agree!

so Luke, i'm curious, in my S-boat out of manila shortly after the start of the war, that is, with RSRDC, i came across a convoy (never find any convoys when i am driving a Fleet boat, oddly enough) it had a ring of escorts around. no lie, i called it the ring of d00m....yes with zeros.

i'm just wondering about why things like that are showing up(maybe lurker could be of more assistance)...there are a whole bunch of new challenges that i was looking for!

EDIT: PE 4.0 never looked right on my computer when i used it. and when it does look right, i have really low framerates (try 9) so i am using Environment 5.0, for my veiwing pleasure. are there any really big conflicts involved with this mod?

Sledgehammer,

One thing that I've learned: lurker does his research. Check out the map at the link below, compare it to where you were and when:

Japanese Centrifugal Offensive - 10 DEC 1941-6 MAY 1942

I'll bet that there was a large IJN convoy in that chunk of water on that date in the real world.

As for finding convoys in Fleet boats: think about where the major port cities are (Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.), look at the sea lines of communication between them all, figure out where those lines intersect, go there, and stay there a while (perhaps driving a pattern). Submerge periodically for a listen on the old hydrophones (esp if you have no RADAR). You'll find stuff.

That's why I love the RFB and RSRDC combo: it's a living history lesson. One of the first things that RSRDC brings home is how very hard it was for these guys to find targets (big ocean/little sensor range problem).

R/
feld

Some General Thoughts regarding RFB and RSRDC.
 

I've been a beta tester for this combo of mods for awhile and I'd like to offer some suggestions and opinions to those intrepid subsimmers who install these incredible mods.

1. The RFB and RSRDC mods are what I call "thinking man's mods". They are geared toward a "very realistic" gameplay experience, what it would "feel" like to a skipper and crew of a WWII submarine. This means that most, if not all, the simplified gameplay aspects of the original SH4 v1.5 have been, or are being, removed or modded. "Point and Shoot" just isn't on the list anymore... The RFB and RSRDC mods will *challenge* you as a submarine captain. If you feel the excitement of stalking a convoy for hours, the satisfaction of manually targeting a fat tanker or merchant and the frustration seeing your well aimed spread of torpedos impact with no damage due to the historical number of "duds" then these mods are doing their job.
In short, if you want to get the most enjoyment from these mods, you'll need to dedicate a bit of yourself to understanding how submarines operated during WWII, and NOT about "just sinking ships"...

2. The time and work that has been committed to these mods is considerable and on-going. We're talking literally hundreds (if not more) hours of volunteered personal time doing changes to not only to game files, but doing the actual research of naval documents, war patrol reports, books and more that the mods are based on. There have been many a long thread discussing issues, like shell damage for instance, to ferret out the finest details for realism. Sure, there have been some compromises made, mostly due to aspects of the game engine that cannot be modded, but still, the overall thrust is towards realism whenever possible.

3. Please, read the manual! I can't stress this enough. Even as a longtime beta tester, the mods are so extensive that it has been hard to keep up with them all. There are a number of gifted and talented modders working on these mods more or less constantly in all areas; historical detail, changes to the sinking dynamics, upgrading ship physics, the visuals and much, much more. The manual explains in sufficient detail not only the changes that were/are being made, but the reasons behind the changes. Sure, it takes a bit of time to read, but the manual was created for your benefit and will certainly enhance your play experience.

4. If you do find some irregularity, issue or problem, please, contact the RFB Team in a considerate fashion. Posting a thought like "I'm disappointed" or "this mod really sucks" is counterproductive and a waste of time, yours and ours. If you find something, contact us and let us know. I assure you, it is in both our interests to remedy these issues (if possible) and make the mods even better for the efforts. The RFB and RSRDC mods are extensive and in some cases, complex, so the more detail you can give, the better.
Remember, the RFB and RSRDC mods are "a work in progress" and shall remain so for some time. There are bound to be "bugs", "typos" and "overlooked details" and that is simply the nature of these projects.

Well, shipmates, that's my thoughts on the matter. Good Hunting!

thanks for the reply, i had no idea about 1.5 being a patch. I am downloading now. and plan to burn to a dvd disk. will see how it goes

Good post, Deepiron.

Yes, great post. I have figured out somethings for myself, I have read the manual again, and I did some training yesterday, however I have some questions.

Is there a key to sound general quarters ? Is there a key "Report nearest visual contact"?

