Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard Setting

[AVGWarhawk]

Looks to me that on top of the usual boxes we can check, unlimited fuel, outside views etc., the drop down list of easy, normal, hard, very hard affects the amount of contacts and the aggressiveness of AI. I played very hard and contacts were very few. I went for days without radioed in convoys or seeing single merchants. I tried on the hard setting, I got some more contacts and mostly Allied vessels. After 5 days I got a radioed message on a task force. I set up my ambush. Sunk a destroyer and a carrier. Two DD found me in short order and sunk me. Not quite the same DD I had in easy mode.

Switch your game play to hard or very hard. I'm interested in finding out if you are seeing what I'm seeing. It looks to me like the developers worked on AI and contact via the selection of easy, normal, hard and very hard. Check it out and tell me what you see.

[BlackSpot]

I think we agree on this one Hawk. I'm playing on "hard" settings. Last night I was sent to the coast of Japan. Very few contact reports. One TF and one convoy. I did however bump into 2 passenger liners, one old and one new, sailing together. I picked them up on the sonar whilst travelling submerged in daylight. These contacts did not appear on the map.:p

edit. I forgot, I did come across a coastal merchant in the same area a few hours later. Again picked up on sonar, not from the map contacts.

[AVGWarhawk]

Exactly. Now I suspect the lesser radioed contacts the less the clipboard will fill up.

[BlackSpot]

Ahhh...not tried that, i'm using the clipboard MOD. I'll turn it off and see what happens tonight

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by BlackSpot

Ahhh...not tried that, i'm using the clipboard MOD. I'll turn it off and see what happens tonight

Yeah, I got the clipboard mod also. I give that go as well. I seem to be finding more depth to the game than SH3 in respect to game play and how we can set it up to our liking

[Bilge_Rat]

I am playing very hard, 100% realism and Dize's campaign mod which reduces traffic.

I'm on the 20th day of my 1st patrol, april 1943 near Truk. I am getting about 3-5 enemy contact reports per day, single ships, TFs, convoys, scattered throughout the Pacific.

I just ran into my 1st ship, Junk, 2 tons, which my crew dispatched with the deck gun.

How does this stack up with what other people are experiencing?

[Teh_Diplomat]

The difficulty settings for Career also cause a discrepancy with your realism settings.

If you select Custom difficulty in the gameplay options screen to customize what options you want left on(Event Cam, Ext. Cam, Auto-TDC, etc) it sets those to custom; Yet when you start a career you can only choose one the pre-determined realism settings based on the difficulty.

So even though you can play at 60% realism in single missions by selecting your custom settings, your career can not have an event camera, because that is the only option disabled from the 'easy' setting(6% realism). I have yet to find a way to use your custom gameplay settings in your career. Another overlooked problem...

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Teh_Diplomat

The difficulty settings for Career also cause a discrepancy with your realism settings.

If you select Custom difficulty in the gameplay options screen to customize what options you want left on(Event Cam, Ext. Cam, Auto-TDC, etc) it sets those to custom; Yet when you start a career you can only choose one the pre-determined realism settings based on the difficulty.

So even though you can play at 60% realism in single missions by selecting your custom settings, your career can not have an event camera, because that is the only option disabled from the 'easy' setting(6% realism). I have yet to find a way to use your custom gameplay settings in your career. Another overlooked problem...

I believe you need to find the options in the office before you set sail. It is in the bookcase on the left. From here you can set what you want and it will save these settings as your career progresses.

[RickC Sniper]

My experience is the same as Deep Six. Escorts are aggressive until you get inside their screen. They won't go around a merchant to come after you.

IMO the easy, normal, hard, etc setting at a carreer start is just a baseline for the realism options, which you can change or fine tune later anyway.

It'll be interesting to see if Neal can get the devs to respond.

Another Question I have is why a selection for how much renown you want at a carreer start? There seems to be no reason not to take all you can get. At least, no penalty for not doing so.

[hmatthias]

The messed up campaign layer must be the cause of me seeing unescorted merchants near Australia in 1943 then. was pretty silly seeing them, and wondering what they were doing and where they were going. I hope somebody fixes the campaign layers soon.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by hmatthias

The messed up campaign layer must be the cause of me seeing unescorted merchants near Australia in 1943 then. was pretty silly seeing them, and wondering what they were doing and where they were going. I hope somebody fixes the campaign layers soon.

Once the next patch is out I suspect the modders will really start moving on new mods and fixes.

[SgtWalt65]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Looks to me that on top of the usual boxes we can check, unlimited fuel, outside views etc., the drop down list of easy, normal, hard, very hard affects the amount of contacts and the aggressiveness of AI. I played very hard and contacts were very few. I went for days without radioed in convoys or seeing single merchants. I tried on the hard setting, I got some more contacts and mostly Allied vessels. After 5 days I got a radioed message on a task force. I set up my ambush. Sunk a destroyer and a carrier. Two DD found me in short order and sunk me. Not quite the same DD I had in easy mode.

Switch your game play to hard or very hard. I'm interested in finding out if you are seeing what I'm seeing. It looks to me like the developers worked on AI and contact via the selection of easy, normal, hard and very hard. Check it out and tell me what you see.

I think AVGWarhawk is on to something here with the Hard settings. I made a new campaign last night and used the hardest setting. Also noticed the missions are a lot different on that setting and a bit more of a nail biter. Its an entirely different game on that setting.

The first contacts I got were only when I was within about 100 miles from the southeast coast of Japan and more once I got into the Sea of Japan ( about twice more than on the Jap East Coast ) and on into the Yellow Sea. I was making about 5 knots at 120 feet down when I herd screws turning that clearly where not mine, ( herd them through the hull not via sonar station ) but my sonar man never reported any contacts. I went to PD to take a little peak, nothing at 0 to 150 and 0 to 250 degrees left and right of heading, but at 170 to about 200 degrees of heading and closing very fast all I could say was OMG...Emergency.... DIVE....DIVE....DIVE < insert klaxon sound > I almost got ran over. Was in the front of a very "LARGE" convoy with closest ship only 400 away and on collision course with my little sub and he was low in the water, took damage to both of my scopes ( hello mister kill my watch tower crew bug ) and my AA Gun. My SO never said a word. Upon clearing the convoy and finding a safe place to surface again, my SO was found guilty of "Dereliction of Duty" and was summarly executed!

[MikeJW]

I usually play on normal but I started a new career out of Pearl, '41, on hard and the pickings are a lot slimmer than on normal. Very few contacts while on normal you get swamped by contact reports.

[SgtWalt65]

Originally Posted by MikeJW

I usually play on normal but I started a new career out of Pearl, '41, on hard and the pickings are a lot slimmer than on normal. Very few contacts while on normal you get swamped by contact reports.

Yep, there is something to these game play settings. More than meets the eye and then some. Must be something in the hard code we are nor privy too.