My first patrol.......CTD!

[Major Johnson]

So after reading all the positive and negative posts, I decided I wanted to give the game a shot. I figure my pc is beefy enough for the game. I did the training missions in 1.1 a few weeks back with only one CTD when I accidently pressed the A key. Then 1.2 came out and the complaining started. I got so scared I decided to take a wait and see attitude. But I've been reading a lot of the positive posts and I started feeling lucky. Man! I had just gotten out of Pearl and plotted my course to Midway. I was barely outside the harbor, I hit flank speed and that was all she wrote!!

So I decided to uninstall and do a clean reinstall with both patches. I read in one of the posts that it was best to have a clean reinstall for patch 1.2. My question is, do I need to apply 1.1?? Does 1.2 have the 1.1 fixes in it?? I tried searching the forum but couldn't come up with a definitive answer to that question. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

AMD 2.19 Ghz processor
2 GB RAM
GeForce 7800 GS video card with 256 RAM

[DirtyHarry3033]

For 1.2 I did a clean install of SH4 then applied the 1.2 patch without putting on 1.1 first. No probs at all. Far as I know, 1.2 includes all the fixes from 1.1 also, so no reason to apply both.

One thing I've heard is that you should not fire up SH4 following a reinstall, but before applying patches. Reinstall the game, apply the patch, and only then run the game after the patch is put on. I've heard you're looking at problems otherwise.

Good hunting!

DH

[Major Johnson]

Thanks for the quick response! I'm just at the patching point now. I'll do as you said and just install 1.2. I hadn't planned on starting up the game before patching it, just in case.
Thanks again.

[Major Johnson]

HOLY COW!! What a rough start! First try at a campaign after the reinstall, just pulling away from the dock and the game hangs! Sounds like a broken record playing the same clip of music over and over again. Had to do a ctrl-alt-del to end task. I had other programs running in the background, and some hoe had IM'd me. So I close all other programs and start again. Samething again! But this time, nothing running in the background. So now I'm defraging my C drive and I'll defrag the partition that the game is installed to too! But man oh man I'm not getting a warm and fuzzy here. I have the graphic settings set to high. I figure that my system should be able to handle it. I either meet or exceed the recommended requirements. Think I'll take the dogs for a walk while I wait. I was hoping for a better ending to my weekend!! I'm not giving up yet!

[DS]

I had a few CTDs when I first go the sim, and I patched to 1.2 directly and moved the sound channels slider in sound options a notch or two further to the left than the default.

I've been running SH4 1.2 with no problems at all after doing that.

[AVGWarhawk]

Yes, a IM is an instant buzz kill with this game. My favorite is a Norton Virus update. That can screw up a whole patrol. This game uses A LOT of resources. Turn off the background programs and let the game have all you got. Your computer has enough butt to run this game. My set up:

AMD 64 3200+
1 gig RAM
ATI XGE X1300 512mb vid card
Onboard sound

I run with all sliders to the right but not all option check. Enviromental, 3D water and light rays through the water are unchecked. Either I see no difference or they are a FPS killer. Environment is a hugh FPS killer for me. Anyway, update to current drivers and some tweeking will need to take place. BTW, if you have some soundcard that is not on onboard sound, these have been know to create some CTD issues.

[NefariousKoel]

You might try what DS did and lower your sound acceleration. Maybe it's a sound issue you're having.

