A convoy in the making

[Dr. Merc]

Greetings, all -

Now this is kind of cool. I guess you could say I 'reverse engineered' this scenario.

I was heading toward Kobe, just to say hi to all my friends there, when I ran into the largest convoy I'd ever seen, about ready to run my butt into the ground.

So I loaded a saved game from about a week before (game time) and this time made a beeline for Osaka Bay.

And found them.

Twenty-two freighters.

Stationary.

And not a warship in sight.

If you'd like to give it a spin, the saved game is here (http://www.docmercury.com/rainy/wp-content/uploads/Convoy_In_The_Making.zip). Win7/Vista only.

I've also recently posted a small, humble manual for this great game. My SubSim post on it is here (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=204026).

Anchors aweigh!

[Jeff1959]

I visited your site and found the manual to be wonderful. I've learned a number of things from it.

I have a question regarding the game saves. I've saved them in C:\Users\Dad\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Ubisoft\Silent Hunter 4 Wolves of the Pacific\Data\cfg\SaveGames

However, when I open the game, they don't show up in the choices of load games.

What did I do wrong?

[Dr. Merc]

Glad you liked the manual. It was obviously a kick to put together.

The saved games are kept in:

C: \ Users \ (login name) \ My Documents \ SH4 \ data \ cfg \ SaveGames

As far as I know, that can't be changed. I searched through the Registry and there wasn't any mention, so I presume it's hard-coded into the program.

A backup of the current saved games can be made every time the game exits, though, just in case the system melts down. There's a link to a page on how to do it near the end of the guide.

Happy sailin',
Doc

[merc4ulfate]

My saves go to X:\Documents2\SH4\data\cfg\SaveGames

I do not load anything I do not have to on the c drive in case I need to wipe out the OS. I keep my programs on separate drives.

[Dr. Merc]

How did you get the game to save its files on a place other than default?

[merc4ulfate]

What drive do you have your game installed into?

I have two hard drives. The first is my system drive where windows resides and I try not to install any program there unless absolutely necessary. My second drive has two partitions and that is where my programs are loaded including Silent Hunter. Since I also carry over all my pictures, my documents, my what ever, that windows usally saves over to my second hard drive the save games also go there.


I do not allow windows to save documents or downloads to the c drive. This way if that drive fails the only thing I have lost is the operating system not my data. Done the old way losing the drive would mean losing my photos, videos and documents.

Since I moved the location of where "my documents" are located the Documents\SH4\data\cfg\SaveGames will be saved there. If you have a seperate partion on your c drive or have a second hard drive it is very easy to move the my documents over to that drive and have windows remember that.


Open windows Explorer. Navigate to your My Documents. Right click the My Document folder and look at where the location is on the general tab. Mine says X:\ because that is the drive I have it on. Yours should say c:\. Now go to the Location tab and click "MOVE" to move that location to a different folder, partition or hard drive and that is all that is needed. Your saved games are still in the same place basically it is just the entire folder and sub-structure has been relocated to a different area. Sort of like ... your money is in the bank but the entire building was moved down the street LOL


This keeps your save games off your system drive in case of a drive failure or a system operation failure which would require a re-installation of windows

[Dr. Merc]

So, you...

you...

you cheated!

Actually, that's pretty clever -- just move the whole dang 'My Documents' folder! I'd never heard of such a thing before, nor ever seen a 'Location' tab in a folder's Properties panel. That's a very slick answer, and, you as said, for those of us who like keeping our C Drive clean, putting 'My Documents' on a different partition just gets rid of that much more fluff.

I'll update my guide (http://www.docmercury.com/rainy/game-review-manual-silent-hunter-4) in a bit, and thanks much for a very nifty solution. I'll send Jeff (in this thread) a private message and let him know we've got a better answer for him.

Doc

[merc4ulfate]

No worries I became a MCP years ago and I have had way to many classes on Microsoft products to even count. I learned about moving the folder years and years ago from an instructor. There is a lot to the operating system that users can do if they learn how to use it correctly.

The major push by the instructor was saving your data. Losing a drive is really no big deal if your running a Raid setup. Even a disk mirror would benefit a lot of people. The thing I dislike about a lot of systems these days is how they put the OS installation files on a partition of the hard drive instead of giving you a separate disk. If your hard drive goes out you lose your OS installation files as well. Not very prudent and if anyone has such a system, usually found on laptops, back that entire disk up to a second drive in case your primary ever goes out.

[Dr. Merc]

I'm a big advocate of using the 'image file' backup routine, which makes one great big file of your entire C Drive. Since it's looking at drive sectors, not files, there's none of that "file in use" stuff that you see with normal backup programs.

My site on the subject is here (http://www.docmercury.com/backup/). I also have instructions on how to move your bookmarks, email, and almost everything else to a separate partition, so if & when your system melts down, not a single scrap is lost.

Except for the stuff in the 'My Documents' folder.

Programs like Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Google Earth and others that place their user files (address book, spell-check dictionary, etc) in My Documents are the tough cases, and the only workaround -- until now -- was to copy the files via batch file to a separate partition when closing down the program. Occasionally, like with Google Earth, the path is in the Registry and can be changed, but most, like SH4, can't.

So your great tip not only took care of the SH4 problem, but Thunderbird, Firefox, and all the rest.

SubSim to the rescue, once again. :)

Doc

[Dr. Merc]

Merc4ulfate -- Actually, I was wrong up above. Thunderbird and Firefox keep their user files in the 'AppData' folder, not 'My Documents'. Still, as you noted up above, a lot of people keep files in the 'My Documents' folder, simply because it's the Windows default, so this tip was a big plus all the way around. Doc