SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks

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- Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=202)

- - Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=221540)

A lot of fantastic maths and statistics were invented and put to good use in WW2. I remember hearing once that the allies had a way of estimating how many tanks Germany possessed that was based only on the largest serial number of the tank they just destroyed. This relied on the fact that Germany had no idea this could be done so they kept stamping new tanks with the next number in the serial sequence.

I am not sure how true this is or how accurate it was but it wouldn't surprise me that this could be done.

As for the squid, 40% is terrifyingly effective. Particularly if you inhabit a steel tube under tremendous pressure.

Hey Rockin Robbins,

I am finishing up my career with the stock/GFO SH4 and am eager to ratchet-up the realism/difficulty. I thought your post in 2008 comparing TMO and RFB to be very informative. I know several reiterations of both mods have occurred since then. You mentioned you would revisit RFB. Would you say your initial evaluation to still be accurate?

I hope I am not stirring up the pot. If I am feel free to slap me in the face with a cod! :doh:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tshark (Post 2349617)

Sorry, I'm fresh out of cod!

The operative word in RFB is "Real." But it is nothing of the sort, and SH4 can't ever get to the "real" threshold. So basically you play both and figure out which you like best.

RFB Team decided that having accurate position information for targets on your nav maps was not real. Never mind that the real radar was accurate in range to plus or minus 35 yards, not too many pixels on your map. It was much better than that in bearing accuracy. So the stock game shows a box with velocity vector until you zoom in close enough then the target is replaced by a silhouette with text saying what the ship is, its course and speed. Granted, that's too much information. But TMO and RFB handled the situation very differently.

TMO nerfed the velocity vector, the descriptive text and replaced the ship silhouette with a position dot. Based on the above accuracy of radar, I'd say that's VERY realistic information.

RFB took the easy way out. When you exceed the magnification that the nav map shows a box and velocity vector the target simply vanishes without a trace. Yes, if you stand too close to the chart table all targets disappear. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to conclude that this "remedy" is much, much worse than the problem. You are no piloting your sub with a paper bag over your head and crowing how realistic the experience is. Makesanosensa. It's a near fatal flaw in my book.

However, TMOKeys, a mod of mine, will replace the RFB comedy of plotting with the TMO system and make no other changes to your game. There might be a ship or two that will plot in the RFB way, but I'm gong through and updating the mod to fix that. I've never had that problem.

Now RFB is a great mod to play. You'll find that difficulty is as low as the stock game. You'll find that S boats are especially fragile, a very realistic thing that makes them challenging and fun to play. I say if S-boats are your game RFB is your mod. Your chances of being sunk in the line of duty are low because the RFB team decided that odds of results should be close to actuality. There are plenty of arguments for and against that decision.

TMO has lots of unrealistic things. The enemy has Superman on board every warship and they have x-ray vision to keep you pinned down for hours. Their guns can plug you for 10,000 yards on the second shot. Their airplanes can see you below the surface and sometimes even at 90' or below. Don't think of TMO as a realism mod, it's a difficulty mod and you get a real sense of accomplishment playing it. It's my favorite supermod, even though I'm playing a GFO career right now and having a blast.

For years I used multi-SH4 and had separate installations for stock, TMO, GFO, RFB and FOTRS. It was too much. My brain overloaded and shut down. So right now it's GFO and TMO. When I pick up another mod I'll delete one of those. Too much is too much!:timeout:

Thanks RR. I will probably try both mods, but will start with TMO.

Some very helpful links, thanks a lot! :salute:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins (Post 2349641)

Don't think of TMO as a realism mod, it's a difficulty mod and you get a real sense of accomplishment playing it. It's my favorite supermod, even though I'm playing a GFO career right now and having a blast.

I don't agree with everything you said in perfect detail, but the above?
QFT

IMHO, once you manage to not only survive but thrive in the very lethal TMO environment, the other mods just don't cut the mustard anymore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColonelSandersLite (Post 2364551)

I don't agree with everything you said in perfect detail, but the above?
QFT

I've been accused of some really slimey things lately but being accused of TRUTH! Outrageous!
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd9c364dc.jpg

However, this thread is oriented toward the newbie, who can't quite get a handle on the process of getting a torpedo out of their submarine and into the side of an unsuspecting merchant ship, preferrably one belonging to the enemy.

For that, I recommend a stock or Game Fixes Only installation, first with automatic targeting. This is because unless you lean boat handling to achieve a good firing position you can't hit the target, no matter how great you are at manual targeting.

So learn to walk first. Learn to position yourself so that the target will pass at right angles to your course, or close to that, and will pass under a thousand yards from you. That means you have to develop the skill of determining target course and speed. You have to learn at what range you will be spotted on the surface, where you have much greater speed, and when you must submerge in order to avoid an alarmed merchie changing course to get away.

You don't have to in automatic targeting, but get in the habit of determining enemy course and speed as early as possible. That will help when you take the training wheels off and go manual.

Once you are comfortable with boat handling and it's natural to you, THEN it's time to proceed to manual targeting. Boat handling is pretty automatic and you don't have to think too much about it. Believe me, it's plenty to think about when you're beginning manual targeting. It's an exacting process and you don't want to be distracted by other aspects like boat handling.

