SH4 Time Compression question

[fright52]

Can someone answer a question about using "time compression"? Is there a limit to how fast you can speed things up without suddenly hear "taking on water...hull damaged" from ships/airplanes out of "nowhere"? It appears that over 8 or 16x's speed, there is no time for the game to give a warning of what's overhead.
Is there a formula for using time compression when traveling any length of distance. I am using SH4 Gold Edition with no other mods. Mnay thanks and a good St Patricks Day. Cheers!

"He who sups with the devil must use a long spoon". From the movie Inherit the Wind

[Gangrene]

I'm playing SHIV stock as well... I always get alerted to planes and ships... Typically with a radar signal for the planes.

[WernherVonTrapp]

When I played the Stock version, high TC was an iffy proposition. I had to learn where the danger zones were so that I could maintain, at least, a 2048X speed. Once I hit the dead zone, I had to slow it down to as little as 256X and even then, a collision with a friendly ship was always a possibility.
High TC in stock, for me, was like trying to dance the Irish Jig to Rap music.http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/b456/archangel501/Smileys/c8a8d112.gif There was no rhyme or reason in it.
Since I've been using the mods, I can TC to my hearts content, knowing that I'll immediately drop to 1X (or normal time) as soon as a ship/plane is spotted or detected.

[fright52]

Thanks for your answers. VonTrapp...what "mod" did you download that notifies you of enemy using fast TC speeds? I remember you said that most of the mods in here were pretty safe to use.
Your tips with my targeting issue really has helped. 5 ships in a convoy compared to all torpedos fired with MAYBE 1 hit before. Finally starting to "sink" in. By the way, happy St Patricks Day to everyone!:Kaleun_Cheers:

[DrBeast]

The variables for dropping out of TC are stored in the Data\Cfg\Main file, under the [TIME COMPRESSION] heading. This is what it looks like in stock 1.5:


[TIME COMPRESSION]
TimeStop=0
RealTime=1
LandProximity=4
CriticalDamage=1
CrewEfficiency=128;1
AirEnemyDetected=1
SoundEffects=2
CharacterAnim=4
EnemyDetected=8
RadioReport=8
Particles=8
PrayState=8
HunterState=32
3DRender=32
Maximum=8192

This means that TC will drop to 8 when you detect an enemy or receive a radio transmission, 4 when you're in shallow waters, and 1 when you detect an enemy aircraft or have been critically damaged.

[fright52]

Dr...thanks for posting this chart on tc standards. The people in here at Subsim are very supportive and willing to share info. It's a great help for those just starting off (myself included) and a little lost sometimes with SH4.

[denny927]

yes, is a great community, when I need help(let's say almost every day) someone is always ready to solve your problem.

[Julie Whitefeather]

The question I have related to time compression is whether or not there is some way to have a hotkey that sets the time compression to a certain ratio. For example if I am going along and the game drops to x8 is there a way to set a hotkey to bring it back up to the maximum compression?

Julie

[DrBeast]

The question I have related to time compression is whether or not there is some way to have a hotkey that sets the time compression to a certain ratio. For example if I am going along and the game drops to x8 is there a way to set a hotkey to bring it back up to the maximum compression?

Julie

Not that I'm aware of. Also, given the flakiness of the game engine with regards to dropping out of TC, I don't think it would be a good idea to put further stress to it.

[Julie Whitefeather]

Thanks for the answer. I guess I will just have to have a bit of patience with the compressed time.

Julie

[Char]

Here's a nice tip when it comes to TC.Depending on your system Specs and other things your computer might randomly slow down to a crawl..Thats is a VERY good sign the game is loading in a large Convoy or Taskforce within possible intercept distance.

and that happen a few days back.looked around a bit,had to run into Half the Jap fleet.2 Fleet Carriers,4 Battleships,a Couple Heavy Cruisers and more.I wasnt able to get an intercept,but I counted AT LEAST 20 different sound contacts.

Till I took a free cam look and found not one,BUT TWO taskforces with a total of 36 ships in all!

Man I wish I got an intercept or a save.Then I could go back and take pics...they had to be making 15+ knots...alas,it was too much for my little S-Boat

[Julie Whitefeather]

Thanks thats a great tip...computer slows down. Fleet being added in. Check...then go as fast as possible the other direction.:D

[Sailor Steve]

The question I have related to time compression is whether or not there is some way to have a hotkey that sets the time compression to a certain ratio. For example if I am going along and the game drops to x8 is there a way to set a hotkey to bring it back up to the maximum compression?
Actually it's quite easy. This little change was first made by someone else for SH3, but I just tried it in SH4 and it works perfectly!

Open up SilentHunter4\data\Cfg and open the 'Commands' file with Notepad.
Scroll down to [Cmd5] and add this new line:

Key1=0x6A,R,"Npad *"

When you're done it should look like this:

[Cmd5]
Name=Time_compr_increase
Ctxt=1,2,6,9
MnID=0x3F010001
Key0=0x6B,,"Npad +"
Key1=0x6A,R,"Npad *"

Or you can copy and paste in the whole command line above.

