Hi, I´m new!

[Andrew82]

Hello all, my name is Andrew, I'm from The Neterlands and I´m new to subsim. Last week I was cleaning out one of my closets and there I found a copy of Silent HunterIV I purchased some time ago. I couldn't remember playing it (no playtime longer than a hour though..) so I installed it and spent some good hours playing!

I'm a total noob to Sub simulators so I went to search for some info on internet and ran into subsim.com, lots of info here! :yeah:

Today I installed the Trigger Maru 1.7.6 mod, the PE4 mod and the RSRDC_TMOv14_V370 mod (1.4 patch only). I must say the graphics are 100% better with these mods! I also noticed the gameplay changed; now I have to watch my fuel consumption and the trajectory of ships on the map are harder to plot etc. (Remember, I'm just a noob....) ;)

For now I'm playing with auto-targeting, I'd like to learn to manually target my potential victims but first things first.
So here are my first questions for you, the experienced captains;

1: Am I missing some "must have" mods? (I've seen some of your screenshots and they still are a lot better than mine..)
2: Witch mission(s) is/are best to play first as a complete noob?:D

Well, that's all for now, please forgive me if I made any mistakes with my English and do correct me so I can learn from my mistakes! :03:

Greets and a happy new year,
Andrew

[Steiger]

The best thing to do as a complete noob is a few torpedo practices until you get the plotting and firing basics down, then go straight to the campaign at the start of the war. That way you get into your first patrol without a lot of experience and have to learn everything the hard way - just like the real sub commanders did.

[DarkFish]

Usually we welcome new people at subsim with "Welcome Aboard", but to a fellow Dutchman I'd rather say:
Welkom aan boord:D

As for your questions:
1: Am I missing some "must have" mods? (I've seen some of your screenshots and they still are a lot better than mine..)
Not that I know of, TMO already includes some graphics mods. There are other supermods out there though, some of which include graphic mods that may be more to your liking.
2: Witch mission(s) is/are best to play first as a complete noob?:D
I'd say campaign. The missions are all hard for a complete noob i guess, they all include some huge, heavily escorted convoy or taskforce, you won't find lone shipping in the single missions.

[limkol]

Welcome aboard, Andrew.

It's been a while since I played the American side, so I am not the best man to help you out.

There are definitely a lot of things to think about when you first start out as Captain of a sub! Leave it on auto-targeting and unlimited fuel until you get more experience and so can concentrate on other things. You can always change the settings after you have got used to handling the boat. The most important thing is to have fun!

Good luck and happy hunting:salute:

[Munchausen]

(I've seen some of your screenshots and they still are a lot better than mine..)

Many of the screen shots are taken from the "upgraded" U-Boat add-on to the game ... it makes some changes to the graphics and most of the current mods are built specifically for the upgrade (also known as the 1.5 patch ... 'though it isn't really a patch).

[VirtualVikingX]

Welcome aboard! Hope you will stay for SH5!

[sergei]

Welcome :salute:

[Andrew82]

Thanks so far on a warm welcome! :yeah:
Nice too see there's a fellow Dutchmen among us!:up:


@ Munchausen & VirtualVikingX: I've been looking for the SH IV gold edition in Holland but so far no success, so I guess I'll stay on v1.4 until SH 5 is available.

[Armistead]

The mod set up you have is about as good as you can get with 1.4. There may be some smaller mods you can add, just check the mods page and make sure they work with 1.4. They're several smaller eye candy mods that work with 1.4

You could also load some skins to dress up your sub. Don't forget the radio station mods if you're into news and music of that era.

[jerm138]

You may want to also look into using the mission editor to create your own training setups.

I learned how to manually target by making my own easy setups, and gradually making them more difficult. My first one was a ship dead in the water, 700 yards straight ahead of me. Simple as can be. Next, I made him move a few knots, then I moved him away further... I just kept on it until I felt comfortable manually targeting.

I'm still a noob myself, but setting up your own training missions helps you a lot because you can gradually work your way up to the difficult stuff at your own pace.

[seaniam81]

@ Munchausen & VirtualVikingX: I've been looking for the SH IV gold edition in Holland but so far no success, so I guess I'll stay on v1.4 until SH 5 is available.

Direct2drive has UBM or patch 1.5 for 10 bucks. But you could spend an extra 7 and get the complete pack. That includes SH3, SH4, and UBM/patch 1.5

[Andrew82]

You may want to also look into using the mission editor to create your own training setups.

I learned how to manually target by making my own easy setups, and gradually making them more difficult. My first one was a ship dead in the water, 700 yards straight ahead of me. Simple as can be. Next, I made him move a few knots, then I moved him away further... I just kept on it until I felt comfortable manually targeting.

I'm still a noob myself, but setting up your own training missions helps you a lot because you can gradually work your way up to the difficult stuff at your own pace.

That's a really nice tip, haven't thought of that myself yet, thanks!

Direct2drive has UBM or patch 1.5 for 10 bucks. But you could spend an extra 7 and get the complete pack. That includes SH3, SH4, and UBM/patch 1.5

Thnx, but I'd like to have the complete pack, I'm sure it has to be out there somewhere!:hmmm:

[VirtualVikingX]

Try ebay. I bough mine SH4 + UBM from a german seller there.

[Andrew82]

Had some practice with manual targeting today and after watching and reading different tutorials I found here (thanks for that!) over and over again, I had my first kill using the aspect ratio method jeej! :yeah:

(Being a huge noob I used the mission editor to set up an easy target, but nevertheless...)

