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!

[ShotMagnet]

Excellent advice, thank you very much.


I've taken care of the Notifications thing. I'll tackle next the native resolution issue, which might also address what seems to be a display issue that has caused certain in-game graphics elements to be displayed with a horizontal bias. Circular items, such as the Postion Keeper dials, and the TDC inputs thing, appear slightly ovoid as if stretched along the horizontal axis. Ships in the Museum appear likewise.



I'll give it all a try and report anything relevant. Thanks again.




Shot

[ShotMagnet]

Okay, probably a dumb question but I'm willing to look dumb this time if it gets me a good answer. How do I get the game to give me ranges in yards in the Navigation station?


Right now it's giving me ranges in nm, and I'm having to convert that to yards.





TIA




Shot

[propbeanie]

Once they get under 10nm away, then it'll do yards... strange but true... It's about like your artwork when drawing a circle or a line. When you start,it's in 500 hundreds of yards, then boom, you're at 10nm... - A nautical mile of course, is 2000 yards, so if they're 12 nm away, make it 24000 yards... I think...

[ShotMagnet]

The good news is that I'm not as dumb as I suspected.


The bad news is that regardless of range, I'm getting distances in NM referents.



'Nother question, since I'm here. Is there no F11 view if you're running an S-18 class boat?


I told the gameplay options thingie 3 times, making sure to click on 'Apply Changes' that I wanted an F11 view. It didn't seem to take, each time.


Also, map contacts for the same class of boat were enabled, but all I saw on the navigation plot were the original contact reports, which disappeared when I zoomed in, and didn't update.






Shot

[propbeanie]

The S18 is just like all of the boats, as far as game play settings go. There are two Options menus in the game. The one on the Main Menu is for the Quick Missions, Quick Patrols, and Multi-Player. Once you go into a Career, you are under the influence of another "Options" menu, which is found after you choose your start and your boat, you get your boat assignment and then end up in the Captain's Office on-base, behind the desk. If you look to your left, on top of the cabinets is a wooden radio. Click on that, and you can change the Game Play Options there, which are the ones that follow you out on patrol. If you click on the sub model on the desk, you can alter the crew, onboard gear, and the torpedoes, which usually will cost you renown points to do. If you click on the telephone on the desk, you can transfer to another base, if any are available. There are several other "hotspots" in the room.

It sounds like your "map contacts" question is about group reports. In the Stock game, when you see those blue and red square box icons with a tail on it, those are usually "reports from the field", and are not something that your crew saw. The icons will usually hang around for an hour or two, then fade away. If you click on them, they'll give you the time of the report, the direction and speed at that time. If that's not what you're talking about, I'm sorry. Try to describe again what you meant.

How close do you have to be to get yards then? Inside of 5 nm?...

[ShotMagnet]

I don't get range reports in yards at any range.



I note the different options for Options, and will once again double-check myself to see if I'm doing it right.


Another question: if you start a career in one class of boat, do you stay with that boat for the whole of your career or are you in the fullness of time offered something more modern?





Shot

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by ShotMagnet

I don't get range reports in yards at any range.



I note the different options for Options, and will once again double-check myself to see if I'm doing it right.


Another question: if you start a career in one class of boat, do you stay with that boat for the whole of your career or are you in the fullness of time offered something more modern?





Shot

Progression through the boats depends upon the mod, if any. In Stock and most of the mods, you progress through the boats, dependent upon the UpgradeClass in each submarine's UPC file. Some mods use 3 levels, some 5. Stock uses 4 levels, with the Balao at the top. The "S" Boats are set at 0 (zero). The Salmon, Sargo, Porpoise, Tambor and Gar are all set at 1 (one). The Gato is set at 2 (two), while the Balao is 3 (three). If you are in an "S" boat out of Manila, and you earn enough renown to qualify for a "new" boat, you would get on of the five boats classes available at 1 (one), with the computer making the choice (randomly??). You earn more renown, and several patrols later, you would qualify for the Gato. Then in late '42 the Balao would be available. Some mods, such as Operation Monsun on the German side, have all of the boats set to UpgradeClass=1, so you do not "upgrade" through the classes.

As for the range, in both of the Options menu is a drop-down selection for "Metric", "Imperial" and "Authentic". I've got mine on "Authentic". I wonder if maybe yours is on "Imperial", and that's all they show is 10ths of a nautical mile instead of yards??

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Progression through the boats depends upon the mod, if any. In Stock and most of the mods, you progress through the boats, dependent upon the UpgradeClass in each submarine's UPC file. Some mods use 3 levels, some 5. Stock uses 4 levels, with the Balao at the top. The "S" Boats are set at 0 (zero). The Salmon, Sargo, Porpoise, Tambor and Gar are all set at 1 (one). The Gato is set at 2 (two), while the Balao is 3 (three). If you are in an "S" boat out of Manila, and you earn enough renown to qualify for a "new" boat, you would get on of the five boats classes available at 1 (one), with the computer making the choice (randomly??). You earn more renown, and several patrols later, you would qualify for the Gato. Then in late '42 the Balao would be available. Some mods, such as Operation Monsun on the German side, have all of the boats set to UpgradeClass=1, so you do not "upgrade" through the classes.

As for the range, in both of the Options menu is a drop-down selection for "Metric", "Imperial" and "Authentic". I've got mine on "Authentic". I wonder if maybe yours is on "Imperial", and that's all they show is 10ths of a nautical mile instead of yards??

in reading this issue, i was trying to think of a solution and kept coming up blank. i forgot about the Option for Measurement....probably because i leave mine at Authentic and never change it. out of sight....out of mind.

[ShotMagnet]

I wonder if maybe yours is on "Imperial", and that's all they show is 10ths of a nautical mile instead of yards??

I don't see an option for 'Authentic' when I call up the measurements option.




Shot