Okay, First Time Playing. Played for like 5 minutes.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Gangrene

I've read the whole manual and have decided to play the stock game until I get used to the new interface.

That is the common sentiment with either SH3, 4, or 5, but personally I disagree. The vanilla state of SH4, or 5, will probably traumatize you. I know it did me.

Playing SH3 for many years has got me used to that particular game...

I know the feeling.

First off, three questions(I've read the whole manual)

Ill stop that bus for a second. The manual to SH4 is garbage. Its basically a rewritten manual from SH3, with many details lacking or not updated to reflect the game proper.

1. In the manual it says there is a officer aiming assist setting in the realism settings. I'm not seeing it in game(like in the manual), all I am seeing is manual aiming and no officer assist, am I blind? I'm running version 1.5 with the add on game.

Your not seeing it, because its not there. The functionality is there in the game code, but it's not accessible through the UI. I believe the devs left it out, because it no longer functions correctly. They did alot of alteration to the games base code to account for the US TDC, and the imperial measurement system. So, in the process, i think they decided to cut WE assist.

2. Difficulty... In SH3 I believe the only "difficulty" is the realism... In SH4 there is realism settings and career difficulty. What exactly does that effect? Is is just AI? Is it the number of ships? Does this affect the realism(more or less ships / planes than there should be)? The manual doesn't give any help here. So, I put it on "normal"

The difficulty does nothing more then set default realism settings for a given difficulty level. In other words, realism settings work just like SH3, only you have some presets listed "difficulty level". For example, manual TDC might not be enabled on easy where it will be enabled on realistic. You can bypass this completely be selecting a custom realism setting.

3. Is there a max distance at current speed option for the "navigation officer" I can find time to end... As I've never played this game before I want to make sure I am going to be able to make it to my destination and back and it would be handy to know how far my U-boat can get at the various speeds.

Its in the game code, and it works, but not in the User Interface by default. This was added back by mods.

I'm sure I'll have more questions later. I started with the german campaign as I thought the transition might be easier german to german instead of diving into completely foreign territory and alien subs.

Unfortunately the German campaign is the least developed portion of SH4, and yet( ironically) it probably has the most potential. The US side really isn't that big of a leap when put in the context of Type 9 uboats. In a uboat players terms, the US side has no type 7's. Only type 9's. The difference between them, is much akin to the differences between a Type 9A, 9b, 9C, and 9C/41. An evolution of a design, or a refinement upon the previous one. If you can view it in that context, its much less confusing.

I really miss the officers in the corner(SH3), that made more sense to me as I was "talking to certain crew members" and asking areas of their expertise. It was a great menu system.

I could write an essay about this, but the gist of it all is I believe this bit was cut from SH3 because of User Interface issues. I think the biggest reason why the devs went with a "command bar" is because it was the easiest thing to resize based on the various monitor resolutions. Remember, SH3, only had one monitor resolution, and one aspect ratio, so the size and positioning of the various components of the UI was in fixed positions.

In Sh4, this is not so, because it supports many resolutions and aspect ratios. It's a nightmare to get it all working correctly, so i think they took the quick and expedient solution with a command bar along the bottom.

My personal advice, is to use keyboard shortcuts. At least thats what i did in SH3 anyway. Once i remapped the keys to a SH3 layout, it was MUCH easier to access the game.

I put it on high graphics... I have external camera on just so I can check the game out as I'm starting... There are rocks and plants on the sea bed! That's an upgrade!

You'll find SH4 has many upgrades, but there are also a couple missing features from SH3, so its a little give and take. So it may take a little time for the game to grow on you. Some years ago i did contemplate going back to SH3, but I just can't anymore, for several reasons:

1.) Greater resolution and aspect ratio support. My 1900 X 1080 monitor just doesnt like SH3, which admitidly , is starting to show its age.

2.) Load times are MUCH quicker in SH4. SH3 load times drive me insane.

3.) Greater choices, and alot of potential. Statistically speaking, with a fully modded US and German campaign, you conceivably have the option of skippering every Submarine type that plied the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic. That's alot of choices. In SH3, you have Half of that, and in Sh5, you only have 1/4 of that.

[Gangrene]

Thanks for the info Ducimus. I sank two ships last night one with the deck gun and one with torpedoes. My first kills!

I am getting used to the new key configurations. I wish there were more keys setup though, it takes me longer to do some things using the menus. Good thing sub sims mostly, aren't time critical.

I also took 3% damage from a plane dive bomb... The flak gunners barely even seemed to try shooting... So now I just go full speed ahead and dive.

I really like the new mission structure... I had to deliver supplies then patrol one area and sink 5000 tons and now I'm off to another area and I've only used two torpedoes. This interaction is really neat and I liked it.