[Major Johnson]

Another thing you can't do is plot your course and take a 45 minute walk with your dogs. I figured I could let the mission start and by the time I got back my crew would be well out to sea. I guess I should have turned off the screen saver, because when I got back my pc had rebooted! But I'm determined! I love SH1 and I'm giving this game the full benefit of the doubt. So I cranked it up again, loaded my mission and tried again. This time I got out to sea. I was just taking my time, getting familiar with the interface, trying not to rush things. I remembered what AVGWarkhawk posted about flank speed to Midway, refuel then use 10 knots to the patrol zone. Well I only used "ahead full" to Midway thinking that running the engines at flank for that whole time just might damage them. I'm not sure how realistic they made this game. But I fat fingered the <enter> key and fired off a torp! UH!! But at least that made me find out that at Midway I really did get refueled and reloaded. Then I plotted my course to the patrol area and set the speed at 10 knots and did a little time compression. I did notice that When I set the speed to exactly 10 knots the helmsman kept saying 9 knots. I had to put it to 11 for him to say 10. Bug?? I had picked a damage control team but I noticed that they were getting mighty tired. So I'm thinking that they don't automatically go to sleep. So at night I put them back in thier regular slots. Gun crews too. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Not long after that I was about halfway to the patrol zone and I may have been in big time compression like 1024x and I clicked on one of the icons along the bottom and CTD!! Now I have been saving every so often so this isn't the end of the world. But I guess it might be good practice to go back to no time compression before clicking an icon along the bottom. The function keys don't appear to have the same effect. At least not yet. But I have to say. thus far, the graphics are blowing me away! The volmeric fog in the morning made me really take notice! So I'm gonna load her up again and see if I can get to the patrol zone tonight before hitting the sack. I sure do hope UBISoft gives the green light on that patch, because this game has potential! Maybe a group hug??

But thanks for all those who responded. I can see you're a good group of guys!

[DS]

"I love SH1 and I'm giving this game the full benefit of the doubt."

Glad to hear it. This game is worth it. The sim still has a few things to get ironed out, but I've been having loads of fun with it.

[Major Johnson]

Well I made it to the deployment zone and it tells me that part of the mission is completed. Now if I can only find some shipping in this freakin' squall I'm in!! Even though I've only been trying to track'um down for the past 5-6 hours, I'm sitll having loads of fun learning the in's and out's. So far so good!! Although I am feeling a little queazy from the heavy seas!!

[heartc]

Finally someone enjoying the game again. I've got the game since day one and I had a SINGLE CTD since then. A lot of the CTDs you described should be avoidable. Here's what I do:

- Don't have unnecessary programs running in the background. I use enditall, google it.

- Don't have those background programs pop up on you while running the game. BIG no no!

- Disable the screensaver.

- High time compression is for zipping across the ocean, not for playing. It eats up alot of resources the higher you go, and stations other than the map are not accessable when time compression is >32 I think. Don't click any buttons when time compression is high. The backshift key on your keyboard will drop you back to 0x time at once. Hitting it again, you will be at 1x.

@AVGWarhawk:

Enable those 3d ship wakes, man!! They look awesome, especially in external view and eat only 2 FPS on my system, which is a 1,8Ghz, 512 RAM, 9800Pro.

[Major Johnson]

Yes I am enjoying the game. Stayed up way too late last night in that rain squall! No other CTD's though. And definitely nothing else running in the background. I try to have very little in my task bar anyway. Being in the computer field, it's kind of a pet peeve of mine. But thanks for all the advice!

BTW, I'm currently running the vanilla version. No mods yet. I want to get a feel for the basic game, and wait and see what 1.3 brings before venturing to the "dark side".

[DS]

Glad to hear you're running OK. When you're ready to mod, I recommend the Flavoured To Taste or Trigger Maru series (I didn't build them I just play them). They put a reasonable fix fo the radar that allows 360 degree detection of air and surface targets and the ability to turn radar on and off, which seems to make a difference later in the war when it appears some Japanese warships have radar detectors. It also give you a radar depth command that automatically brings the boat to 40'.

The mod also brings in some additional functionanity and commands not found in the vanilla version, some ported over from SH3.

Have fun!

[AVGWarhawk]

Cool beans! You have it running somewhat decent. Like I said, some tweeking needs to take place. The volumetric fog might be your CTD issue. But, you employed the save often techique. So, no harm no foul. The game is just great in my view but needs a helping hand in some areas and this hand has to come from the developers. Here is hoping for patch 1.3