confuzzled

[Bosje]

hey fellow kaleuns
i mean lieutenant commanders

i picked up SH4 today, looking forward to very much after being a huge fan of SH3/GWX...

so now i am having a great deal of hardship as i try to flip the switch in my brain

here are my initial questions that the manual and the forum (at first glance) do not adress:

-I miss my navigator. how do i know the range at current speed/fuel level. do I have to work it out for myself?
-I miss my watch officer. i no longer have the option to learn about the range and bearing of the nearest target?
-I don't get a weather report?
-I do not have the 'target details' button on my scope menu. is that simply due to my ill-fated attempt of playing it realistically on the first go?
-I can not communicate with the staff like I could in SH3? ie click the chief, navigator, weapons officer etc for orders. those orders are simply the ones in the bottom left menu?

is there anything remotely like the GWX map tools for SH3 around? i've become horribly spoilt plotting the solutions in SH3 and now I just keep searching the screen for some kind of handy thing to aid me in my calculations which so far have been way off.

oh and the manual says there is an option for 'weapon officer assistance' but that option does not appear in my game. any clues?

sorry for being a noob

kind regards,
Bosje

edit: these questions are a bit silly, i'll mess around for a bit first

my final question: which supermod is recommended for starters?

[Rockin Robbins]

Well I can help you with some of that with my righteously ripped-off Trigger Maru Keyboard Layout. This gives you a very SH3-like keyboard layout, plus shift-i for "whatever officer does this in American U-Boats identify target."

I'm wondering what kind of different plotting tools you could be talking about. I guess it's been too long, but I remember the GWX plotting tools being the same as SH4. You aren't talking about OLC GUI are you? That too will come, grasshopper.

You can get speed and course (sort of. Beware of inaccurate results due to stadimeter follies) by taking two range/bearing sights and then switching to TDC speed view and stabbing the stopwatch button. It will then give you target speed and course, subject to the accuracy of your sights. For a variety of reasons the stadimeter is none too accurate, although it is quite a bit better than real life results.

Weather report with the above keyboard layout is ctrl-w. I believe range at speed is available too but I never have to use it. You'll have to ask Ducimus, who I stole it from.

And clickable officers and gauges went by the wayside with SH4 to make way for the new eyecandy and other goodies. Our computers can only do so much without detonation. We can't quite have it all yet.

Welcome to the SH4 side of Subsim, where all our refrigerator magnets have been demagnetized. Have a drink and stay awhile!

[Bosje]

yeah thanks, I just went and pulled the sweet cover of TMO over the game, very nice experience, just as grim and excellent as GWX made it look

so through TMO I already found those sweet shortcuts etc

but I had to learn the HOME and END key trick for sonar head rotation from that wonderful noob guide video, kinda weird they dont advertise that in any reference card

and those guys in the gun position at crew management: do they simply do nothing except maintenance throughout the patrol? isnt it preferable to stick some spare watchcrew guys in there when I go to battle stations? or is that just being silly?

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by Bosje

and those guys in the gun position at crew management: do they simply do nothing except maintenance throughout the patrol? isnt it preferable to stick some spare watchcrew guys in there when I go to battle stations? or is that just being silly?

I'm a noob myself but I find it handy to be able to recruit guys with gun skill and specialization for those posts rather than using some other crewman whose skill is in watch or torpedoes or something. In addition they can fill out a damage control team if they have decent electrical/mechanical skill.

[-Pv-]

I build my renoun and buy the best DC crew I can afford. I make sure there are highly qualified gunners in the DC crew to fill the gun slots and only put peeps on the guns when they're needed.
-Pv-

[Bosje]

well I read that historically, s class had a crew of 50, with all slots filled i'm at 51 so thats fine. i have some gunners and repair guys throughout compartments so they can fill the relevant slots if need be, that will work for me (i prefer to play this kind of game as realistically as I can)

meanwhile:
i have TMO and PE3 enabled (in that order) and then I got the extra pitch and roll option from the extras in the TM folder enabled

i think that was the correct way to do it, not sure

my boat (S class) is currently riding a storm december '41 and i am enjoying the view immensely, but...
-is there any way around the annoying fact that the watch keeps disappearing and popping back up? they are doing better after PE3 (I assume because the boat is higher on the water) but they still annoy me.
-is there any way to come back from a capsize?
I just dived in the middle of a big wave, to listen on the hydrophones, when the command room view swayed wildly to one side, which I liked, but now the boat is upside down. a known issue, i remember reading about it on the forum before but now i cant find that post anywhere. any help?

edit: found the capsize thing on the PE3 thread