SH3cmdr/immersion

[MrMojok69]

I've been playing both SH3 and SH4 a lot lately. Trigger Maru setting the keys to be like SH3 helps a lot.

With SH4 I'm using TMO, Stop the Shouting, and Bigger Compasses.

With SH3 I'm using GWX, Thomsen's Sounds, Rbs Effects, and a torpedo damage mod. And most importantly, SH3cmdr.

I like SH4 a lot, but playing SH3 there just seems to be a lot more immersion. A lot more feeling that I'm really this Kaleun, and really a part of this war. Whereas, SH4 to me feels like a long disjointed series of patrols (with gigantic commute times... I know that's how it was). I'm thinking it must be SH3cmdr that makes the difference to me.

In SH4, from what I have seen, there isn't even a place you can look to see each patrol listed with total tonnage sunk. I can look in the logbook and click on a patrol, and see each individual ship sunk, but no total. This is just one example where SH3 with SH3cmdr is superior to SH4, in my opinion. Then you also have the crew management, etc.

Is there anything at all like SH3cmdr, for SH4? Or are there any other SH4 mods anyone can recommend, to help with the immersion?

[propbeanie]

No one has "hooked" SH4, and there may be implications if attempted. However, if you like the German side, be sure and try Operation Monsun from lurker_hlb3 with Fifi's Compilation on top. It still doesn't have anything akin to SH3Cmdr though. So the near-immediate action of SH3 is possible in SH4. Night surface attacks seem to not be possilble in SH4 at all, unless you "blind" the AI, which then affects them during daylight hours. But you do get dynamic loading and beautiful graphics (comparatively).

As for the Pacific side of things, I am somewhat partial to Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate Edition (FotRSU), though TMO is great also - but is more of a "difficulty" mod. Again, with FotRSU, there is nothing akin to SH3Cmdr, but all sorts of environment and other graphic improvements, as well as added harbor and other traffic that "moves". The dynamic loading of SH4 v1.5 helps immensely in this regard as compared to SH3 that has to load the whole "world" in one fell swoop. The mod "LOCKWOOD.zip" that Sniper297 did is about the only way to "warp" to the mid- or western Pacific, though it is fictionalized, of course.

Crew management was one of the most complained aspects of SH3, so the devs "eliminated" that for SH4. There is at least one mod where someone tweaked the crew management, but my brain can't pull the name of it in at this time - mostly because I never liked having to deal with it to begin with - although, for me, the crew should be about ready to mutiny on you if you keep them out for much over about 65 days on patrol, but they don't... - Perhaps someone else will remember a mod.

As for seeing a "Patrol Report", while in the Captain's Office between patrols, you can look in the Log Book there, and get some better details, or as Art aanker used to suggest, add Kim Ronhof's Report Generator to your mix, and run that after coming in from patrol and exiting the game. There are certain requirements for it to work properly, and it can be finicky, but might be what you are looking for in that regard. Just read its documentation. Unfortunately, Windows has not stayed the same as XP ~and~ the rest of Kim's (and other's) stuff is now lost with the demise of subsowespac.org, but there are attempts on-going to recover some of that.

[MrMojok69]

Thanks for those links, I will check them out.

Man, I didn’t even know about the issue with attacking on the surface! Just last night I approached a merchant on the surface and it was so dark I could barely see anything on my monitor. But as soon as I closed to within perhaps 1,000 yards, he started crazily zigging. I was thinking, “what did I do wrong?!?”

[propbeanie]

Yup... that's the game. Of course, if you have early war paint, where your boat is all dark black, then your sub looks like a shadow against the little ambient light there is, especially when viewed against the ocean reflectivity... If you're handy with the Mission Editor, you could build yourself some "test" missions with enemy surface ships approaching each other under both daylight and night time conditions, and see how much of a difference there is, paying attention to their range from each other when they start shooting. There is always a trade-off in trying to balance night vision versus day vision. Then do one with an anchored enemy ship, and approach it with your submarine from various angles and see what you see (or don't) happens. Use of the Save with Replay can help when reviewing test missions.

[Sniper297]

Simple fix for night ops, \Data\Cfg\Sim.cfg, edit with notepad.

[Visual]
Detection time=0.5 ;[s] min detection time.
Sensitivity=0.1 ;(0..1) min detection threshold double detection time.
Fog factor=1.0 ;[>=0]
Light factor=2.5 ;[>=0]
Waves factor=4.0 ;[>=0]
Enemy surface factor=50 ;[m2]
Enemy speed factor=25 ;[kt]
Thermal Layer Signal Attenuation=1.0

You'll have to tinker with it and test, I found that doubling the light factor makes it way too easy, Light factor=3.0 lets me approach within 500 yards if the night is dark enough.

As for the long slog back and forth in the Pearl Harbor campaign, this cheat;

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/dow...o=file&id=5477

Cuts the commute distance down to 700-1000 miles.

[MrMojok69]

Oh, thank you so much. I will try that modification to sim.cfg. Surface attack issues are a major flaw in this game but if this fixes it I will be delighted.

[propbeanie]

Test it though, as Sniper297 says. Try approaching a docked ship in a Quick Mission from several different directions, and with different attitudes, such as straight-on, at 45°, etc. Your crew is also affected by the AI Visual (and other settings), so keep that in mind.

[MrMojok69]

Ah, I didn't realize it would affect my crew as well.

Today I have been playing with the setting at 3.0 and it did allow me to approach a merchant at night to about 800 yards without being seen. I might have been able to get closer but I fired at 800 and sunk him.

[propbeanie]

Excellent. Now, if you want to see what happens with ship-to-ship engagements, try a US and a Japanese DD going against each other at night, with your submarine submerged a "safe" distance away... Set their waypoints to pass by each other parallel at varying distances. It might get kind of "strange"... Just remember though, that you are on a submarine, and don't usually care about that kind of stuff...

[Pyryck]

Originally Posted by MrMojok69

I've been playing both SH3 and SH4 a lot lately. Trigger Maru setting the keys to be like SH3 helps a lot.

With SH4 I'm using TMO, Stop the Shouting, and Bigger Compasses.

With SH3 I'm using GWX, Thomsen's Sounds, Rbs Effects, and a torpedo damage mod. And most importantly, SH3cmdr.

I like SH4 a lot, but playing SH3 there just seems to be a lot more immersion. A lot more feeling that I'm really this Kaleun, and really a part of this war. Whereas, SH4 to me feels like a long disjointed series of patrols (with gigantic commute times... I know that's how it was). I'm thinking it must be SH3cmdr that makes the difference to me.

In SH4, from what I have seen, there isn't even a place you can look to see each patrol listed with total tonnage sunk. I can look in the logbook and click on a patrol, and see each individual ship sunk, but no total. This is just one example where SH3 with SH3cmdr is superior to SH4, in my opinion. Then you also have the crew management, etc.

Is there anything at all like SH3cmdr, for SH4? Or are there any other SH4 mods anyone can recommend, to help with the immersion?

While in base in the room, take a gander at the ACES chalkboard just left of the big map of the Pacific on the wall. The Aces list shows total tonnage for each skipper and is updated after each patrol.