Must have mods

[raoul01]

What are the must have mods for SH4 1.5 and can you guys give me links?
There are manny links and patches so I don't know it anymore.

Thank you.

[CaptainRamius]

Hey,
If you are to mod SH4, you must first download JSGME first.
JSGME, Jones-Soft Generic Mod Enabler, allows most of the mods for SH4 to work. I used to have a link to it in my signature, but I changed it. I might be able to find it again for you though.
I would also suggest browsing through the SH4 mod workshop (I'm assuming you didn't), as I don't know many mods off the top of my head.
CR

What are the must have mods for SH4 1.5 and can you guys give me links?
There are manny links and patches so I don't know it anymore.

Thank you.

Here is the link to what I think is the latest version:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=156898
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Now that I think of it:
Here is a great mod for SH4 that I used before my PC broke (not because of the mod :D)
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=132330

[cloadmcally]

Hello there young skipper!
Well everything depends on your style of gameplay and your needs
I would suggest keeping it pretty easy and simple starting with the major mega mods out there:
GFO=Game Fixes Only.
It's pretty self explanatory right? It's a ''mega mod'' but it fixes only the ton of bugs in the stock game, very good and easy to install
LINK: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=151796
TMO=Trigger Maru Overhauled.
It's a very well done mod, it's easy to install and gives you a very different experience, you really should read more about it in the release tread
LINK: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=132330
RFB=Real Fleet Boat.
It's the main oppositor to TMO, it's more focused on making the game as realistic as possible while TMO is more focused on making the game challenging
LINK: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=159709
FOTRS=Fall of the Risingf Sun.
It is a very amusing mod, it makes a lot of changes in the visual side of things, we usually define it an ''eye candy'' mod beacuse it's pretty to see, very pretty indeed.
It adds a ton of new ships, makes visual changes but the main game is based on TMO.
LINK: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=147988
RSRD=Run Silent Run Deep (The Campaign).
It's a very very good mod to go with either TMO or RFB and GFO as well I believe.
It changes all the campaing layers and it adds realistic convoys routes with actual Dates and task forces wich tooks those paths during WWII.
LINK: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=123467
this are the ''major mods'' in my opinion but there is as well Optical Targeting Correction which modifies the scopes and other things and The travellers mod for TMO wich I never tried.
OTC: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=181172
Travellers mod: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=4106
Hope this was clear enough
Cload :salute:

[CaptainRamius]

If he is to run all those mods, he must get JSGME first, or do those mods not require it?

[cloadmcally]

yes of course, most mods are JSGME compatible but it's not a ''requirement''
it's a very useful thing.
Although I didn't mention it becuase his question wasn't about how to install a mod while it was about what mod tu use ;)
Also he doesn't have to run all this mods together, TMO and RFB are not compatible and generally no megamod can go with any other but I already said what is compatible with

[Sailor Steve]

If he is to run all those mods, he must get JSGME first, or do those mods not require it?
You already advised him to use JSMGE in your first post. The next poster doesn't need to remind him again.

Second, it is only absolutely necessary if he's going to be swapping those supermods in and out a lot. If he wants to run several different supermods he's better off using Multi-SH4 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1110), which allows multiple installations of the game, each with its own supermod setup.

@ raoul01: I'm sure some games have "must-have" mods. The Silent Hunter series, especially SH3 and SH4, have so many possibilities that I was long ago prompted to paraphrase a famous old saying - "One gamer's 'must-have mod' is another gamer's waste of time.' Here it's more of a choice, with there being as many mod setups as there are players.

[raoul01]

