First Post - Hello All!!

[jerm138]

Hello everyone,
Allow me to introduce myself...

Last week I saw SH3 on sale for $5 and said "why not?" I was immediately hooked, especially when I learned how to manually target a ship (thanks to the volumes of good info I found here.) A couple days ago, I got SH4 and I'm still learning the ropes in the American sub.

I spent several years hooked on Microsoft Flight Simulator (version '92 up through FSX.) I was pretty active at the hovercontrol forums for a while. I really enjoy diving into a simulator, learning how to do everything manually, reading charts, etc. I'm looking forward to a similar experience with these programs.

I was a nuke electrician on the USS Buffalo (SSN-715) from '99 to '03. I spent many-a-hour in the control room plotting contacts, but unfortunately at the time I was too disgruntled to really pay attention to "coner stuff." I'm sure I would really enjoy experiencing it today (not a whole sub tour though!)

Anyway, I've been lurking here for a couple of days, soaking in all of the info I can. It looks like this is a great community, very helpful and very mature (something that's difficult to find on forums these days.)

I'm sure I'll have questions, and hopefully someday I'll be able to help others with answers... maybe even make a tutorial or two.

Looking forward to chatting with you...

[AVGWarhawk]

Welcome aboard sir! :up:

[Onkel Neal]

Welcome aboard :salute:

[Tweety]

Welcome aboard sir and happy hunting.

Dive right in, were here to help.

[Webster]

welcome to the greatest site on the web :woot::woot::woot:

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD!:sunny:

[Torplexed]

Greetings! :cool:

[gimpy117]

welcome to subsim! :arrgh!:

[sergei]

Like you said, this is a friendly helpful forum.
I like it here.
Welcome aboard :salute:

[Steiger]

Last week I saw SH3...learned how to manually target a ship


That was fast! :salute:


I really enjoy diving into a simulator

Get it? :up:

[DarkFish]

welcome aboard:yeah:

It looks like this is a great community, very helpful and very mature (something that's difficult to find on forums these days.)it sure is:DL
makes me long for high school again, those good ole days when i still had time to visit subsim every so often
did help me through a whole lot of boring hours, these forums..

[jerm138]

Thank you all for the "welcomes."

Steiger... the unintended puns are usually the best, I guess.

[TomcatMVD]

I've found myself going through a lot of different forums, being a simulation fan myself... and I'm yet to find such a helpful, friendly and funny bunch of people.
Subsim Rocks!

Welcome BTW!

[jerm138]

That was fast!

Yeah... and so was my first career, which began and ended this morning!

I had all realism on except for external camera view and update ship's location. (I only use the external cameras to watch the explosions, and I've read that the continuous updating is still not far from info that real skippers would have had)

My very first mission was to sneak into a harbor in mainland Japan and drop off some spy. I made it there with no major issues (after a stop-off at Midway to refuel). Once I got near Japan, I had to dodge a lot of enemy ships that were coming and going from the harbor and airplanes that I was picking up on the radar (one of them strafed me as I was diving). I timed it so that I was in the harbor overnight. On the way back out, with no contacts in sight or on sonar, I surfaced to get my batteries ready for my next encounter. Bad idea. I immediately started taking hits... I'm guessing from land-based artillery. I managed to slip away with some pretty severe-looking damage.

Then I got orders to join a battle in the South China Sea. I was a little concerned about fuel (about 60%) at this point, but figured I'd have enough as long as I left the party early and didn't go too fast.

On my way there, a convoy was reported in my area. I thought I'd play it safe and hit some tonnage there, then head back for fuel. I set up an O'Kane-style ambush with plenty of time to check and re-check everything, being careful to keep my scope underwater and go mostly off of sonar. It looked like there were 2 escorts and 4 merchants.

I was excited about my first convoy attack that wasn't a training mission. Everything was going as planned. That is, until I raised the scope to identify my targets and saw that the lead escort had already broke from the pack and was very quickly closing on my position, and another was close behind. I have no idea how they knew I was there, but I was in trouble. I dropped the scope, ordered 'silent running' and dove to 200 feet. They were pinging me like crazy. I didn't hear any explosions, but suddenly I began taking massive damage... flooding, fuel gone, air compressors gone.:damn:

I blew the tanks, thinking I'd get to the surface and go down in a blaze of glory, taking at least one ship with me. Unfortunately, as soon as I started my ascent, I was informed that I lost the ship and failed the mission.

The writeup about me at the end was almost comical, saying that the Navy erased my record to preserve the honor of the sailors who I killed.