Myself feeling the need to additional sounds, I installed ROW Sound Effects 9 on top. I understand that it;s mostly the same thing that;s included in the RFB, but there are differences, that I like very much (the sound of GQ, of torpedoes, of tube doors, etc)

I myself experience the flickering issue that has been discussed, we'll see what can be done about it.

Can I close a torpedo door tube if I don't feel the need to launch that torpedo anymore ? Pressing the Q key again does not close it. Mate Ustahl has offered me a solution, I will try and edit the file myself and see what happens.

I wanted to ask the team also something about the dive, crash dive, and periscope depth commands. If on surface I press the P key (I skipper an S boat) it takes forever to submerge. If I press D or C, the process is significantly faster. I know that this is historically correct, since the boat needs less negative flooding to dive only to PD.

Consequently, I use the following combination. Press D, and when the boat starts to submerge I press P. But it surfaces once again before diving again, instead of just continuing to dive.

Hello,

1.) I have a General Quarters button on the tool bar. You may have an install issue or MOD incompatibility.

2.) ROW Sound Effects is fine, this is personal preference; there are very nice torpedo door opening and closing sounds in RFB, they are subtle but there.

3.) Flickering issues being looked at by the good folks at RFB.

4.) My Q key closes and opens the doors.

5.) The "C" key will get you down as fast as possible. For a normal Dive or a Dive to Periscope depth I use the "D" key, I use the "A" key to stop the dive just below Periscope depth and then use the "P" key.

Happy Hunting! Keep the questions coming.

Odd bug (?). I loaded RFB and PE4 and took it out on a couple cruises, and encountered extremely high seas. Leaving Manilla I have waves consistantly running over the deck of my sub and every third wave is topping the conning tower railing. Lots of ships are running with their propellers and portions of their keels out of the water and my sub is also breeching the waves, everything having to do with the water seems to be out of scale.

Is this a known problem ? or is it functioning as expected ? I also noticed that the game is locking up on loading (it pauses at the black screen that says "ONE MOMENT" (or something like that) in a small white box. Hitting escape twice breaks the lock and the game begins without further problems (of course that is probably the problem).

I am at my office right now so I can't confirm which other mods i have installed, but I do know the list is very short, RFB, PE4 a couple extra ships and a sound pack.

Anyone have any thoughts ? Has anyone seen this before ?

PE4 is integrated into RFb 1.52, a seperate install of it may cause similar side-effects.

Thx for the explanion, Luke. Good to know its a problem of the stock game, again i love your work, all RFB team:D:D

That would probably explain that ... I will try removing it and let you know. I was going to remove the others ... I would not have thought that PE4 was part of RFB ... it went right over my head ... or under my keel as the case might be.

Thanks !

Flickering issue solved - solution: PE4's Cameras.dat
 

Following Luke's advice, I copied PE4's Cameras.dat on top of RFB 1.52 and, tadaa, the flickering issue is gone.:D
I made a little mini-mod containing PE4's Cameras.dat, and it was easy to test with JGSME. I also added NBB_Yamato_N01.dds from PE4 in this mini-mod to also fix the texture mixture for the Yamato mentioned earlier. Thanks to Lurker for his hint.:up:

No more "extra" PE4 on top of RFB from now, as my issues now are fixed. Thanks for your input guys!:sunny:

1. I know, I was wondering if there is a key on the keyboard for this function.

2. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the be(er)holder :lol:

3. Absolutely right.

4. I will try again a fresh install, because in my case it only opens the doors, and does not close them.

5. This is what I figured out also. But it;s strange that the sub raises again to the surface when pressing P, isn't it ?

Is there a layout of the keyboard going to be released for RFB ?


Thanks

DeepIron's above post is great, but I want to home in on this point:

I can't stress enough what he says here. For a long time I thought RFB was, in effect, "our mod and this is how is. Go play it and figure it out for yourself." I wanted to change this with 1.52, so that people understand why we've done things the way we have and to answer ahead of time questions people have about the mod. That is why we created the manual - so you can understand the rationale behind why things the way they are. It gets tiring seeing some (though not nearly all) people posting here about how much the new sinking mechanics suck, what's this whole thing about Hogan's Alley, etc. READ the manual, and you'll understand things like this. Other things that are more obscure and aren't covered in the manual, sure, by all means, post the questions here, and one of us will be pleased to answer it.

Read the first post in the stickied thread. ;)