BASIC MODS FOR A BEGINNING
 

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Then it sounds like Webster's Game Fixes Only (GFO) mod is for you. It corrects a lot of the problems with the stock game (like the swarms of Japanese aircraft for one)

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1196

The only problem is that like most mods it requires version 1.5.

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To the best of my knowledge you can't. The Gold Edition is well worth the purchase price as you just install and all the patches are included.

As for mods, I'm really enjoying GFO/RSRD right now. Yes, it's a bit short on the realism but that is easily fixed as most of the defects are in the plotting scheme, which automatically gives you enemy boat silhouettes, red for foe, green for friend target colors, ID text that gives away their general course and speed and a velocity vector in front of the enemy, which gives you their exact course and speed.

If you're interested in learning manual targeting, all that stuff is very useful for learning. Once you are semi-convinced that it is sorta possible to hit a target with a manually targeted torpedo, then all you have to do is load up my TMOPlot mod. Load it last.

Then your targets will all be shown as a white dot. There are not friend/foe colors, no velocity vectors, no ID text. Instead, it's plotted simply as a position point. The real guys could write on the chart and unfortunately we can't, but this is a good way to have the info a real captain would have at his disposal.

The nice thing is that you can take the difficulty to the next level of realism without changing the gameplay itself. If you loaded up TMO the enemy is so much smarter that learning is tough. Once you're comfortable with GFO/RSRD/TMOPlot then you're ready to try TMO out to see if you like it.

If you want to run Run Silent Run Deep, I recommend you download v4.01 and Webster's GFO Patch for RSRD 4.01. Load order is GFO, RSRD 4.01, Webster's GFO Patch for RSRD 4.01, and then optionally TMOPlot.

I recommend you keep your mod list very short. Environmental mods especially, mess with the gameplay in bad ways. It's not worth not being able to lock targeting on a ship just to have pretty water. When you're submerged in a fight you aren't looking at the color of the water anyway. Gameplay rules and eye candy drools. That's the rool!:haha:

Wait so if I have U-boat missions I have patch 1.5? Even if its the Steam version which I heard was limited to patch 1.3?

Yes, U-Boat missions IS patch 1.5 and it contains all previous patches. You're totally up to date!

Cool! Now that its been established I have few questions:

What's a recomended guide for installing mods on SHIV? Is it an easy game to add mods to or harder (for those of us not well versed in modding)?

I hear theres some mods that add to the list of playable ships. What are the ones that add the V boats and what others would you recomend?

In other words I don't really know where to start so any other advice?

Well, you know my opinion. Keep it simple. Supermod plus campaign mod only. I've added some keyboard layouts, skins, missions, 3000 yd bearing plotter (none of which influence gameplay at all) and that's it. I believe in keeping things simple. Especially if you don't have the knowledge to check a mod out and ensure that what it seys is ALL it does, the fewer the better.

Even Run Silent Run Deep reaches well outside the realm of enemy shipping and routes to delve into submarine crush depth behavior, periscope stuff, deck gun and torpedo strength, enemy AI, for every good thing it does there are three unannounced nerfings of what mods you thought you were running. TMO is great. Add "compatible" RSRD to it and it's not TMO at all any more. I don't like that.

Keep it simple, keep it fun is my advice. I'm in the minority though.

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If you're not going the Supermod route Webster's mods are great, and he says 1.4&1.5, so you're gtg. Reduced planes is a must, SH4 was nearly unplayable before I added it, although I have 1.5 so I'm not sure if it's the same for 1.4, so get this one: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...do=file&id=473
Don't forget JSGME for easy mod enabling/removal.
Otherwise just play it for a bit, develop a feel for the game, and discover what really irks you, read some books on Subs to gain a historical understanding, your local library should have some, I especially enjoyed the Time-Life one, as well as Thunder Below. Once you know what bugs you, and have mastered manual targeting, you know what you want to fix, and can search accordingly.

Reducing the number of planes is completely unnecessary. They don't make the game unplayable, any more than they did for the real submarines. I can avoid airplanes all day by spotting them on radar, staying at 9 knots, going to periscope depth as they enter a 5 mile radius, stay under for four minutes, surface and continue as if nothing happened. If a plane will never get within 5 miles of you you don't even need to submerge.

I do this never reducing time compression to less than 8x. It's a non-event.

Now if you allow yourself to be spotted then they gossip on the radio to all their flyboy buddies and you'll have more visitors. Avoid them all. Don't be seen. 48 hours later you'll be back to normal numbers of planes.

Planes aren't a big deal. They don't need to be artificially nerfed. The real submariners couldn't load up the "nerf the planes mod." They would have loved it. You don't need it.

U-Boat missions adds a lot more to the game than just U-Boats and it's all very worthwhile. 1.5 is a much better game than 1.4 if you never load up a U-Boat. It makes fleet boats much better.

The most important advance involved lag. 1.4 plots every enemy and friendly boat on planet earth and follows them in real time. Do I need to say "LAGGGGGGGGG?" 1.5 uses virtual reality. In a certain radius from your boat all objects are plotted. Outside of that they are virtual properties, which are rendered and tracked if and only if you enter your "local range."

I shouldn't have to tell you that alone revolutionizes and vastly improves gameplay. Get 1.5. You can ignore the U-Boats. You can't ignore lag and that's only the beginning of the great improvements.

To do this you really need v1.5. Many here aren't interested in the U-boats, but still happily purchased v1.5. Most of the mods around now require v1.5, and that alone makes it worthwhile.

very true. for them to call thepatch "U-boat missions" was a bait and switch to get attention especially when they don't even include 1 U-boat mission in the U-boat mission patch lol. there really is like 10% or less of the v1.5 patch that has anything to do with adding a german side to the game.

it didn't even have any german missions so you could only play a german campaign game unless you created your own missions to play single missions or single patrols.

in truth it just added another patch to further fix game bugs and it added a half done german campaign side that was ready made so modders could mod into something for a german side. "operation monsun" was such a german side supermod.

everyone buys the v1.5 ad-on because of the very much needed fixes to the speed of the game engine as well as quite a few hard coded fixes that only ubi could do. so its very much worth it to buy the ad-on even if you never even use the german side for anything, I bet 97% of sh4 uses do just that.

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