Save it, and you're good to go.

Now hitting the NumPad * key will take you to max time compression instantly. :sunny:

[Julie Whitefeather]

Thats great! So can I change this line: Key1=0x6A,R,"Npad *" to make it something other than a number pad key? The reason being is I play on a gaming laptop that doesn't have a number pad.

Julie

[Sailor Steve]

Okay, new solution! Well, old one buy I had to look around a bit to find it. Read this thread and download the device. I checked the link, and it's still good.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=168297

[Char]

Thanks thats a great tip...computer slows down. Fleet being added in. Check...then go as fast as possible the other direction.:D

:har: that'll solve the problem!

[Julie Whitefeather]

Wow thanks for finding that Steve - a keymapper is great. With all the mods silent hunter 4 is probably better than silent hunter 5!:D

[Sailor Steve]

With all the mods silent hunter 4 is probably better than silent hunter 5!:D
That's what we say about SH3! SH4 came along just two years after SH3, and SH3 modding was well underway, and SH4 kind of got ignored. There are great mods for SH4 in the Pacific, but the u-boat side is still suffering. Operation Monsun is a great supermod, but it still lacks a lot and it's looking more and more like poor SH4, which is the better game, will never get the attention it deserves. So I play SH3 and SH4, the former for the career experience and cool visual mods, the latter for the great graphics and crew management. I wish I could drop all for the sake of one, but I can't.

But then I still sometimes still play Aces Of The Deep, which came out in 1994 and still has the best AI routines and overall gameplay.

[Julie Whitefeather]

so I am curious...what is it that you feel is lacking about Operation Monsun and why do you feel that SH4 won't get the attention it deserves.

As for me I am glad for silent hunter 3 and 4 because 5 won't run on my laptop.

[irish1958]

Julie, that is a difficult question to answer unless you are into SH3 in detail. True, the graphics are better in SH4, but the game play is far superior in SH3. And with the choices of great superior mods and the plethora of great mods being developed now, SH4 seems stagnant.

[Sailor Steve]

so I am curious...what is it that you feel is lacking about Operation Monsun and why do you feel that SH4 won't get the attention it deserves.

As for me I am glad for silent hunter 3 and 4 because 5 won't run on my laptop.
What has not been done to OM? I'll start with OM itself.

1. Originally all your junior officers held the rank of Kapitanleutnant, which meant they outranked you, their captain, at least until you got promoted. I pointed that out, and now they are all Leutnants. This is nice, but they are still rank 12, the highest they can get. They shouldn't be more than 10, which allows for promotion to Oberleutnant.

2. The Type II has 44 crew, where the real one had a crew of 25-28. These are minor things, but they make a difference, at least to someone who loves the history as I do. I've been playing subsims since 1986, and I long ago got over the thrill of just sinking things. I play for the chance to recreate the history rather than just play a game, and for me the little things become big.

Now to my real complaints, which are not related to OM, but to what hasn't been done for SH4. This is mainly graphics stuff, but it can make a difference, especially for someone like me.

1. The harbors. Places like Kiel and Wilhelmshaven are hopelessly wrong in SH3 and SH4. There have been many mods which improve them to varying degrees. Starting with Rubini's Harbor Traffic mod back in 2005 there have been so many new and interesting things added to SH3. You see ships coming and going, floating drydocks, ships under construction, bouys, wrecks, new buildings and people. GWX, LSH3 and WAC all make amazing changes to the feel of the harbors. Originally there was no Kiel Canal in SH3. Now there is not only the canal, but there are locks at each entrance. Another more recent mod adds working gates, so you have to wait until the green flag goes up and the gates open. There are proper bridges over the canal, including LSH3's working model of the Rendsburg swing bridge, which...swings open. There are locks at Wilhelmshaven and St. Nazaire, which also now have working gates. None of this has been done for SH4.

2. IABL's Merchant Fleet Mod. Over 50 new classes of merchant ship. The fact that my computer won't run them is irrelevant. A couple of them are in OM, but only a couple.

3. SH3 Commander. This is a program that, besides giving you one-click control over several of the game's functions, also adds features like millions of possible crew names (1.7 billion, to be specific), realistic crew transfers, and most importantly for me adds names, cargo listings and crew numbers to each ship you sink. That alone makes any game without it second-rate. I don't just sink a medium merchant - I sink SS Lucretia Borgia, carrying a cargo of Rice, 43 crew, 16 of whom died.

4. That last also prompted me to spend several years collecting the data for my Ship Names Mod, which makes sure that the names SH3C gives are historically accurate and are applied to the proper ship class. If this function was in SH4 I could also make the names apply to the proper country, since SH4 is far better than SH3 in the way it makes the merchant ships work.

I'm sure there is more, but that should give an idea of what SH4 still lacks for me.