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Bosje · 07-25-08, 07:09 AM

Good day to you, fellow Commanders

After being awed by SH3/GWX, I had extremely high expectations as SH4 was installing itself onto my system. Silly me.

So I looked at the pretty graphics for a short while before coming across all the many bugs/glitches that came with my retail 1.0. Patched the thing up, got TM and PE3 and tried it for real. Got my S-class capseized in a wave. Got detected by destroyers while doing nothing to make em suspicous, never got my torpedoes on target, experienced one too many ctd etc etc etc. Bored after a day, went back to SH3. That is just my introduction though

Recently, I decided to give it another go because I still love the idea of commanding a fleet boat. So installed it again, as pure as I could, got the mod packages properly done (with all the fixes I could find) and went through the various new things to learn, this time more thoroughly. So now I'm getting torpedoes on target at full realism, I'm completing patrols and I'm generally starting to get to grips with the game. Unfortunately, I'm still not pleased with the whole thing. As much as I like the concept and the visuals, the game itself keeps making me hate it.

I'm quite satisfied to join the 'How dare they release this bug-ridden wretch'-Ranting-Club but I was also told that the modding community did wonderful things since. Here are my remaining issues which the forum does not readily adress (my search queries may have been worded wrongly. if so, I apologize for being a time-waster)

-Who am I looking at exactly in the Control Room / Conning Tower? Crew management tells me there are 6 guys in total but I see 7: a diving officer, 3 ratings on the planes/standing by the christmas tree and an officer of the deck with 2 sonar/radar operators. Who's who?

-After disabling the volumetric fog which annoys the hell out of me as it goes right through my watchcrew, I can't get rid of the sun shining through my boat and crew. Is that my graphics card or is it another hardcoded stupidity? Like the lighthouses in SH3? The same goes for signaling lights on warships which go through everything, including 200 feet of water. (nvidia geforce 8600 gts)

-Silent running in a Gato gets me an rpm of 50, the old S class gives it well over 100 rpm. ahead 2/3 gets respectively an odd 95 rpm on the Gato and a value off the scales on the S class. Is that an error or is that historically accurate? Is destroyer detection governed by RPM or simply by the fact that you are there at all inside his passive/active detection cone? This question is based on the SH3/GWX situation where you get detected under certain conditions if you get your rpm up too high. But maybe rpm is not a factor in SH4? (Have been reading some things about them going into active search mode without reason other than the sub simply being close by) Being given a hard time is fine, but being detected whatever you do is ****e as far as I'm concerned. OK it may model the fact that they always had their active sonar on but I'm pissed off with convoys going into alert mode by default. Historically, the japs were nowhere near as competent as the brits, and that was after 2 years of hardcore head to head with the cream of the U-boot Waffe. I still sink em, it just kind of defeats the point of the whole realistic data-gathering-cycle-and-plotting-and-planning-game when all you ever do is launch torpedoes from close range at improvised solutions.

-Back in SH3, my crew would get all jumpy and nervous when the going got rough. And the chief warned me about going too deep etc.
I just did the new boat trials and here is what happened.
First, determine your crush depth: get down as deep as you can until things start looking troublesome in the conning tower. At around 510 feet the lights started flickering and I got back up. Hull Damage still at 0. Nobody flinched, nobody said a word, apart from the diving officer sounding off the depths. This was while at full action stations. Ok so I found my approximate crush depth. And I got back up without problems and without taking actual damage to the hull.
Next mission, I did the Parker Tincan thing, sank the first, went on my way, had a little gun battle with the Parker II (ok, stupid) and took 20 hull damage before getting down. Took her down to 400 feet, no problems whatsoever. Still all the boys just standing there all casual-like, no flickering lights, all was well. After a bit of cat and mouse, I gave Ensign Parker the slip. As I was being happy about it all and listened to Parker going the wrong way up top, the boat suddenly gave a groan and a bang, lights went off in the conning tower and I ordered the boat up a bit. Not getting any indication of being in actual trouble, I thought we were fine, just getting a bit close to our new crush depth what with the damage we had taken from the gun battle and all. We were just beyond 400 feet, hull damage was at 21 now. I was aiming to get her back up a bit without making too much noise, as I didn't think we were in any kind of serious trouble. As the boat was getting up, there were more bangs, more scary visuals in the conning tower and before I could blow ballast, all the bulkheads gave way while we were at 350 feet. Hull Damage 100, doom. I gave a ping for depth before dying, still over 1000 feet under keel, so I didn't hit the bottom or anything. All the boys stood quite relaxed right up until they died.
SO... what gives? Nobody says anything about reaching critical depth? Nobody starts sweating? There is simply a line which you cross and the boat instantly goes from 20 damage to 21 damage and then to 100 damage before you can do anything? I was at 400 feet for half an hour during the cat and mouse game with Parker and nothing indicated any trouble. Until the boat suddenly came apart, that is. Is this a cool feature whereby you can only be at dangerous dephts for so long? I wouldnt mind that, but I'd still like a warning about it. Isn't the chief supposed to know stuff like that?