I recommend that you don't learn manual targeting with TMO. You need all the help you can get to be able to visualize the process so it is something that makes sense, not just a list you must check off for who knows what reason. When you know why you remember much better. The stock tracking system tells you why and you can check your work quickly.

Dick O'Kane Technique Reclassified

Why in the world would I get involved in producing a shooting technique for Silent Hunter 4, name it after a famous submarine commander, Dick O'Kane, and never read his book? Well, for some reason I hadn't read Dick O'Kane's Clear the Bridge until now. Stupid!

In answer to the enquiries about whether Dick O'Kane ever used such a technique or whether ANYONE had used something like the Dick O'Kane Technique during the war, my stock answer is that we developed the Dick O'Kane Technique entirely in the game and with MoBo. Although the technique is historically plausible, it COULD have been executed by a real submarine, we have no evidence it was ever used. It was merely named in honor of a great submarine commander and we do not imply that he did anything like the Dick O'Kane Manual Targeting Technique.

Then I read chapter 7 of Clear the Bridge yesterday:

Quote:

“We’ve got her on course two seven zero, speed eight, Captain.” It was Fraz's voice. "Range twenty-eight hundred, we're twelve hundred yards from her track. It looks good from here." It looked good from the bridge, too, but a bit scarier perhaps, for at this stage her angle on the bow looked very sharp, and a slight change of enemy course would put us underfoot. That was always the case if you were really right in there, and there were invariably anxious moments until the rate of change of her angle became pronounced with the decreasing range. Perhaps it was well that I was busy twisting our boat for a minimal silhouette, marking bearings, and then settling her on the heading for near zero gyro shots. A black squall in back of us gave us further security from detection, but I more than welcomed Fraz's call, "Ten degrees to go, Captain."
"She's turned back, but she'll never make it." It was Jones, just in back of me, keeping track of the bow escort. I knew exactly what he saw: The escort ahead was coming toward us. It was like having another pair of eyes and the judgment to go with them.
"Constant bearing-mark!"
"Set" from the conning tower.
"Fire"
The next three torpedoes, each fired to hit a specific point, zinged out at eight-second intervals. From the instant of firing it was impossible for the enemy to maneuver his 600-foot ship to clear the divergent torpedo tracks. The whacks of the first two detonations

We can now say that the Dick O'Kane technique has left the realm of merely being historically plausible to being able to say that Dick O'Kane himself executed such an attack on the very first target recorded for the Tang.

In a sense, Clear the Bridge is like the 2nd half of the book Wahoo started. Reading them back to back is the best way to enjoy them.

Anyone who has not read them should get both of them together and enjoy the read.

I'll bet you've notice that all my Photobucket links are broken. I've decided that this thread is important enough to restore the links. I believe I have everything from Photobucket transferred over to Google Photos, from which I will replace the links.

This will be a long-term, slow project. Every company comes to a crisis, during which they decide whether they will live or they will die. Photobucket has made an executive decision to anger the entire Internet, which will kill them. I would love to have a video of that meeting!

To paraphrase the sage and all-seeing InspiroBot.me*:

Freedom is sometimes like a maze
Very entertaining for the survivors

Among Photobucket's bucket of freedom was the decision to die. They made that decision and now we get to be entertained.

*Warning. Do not click this link. It will suck up whole days of your life. It will take the place of sleep, food, sex and any other activities you cherish. You have been warned.

All essential graphics formerly kept at Photobucket, which has decided to die, are not relinked from another source and the thread pretty much restored to its former self.

The three printable crib cards on the first page have broken links. Are these images stored somewhere else?

They are far too handy to lose.

I'll have it fixed in a couple minutes. It's the demise of Photobucket that did the trick. They want you to pay big bucks for linking to a graphic. Sucks to be them but I have to make occasional changes.

I'll be linking to my Imgbb page. That's been a great service, but I'd link here at Subsim if I were to do it again.

O'Kane's "Clear the Bridge" is the best!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins (Post 2430920)

When I first started playing SH4 many years ago I read all I could find from US Sub Commanders from WW2 and "Clear the Bridge" is my favorite! Glad to hear you enjoyed it too - O'Kane had a great career!
:arrgh!:

Quote:

Originally Posted by l02turner (Post 2561932)

Absolutely! I'd argue the Eugene Fluckey's career was more outstanding, but Fluckey didn't have to suffer the kind hospitality of a Japanese POW camp for a significant part of the war. But tactics-wise, those two skippers taught me just about all I know.

Many thanks RR for the Airplane Avoidance with Radar Tutorial. It really helped me with that nagging problem right off the bat. Now I find myself jagging (is that a word?) around on the surface without worrying too much about losing the boat and crew to those pesky flying machines. Perfect!:Kaleun_Applaud:

I was thinking (which hurts) it might be nice if there were some way to drag the five-mile circle around with the boat, like Peanuts' Linus van Pelt's security blanket, without having to move it around manually. But then again isn't there an old saw about being careful of what you wish for? It might be better to have a dedicated key on the keyboard to toggle it on and off as needed...or not. Probably not.

At any rate, even though I know you can't have everything, and I don't want everything anyway, I've learned just enough to know that you can have your cake and eat it too, as long as you don't eat the last bite.:hmmm: