[propbeanie]

First of all, you guys do realize that most of what I post is done tic (Tongue In Cheek), right? So everything is done with a grain of salt. We are trying for having the best SH4 mod, but this is still a work-in-progress of course. At least, we hope it's a "progress"...

Originally Posted by XenonSurf

No need to get bited here hehe... I think that the 'stucked needles' will more help you when another player is reporting this in another situation. For me resolving it is quite simple: I reload the last save where the needles are ok, and I don't have to go terribly back in time because I did a lot of saving.
What can help you maybe is this: I remember that when I load the TMO mod, all secondary needles play 'crazy' going up and down and there are background sounds of them that can be heard, I don't think this is intentional (with secondary needles I mean those which show engine pressure data or such, those gauges for decor whcih there are plenty of them). The reason why they play 'crazy' may be the same as the stucked needles in my case, although I cannot judge this, it's just an idea.
Then for my additional campaign mod: this one will not play-out differently than FOTRSU 1.1 as for the mission mechanics, only thing I have changed in the campaign files is the group spawn probability, the contact report probability and the report delay time (which is expressed in the ReportPosMin=xxxx) and that's it, nothing else. The consequence of this will be that you see more neutral or enemy icons appearing on the map with or without a report sent to you about these icons; I have increased all probabilities and reduced the 'report delay time' and all this can also influence wether these icons get their positions updated on the NavMap in rare cases. As you can see, I did not change any of the mechanics for the mission objectives or such. For my problem here, you can safely ignore the fact that I'm playing with this additional mod.

The "needles issue" has been around since day one of the game. The main cause used to be AI submarines in the scene with the player's submarine. The issue being ID conflicts, in that both submarines were trying to access the same equipment from the game files. s7rikeback and CapnScurvy did a LOT of work to eliminate most of those conflicts. We do occasionally find the stray conflict, but we haven't found one for quite some time now. The second most common way for gauge issues, as well as other inexplicable anomalies is bad Save data, which can come from anything that is not 100% copacetic in the game files or data currently running, which is why I suggested double (triple? quadruple?) -checking your changes. One little bit of invalid data - of which, surprisingly, a multi-spawn group is not??? it's only a bandwidth eater - but just a little something simple being "off", and you have issues. See below:

Originally Posted by Havan_IronOak

Thanks for the additional info on the Focus mode on the SJ Radar. I'll give that a try.

On the "kvetch of the day" front, is there a secret to getting good reliable saves? Should one pause the game before saving? How long should you linger on the menu screen after the save before exiting to windows?

For the second night in a row now my last saves of the night have been bad.

In fact this morning I had to go back to the -3 generation to get one that would load.

It had me musing that perhaps the splash screen just before returning control to the player shouldn't say "No mission too difficult." Apparently loading a game from a save sometimes is...

Last night I thought I was being pretty careful. I actually made 2 saves before I shut down. Both were done when the game was running at 1x speed no compression and I waited for about a minute after completing the save to exit to windows.

I'm guessing that this isn't really a problem that in any way caused by the mod, but since I bugged y'all with it before, I thought I'd post my question here.

100% "Reliable" Saves are unfortunately not going to happen in this game. All you can do is reduce your chances of encountering them. In SH3, if you were submerged at the time of a Save, when you came back in, your submarine started losing "height", or gaining depth, such that your boat was eventually crushed. No way to stop it, no way to control the submarine. Game Over... At least, that was eliminated by v1.2 of SH4... v1.3 increased the number of good Saves, and v1.4 probably made it the most stable. There is all sorts of "superstition" about the best way to Save, but the biggest is to have good data surrounding you (somehow). No damage to your boat, no injured crew, not near land (just in case the Load drops you in shallow water), it's probably still best to be on the surface, which means "at night", nothing going on around you, and at 1xTC. However, I have gotten good Saves with a full-scale naval battle going on above me, and me at 300+ on Silent Running with 3 DD chasing me, and my boat had damage, and I had injured crew. It Loaded just fine. Other times, it was all quiet, on the suface, etc., and I could not get it to load. Who knows. Another aspect of the Save of course, is the player's computer. Are you writing to a fast hard drive with lots of un-fragmented space? Is the Windows cache on a different drive from the game and the Save folder? My Save folder is on the same drive as my game, but I had a very difficult time replicating bad Save issues before, when it was the airplanes causing issues, just due to the fact that I was not encountering the same airplanes as those that had the Save issue. Some of those same players had issues with the needles in their submarines going wonky, and this is why it is imperative to get good reports with as much detail as is possible. There might still be a wonky airplane, or a recalcitrant ship that just will not cooperate with us...

Originally Posted by DanielCoffey

Bug Report : Model defect on several Liners - missing cables.

If you look at the following Liners in S3D (or any modelling tool) you will notice that there are some missing cables on the rear mast. This is because these Liners all share the same Object for their rear mast.

NPL_Hap
NPL_Hikawa
NPL_Horai

The NPL_RC is also affected but is a re-skin of the NPL_Hap.