-After running the game for longer durations, I come across 2 glitches: the boat is reported in tip-top shape, even after getting some battle damage which is long since repaired. But when I load a savegame the boat is suddenly reported in trouble. So several hours after action, I save the game with the hull intact and all systems functional and when I load that game she suddenly sports 15 hull damage and various systems damaged which I can then repair (again). But before reloading I am led to believe the boat is fine when, in fact, it's not.
Likewise, after a number of dives and several hours of play, the dive planes stop working visually. After saving and loading (i.e. giving the game a reboot) they are fine again. Is that a known and common issue? Is it recommended to relaunch the game after several hours? (In case the ctd's don't sort that out for you)

-Ship ID book suggests a draft of 9 feet but my torp runs under it. So while I'm actually shooting accurately, the fast running eels at impact pistol simply don't connect. Am I simply making a mistake such as thinking the torpedo depth is in feet while it, in fact, is in yards or something? Is this simply the modelling of the crap torpedoes? Or is something else at work? (only way to sink Parker's tin can is by setting torpedoes for magnetic trigger at the shallowest possible depth setting, I instinctively set speed at slow for magnetics because of my experience with SH3, but of course they have Superman on the bridge who can go from 0 to 60 mph faster than a ferrari, so the only way to actually sink the bastard is with a spread starting at his current position and fanning out way ahead of him)

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of commanding a fleet boat, I like the visuals, I like the modding work. But logically (after many SH3 patrols) I expect this game to be even better. I'm willing to accept that it's a different game, different war, different kind of boat. And I'm willing to spend the necessary time needed to get fully comfortable with all the new stuff. Unfortunately, however, some of the above crap kind of takes a big bite out of the fun and I won't be playing a game that's no fun.

Anyone able to comment on these issues? I'd appreciate it.

