Getting Started

[ShotMagnet]

Ladies and Gents,


Diving -pardon the bad pun- into SH4, more or less for the first time. 'Veteran' sub-simmer having started out with Silent Hunter, then graduating to Silent Hunter: Aces of the Deep.


Because I like a challenge, and because I'm both stubborn and kinda stupid; I have embarked, very wet behind the ears, on a career that -on mission 2- has me infiltrating Osaka to insert an agent.



The first patrol saw me capping two passenger liners, so I have that going for me. So far in the current patrol I've bagged two threatening sampans, and evaded a veritable hornets' nest of aircraft.



Good news, I haven't been killed. Bad news, I'm betting that a veritable wall of unfriendly locals will not look kindly on my attempt to land my infiltrating agent.



I'm thinking that it's back to PH for me.



I'm hip-deep in toots and mods telling me how to play the game, so while any advice in that regard is welcome, it will likely be redundant. That said, if you have something relevant to say, say it. I am after all kinda stupid.


As may be, I hope to make the rest of this patrol -and indeed this career- something worth reading.




Shot

[mikesn9]

As far as the interdiction mission.. go in at dark, stay about 7-8 miles from land, dive if you must be closer to land.
If it's a long way in, find a deeper hole, dive during the day and sit on the bottom (maybe pop up for a second to refresh the O2.
Get within 2 nm of the star (again, in the dark), slow to 1 or 2 knots, surface (or at least decks awash) and they should launch, you'll get a message that they did.

Now get out the same way you got in.

This also works well on a 'recon' mission.

[ShotMagnet]

Thanks Mike.



I got the agent off, the first time around; but I hit something in doing so and I somehow attracted the attention of most of the IJN when I tried to exfiltrate.



Tried it again, and got nailed by some energetic DD before I could get to the destination. I'm considering all this part of 'the learning curve'. I've killed a sub and her crew so far, doubtless the first of many. The folks at Electric Boat are going to have words with me, I'm sure.






Shot

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by ShotMagnet

Thanks Mike.
I got the agent off, the first time around; but I hit something in doing so and I somehow attracted the attention of most of the IJN when I tried to exfiltrate.
Tried it again, and got nailed by some energetic DD before I could get to the destination. I'm considering all this part of 'the learning curve'. I've killed a sub and her crew so far, doubtless the first of many. The folks at Electric Boat are going to have words with me, I'm sure.

Shot

welcome, shot.


yes, recons, photos, insertions are some tough missions.
go in at night.
not all of the mission preps tell you how close you need to be successful. try 2 miles. if that doesn't work keep going for 1 mile. best be stopped when you click the icon to release the team.

a technique that i use from time to time when the coastal terrain is just right is to go in at 90 degrees from the beach so that when it is time to boogie i only need to do a 90 degree turn rather than a 180.
another technique that you have to use sometimes is to sink a nosy-escort and then get out of town and try the drop off/photo/etc the next night.
also, and this important, try to drop off agents/teams from the starboard side towards the beach. that is because no matter which side you present to the beach the team always goes over the starboard side. make it easy on everyone involved, eh?
other than that, have fun.
good luck and good hunting.
mb

[ShotMagnet]

Thanks Mark.


Started a new career. This time I got the agent off and successfully exfiltrated, to make it all the way back to PH.



I was intercepted by what I think was an IJN DE and a subchaser/gunboat who dogged me for about eight hours before giving up the chase. I'm not perfectly sure why they did, but somehow the DE was sunk (not my doing, I did take a shot at it, but I missed), and the gunboat/'chaser/whatever gave it up for a bad job and left me to slip away under cover of darkness.


Still, I was hounded by aircraft until I was about halfway home.



Weird, about the DE. I wonder if maybe I did hit it, but the game didn't figure that out for a couple of hours after the fact. Then again, I checked my stats on the way back and there was no entry for the DE.



I am noticing that there seems to be an issue with the game on this computer, however. Hotkeys sometimes don't respond when pressed, or sometimes the cursor takes a second before obeying my commands. The game literally went black a couple of times, then minimized, then went black when I maximized it, then played on as if nothing had happened. I'm running Windows 10, and I'm using a GE Force GTX1050TI video card, with NVidia sound drivers. I'll have a look to see what issues if any W10 and this game have.




Shot

[propbeanie]

Windows 10 does not like the older 3D games. On my. Win10 laptop, I've had to turn all of the "Notifications" stuff off each time the OS updates, else Win10 takes control of the keyboard and cursor anytime it encounters something it does not like, so try to turn those off. It's that little dialog "square" in the lower-right corner of the screen, down on the task bar. You can click on that, choose "All Settings", then "System", then "Notifications & actions", or do the same thing from the Start menu and just click on "Settings" there.

Secondly, here's some reading for you: Windows10; Large Address Aware; SH4 Install from CapnScurvy. A really good and thorough discussion on several aspects of Win10, SH4 and the Large Address Aware (LAA) app. Not that it is a necessity to use LAA on the Stock game, but it does help, especially with that "lag" that you're seeing. (The "blanking" of the screen is most likely the "Notifications".) Another thing you want to do is match your display monitor's "native" or "recommended" resolution. My laptop has a native resolution of 1600x900 (yes, it's old), so I have Windows set to that, and then in Silent Hunter, I used the "Options" menu and "Graphics" to match that resolution. Re-start the game, and it'll change to match.

One of the big statements from CapnScurvy in that thread is "

Originally Posted by CapnScurvy

... Secondly, keep your Silent Hunter game install out of either the "Program Files", "Program Files (x86)", or the "ProgramData" folders. The reason is to avoid the handicap Windows uses on us when a program/game is defaulted to install in one of these folders. Windows won't let you change the properties of the program/games loaded in these folders because it thinks you'll screw something up...

". If you have a disk version of the game, and you happen to be in a "Program Files" folder, you can just copy and move the install to another folder. If you have Steam, the process is more complex, but doable. Let us know!