@Captain Huxley: fred8615 has some map mods, and there are a few others that have done some, but getting those Lat/Long markings more visible, especially under read light, still eludes me also... As for Webster's mod, it is easiest to use the package THEBERBSTER put together at
THEBERBSTERS All In One Beginners Mega Mod List For SH4, which is Webster's GFO all laid out logically. As for the "tools", it depends upon how deep into the water you want to dive... you can get really deep into some aspects of the game. As has been suggested, just use the "Mods" link above, then the "SH4" link, and start browsing. You'll probably find enough interesting stuff to fill an old 4Gig hard drive, and then forget what-all you downloaded it for... lol
A big point to make about tools and such, and you mention a 2nd computer... that is the way to do things. If I want to load my "Sub Buddy" and really get into tracking stuff, I use my old 10" 'droid tablet on a stand, and have at it. It is best if you do not "shell-out" to Windows on the game computer. Reason being, the SH4 app is an old Windows XP program, and as such does not understand all the fancy trappings of a 'modern' computer with virtual machines and streaming audio and video. SH4 expects things to stay where they are in memory, while Windows likes to re-arrange things. If you do "shell-out", the game will sometimes have display and audio anomalies, such as the sound mostly disappears, or there is a "steam" cloud following your boat around. If that happens, just Save your game progress where you are, exit the game, then re-start the game and load that save you made. All should be back to "normal"... In other words, you can shell-out, just expect some issues.
As for your mentioning "... As I see it the core mods I need in every incarnation will be the widescreen mod for my higher resolutions and the 16:9 aspect ration and of course LAA all this managed by JSGME", you do NOT need a widescreen app like you do in SH3. SH4 has a built-in dialog to do several screen sizes from 4:3 to 5:4 to 16:9, and maybe a 16:10 (don't quote me on the 16:10). If you have an ultra-wide display, you could supplement for that, but from all indications of issues invovled, you would be better off letter-boxing the game in a wider screen, and just be done with the hassle. So, if you are wanting to do multiple copies of your SH4 as 1Patriotofmany suggests, you would then need:
1. [url=https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=5473]JSGME v2.6[/url
2. MultiSH4 v1.5
and I would read-up on LAA from CapnScurvy in
3a. Windows10; Large Address Aware
3b. 4GB virtual memory Patch or NTCore 4Gig Patch (the original)
It doesn't matter which if the 4Gig utilities you use, and you most likely would not need any if using Webster's list. However, it does give SH4 more room to "breath" inside your computer's allotted 4gig virtual 32-bit machine, especially if you have a lot of 32-bit background apps running. JSGME is "Jones Soft Generic Mod Enabler", and would not be use for the 4gig stuff, and only for the actual MOD activations / de-activations you might use. MultiSH4 is a stand-alone app also, and just writes a 3-character string to the game's "FileManager.dll" that can point each install to a different "Save" folder, but they would all be under your "My Documents" folder still. I have "SH4" as my stock game's save folder, and "GFO" for Game fixes only, and "FRS" for Fall of the Rising Sun mod, as well as "TMO" for my Trigger Maru install. It sounds more complicated than it is, so just read a bit, try a few things, ask questions, etc... Definitely much easier to deal with SH4 than a DOS boot disk to get Red Storm Rising running...