Still had some problems calculating the target speed (even though I knew I set the speed to 3 knots) and the firing solution wasn't spot-on too, but I guess practice makes perfect.

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae234/andre_moonen/SH_2010_3_1_2300_1.jpg

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae234/andre_moonen/SH_2010_3_1_2300_2.jpg

[Munchausen]

Still had some problems calculating the target speed (even though I knew I set the speed to 3 knots)....

:hmmm: Did you use the 3-minute rule (3 min. 15 seconds if working with meters instead of yards)?

[SteamWake]

Nice job, youll be sinking convoys in no time :salute:

[Andrew82]

Try ebay. I bough mine SH4 + UBM from a german seller there.

Bought my "gold" copy this afternoon on ebay from the UK!! :up:
Can't wait to see TMO1.9 with my own eyes..

:hmmm: Did you use the 3-minute rule (3 min. 15 seconds if working with meters instead of yards)?

nope, I step-by-step used the TDC/PK tutorial from RockinRobbin, in this tutorial he uses the periscope and stopwatch method. I wonder if that is a reliable method because you don't take your own speed and heading in consideration?? (But then again, maybe I'm just making stupid mistakes when using this method :D)

A the moment I have my game set up in metric units, I'm going to change that into Imperial units and see if that effects the outcome of the firing solution...?

[AVGWarhawk]

Welcome aboard! :yeah:

[Armistead]

Oh, he's gonna be stacking all kinds of mod's now...have fun but remember these two things.

BACKUP...you'll need em eventually.
Read the readme's with the mod's...mod soup can ruin your day.

[Andrew82]

Oh, he's gonna be stacking all kinds of mod's now...have fun but remember these two things.

BACKUP...you'll need em eventually.
Read the readme's with the mod's...mod soup can ruin your day.


Thanks for the heads-up! :up:


Maybe you can give me a bearing on what mod(s) to use? :salute:

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD!:sunny:

1: Am I missing some "must have" mods? (I've seen some of your screenshots and they still are a lot better than mine..)
My advice is to use JSGME to install your mods. It's a tool that manages everything for you and easily remove the ones that don't work the way you want.

Well, that's all for now, please forgive me if I made any mistakes with my English and do correct me so I can learn from my mistakes!
Only one that I saw: 2: Witch mission(s)
"Witch" is the female version of "Wizard". When asking for a decision between choices, it's "which".

[sergei]

Maybe you can give me a bearing on what mod(s) to use?

Tough question.
There are a lot of mods available, and what you want to use will depend on what you are after,.

RFB 2.0 Made to make your experience as close as possible to the poor SOBs who actually served in US WW2 fleetboats as possible.

TMO 1.9 This is optimised for an experienced sub driver who enjoys evading JAP ASW forces who really want to kill you!

FOTRS: I wish my pc was powerful enough to run this, because it looks really good. Difficulty is somewhere between TMO and RFB, graphics are better than both, it adds a load of extra ships to sink that look great!


In addition to that there is an additional mod, called RSRD, that you may try.
It comes in many flavours. It stands for Run Silent Run Deep, I think.
Most people here will tell you that you MUST have it.
To be honest with you I have run most of my careers without it, but it prettys much mirrors IJN convoys eg: if in reality there was a convoy from Guam to Truk in 43 then it will appear in game.

[les green01]

welcome aboard

[Munchausen]

"Witch" is the female version of "Wizard".

:cool: Not in Discworld. Two entirely different approaches to magic.

[Andrew82]

WELCOME ABOARD!:sunny:
My advice is to use JSGME to install your mods. It's a tool that manages everything for you and easily remove the ones that don't work the way you want.




Thanks, glad to be aboard!
I already used JSGME to install my current mods, works like a charm indeed!



"Witch" is the female version of "Wizard". When asking for a decision between choices, it's "which".
:up: looked wrong when I wrote it, now I know for sure! *NOTED* :salute: :D


Tough question.
There are a lot of mods available, and what you want to use will depend on what you are after

Thnx for the short explanation, guess I'll just have to try some to see which one I like best.

[Andrew82]

My Gold Edition arrived today, so you know what I'll be doing tonight! :D

Too bad I have to start my career all over again, but I learned a lot from you guys and all the tutorials on SubSim lately so I'll see it as a fresh start with my new "captain skills" and keep on learning and discovering! :yeah:

[Webster]

the first thing you need to do is make a copy of the entire "data" folder of your new unmodded v1.5 game and burn it to a dvd or put it on a thumb drive so you can fix any game file corruptions that can and 100% guaranty will happen eventually. then you can easily restore your game again without needing to reinstall the game again

[Andrew82]

the first thing you need to do is make a copy of the entire "data" folder of your new unmodded v1.5 game and burn it to a dvd or put it on a thumb drive so you can fix any game file corruptions that can and 100% guaranty will happen eventually. then you can easily restore your game again without needing to reinstall the game again


Done, thnx!


Looks pretty good with TMO1.9! :up:

[Andrew82]

Watched "U-571" last night, to my surprise heard some familiar sounds... Turns out TMO uses some crew sounds from this movie. :D

[sergei]

Watched "U-571" last night, to my surprise heard some familiar sounds... Turns out TMO uses some crew sounds from this movie. :D

Yeah, it's funny how certain sounds turn up.
I was watching Dr Who the other day.
The spaceship they were in was creaking, and it sounded EXACTLY like the creaks from Thomsens sound pack for SH3. I wonder who took what from who?

[Gilbou]

Welcome!