Regards,

Bosje

07-25-08, 07:09 AM	#1
Bosje Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 732 Downloads: 89 Uploads: 0	Post modding/patching gripes Good day to you, fellow Commanders After being awed by SH3/GWX, I had extremely high expectations as SH4 was installing itself onto my system. Silly me. So I looked at the pretty graphics for a short while before coming across all the many bugs/glitches that came with my retail 1.0. Patched the thing up, got TM and PE3 and tried it for real. Got my S-class capseized in a wave. Got detected by destroyers while doing nothing to make em suspicous, never got my torpedoes on target, experienced one too many ctd etc etc etc. Bored after a day, went back to SH3. That is just my introduction though Recently, I decided to give it another go because I still love the idea of commanding a fleet boat. So installed it again, as pure as I could, got the mod packages properly done (with all the fixes I could find) and went through the various new things to learn, this time more thoroughly. So now I'm getting torpedoes on target at full realism, I'm completing patrols and I'm generally starting to get to grips with the game. Unfortunately, I'm still not pleased with the whole thing. As much as I like the concept and the visuals, the game itself keeps making me hate it. I'm quite satisfied to join the 'How dare they release this bug-ridden wretch'-Ranting-Club but I was also told that the modding community did wonderful things since. Here are my remaining issues which the forum does not readily adress (my search queries may have been worded wrongly. if so, I apologize for being a time-waster) -Who am I looking at exactly in the Control Room / Conning Tower? Crew management tells me there are 6 guys in total but I see 7: a diving officer, 3 ratings on the planes/standing by the christmas tree and an officer of the deck with 2 sonar/radar operators. Who's who? -After disabling the volumetric fog which annoys the hell out of me as it goes right through my watchcrew, I can't get rid of the sun shining through my boat and crew. Is that my graphics card or is it another hardcoded stupidity? Like the lighthouses in SH3? The same goes for signaling lights on warships which go through everything, including 200 feet of water. (nvidia geforce 8600 gts) -Silent running in a Gato gets me an rpm of 50, the old S class gives it well over 100 rpm. ahead 2/3 gets respectively an odd 95 rpm on the Gato and a value off the scales on the S class. Is that an error or is that historically accurate? Is destroyer detection governed by RPM or simply by the fact that you are there at all inside his passive/active detection cone? This question is based on the SH3/GWX situation where you get detected under certain conditions if you get your rpm up too high. But maybe rpm is not a factor in SH4? (Have been reading some things about them going into active search mode without reason other than the sub simply being close by) Being given a hard time is fine, but being detected whatever you do is ****e as far as I'm concerned. OK it may model the fact that they always had their active sonar on but I'm pissed off with convoys going into alert mode by default. Historically, the japs were nowhere near as competent as the brits, and that was after 2 years of hardcore head to head with the cream of the U-boot Waffe. I still sink em, it just kind of defeats the point of the whole realistic data-gathering-cycle-and-plotting-and-planning-game when all you ever do is launch torpedoes from close range at improvised solutions. -Back in SH3, my crew would get all jumpy and nervous when the going got rough. And the chief warned me about going too deep etc. I just did the new boat trials and here is what happened. First, determine your crush depth: get down as deep as you can until things start looking troublesome in the conning tower. At around 510 feet the lights started flickering and I got back up. Hull Damage still at 0. Nobody flinched, nobody said a word, apart from the diving officer sounding off the depths. This was while at full action stations. Ok so I found my approximate crush depth. And I got back up without problems and without taking actual damage to the hull. Next mission, I did the Parker Tincan thing, sank the first, went on my way, had a little gun battle with the Parker II (ok, stupid) and took 20 hull damage before getting down. Took her down to 400 feet, no problems whatsoever. Still all the boys just standing there all casual-like, no flickering lights, all was well. After a bit of cat and mouse, I gave Ensign Parker the slip. As I was being happy about it all and listened to Parker going the wrong way up top, the boat suddenly gave a groan and a bang, lights went off in the conning tower and I ordered the boat up a bit. Not getting any indication of being in actual trouble, I thought we were fine, just getting a bit close to our new crush depth what with the damage we had taken from the gun battle and all. We were just beyond 400 feet, hull damage was at 21 now. I was aiming to get her back up a bit without making too much noise, as I didn't think we were in any kind of serious trouble. As the boat was getting up, there were more bangs, more scary visuals in the conning tower and before I could blow ballast, all the bulkheads gave way while we were at 350 feet. Hull Damage 100, doom. I gave a ping for depth before dying, still over 1000 feet under keel, so I didn't hit the bottom or anything. All the boys stood quite relaxed right up until they died. SO... what gives? Nobody says anything about reaching critical depth? Nobody starts sweating? There is simply a line which you cross and the boat instantly goes from 20 damage to 21 damage and then to 100 damage before you can do anything? I was at 400 feet for half an hour during the cat and mouse game with Parker and nothing indicated any trouble. Until the boat suddenly came apart, that is. Is this a cool feature whereby you can only be at dangerous dephts for so long? I wouldnt mind that, but I'd still like a warning about it. Isn't the chief supposed to know stuff like that? -After running the game for longer durations, I come across 2 glitches: the boat is reported in tip-top shape, even after getting some battle damage which is long since repaired. But when I load a savegame the boat is suddenly reported in trouble. So several hours after action, I save the game with the hull intact and all systems functional and when I load that game she suddenly sports 15 hull damage and various systems damaged which I can then repair (again). But before reloading I am led to believe the boat is fine when, in fact, it's not. Likewise, after a number of dives and several hours of play, the dive planes stop working visually. After saving and loading (i.e. giving the game a reboot) they are fine again. Is that a known and common issue? Is it recommended to relaunch the game after several hours? (In case the ctd's don't sort that out for you) -Ship ID book suggests a draft of 9 feet but my torp runs under it. So while I'm actually shooting accurately, the fast running eels at impact pistol simply don't connect. Am I simply making a mistake such as thinking the torpedo depth is in feet while it, in fact, is in yards or something? Is this simply the modelling of the crap torpedoes? Or is something else at work? (only way to sink Parker's tin can is by setting torpedoes for magnetic trigger at the shallowest possible depth setting, I instinctively set speed at slow for magnetics because of my experience with SH3, but of course they have Superman on the bridge who can go from 0 to 60 mph faster than a ferrari, so the only way to actually sink the bastard is with a spread starting at his current position and fanning out way ahead of him) Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of commanding a fleet boat, I like the visuals, I like the modding work. But logically (after many SH3 patrols) I expect this game to be even better. I'm willing to accept that it's a different game, different war, different kind of boat. And I'm willing to spend the necessary time needed to get fully comfortable with all the new stuff. Unfortunately, however, some of the above crap kind of takes a big bite out of the fun and I won't be playing a game that's no fun. Anyone able to comment on these issues? I'd appreciate it. Regards, Bosje __________________ And when an 800-ton Uboat has you by the tits... you listen!