Which Mods to go with?
 

I just got a new puter this month capable of running SH4. Pinched my budget quite a bit.
But the 1st of this coming month I'm going to buy SH4.

I have several questions I'm hoping the community with help me with:

1. Which patch should I stop at? Or go all the way to 1.4?

2. Which mods would you suggest I add-on? I prefer playing as close to "real" with regards to the boat's capabilities as well as the AI performance. Although the new puter has enough heat to handle a lot of graphic "eyecandy".

3. Do all the mods work within JSGME?

thanks to all

Find the 1.4 compatible mods here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=126875

The major mods are:

TM or Trigger Maru...a good balance of realistic and playability

RFB or Real Fleet Boat...leans more to realistic game play.

RSRD or Run Silent Run Deep...historical traffic mod that will work with both TM and RFB. Make sure you load the correct version for TM or RFB.

ROW or Reflections on the Water...enviromental mod.

These are the must haves. On the list of other mods, Foo Skins are great. The modded watch are very cool. There is a boat load of other mods that will work with the major ones noted above. All JSGME ready. Download just the 1.4 patch. That is all you need for now as far as patches are concerned.

thanks for the reply and the info.
i have seen on another thread that some folks have
installed multi-copies of the game and have run
different mod setups on each copy.

I currently have 2 Installs of SH4

One Stock and one with TM 1.7.5

Stock Folder is Standard Install

My second install folder is Called - SH4 Trigger Maru

Just make a shortcut to your new folder, call it what you like and there you have it.

I have had a short run at TM and RFB I like them both
Its really hard to say though because I like different things
about each.

The AI is tremendously improved in TM
on the other hand I totally prefer the camera set up
from RFB

either way getting away from the original campaign layers
is important to player enjoyment I think.

Tm has great layers but atm I am sailing RFB with the RSRDC layers.
for my current playing install.

M

Welcome to SUBSIM :up: warlimont


RDP

Be carefull, running two installs that use the same folder to save profiles and savegame files can cause problems (in 'My Documents'). The utility MultiSH4 can be used to configure multiple installs to use their own folder for this. You can then safely play careers in both installs.

thanks for all the imput.
looking forward to playing very much.

w

Hey- don't forget Kriller2's reskinning of the IJN warships!

Welcome. I use RFB, RSRDC and ROW Mods and Green Scope. If you want to get as close to reality, that is. If you want to try out both TM and RFB them a multi-instal is it as stated above.

yes, i will go with the multi-install. i've done that for Hearts of Iron 1&2, HOI Doomsday and it's various mods and add-ons. and for Rome: total War.

Do any of you forsee a problem with installing stock/patched to the default folder. then copying that to several separate folders for each modded game?
that has worked for the two above games.

That's no problem, but like I said earlier you need to use MultiSH4 to specify a different save folder for each install, otherwise each install will use the same default location, and things will screw up badly...

[edit] Search this board for 'MultiSH4'

That's right. Get the MultiSH4 and follow the instructions carefully. Make sure to uninstall all mods from the original install first. You don't have to patch the 2nd install as it'll be a copy of the original one. Have fun!:arrgh!:

thanks for the info on MultiSH4. will do!
What might the program files folder tree look like?
for instance:

program files
ubisoft
silenthunter4 (for the stock)
and just below that, say:

program files
ubisoft TM
Silenthunter4
(and so forth)

w

I advice you to not install in the Program Files folder. If you have another drive or partition install it there. Something like:

Default (stock+patch):
D:\Games\SH4\Default

And for every extra install:
D:\Games\SH4\[ModdedInstall]

If you don't have another drive, then use same paths but then on the C:\ drive:

C:\Games\...

thanks.
i'm curious tho. why not in program files?

w

First is that there are common issues with Vista when installing in Program Files, and you want to run mods with JSGME. Maybe you don't use Vista, in that case there's still some other reasons:

1. Installing in dedicated 'games' (or similar) directory will make it easier to navigate to in Explorer (though you could use shortcuts as well).
2. Installing on a seperate drive in most cases can give some performance benefits (especially if it's physically a different drive). The drive can be kept defragmented easier and the drive isn't accessed by the system for overhead/background tasks as much as the system drive.

Thanks Gentlemen for your thoughts on selecting mods for SH4 for me as well. I was "testing" different mods recently, and after loading TM,RSRD, and ROW, I then added Natural Sinking Mechanics, all loaded via JSGME. Interestingly, after adding Natural Sinking Mechanics, I ran through a training session with the deck gun. The reload with the deck gun was a full 60 seconds vs. about 4 seconds when Natural Sinking Mechanics was removed as a mod. Has anyone every seen this before, and if so, how do you fix it so the deck gun reload time is historically correct when using Natural Sinking Mechanics.

When I get a second HD on my computer, I am going to try and do a multi-install with RFB too. Thanks for the suggestions on how to correctly configure a multi-install of SH4.

Very true and I hate to think of how many people have been lost due to frustration from the "File virtualization" in Vista's Program Files directory.

Me thinks we should have a long overdue "Attention Vista users" Sticky.

And for that matter, why do game publishers even use "Program Files" as the default (or worse only) installation path.

The simplest reason is because the average joe only knows so much. Keeping all programs, including games in the same folder is just the safest bet. It's a place that's 'guaranteed' to exist on the users drive.
And in most cases developers just want to follow specific 'guidelines' set by Microsoft. If every game studio would just pick and choose their own it could get messy. Besides, if they don't follow these guidelines they can't get a 'Works with...' or 'Certified for...' logo, and most software houses want that.