Seasoned Skipper needs help fellow Capts.
 

Hello Sub skippers,

It has been ages since I posted here, now that my lap is gone, I had to get a new one to satisfy my maritime craving:salute:

Anyhow,

I have SH4 but cant remember a few things.

First, the hydrophone, whats its maximum pickup range, and also the sonar, whats the maximum ping range?

Second, the other day while I was playing the campaign, the objective was to patrol off shores of Honshu, yet on the map, and where the marker was, the nearest Jap city shores was Kyoshu, typing mistake? well, you tell me.

And whats a typical patrol tonnage requirement, and do patrol objectives also comprise attacking destroyers and imperial jap navy?

I'm currently on a porpoise class sub, and I got about 43 fuel, playing on 65% difficulty, only I wonder if there was a way I could find out maximum range at current speed since I am REALLY AWAY from Midway, Pearl and Dutch. My only hope is Surabaya Jawa but it's a risk since I have jap trols on either sides of China sea, so I need your Nav expertise as to what option do I get?

I had this in mind but wont until I give up:

http://www.motleycrow.com/ImageHost/...n-mouthWEB.jpg


So please help!!! Guys in the sub are like:

http://www.shadowlocked.com/images/s...5_Das_Boot.jpg


HELP!:damn::damn:

I think most of your questions depend on having stock SH4 or using mods.

1: I noticed that with the hydrophone (passive listening) you first begin to hear targets (so being in the sonar shack yourself searching with the needle) at a distance of about 34km (leftover from SH3, about 18.3 nautical mile). But after that the game somehow extends the detection range to about 40km, or 22 nautical miles before you loose it again. Must be a bug, or an improperly coded feature. Doesn't matter, make use of it!

2 and 3: Can't say. Mod dependant I think.

4: Also mod dependant, but I'm sure I have requested "distance to go at current speed" from the navigator in RFB 2. Asking that after the speed settled on a specific knot values then you can make a nice fuel efficiency chart of the data. There's a sweet-spot for each sub type somewhere between 8-11 knots. But it is also dependant on weather and charging status.

to answer your mod inquiry, I'm using vanilla. Speaking of mods, do you know any good mods for sea color and textures? like waves and all.. If the water would be dark blue instead of the ooze that would be nice

Imagine a contact zone around your sub based on your best sonar equipment that reaches out to say 25nms. That zone exist around your sub from day one of the war, just your men don't have the ability or equipment to hear it. However, you're not limited by their ability or equipment, so your able to hear to the limit of the best zone.

As your men get better and equipment improves, they'll call out contacts further in the zone.

In reality it's a game cheat. When a enemy group enters the contact zone, you'll notice PC lag as your PC has to use more power to read the contacts. This lag is a dead give away ships are in your contact zone, the more ships, the more lag. Your men lacking skills and equipment won't pick them up, but you can. Most take advantage of the lag and check sonar themselves, get a bearing and plot a course. If you don't check, unless you're heading towards them, the lag will go away as the ships leave the contact zone. I guess if you want to play totally fair, ignore the lag and only rely on your crew....I don't...

Towards the end of the war you may notice little lag as your men have the best equipment and pick them up as fast as you can.

It would be nice if modders could mod a seperate contact zone for each sonar, but don't think it can be done or very difficult.

Stock doesn't have the range at current speed, most supermods added it back it with other features.

If you can hear a ship, you can ping it. Even those early war that your men can't hear. Some will ping ships at the edge of the sonar zone. However, most this far will read merchant, even if it's a warship. You can pick ships far away and if you use cams, you can then view it and the group for details if that's your thing.

All supermods have great enviroment mods... The stock game sucks on most levels, including graphics.

Here are some SS's with TMO, plus I use higher settings with nHancer for my nvidea card, just a 9600gt. Here's some examples of TMO. You will see many different colors based on water depth, sun position, weather, location, ect., not one color.


http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/u...subawash-1.jpg

http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/u...005631_484.jpg

http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/u...2637_937-1.jpg

http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/u...3757_578-1.jpg



http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/u...002618_718.jpg


Waves in TMO
http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/u...343-1-1--3.jpg
http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/u...174306_093.jpg
http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/u...152421_277.jpg

http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/u...1447_328-1.jpg

Very good picture, :yep:

As previously mentioned, mods have a big effect on various aspects of the game, including fuel. In a Porpoise Class sub, in the stock version, you should get best fuel efficiency at about 9 knots. Also, in the stock version, some of the missions are FUBAR, though I don't know for sure if your particular mission is among the known ones. Either way, if you're low on fuel, top off your tanks first and then complete your mission. Oh and BTW, the radio is not your friend. Don't send in any contact reports unless you want HQ to keep giving you objectives to complete.:03:

well, I'll be damned, I got like 29 fuel and still have like 2899 km to Midway:nope:
And I got swarmed by a nice squadron of zeros and HKs...

I'm clocked @ 7kts and I dont think I'll make it to Midway. Probably the crew will have me keelhauled, and finish me off with "walk the plank" before they start radioing HQ for a tow...

I got hull -effed and lost mission. Should'a dived when I first met them..

Anyways I've saved before the party and will do the trick this time..

Uptil now, all I got from HQ was a silly Honshu/Kyoshu patrol order which is still orange and wont go out.. I said, hell with HQ, though I have like 4 beam and 4 aft fish.. I save them for a rainy day ;)

All I sank was 1 Med Old Composite, 2 Modern Composite and its still 1941.

I dunno if thats aggressive enough but hey, if they dont like it, might as well courtmartial with death sentence...

The objectives need serious revision... ubi I could tell, done their hw.:stare:


So, I'm left alone with a 29 can, 2990 km, and a pack of head on coming search planes...


:damn::damn::damn:

If the real skippers did have such objectives, I swear that'd be a bull ****...

Midway or 1000 km close should have cut it, not going after the japs....

Don't play stock. Doing so is much akin to chewing on aluminum foil, or nails scratching across a blackboard.

lol @ chewing on aluminum foil :D

If you like poor graphics, unrealistic damage models, DD's that you can sink with BB guns on the surface, unrealistic sub behavior, poor traffic patterns, plane maddness, less ports and labels, poor AI, and about 100 other things....then stock is your game.;)

I played stock for a few weeks and shelfed the game. Finally, I found mods and loaded TMO and others and it's been my favorite game for two years now.

Ditto! Why play stock when you don't have to?

As far as I know, there is no tonnage requirement in SH 4, and I wouldn't get stressed out about patrol objectives. I don't think you will be punished for not completing them. If I get one that doesn't make sense, I simply tell the radio operator that the radio is "broken" and forget about it.:|\\

I had one patrol where I didn't sink a single ship (the torpedos wouldn't fire--don't know why). I thought I would be chewed out by the admiral, but nothing happened.:D

unfortunately some of us have to play stock... because we're lucky to be able to get SH4 running on their so-called "gaming" laptops at all. Basically i don't think i can run anything with heavy graphics mods... RFB crashed my game and as such, i have been hesitant to try TMO. I think i can only use RSRD.

What's up with the hull numbers on those boats above? No US submarine ever went to sea during wartime with hull numbers visible.

TG

Many sub skins have been added for looks. In the game it doesn't matter, the IJN can't tell the difference if you sub has pink polka dots.

I do think you're correct that all hull numbers were blacked out or not added in war. Still, the men often painted ship sinkings, ect. on them.