New skipper has a few questions...

[Commander Klank]

Greetings all,
I’ve been playing SH4 ver1.4 for about a week now. I did the sub school, ran a few missions and I’m in the campaign mod; so far I’ve managed to survive two patrols including an encounter with three destroyers that just stayed on my butt for about 4 hours play time, they were good… but not good enough.
While my realism settings aren’t very high so far I’ve sank one destroyer, a huge passenger ship (escorted by the fore mentioned three destroyers) and 8 freighters. I love the game and eventually I’d like to play with more difficult settings.
Anyways I have a few questions regarding tactics and game play.

1. Is there a button you can push that would erase all your plotted way points off your map at once?


2. The torpedo spread gauge: Are the left and right readings the direction the torpedo veers from you point of aim? For example it the target is moving to the left across my scope do I want to shoot one torpedo at zero and another torpedo a few degrees left as a lead?


3. Is there a way to change the load of deck gun ammo on your sub while in port, like add more HE and less AP. And can you reload rounds from a sub tender should you find one while on patrol? (If not that would be a cool mod).


4. On freighters and tankers are there areas of the ship where it’s better to use AP vs HE rounds?


5. Armed freighters: can you suppress or destroy the enemy gun crews with the AA gun? I’ve fired at the gun castles and machine gun positions when I’m close enough to see them and it doesn’t seem to have any effect on them.


6. The “D” area in front of most destroyers and sub chasers on the map, is that their sonar range and area of coverage? Run silent buts you at 1/3 speed, can I go faster outside the “D” shaped sonar area; especially if they don’t know I’m around?


7. Last; is there a screen capture button?

Thanks in advance.

Tonight I start my third patrol. I can’t wait.

Commander Klank

[magic452]

Welcome to the boat mate.

1) to erase the way points, the best you can do is go to the first way point and click it and then make a second way point right next to it, that will remove all other way points. The eraser tool will get rid of these. You can click and drag any of the way points by clicking and drag.
To remove all other marks on the map, hold the control key and click on the eraser.

2) The gyro angle offset dial (spread dial) will move the torpedo track left or right from your point of aim. Your example is correct. the angle is very range dependent so the longer the range the less gyro angle you need.
This can be set in 1/2 degrees.

3) You can refit at any base that shows an anchor symbol and that will refuel as well as rearm you torpedoes and guns. Later in the game there are resupply ships at some locations but none that will come to you.
The load out is always the same as far as ammo types. A bit further into the war and you'll not be using the deck gun all that much as all the merchants will be armed and you'll be risking your boat and crew.

4) HE works best for me, aim at the water line. AP is OK when you run out of HE.

5) I haven't had any luck suppressing fire with anything but some have set off the DC on the escorts with the 40MM.

6) I haven't played stock in 3 years so I really don't know for sure what lines mean anymore but I think it is sonar range. Best advice is to Run Silent and Run Deep, also will add Run Slow. It's really a matter of experience yours as well as the escorts, they get better as the war goes on.

7) Control "F11" takes screen shots, they are saved to you main SH4 game folder as bitmaps.

Just as a note your post has black font and most here use the smart dark gray background so black type is difficult to read, you can set to smart dark on bottom of the SH4 main page.


Good luck and good hunting.

Magic

[Commander Klank]

Got another question:

In the campaign my home port has been overrun by the Japanese and the port symbol is gone. I've gone to other bases but they wont let me end the mission, all they offer is refit and my hull is getting pretty shot up. I even went to Pearl Harbor... I haven't gotten a message assigning me a new base that I know of.

What gives?

[razark]

There should be one with a tilted anchor symbol. Look for that one, it's your new home port.

[Dogfish40]

Ahoy Commander
Your new base will have a "Tilted Anchor", whereas all the other bases will have a vertical anchor.
A couple of extra notes regarding your questions (Magic answered them to a tee) however, regarding ammo types, HE (High Explosive) I save this stuff for causing havoc. It packs more stopping power when your in desperate sits. AP (armor piercing) rounds will be good (as Magic stated) for putting good sized holes in the enemy.
Sub Tenders, I'm not sure if Johnston atoll (south of Midway) is available in 1.4 but if it is, you can refit there or anywhere there is an anchor during a patrol. If you can, upgrade to 1.5 ASAP as there are many bases added as well as countless other add-ons. Don't forget to go through the downloads section of this site and look for Mods for 1.4 (Graphic, Gameplay, and Sound). If your CP can handle a bit more, you'll want to try some.
Good Hunting and welcome aboard!!
D40

[magic452]

Originally Posted by Commander Klank

Got another question:

In the campaign my home port has been overrun by the Japanese and the port symbol is gone. I've gone to other bases but they wont let me end the mission, all they offer is refit and my hull is getting pretty shot up. I even went to Pearl Harbor... I haven't gotten a message assigning me a new base that I know of.

