The best bet is to use the manual, and read carefully. It makes passing those long days at sea from Hawaii to Japan a lot more bearable. On route, also perform crash dive manuevers, to keep the crew in shape, and gain some experience points. It won't seem like much, but the matter of a few seconds can mean the difference between continuing a campaign, and starting a new one.

And last but not least, don't get mad if you get sunk. The best teacher is experience. Make your mistakes, take your lumps, and learn from them. And if need be, make sure you start out on the easy settings. The game is more forgiving that way. It will help you hone your skills, so that you too can become a terror of the deep.

P.S.,

The manuel is very informative, unless you have little understanding of how they operate. Then the best thing you can do, is get into the thick of it, get pasted, and go back again with a different approach until you get a handle on it. Remember it's just a simulator, so if you tear up the docks and scratch the paint on your boat, you can always restart the mission.

Welcome Nuker.

Time compression is there for a reason, you do not want to ignore it. If you get a contact of an enemy destroyer at 2000X TC and you don't slow down, guess what, yup, you get depth charges dropped on you at 2000X speed. You have to remember the TC isn't making you go faster, you still go the speed of the boat it is only making the clock go faster so you are not going to fly by him because you are using TC. In fact the way the game works, if you use TC around an enemy destroyer you will actually attract him to you.
If you are using easy mode to learn then to intercept a convoy you can use the map. It will have lines pointing to the ships which are at the end of the line. (no pun intended) Pick up the Pencil and put an X at the end of a couple of the lines (towards the middle of the convoy, around the outside are destroyer escorts and they go back and forth) wait for the convoy to move and draw a line with the ruler between the X and where the ship is now and it will give you the heading of the convoy so you can intercept.
Save game: Esc key-Save-Resume (or quit). There is an automatic save when entering port and auto when exiting. You can use the enter port save if you forgot you wanted to upgrade an AA gun or things like that. But your mission is assigned to you when you enter port, so don't bother reloaded because you don't like the mission you got.

Peabody

Hmmmm....maybe go to sub school?...I'm pretty sure they put that in there for a purpose...:yep:


One things for sure...you ain't gonna ever become an Ace of the Deep via forum osmosis....though the forum is a tremedous asset when you are really stumped on some point.

ok. how many ships do i need to sink on a patrol mission before i get a new mission?

I think just one will suffice. I tend to get greedy though, unless it's early in the war and those darn faulty torpedoes are really acting up. The last convoy I attacked, my first 6 torpedoes were faulty, and after reloading, I lined up for another attack, and out of 6 torpedoes, 5 were faulty, and the one that hit the large freighter didn't even slow her down.

On a patrol mission, you need to stay within a certain range of your assigned area (the map symbol) for a certain period of time. For stock SH4, I seem to remember it was within 50 nautical miles of the map marker, for 48 hours (or maybe 72 hours)?

If you are using any of the big mod pacs, then they will have modified it (check your orders).

Hey. Which is the best submarine to use during the career mission?

The one that turns you on the most.

Seriously. Arguably the best sub is the most modern, that being the Gato/Balao classes. But you'd be surprised how many of us love to run the old 'S' boats. They're leaky, cranky, and don't dive very deep, but they have lots of charisma. It's like all the people who chose the Type II in SH3.

The best boat is the one you like.

If you are shooting at big targets, then try shooting as deep as posible.

In example if the depth of the ship is 10 then try setting your torpedoes at 8 meters or something. That should do the trick.

How come every time i shoot a torp at enemy ships, it usually misses?

You remembering to open the torpedoe bay doors first ? If you miss astern alot its most likely because you dident open the doors frist.

If your using autotargeting it really sucks at judging depth. 90% of the time I set my torps as shallow as they will go with our without auto target. The 'under the keel' shot while effective is hightly unreliable. If you do wish to try an under the keel shot consult the recognition manual for the draft of the ship and manually set the depth about a foot below that. Note that any time you 'lock' a target the autotargeting will change the depth of the torpedo run and you will have to set it again.

I highly recommend reading or watching some of the guides offered here at subsim. Most if not all your questions are covered in great detail there.

The manual has been the brunt of many a joke around here and frankly is best used as a coaster. :|\\

Then usually when u use time compression *4000, what is ur FPS?


And is there any mods that greatly increase crusing speeds so i don't have to spend help my time getting to an area, or lagging when i use time compression.

And any mods that changes the sub skins to a cool sub? Like a Los-Angeles class?

Nuker mate....we're at war in Pacific...ww2 remember ?...trying to sink the Japanese imperial fleet. If you want a cold era Los Angeles class, I suggest you move on to another game, or just wait for SH5. Who knows, maybe we'll get a chance to sink an Akula.