Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks

[Barkerov]

I just want to say a big thankyou to everyone who has ever posted a tutorial or created a mod on subsim
All of that teaching paid off last night when I attacked a convoy and sank a ship with realism at 100% (RFB & RSRDC version of realism anyway minus the external camera).

Truth be told I only started playing this game a couple of weeks ago even though I have wanted to play it for a long time circumstances did not allow me enough time to do so.

For me this game is all about the realism. I want to feel like a real sub commander even down to the level of disliking BuOrd but only after I have experienced the Mk 14s failures first hand. I even planned my attack on said convoy to be a submerged sonar only attack according to 1930s US Navy submarine tactical doctrine. I even reported the convoy and did not submerge until I had got the radio reply because receiving radio messages underwater spoils the realism for me.

In the end I had to improvise a little bit since the convoy had a projected course less than 100 yards from my position. I was worried about being detected if I moved too fast (convoy was 5-6nm out) and even if I surfaced at the right moment the Mk 14s would not arm in time to explode. As I was working out what to do I was already headed down to get under the escorts when suddenly I had a bright idea. The convoy was arranged in a neat little line and becasue of the angle they were on, I couldn't see any gaps between ships so I set the Mk 14s to slow, picked a depth I thought would still hit the ship with the lowest draft and fired a spread 1 degree apart at 8000 yards. 2 hits out of 4 that I never actually witnessed. Needless to say I was very pleased as I headed to test depth.

Then came the depth charging. For 3 hours (game time) I tried to get away actually feeling very nervous when explosions were rocking the boat. I changed speeds several times between 1 and 3 kts as we went East making sure my propeller was always less than 75 RPM. Finally I broke contact and headed to periscope depth. I counted 8 destroyers still circling where I left them.

Last night gentlemen, I felt like a real skipper and I have you to thank. Especially you Rockin Robbins

[DrBeast]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

...I found a ship to stalk and.......no position marker, no silhouette! That means that somehow either GFO or more likely RSRDC has a problem.

If memory serves, RSRDC adds a few ships. It's quite possible that the ship you've found lacks the whatever_shp.dds file. Identify the ship, exit the game, then look inside the ship's folder for that file. If it's not there, just grab any merchant's whathaveyou_shp.dds file, rename it and hey! presto, working marker! I vaguely remember doing that for a few ships (running a TMO+RSRDC combo).

[Tshark]

Welcome Barkerov! Looks like you and I have about the same amount of time with SH4 . I too was always tempted to try SH4 and wanted to learn manual targeting, but just didn't have the time.
I wholeheartedly agree that it is the outstanding support of the group here on Subsim that have made the game for me. I haven't watched so many Youtubes before in my life. I also haven't felt this way about a submarine sim since "Silent Service" (sheesh I am old!).

[ColonelSandersLite]

Originally Posted by Tshark

I also haven't felt this way about a submarine sim since "Silent Service" (sheesh I am old!).

I still have the c64 version of that in a box somewhere . As well as the PC version of silent service 2.

Though I was a kid when I played them.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome to SUBSIM Barkerov

[Aktungbby]

Barkerov!

[Rockin Robbins]

Thank you Barkerov, making killers out of wet behind the ears puppies is what we do and seeing one of our puppies get its first kill is what we live for. Unlike a mother dog, we don't have the luxury of injuring a victim and then handing it over for the coupe de gras. You have to earn the first kill the hard way.

So congratulations. This kill is 100% you and you deserve the whole credit. The ocean is a harsh mistress and she punishes mistakes without mercy.

I never played any sub games until Silent Service II, which didn't hook me like SH4 has. Are there defects? Sure, but they can be ignored in the incredible quality of the virtual submarine experience Silent Hunter 4 renders.

@Dr Beast, that missing dds file is exactly what I'll be fishing for. Too bad it's not TMO that's messing up because all contacts share the same dds: a dot on the chart! Now I'll have to match up an appropriate similar ship and copy its dds file. I'll also release a patch for whichever mod is at fault.

[DrBeast]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Too bad it's not TMO that's messing up because all contacts share the same dds: a dot on the chart!

Don't tell anyone, but I actually replaced that dot with proper contacts in my mod soup

Originally Posted by ColonelSandersLite

I still have the c64 version of that in a box somewhere . As well as the PC version of silent service 2.

Though I was a kid when I played them.

Silent Service for the Atari 130XE on cassette is the game that made me fall in love with MicroProse. And yes, I was just a kid, as well, but it only made the game that much more impressive in my mind.

[Barkerov]

I remember playing silent service II with my dad. Great fun.

My adventure came to an abrupt end
I was attacked by a plane and got some flooding 2 days prior to the end though. I had thought everything was repaired but after going underwater during the day on high time compression I found out that the repair job was insufficient.

This is probably the wrong place to ask but is that a feature or a bug? Should I have returned to base even after repairing at sea or was the high time compression what did me in? I hope it's a feature, it makes sense that after damage where flooding is involved might not be as strong as before. But the time compression gave me no chance to react to save the boat.

Also any advice on starting a new career would be great. Would a new commander most likely put in an older boat for his first command or a newer boat?

[TorpX]

I believe that is intended.

Interior spaces and equipment can be repaired (at least to a fair extent), but severe damage, and especially hull damage, cannot be repaired at sea.