Another thing I like is the crew "special abilities" and ranking system. I gave myself extra renown to initially equip my UBoat and I got a crew member with a special sonar skill... interesting.

My biggest question now is... according to my captain's clipboard , on one tab of it, it says my captain can call in planes to scout like every 6 hours or something to that effect... I have not been able to do this... I looked in every menu to no avail, how do I use this ability?!?

Also, let me guess, there really isn't a sound / detection gauge in SH4 either... I always like that in SH3 because I don't think my speakers accurately convey the noise being created in the ship and I have no idea how likely I am to be heard... I don't have that personal experience. Hence I think the gauge helps convey that information to me in a way I can understand.

Also, I have a pretty nice monitor and I set the game to 1900x1080 like yourself... The problem is the aspect ratio didn't change. I can switch my monitor's display between 4:3 and 16:9... when I put it to 16:9 the dials are not round but oval shaped. When I put it on 4:3 like I do for SH3 they appear normal. I did not reset the game after changing the graphics settings though. So maybe next time I launch the game it will correct the aspect ratio. Until then I put my monitor back on 4:3 while playing SH4 last night.

Another thing, when I sank that boat via torpedo last night I was expecting some cool hull damage effects. I thought I saw holes in boats on Youtube. I did fire under the ship with magnetic detonation, so maybe that doesn't cause those big holes to appear. It was also a T3 tanker, so maybe it's tougher.

Thanks in advance everybody.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Gangrene

My biggest question now is... according to my captain's clipboard , on one tab of it, it says my captain can call in planes to scout like every 6 hours or something to that effect... I have not been able to do this... I looked in every menu to no avail, how do I use this ability?!?

Its in the navigation map. You'll find two pencils. One pencil is the special abilties for the player. Click that pencil, then click on a nearby airbase. It will say something along the lines of "scout plane sent".

Also, let me guess, there really isn't a sound / detection gauge in SH4 either...

The stealth meter was removed. Personally, i never used it, so i don't lament its absence.

Also, I have a pretty nice monitor and I set the game to 1900x1080 like yourself... The problem is the aspect ratio didn't change. I can switch my monitor's display between 4:3 and 16:9... when I put it to 16:9 the dials are not round but oval shaped. When I put it on 4:3 like I do for SH3 they appear normal. I did not reset the game after changing the graphics settings though. So maybe next time I launch the game it will correct the aspect ratio. Until then I put my monitor back on 4:3 while playing SH4 last night.

When you set your resolution and aspect ratio in SH4, you have to exit the program and restart it. Then you'll see it rendering correctly.

[Gangrene]

Thanks again Ducimus!

Could they make it any more obscure with the pencil thing? I thought it was just another drawing tool. It highlights something like "friendly units". I honestly thought it was a different color pencil for marking friendlies on the map or something to that effect. Hehehe, I would have never figured that out of my own. I would have thought they left the call scout button off the menu by mistake...

Good to know about the resolution thing. I figured that might be the case, but I didn't want to close out last night and reload the game, takes up game time . It was fine in 4:3 for the moment.

Is there a free roam button for inside the ship?

Is there any way to know which ships are neutral and which are enemy with realistic difficulties? The flags in the electronic manual are handy. I'll have to print that page out. Still doesn't help that I'm not familiar with that campaign and have no idea about when and who I can attack that is non-British. I'll assume they are always safe. } I really liked the map in SH3 which showed the circles with various airplane ranges, shipping lanes grid layout, etc... Wish I had something like that for SH4.

I always liked having my map and book for SH3... I got the gold edition, you think it would come with that kind of stuff.

[peabody]

Originally Posted by Gangrene

Is there any way to know which ships are neutral and which are enemy with realistic difficulties? The flags in the electronic manual are handy. I'll have to print that page out. Still doesn't help that I'm not familiar with that campaign and have no idea about when and who I can attack that is non-British. I'll assume they are always safe. }

If you open your Silent Hunter folder and open the Data folder then open the Roster folder you will see a file called "DefSide.cfg". At the top of the file you will see
; side 0 - neutral
; side 1 - allies
; side 2 - axis

So in a sample entry (actually two entries for one country):

[SideEntry 31]
Country=Netherlands
Side=0
StartDate=19390909
EndDate=19400510

[SideEntry 32]
Country=Netherlands
Side=1
StartDate=19400511
EndDate=19451231

So you will see the Netherlands is neutral (side=0) from 1939 to 1940 then they are Allies (side=1) from 1940 to 1945. Since SH4 starts in 1941, you shouldn't have a problem with any of the countries. (And the uboat add on starts in 1943.)