New player thoughts

[Nangleator]

I've been a casual player of SHIII for a few years, and just recently bought IV. I don't like what I read about V in reviews, but it looked like IV would be a prettier, Pacific version of III. So far, my impression has been correct, but some things are still uncomfortable.

I'm so happy I don't have to move tired crewmen around!

Like the interface changes. Love the water! (A bit too much crud floating in the water... but I shouldn't be playing with external cameras, anyway, right?)

Very happy with the vertical speed of the Gato-class. Changes the way I approach an attack.

Buggy. I CTD frequently. I have to save my game as often as I do a PowerPoint document. Or a 3D animation.

Are the same saving restrictions still around from III? (Be at the surface. No ships nearby. Not within 50 miles of land.)

How come Large Modern Tankers are indestructible? (6 torpedoes left one with a 30° list--first to the right, then when I started hitting the other side, to the left. There were five separate fires on board, a secondary explosion and the decks were awash, but it WOULDN"T SINK until I hit it again.)

First war patrol I ran across a task force with tankers and two carriers and the Yamato. Two torpedoes each to a tanker, the battleship, and a carrier. All sailed off happily, with the warships a bit down by the bow.

I dropped off a spy in a life raft. Heavy seas, but he made it. It was a bit nerve-wracking to realize I couldn't submerge for the last 40 miles of the trip, and I had to sink a patrolling vessel first. Any chance I can handle these little patrol boats with my deck gun?

Oh, yeah. Seas. Always heavy. Same weather bug as in SHIII?

Airplanes. Lots of airplanes. Almost always aimed exactly at my boat, on their patrols.

[COLOR="rgb(160, 82, 45)"]Is it a good practice to aim torpedoes for just under the keel, with "influence" exploders?[/COLOR]

How come the deck gun aims fine sometimes, then shoots a few degrees away from the crosshairs? I lost a kill on an unescorted troop ship over that. That, and he must have called an airplane on me.

So far, I've had "binocular" orders, for which I have to hang around for a day or so, an "agent" mission that worked out fine, and a "waypoint" mission. The manual doesn't explain how to accomplish these, so I'm not sure I'll figure out the other missions when they happen to me.

How much tonnage do you have to sink per patrol to not get fired?

Thanks!

[TorpX]

What version of SH 4 do you have?

[Nangleator]

Not sure. It's from Steam, and not modded. I'll soon research if there's an .INI file I can edit, or what mods I can look for to solve the crazy airplane thing.

I just got back from another attack on a convoy I had hit before. Three of the ships were on fire. One was level, but almost under water. A Large Modern Tanker. Gave it two more hits and I think it's technically 'sunk' but the bow is sticking straight up out of the water, and will probably be a hazard to navigation for the next 30 years.

What do those tankers carry? Ping pong balls?

The rest of my torpedoes went towards making other ships burn and smoke and steam happily away.

Four torpedoes per ship, from now on. Maybe all six per ship. I can't go damaging all the Empire's shipping without getting any credit for it.

[TorpX]

I play v1.5 with RFB/RSRDC and other assorted mods, so my experience may be different.

As far as targeting capitol ships, I would pick the best one and use every torpedo I could fire. That was the RL U.S. Navy doctrine, BTW.
The damadge model for ships is different in RFB. I think they are intended to be hard to sink, so I can simpathize.

I don't think you have to sink very much to avoid being relieved. If I'm wrong somebody will correct me. Good tonnages are more a matter of awards and such. However, I think in RFB, eventually you are rotated home. Historically, 5 or 6 patrol was about the limit.

The airplanes are a pet peeve of mine. The only advice I can offer is to take them very seriously. I've had two careers terminated by Japanese flying boats. One of them was a pretty good one.

[WernherVonTrapp]

You want version 1.5, AKA the Gold Edition with the U-Boat expansion pack. This is the most up to date version that most of the mods are compatible with.

[Elektroniikka-Asentaja]

Is 1.5 patch free even if U-Boat addon isn't..? or have I misunderstood something?

EDIT: uu yay.. Sailor man rank with this post!

[TorpX]

I think v1.5 and the U-boat add ons go together, meaning you must buy them, (as Werner said). At least that's how I got mine (on disc). All the latest mods are structured for this.

[Nangleator]

Okay, time to upgrade!

Thanks, all.

[razark]

Originally Posted by Elektroniikka-Asentaja

Is 1.5 patch free even if U-Boat addon isn't..? or have I misunderstood something?

To obtain the 1.5 patch, you must purchase the upgrade.

Even if you have no intention of ever using a u-boat in SH4.

[Ducimus]

Upgrade, and for pity sake, use one supermod or another. Don't play stock. You'll end up traumatized.

[Nangleator]

I like the idea of prettier stuff. But I'm afraid of destroyers with ESP.

[sharkbit]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Upgrade, and for pity sake, use one supermod or another. Don't play stock. You'll end up traumatized.

+1

[raymond6751]

You should try to get the patch for free from UBI. There should be no charge to patch your game.

The u-boat addon, in my opinion, was a waste of money.

If only for the principle of it, try to patch for free. See what that works like for a while and then decide if you want to spend on the addon.

UBI should not have charged for that, unless it was a full blown addon. It gave you one mission -- go to Tokyo. Nothing after that. That's a long voyage in mostly empty seas.

[Nangleator]

D'oh!

Bought the add-on from Steam last night. It killed my career, which isn't a terrible thing. I'll research the mods tonight. I looked last night, and the RSRD+TMO set seems like the way to go, except the instructions were bewildering.

[Subnuts]

It's not really strange that two torpedoes wouldn't do all that much to a Yamato-class battleship. Digging out my copy of the "Anatomy of the Ship" book on her, I noticed a couple of important passages:

"The last test was carried out in 1939 on a full scale mockup of Yamato which was attacked by 400 kg charges. The holding bulkhead did not remain watertight but was not split open."

"Yamato's hull was divided into 1147 watertight compartments (WTC) which comprised 1065 below the armour deck (middle deck) and and 82 above."

"Her reserve buoyancy reached as much as 57,450 tons; this was 80 percent of her trial displacement... in the event of her bow or stern sections, other than the armoured citadel, being flooded, it was believed that she could maintain her stability under she listed to 20 deg, and that her trim capacity would enable her to function with her freeboard forward reduced to 4.5m - even if her fore part was completely destroyed and flooded."

"The flooding and pumping system was to fulfill the following requirements:
1. The resultant list and trim from the first torpedo hit should be reduced to under 4 deg list and 2.3m difference in draught for and after within five minutes of the damage control system going into action;
2. The resultant list and trim from the second torpedo hit should be controlled within thirty minutes, to the above-mentioned standard.
By flooding the opposite damage control tanks, Yamato could also be heeled by 13.8 deg maximum, and another 4.5 deg list could be added by shifting fuel to the opposite fuel tanks."

It would seem the real problem is only using two torpedoes against a battleship designed to shrug off two simultaneous torpedo hits within 30 minutes and carry on like nothing happened.