Hello there young skipper!
Well everything depends on your style of gameplay and your needs
I would suggest keeping it pretty easy and simple starting with the major mega mods out there:
GFO=Game Fixes Only.
It's pretty self explanatory right? It's a ''mega mod'' but it fixes only the ton of bugs in the stock game, very good and easy to install
LINK: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=151796
TMO=Trigger Maru Overhauled.
It's a very well done mod, it's easy to install and gives you a very different experience, you really should read more about it in the release tread
LINK: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=132330
RFB=Real Fleet Boat.
It's the main oppositor to TMO, it's more focused on making the game as realistic as possible while TMO is more focused on making the game challenging
LINK: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=159709
FOTRS=Fall of the Risingf Sun.
It is a very amusing mod, it makes a lot of changes in the visual side of things, we usually define it an ''eye candy'' mod beacuse it's pretty to see, very pretty indeed.
It adds a ton of new ships, makes visual changes but the main game is based on TMO.
LINK: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=147988
RSRD=Run Silent Run Deep (The Campaign).
It's a very very good mod to go with either TMO or RFB and GFO as well I believe.
It changes all the campaing layers and it adds realistic convoys routes with actual Dates and task forces wich tooks those paths during WWII.
LINK: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=123467
this are the ''major mods'' in my opinion but there is as well Optical Targeting Correction which modifies the scopes and other things and The travellers mod for TMO wich I never tried.
OTC: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=181172
Travellers mod: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=4106
Hope this was clear enough
Cload :salute:

But some of those mods can't you run together? and what about GFO(game fixing mod) can you run it with the other ones you said?

[Rockin Robbins]

GFO, TMO, RFB, FOTRS are all mutually exclusive. There are versions of RSRDC that are said to be "compatible" with GFO, TMO and RFB. "Compatible" means that the game doesn't crash. However when you run RSRDC it tramples the supermod you installed it over and basically obliterates the supermod. Traveller's Mod is all about frustration and how much instability and game difficulty will you accept before just giving up in frustration. It has more bugs than features.

OTC is a matter of opinion. Mine is that it is of incomparable quality but the premises of the mod are total fallacy. OTC postulates that before and perhaps during the war, the US military rented every ship, both military and commercial in the Japanese fleet, sailed it to a harbor and took complete and accurate measurements of them so that your recognition manual would be 100% accurate. Additionally, the Japanese agreed that no modifications of cabin heights, masthead heights, etc would be allowed during the war and that no additional shipping would be built until they lost the war. Obviously no such agreement would ever have happened and it would have for the OTC mod to reflect reality. It begs the question that if we rented every ship the Japanese had for measurement purposes, why did we give the ships back? We could just have kept them and prevented the war.:rock:

In my personal copy of OTC, because the gauges and periscopes of OTC are so much better than stock I kept them, but I trashed the database and recognition manual changes. Configured like that it's the best overall quality mod there is.

[cloadmcally]

But some of those mods can't you run together? and what about GFO(game fixing mod) can you run it with the other ones you said?
Maybe I wasn't clear enough, As Rockin Robbins said TMO,RFB,GFO and FOTRS are ''Stand Alones'' They can't all be installed at the same time, so for example if you choose to run TMO you can't have GFO, RFB or FOTRS installed with it.
The mods that you can run with The main supermod you chose are specified by the author of the other mod.
Say I want to run TMO with RSRD, That's possible because RSRD is ''compatible'' with TMO.
Generally speaking, I suggest reading what's written on the release thread, it'll say if the mod is compatible with anything else and the changes it makes to the game.
:salute:

@RR, Yep, That's why I always avoided travellers..
it's a pity though

[TorpX]

There are versions of RSRDC that are said to be "compatible" with GFO, TMO and RFB. "Compatible" means that the game doesn't crash. However when you run RSRDC it tramples the supermod you installed it over and basically obliterates the supermod.

I wouldn't let RR's denunciation of RSRDC put you off. It is the best mod for providing a historical campaign. If you think your base mega-mod is the essence of perfection, you don't really need it. However, it has been a very popular mod, and, imo, very worthwhile. Is it perfect? No. Neither are any of the others.

RR has pointed out that RSRDC allows players to use advance knowledge to ambush enemy task forces, that they would have little chance of even coming within 100 miles of otherwise. This is true, but no one forces anybody to play that way. You can follow orders, and take what comes. You will likely get much less tonnage this way. A lot of this is really up to you.



I think Sailor Steve said it best:

"One gamer's 'must-have mod' is another gamer's waste of time.'"

[Spraug]

...It begs the question that if we rented every ship the Japanese had for measurement purposes, why did we give the ships back? We could just have kept them and prevented the war.

They probably handed them over one (or a few) at a time and would have ended the practice yelling "no fair" if the US had kept any. Alternatively the measurements were done by a Swiss watchmaker in Japanese harbours. :D

Personally I would like to try OTC very much because my range measurements beyond medium range (even with SCAF) are WAY off (up to 4'000m at target distance of 5'000m!!!) even when carefully done. This way I "cannot" (rather "will not") play without automatic map contact updates and this is a pretty big cheat. Unfortunately installing OTC makes all land masses a bright neon green without features and that is worse than using map contacts imho.