I still had a great time, and learned a little. I'll start another one tonight and be more careful around the convoys.

I've done a lot of target practice with setups I made in the mission editor. I can hit a stern-bow-middle spread nearly every time... I just got to make sure they don't spot me and kill me first next time!

Thanks to everyone who writes tutorials for getting me started so quickly!

[Steiger]

I killed off 3 skippers on their first or second missions too! I hear a lot of that for some reason. In SH3 I could keep a career going for years, but for some reason SH4 got its fingers around my throat immediately. First skipper killed by shore artillery doing exactly what you were doing, dropping some stupid agent in the middle of Osaka harbour, second skipper "killed" because the diesel engines were destroyed so I was stranded (unfortunate and stupid result of the game not having more that 2 ways to end a patrol), third skipper killed by a time compress accident. Came out of time compression because 4 destroyers were shelling us. :\

[Sailor Steve]

You two need one of the supermods (RFB or TMO). They make the game a little harder in some areas, but they both eliminate the unrealistic mission assignments. Nobody, repeat NOBODY ever dropped off agents inside a harbor in Japan proper. I don't think anyone ever raided a mainland harbor either.

[magic452]

I have no idea how they knew I was there, but I was in trouble. I dropped the scope, ordered 'silent running' and dove to 200 feet.

That may be your problem. Should have been at silent running as you approached the convoy. If war ships are near go silent as soon as you go to PD. You can up the speed but you must be silent running.

Magic

[sergei]

Seconded.
When approaching any escorted target go to silent running as soon as you submerge.

[jerm138]

That may be your problem. Should have been at silent running as you approached the convoy. If war ships are near go silent as soon as you go to PD. You can up the speed but you must be silent running.

Magic

I was wondering how much of a difference silent running made. Now I know! Thanks for the tip. Do you pretty much always go to silent running as soon as you see an enemy ship? I think I read somewhere that silent running will stop torpedo reloading. If that's true, I suppose you come out of silent running as soon as you fire the first shot.

[Steiger]

Wait for the torpedoes to hit first. You don't want a destroyer hearing you and sounding the alarm and having the convoy scatter while your fish are on the way.

[DarkFish]

I was wondering how much of a difference silent running made. Now I know! Thanks for the tip. Do you pretty much always go to silent running as soon as you see an enemy ship? I think I read somewhere that silent running will stop torpedo reloading. If that's true, I suppose you come out of silent running as soon as you fire the first shot.well silent running itself doesn't help much. Silent running only stops torpedo loading and damage repairing, which means it's only useful if you either don't want to shoot more torpedoes or haven't got severe damage.
Still, using silent running before an attack or if you're trying to evade escorts can be useful.

Your speed is much more important, I try to keep the telegraph at a maximum of 1/3rd, if I really need to be fast i use 2/3rd max.

Of course this all changes if you're positive the enemy knows where you are, with an incoming destroyer speed is all that matters.

[bubblehead637633]

I'm not even sure I'm in the right forum, or posting in the right place but here goes.

Running SH4 with TMO Mod (only) installed. This is an incredible MOD!. Kudos to all involved. Amazing.

Small Problem. I went out on patrol. Manned Battle stations, Lined up on a target, opened my outer doors, hit enter. Nothing. Saved and exited and went to subschool to figure out what I was missing (SH4 stock has that nice bank of torpedo indicators when you're at the scope, TOM doesn't). Documentation makes mention of a "fire Button" Can't find the dang fire button. :damn: After spendinfg quite a while looking over the interface, I still can't find the Fire button. I read that the interface for TMO is based on that of SH3, so I pulled out my SH3 keyboard chart and still have no success.

While I admit that it would be a challenge to do an entire war patrol using only my deck gun, it would be nice to use torpedos.

What the heck am I missing? :06:

(I'm no stranger to subsims, and I'm not newby with SH4. I have also played SH3 a little. Thus, I have the distinct impression that I am going to be laughed at when I find out what I'm doing wrong! ):oops:

[Munchausen]

Originally, the "Fire" button was reassigned in SH2 because too many people were accidently firing off a torpedo while chatting in multiplayer. Of course, you don't really need to use the keyboard because there's a Launch button on the screen, near the Lock button. But, if you prefer to use the keyboard, try one of the following combinations (depending on the mod you're using): Shift+Enter, Ctrl+Enter, or Alt+Enter. Hopefully, one of those combinations will work.


Edit: The "Fire" button ... cursor is on top of it:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/pjcham/SH4/11_ready.jpg