Were you using very high TC?

Sometimes people are suddenly attacked/bombed/hit mines at high TC, and don't really know what happened.

[ColonelSandersLite]

Not a bug.

[Barkerov]

I was underwater running at 3 knots, 200 feet deep, no sound contacts in the area which was the between formosa and luzon.

The mods i am using are RFB with the RSRD campaign. It is 1941 (please dont ask me which month) and I was iin a Salmon class boat. I think the TC was 512 at the time. Two days earlier I took a bomb hit to the stern while underwater. It must have been right on
the money since I was 40ft deep when damage was reported. The aft torp room and engine room sustained flooding and i think bulkhead damage. Also on a convoy attack later that day I took some damage to the forward torp room but was able to fix that in a few minutes. After that I was underwater for 2 hours at 240 feet with no problems.

The actual sinking happened two days later

So what is the verdict? Should I have RTB or what?

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Barkerov

So what is the verdict? Should I have RTB or what?

Yes.

About the aircraft: The aircraft in RFB can see you at considerable depth and you can take damage from bombs/DCs even at 200 ft.; 40 ft. isn't safe by a long shot.

Did your crew eliminate all the damage on the board, or only part?

If you have flooding, it is a sure indication you've had significant damage. A submarine is not a heavy cruiser. In RL, most subs that have a significant damage event would likely terminate their patrol. The game is more generous, but the RFB design philosophy was to make things realistic.

[Barkerov]

Yeah I repaired all damage. Im glad its a feature, I will be sure to rtb if that happens again.

I have to say though that 200ft to see a sub from the air seems excessive but I would much more easily believe that than bomb damage at that depth from a surface detonation. 40ft sure but 200ft I would need proof to believe that.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Barkerov

Yeah I repaired all damage. Im glad its a feature, I will be sure to rtb if that happens again.

I have to say though that 200ft to see a sub from the air seems excessive but I would much more easily believe that than bomb damage at that depth from a surface detonation. 40ft sure but 200ft I would need proof to believe that.

I've seen photos. Sometimes a sub at 200' is very visible from straight above. Sometimes it isn't.

What you're experiencing is the fruit of the old Submarine Sim Central forum where SH4 modders used to conspire, cooperate and squabble among themselves. These particular products of vile conspiracy are "Duci's Evil Airplanes."

Basically Ducimus woke up in the middle of the night screaming from a nightmare, wrote it down, and when he woke up he built it. These airplanes can see you under water, usually only to a depth of just below periscope depth. If you're at 90' you are virtually safe--we haven't lost any subs cruising at 90' for the past week or so.

My stragegy in TMO (same planes if you're not using RSRDC and the same goes for RFB. If you use RSRDC you are no longer playing TMO or RFB, you are playing RSRDC) was to use 90' as default depth for moving from position to position if airplanes are above, radar depth otherwise unless within 3000 yards of a target. Tracking planes while attacking becomes as important as tracking your target.

I was crash test dummy for the "Duci's Evil Planes" feature.......ummmm bug......er player torture scheme. I loved it so much he kept it and the RFB team asked if they could incorporate it.

If you're running RSRDC, which nerfed the evil airplanes and want them back, I have a plugin module, RSRD Restore Duci's Evil Airplanes, which will torture you and then you can hate me and Duci all over again. It will also add the evil airplanes to stock game, GFO or FOTRS without changing other aspects of the game.

Webster, I read, thought deeply and adopted some of your principles from before you produced GFO! And I believe that although there is a place for supermods, there is also a place for COMPATIBLE modules that plug into all game configurations, changing ONLY the aspect that people want, without redefining all other aspects of the game that people might not want to change. Swappable modules makes it possible to configure the game the way YOU want, not the supermodder. I believe RSRDC is one of the great tragedies of SH4 because most of what it does, it does in secret, without your consent and without the supermodders of GFO, TMO and RFB's consent.

TMO plus RSRDC is NOT TMO. Stock plus RSRDC is NOT stock. GFO plus RSRDC is NOT GFO. RFB plus RSRDC is NOT RFB. That's just wrong.

I keep getting ideas for mods. How about "Nerf Duci's Evil Airplanes" for those who don't want to bother with them?

@DrBeast: VERY interestingly the dds files were not missing. Evidently, lurker produced the stock/GFO version after he produced the RFB version. The RFB version of nav map tracking was to replace all the shp.dds files with blank graphics, making the target visible until you zoomed in far enough that the square/velocity vector was replace by the ship silhouette, whereupon the target vanished entirely from the plot. (Thus the R for "real" in Real Fleet Boat. Didn't real plotters remove targets from the plot when they walked closer to the chart table?) These blank shp.dds files were left in the stock/GFO version of RSRDC for the Momi Patrol Boat and destroyer escort Matsu (at least--I'm still checking for more bugs). I have a mod in the download area, Momi Class Patrol Boat/NDE Matsu fix for RSRDC_SH1 , which restores plotting to those two targets. I think I've talked myself into major RSRDC surgery and release of two mods representing the separate Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde parts of the mod. That way there wouldn't have to be separate mods for different supermod configurations on just the campaign part, I think.

And on a personal note I'm happy to see you still using the Leovampire memorial banner. He deserves it.