What gives?

You will no doubt find the tilted anchor at Surabaya on Java or Fremantal Australia. Sometimes you have to wait a bit as the game is slow to show your new base.

Magic

[Sailor Steve]

To clear the map, hold Shift and click on any waypoint. At least that's the way it works for me with OM. When you click on the Eraser it says hold Ctrl, and it may work that way in Stock, RFB and TMO, I don't know.

[Commander Klank]

Thanks guys... found my new home port and will look into 1.5. That***8217;s not really a patch is it? It's actually an add on to the game you have to buy correct?

On a campaign update last night I snuck into Ribual harbor at night and sunk a tanker, a freighter, and two gun boats. On the way back out I got detected and got into a fight with the two sentry destroyers. I had like 12 feet of water under me at periscope depth which resulted in one of the most exciting (and desperate) torpedo attacks of the game so far. Using my last stern torpedo I managed to sink a charging destroyer that was so close when I hit it the dam thing almost sunk on top of me. That was intense***8230; What saved me in that encounter was that I***8217;ve learned about opening torpedo bay doors on selected torpedoes so you launch quicker when you need to, making sure the speed dial is set right, high speed in this case, and setting the spread at zero. I***8217;m sure also the fact that I managed to get a 180 degree heading on him helped.

What a game***8230; I was so excited I screwed up taking a picture of the bow section sinking to the bottom right next to my stern as I chugged away. Wish I could have shared that with you guys.

[Sailor Steve]

Yes, 1.5 does have to be purchased. Besides adding U-boats to SH4 it also makes some improvements. I don't remember what they are, mainly because I owned 1.5 Gold before I could even play the game, but most of the newer mods will only work with 1.5.

[magic452]

It sounds like you're having a lot of fun.
Watch for the next base change as Surabaya will fall soon.
It will be Fremantal for ya mate.

Magic

[Commander Klank]

Originally Posted by magic452

It sounds like you're having a lot of fun.
Watch for the next base change as Surabaya will fall soon.
It will be Fremantal for ya mate.

Magic

Surabaya was the base I lost... I had transferred from Pearl Harbor to there at the start of the game just to see how that works. I'm now at, or should I say heading to Fremantle Australia. I currently have 51 points of hull damage on my sub... how much damage can my sub take? I have the starter sub. Also does home port affect the type of missions you get?

[magic452]

Well if you're still afloat I'd say you'll make it.
I've made it home with more damage than that.

You get good missions out of Fremantal. You might want to stay close to the Solomon Islands, lot of action going on there now.

Check out this web site.
http://www.combinedfleet.com/battles


Magic

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by magic452

Well if you're still afloat I'd say you'll make it.
I've made it home with more damage than that.

You get good missions out of Fremantal. You might want to stay close to the Solomon Islands, lot of action going on there now.

Check out this web site.
http://www.combinedfleet.com/battles


Magic

Magic, thanks for the link! I've been looking for something like this to plan my next campaign.

[Daniel Prates]

Commander Klank,

You stumbled there on a very complex topic: the damage model - meaning, where do I shoot (torps or shells, doesn't matter which) to make the most damage? Different ordnance types matter? How or when do I use them etc?

Stock (un-modded) SH4 has the worse damage model ever - mostly it will add up matematicaly the ammount of blunt damage the ship receives alltogether, without considering where the hit took place (arcadish, isn't it?)

All supermods adress this problem in one way or the other (and hundreds of other problems too). TMO, RSRD, and several others, all of them discussed lenghtly in this forum and all of them with specific threads, they all try to correct this.

It is arguable, though, which of them deals better with the damage model. I've been using TMO and am quite happy with it, but I read varied opinions everywhere.

There is also an specific mod to deal with this. I cant quite remember the name, help me out fellas. Is it 'real damage mod' or something like that...?

You're enjoying stock version now, but pretty soon you will find out the wonders of the supermods found here in this forum. They really take up the experience several notches.

[magic452]

Natural Sinking Mechanics I believe is the mod, it's in FRB to some degree but will not work with TMO.

Magic