The point of my story is that which mods you can take without problems probably also depend on your computer setup.

[CapnScurvy]

OTC is a matter of opinion.

Yes it is.

Since RR has decided to enlighten us with his "take" on OTC (not that he hasn't done it before (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2349772&postcount=4374)).....here's mine.

The stock game is flawed with inaccurate measurements. In both the optical view of the world (no way the stock games Periscopes Telemeter Divisions can produce an accurate measurement....their just eye candy) and, the provided Mast Height measurements within the Recognition Manual the game uses to calculate the Stadimeter's manual range finding.

For those that accept the fact that the game limits a single measurement (the only one found in the RM) to be the basis of calculating Range to target when using the Stadimeter, and you accept the reality that this measurement is going to produce an inaccurate Range to target, every time you use the measurement.....then stop here and be content to accept RR's idea of game play reality.

"The gun miss fires to the left, so live with it" would be his logical conclusion. You either miss the target every time, OR you correct the aim because you find the ability to have accuracy more compelling than some notion of living with a poor misplaced shot. RR's "fallacy" is to believe the real life participants in submarine warfare would accept their miss guided use of the tools at hand and accept no other outcome but to have inaccurate measurements.

This is not reality. It's an attempt to press his belief that inaccurate measurements should be accepted without question, without the possibility of correction. Nothing could be further from reality!!

I'm not going to repeat myself, but I offer this previous post (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2355985&postcount=954) regarding another one of RR's "opinions" from the Optical Targeting Correction thread. The point being, in "reality" if a measurement is found to be inaccurate.....it gets fixed!!

OTC provides an accurate tool to base Stadimeter Range finding when using the Height measurements found in the RM. It also provides an accurate world view to allow a tool like the Omnimeter to be used. In either case, this accuracy is very much limited to other factors which come into play that diminish your results. The idea that an accurate range finding is going to be gained by simply using near accurate measurements is false.....it won't happen. It's true the measurements are as accurate as possible (so were the ONI Recognition Manuals when they were released too). Getting nuts-on accurate readings is quite another.

Have you ever wondered why you've gotten a Sonar Range reading that's different than your Stadimeter reading. It's because the Sonar Range reading is exactly (to the yard) accurate. I don't see RR railing about this (any more then him distancing himself away from "reality" with his "Subnuclear" weapon mods). You would think if he's content in providing an opinion of "reality" for OTC, he'd give equal time to his own mods. Or, at least to the stock games Sonar approach to Range finding. What's good for the goose...is good for the gander.

But, lets talk about the accuracy of Range finding since RR seems to think OTC gives away the farm. When placing the Stadimeter's second image of the targets waterline on the Height position, any twitch of the finger will misplace the waterline. I can tell you even if you you place the waterline exactly on the correct pixel line (YES, each pixel line will produce a different Range reading....the further away from the exact pixel line, the greater the inaccuracy in Range finding results), you're not going to get an exact (to the yard) measurement. It doesn't get calculated that way. Depending at what distance your actually from the measured target will determine how far off (inaccurate) the final Range finding will be. The further away the target, one pixel line off from the "sweet spot" can produce dozens of yards difference in Range finding. Not just a couple of yards.....dozens. How wide is a Pixel line in-game....there are three pixel lines in just one of the stock periscope Telemeter Divisions (those lines that are "eye candy" on the scope lens).

Again, that's 3 pixel lines to one stock Telemeter Division hash mark! It doesn't take much effort to miss by a hash mark width!

Lose the periscope stability option, and you'll have quite a time coming close to making an accurate measurement with the Stadimeter or measuring with the Telemeter Divisions when using OTC. It's by no means a cinch as some would like you to believe.

Not to mention the RM measurements found within some mods like TMO and RFB are inaccurate....by design. So, you wish to play using measurements that are "on purpose" inaccurate? To have a mast height like TMO's CV Hiryu to produce a 2000 yard distance, when in fact the true distance is 4000 yards? OK, play your game as you see fit. That's my opinion :D