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Old 11-19-20, 11:36 AM   #2
propbeanie
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Several important points concerning RFB, Steam, SH4 & Windows.

Primary concern is to which folder is SH4 installed in? With the default install path which the Steam system will use is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam \SteamApps \common \Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific". This will result in a later failed mod application, no matter the mod, unless it consists exclusively of image files. The 'modern' Windows OS from Vista onward (Win7, 8, 81, 10 etc) will rollback any "unauthorized" changes made to that particular "Program Files" folder, due to Windows User Access Control (UAC) and other 'technologies'. "Unauthorized" is defined by anything that is not written to the 'modern' Windows GUI, of which the Silent Hunter series and JSGME both are not. Not that they are "bad" programs, just that they do not conform, and therefore will result in an alteration of the mod you just attempted to activate. The way to avoid this issue is to install the game - no matter the source of its purchase - into a non-"program files" folder. Steam has a support article "Moving a Steam Installation and Games that might help in this regard. If you have a 2nd HD, then you can do a new Library Folder on the 2nd hard drive, and install SH4 into its own folder, such as "D:\Games \Steam \SteamApps \common \Silent Hunter..." etc. That way, it is a folder you created, and Windows will not bother you there. Steam will still install parts of its components into the C: drive, Program Files folder, but that will not affect the game install into a different Library folder.

Secondarily, from the sounds of things with your install and missing files, the version of RFB you use on a Steam game is very important. The basic Steam SH4 is v1.3, while the UBoat Missions AddOn is v1.5. The Steam game does not have a v1.4. In the meantime, RFB v1.4 was written to the v1.4 of the game (hence its naming paradigm), and RFB v1.5 was written to the v1.5 of the game, which with Steam means that you need to add the UBoat Missions AddOn to bring your game up to v1.5, aka: Gold Edition. Therefore, you need to use the "UBoat Missions AddOn" of the Steam game, and the v1.5 version of RFB, or v2.0 (+). There is an update (patch) for that somewhere, of which I cannot find at the moment...

Thirdly, after you activate a mod, you need to empty the SH4 game "Save" folder, which is generally in your Windows documents folder, which is usually "C:\Users \UserName \Documents \SH4" (with "UserName" being what you log into Windows with), unless you use MultiSH4 to alter the 3 character name of "SH4" to something like a mod name of "RFB", and even still, certain changes to a mod list will still require a freshly emptied mod folder. The game runs a lot of aspects off that Save folder, and when activating a mod, any existing files in the Save folder are not overwritten, which can result in "cross-contamination" to where you basically have parts of two mods, or part of Stock and part of the mod, which usually results in an incomplete mod activation, with missing files and / or crashes.

Sorry for the verbosity, but I do hope it helps.
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