New to the game... a question

[TigrisJK]

I'm curious. Being new to the game, (it's been since... SH3... since I picked up a sub sim and I waited this long to get SH4... I had forgotten how much they take out of your life. I need to stop...) I'm not entirely sure on some points...

The radio messages that I receive about major battles going on... do they actually happen in game? I don't ever seem to be in the right place at the right time... but I am in the mood to go find a Japanese carrier to sink in action, rather than preying on convoys and warships stuck at dock.



Other questions I had:
... how "surfaced" is surfaced in terms of ships spotting you for sure? I typically run at 49 ft so my radar can spot out planes while I run underwater. Also even at periscope depth sometimes planes seem to orbit around me as though they've seen my silhouette, but from what I've gathered that doesn't seem to actually affect their spotting me. It would be awesome if it did... just curious.

... is there any way to lock my time-scale? Fleeing Tokyo's harbour when at night, running as quietly as possible, I'm pretty positive I won't get spotted... but the game brings me back down to 8x whenever I get a new sonar contact. I'm not looking to do anything really rash, but I'd like a faster speed... it's impossible to get out to the open ocean in anything short of several hours when you're sailing out of a busy harbour and there's quite a lot of people pissed off at you for sinking a couple heavy cruisers at dock. Same thing goes for sailing out of a friendly harbour... when I'm getting sonar contacts for friendly merchant ships and task forces constantly. (that is... days and days of game time scale, since my batteries are running dead, I can't surface to use my diesel most of the time... so I'm spending most of my days trying to fast forward through the daylight either hiding as low as I can or moving at 1/3 speed so I can run on the diesel at night)

[Zantham]

radio messages that I receive about major battles going on... do they actually happen

Not 100% sure on this one I'll let someone else answer that one.

how "surfaced" is surfaced in terms of ships spotting you

Spotting is very complex in this game. The more of your sub that is above the surface the more likely an enemy ship will spot you sooner. The faster you drive on the surface the faster enemy ships will spot you. Running at periscope depth with your periscope up or radar, much much less likely your periscope will be spotted. Two periscopes are spotted easier than one. If you travel faster under water they can spot your periscope easier by the 'feather'.

even at periscope depth sometimes planes seem to orbit

Stock game - you are invisible at periscope depth to planes, as long as you are entirely under water.
Trigger Maru - planes can actually spot you at periscope depth, even deeper, but they have very specific viewing angles and is apparently dependant on the thermal layer.

lock my time-scale

You can manually edit a config file to change the default maximum TC for various items in the game. However, note that at higher TC the enemy sensors become hyper-sensitive and will pick you up where they may not have at a low or no TC.

I believe the file you edit is main.cfg

...\Silent Hunter 4 Wolves of the Pacific\Data\Cfg\main.cfg

[TIME COMPRESSION]
TimeStop=0
RealTime=1
LandProximity=4
CriticalDamage=1
CrewEfficiency=128;1
AirEnemyDetected=1
SoundEffects=2
CharacterAnim=4
EnemyDetected=8
RadioReport=8
Particles=8
PrayState=8
HunterState=32
3DRender=32
Maximum=8192

The line you are looking for is ' EnemyDetected=8'.

[TigrisJK]

Thanks! That helps... I will have to check out the Trigger Maru mod, that sounds interesting. I also didn't know (though I thought it might've been the case from the way they were behaving) that sensor senstivity was higher time compressions.

I hope someone knows about the major battles... I do want to get into the thick of some serious battles.

[kylesplanet]

Originally Posted by TigrisJK

Thanks! That helps... I will have to check out the Trigger Maru mod, that sounds interesting. I also didn't know (though I thought it might've been the case from the way they were behaving) that sensor senstivity was higher time compressions.

I hope someone knows about the major battles... I do want to get into the thick of some serious battles.

In the stock game, some of the battles are there and some are just radio traffic. (I know, kinda silly) Midway is there but if I remember right, the dates are messed up a little. If you install RSRDC, you will get alot more realistic traffic that is historically correct.

IMO, ROW, TM and RSRDC are must have mods after you get comfortable with the game but I would definatley play a few patrols stock first but after that, I would install the mods and have a try at it. TM will certainly challenge you.

[Torplexed]

Some of the non-career stand-alone patrol missions throw you right into the thick of a battle like Midway or Leyte Gulf.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by TigrisJK

The radio messages that I receive about major battles going on... do they actually happen in game? I don't ever seem to be in the right place at the right time... but I am in the mood to go find a Japanese carrier to sink in action, rather than preying on convoys and warships stuck at dock.

Im afraid that the vast majority of those messages, espically the 'historical' ones are just color text.