shown on map and external camera when I was in a good mood and didn't mind being a patient underwater predator listening for the heartbeats of my prey.
Most of the time I disable duds, use auto targeting, external camera (use it off an on), details shown on map, and varies if I use the realistic detection ranges or not.
It all depends of what kind of a mood I was in when I start a patrol, since my tastes in games wanders from time to time.

My 'play dead' tactic is not so much that.
Once in a while, I am in a position where I can 'sit and wait' for a convoy, and still be in a good firing position.
A few quick peaks, dive deep, wait, come up and open tubes, deliver some fish, and head on down again the moment the last fish is away.
So it is not so much as 'play dead' as 'pretend I am still not there'.
Poor buggers seem to have a horrible time finding me, as if they were caught with their pants down.

It does cause problems with 'small' convoys with just one or two transports, because all of the escorts hang around for quite a few hours if all the ships they were escorting were sunk... :doh:
If it does look like the escorts are heading right at me, then I will start to move, otherwise I leave them guessing and watch/listen for signs they might have found me... (this forum needs a ninja smilie...)
There have only been 2-3 teams where I have been able to employ such a tactic.

It makes sense that the Japanese might not be to good at sub hunting/detecting early in the war. If they were any more lame, I would just surface and blast them out of the water with the deck gun, but shooting stuff they at least are (to) good at. :dead:

I look forward to actually having to do more than napping to avoid them. :88)

Otherwise, I don't mind using more normal tactics, although I am sure to fire off a fish (or two) at any escorts that are in the wrong place at the wrong time, just so there is one less thing to worry about after all hell breaks loose. Heck, sometimes I get cranky and ignore the merchants and go after the escorts... the first time because of reporting a large convoy with 4 DD escorts that I was in a poor position to deal with... and getting ordered to sink escorts... :huh:

I do look forward to fixing whatever problem that has my game crashing on loading saves, so I can actually get back to SH4 and get later into the war and start running into escorts that have at least half a clue how to make me go "omg they are actually doing something of threat to me!" :-?
Although, if I find myself having to do a reinstall, it gives me an excuse to finally try out some mods... :yep:

[Armistead]

After I make my attack, if dd's aren't close, I'll turn and run at flank speed going deep of course. When a dd get within 1000 yards, I'll go silent and turn. 90% of the times I'm out of the dd's search pattern or circle of death and will track a new course while they're searching a few thousand yards in my baffles.