The cables should run from the starboard (right) side of the mast down to the deck in the same way that the port (left) ones do.

Thanks for that, duly noted, and we'll try to get to that for the next release!

Originally Posted by mikesn9

The basics: FOTRSU with patch 1.1, mission from pearl started May 3, 1942, Tambor.
Returning to pearl, June 6 1942, almost there when Sonar man says a merchant moving slow (stopped actually).

I looked at it, it was a Whale Factory American flagged sitting there about 6 1/2 to 7 miles SW of pearl with decks under water, superstructures above.
Approximate location from the map coordinates 158,1 W 21,17(and a half) N

I hope this was enough info to nail it down.

Thanks. We'll look, but had you encountered any inclement weather just before that? Encounter any IJN surface vessels (including submarines) or airplanes? Remember that June 6, 1942 was kind of an important date in Pacific during WWII...

Originally Posted by Havan_IronOak

Generic Mod Enabler - v2.6.0.157
[C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Silent Hunters Wolves of the Pacific\MODS]

100_FalloftheRisingSun_UltimateEdition_v1.1_EN
252_D3D9_AntiLag
399_Same-Sized_HUD_Dials
NewPatObjs2
Captain Midnights CBS NEWS Sound Mod
KGMB
RSM1.2

Yes, I've been warned about the problems with having my game files in the [C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ directory.

And I'll understand if that "invalidates my warranty" as to help from the folks at subsim but I've seen similar warnings on a number of different games and have never seen a problem that can be traced directly to the location of my files in this, "the Bermuda Triangle" of directories.

For what it's worth... I don't believe that this problem is related to that either as saved games are actually stored in C:\Users\*username*\Documents\SH4\Data

Thanks for any help either way.

I AM a bit surprised that my game does have lags from time to time given the horsepower that I have, and the SSD drive where both my game files and my save files are. From time to time I have tried running SH4 with task manager running in another background window trying to use alt tab to quickly catch a culprit when I do experience a slowdown, but of course that doesn't always work.

First of all, with RSM, is that the Radio Station Manager? If so, it is OK. Secondly, I don't know what KGMB is, nor NewPatObjs2. Was NewPatObjs2 an interim set of files I had made? Captain Midnights CBS NEWS Sound Mod is fine, so long as you fixed the date issue in it (with RSM??).

You may not notice what Windows does behind the scenes with your mod activations with JSGME. It fully depends upon your UAC (User Access Controls), as well as a few other Windows settings, as to how much "authority" you actually have on your computer. The Program Files folders are "protected system area", and as such, if an application is not "authorized" to make changes, Windows will roll them back, based upon their extensions, such as cfg and ini. Most of the graphics files are left alone, since they can do no harm. Neither Silent Hunter nor JSGME are "authorized", since they are "legacy" apps, built to the Windows XP GUI, and not to Vista or later. But it does depend upon the computer's configuration. Either way though, it is indeed the "'Bermuda Triangle' of directories". It is recommended to NOT use a Program Files directory, even for Steam games, but rather (with Steam) a second Library folder on a different hard drive, or alternate location not in a Program Files folder...

As for "glitches" and "slow downs" in the game, Windows does not respect the User, nor any "Legacy" apps or hardware you may have attached to your computer. Even "modern" software is not respected by the OS. Especially Windows 10, the OS will do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, user be #@%&!#... plain and simple. So if MS decides you need to have a new Start Image for the Windows desktop in the middle of your playing SH4, it will access the internet and download it. If Windows decides that it is time to look at the Windows Update server, it will, whether you have a "schedule" set or not. If the Indexing Service decides that it needs to find all instances of the the letter "A" in file names, it will. Most of these things can be turned off by the User, but Windows can and will turn them back on when IT decides to... Also, the game only has so much bandwidth, and writes especially, but also reads to the hard drive can cause hitches in performance. I would say that most of the really noticeable stuff is the OS, while the little hitches when at higher TC are the game.

btw, "No warranty, whether real or imagined, is implied nor activated by use of FotRSU or its derivatives. The User accepts any and all harm and or damage done to their psyche, whether from loss of personal time while playing or modding, the sinking of their submarine by game assets, real or imagined, or loss of Save folder data for any reason..."

Originally Posted by Mios 4Me

I think that's the case. Is it as simple as deleting the contents of the SaveGames and RichSavedGames folders?

Just those folders? No, unfortunately. The Save folder has a couple of files that are "bit counters", and removing a Save folder without all of its associated files can trash the whole folder the rest of the way. This is why you have to delete Saves from the game's Save menu, so that the game can remove them... It might clear itself anyway by your 2nd patrol after January 10, 1945 - but I do not know for certain. I have found a couple of suspects for the issues, and they are date-related, but I do not know for certain about their effect on the game. Only some experimenting will tell. For whatever reason, the game has a penchant to issue "assets" early to the player, from sonar, radar, and guns, to new subs to command - but have you ever seen an 'early' conning tower? much less a new one later on? Very hard to come by... inexplicable (there's that word again!)...