New newbie with some questions

[quitefrankly]

Hello everyone, I just registered here, hoping to get some help from you all. I have some very newbyish questions, but I couldn't find answers to them anywhere. I should mention, I really know nothing about this game. Ok, heres the questions

1) Sometimes when I set off on a mission, (about 90% of the time actually), the crew on my sub are constantly reading out numbers... It seems to be like they are just reading numbers randomly. A few times, it seems to be ok, and they only speak when I issue a command, or when a ship/plane is spotted etc. So sometimes its great, because nobody is talking apart from "ship spotted at 33 degrees" (or whatever). But most of the time... all I hear the WHOLE time, is "21, 44, 66, 325, 3 , 54 3 5 3 2 4 5 3 2 , 4 53 2 , 4 5 , 3 2 4 5 , 3 2 4 5 , 2 3 , 5 3 2 , 5 4 2 , 3 4 5 3 , 2 4 5 2 3 4 5 2 3 5 , 2 3 4 5 , 23".... :p Just an endless stream of numbers basically. They still say normal things when I issue a command, but the constant stream of numbers is maddening. Anyone know why that is happening?


2) I did the sub school, and then moved on to the Campaign. I LOVED this game at first, but now I am really starting to worry The first mission said, "Disrupt Merchant Shipping". So I gleefully sailed out to the location and blew up a bunch of merchant ships. The second mission said, "Disrupt Merchant Shipping", so hmm... I did it again, which was ok I suppose. The third mission said.... "Disrupt Merchant Shipping" I did it YET again, and it was really starting to get boring. Then guess what? The forth mission said! "Disrupt Merchant Shipping". This is just ridiculous, and I was convinced either I was doing something wrong, or the game was bugged. But then the 5th mission came along, and happily! It said, "Photograph the x Harbor", so I sailed off and photographed all the ships. But then... the next mission asked me to do the exact same thing in the exact same harbor! I did it again grudgingly, and then the NEXT mission has just asked me to do the exact same thing again So I just quit the game and now I'm wondering if I will ever find the motivation to go back and play it

Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong? Is the game bugged? (- I should mention, I never return home until it says "Mission Completed" in my log book. And when I get back to the base, I click on end patrol, and I get the misson success debrief screen. But it still seems to give me the same missions over and over atleast 2 - 3 times before it goes on to the next mission. Its so boring



3) How are you meant to act on the missions? Do I just go straight to the objective and complete it and sail back, and kill any stuff that gets in my way? Or are we meant to do the objective AND go hunting all over the world on each mission? Its just that while im sailing towards my objective, I often hear things on the radio saying things like, "Burma" (or somewhere), is being invaded, please help out. But that places is about 20 thousand miles away, so do I just ignore those messages or do I go out of my way? And lastly, do the missions ever get any more exciting? Do I stay in the same bit of ocean forever, doing the same kinds of missions over and over? ALSO:

4) There is a "Transfer" button on the telephone in my barracks room or whatever. When/why do people transfer? Do I do it whenever I get bored of this part of the world? Or does it reset my career? Do I get different missions in a new part of the world?

5) The planes I shoot down, don't seem to show up in the damage/score at the end of a mission. Does that mean its best to just try to ignore/avoid the planes whenever you come across them on a mission?

6) How do you know who was injured during a mission? I get a bunch of medals to hand out to injured crew members after a successful mission, but I don't know who to give them to. I'm also not sure who I should promote and why.


Thanks in advance guys. Sorry if these have been answered before, I did search but didn't find anything.

[mookiemookie]

I can take a stab at a few...

Originally Posted by quitefrankly

1) Sometimes when I set off on a mission, (about 90% of the time actually), the crew on my sub are constantly reading out numbers... It seems to be like they are just reading numbers randomly. A few times, it seems to be ok, and they only speak when I issue a command, or when a ship/plane is spotted etc. So sometimes its great, because nobody is talking apart from "ship spotted at 33 degrees" (or whatever). But most of the time... all I hear the WHOLE time, is "21, 44, 66, 325, 3 , 54 3 5 3 2 4 5 3 2 , 4 53 2 , 4 5 , 3 2 4 5 , 3 2 4 5 , 2 3 , 5 3 2 , 5 4 2 , 3 4 5 3 , 2 4 5 2 3 4 5 2 3 5 , 2 3 4 5 , 23".... :p Just an endless stream of numbers basically. They still say normal things when I issue a command, but the constant stream of numbers is maddening. Anyone know why that is happening?

This is an intentional bug that pops up when you circumvent the copy protection on the disc. Assuming you are using a legit version, delete any no-cd cracks and run the stock .exe with the disc in the drive and this will clear right up.

Originally Posted by quitefrankly

3) How are you meant to act on the missions? Do I just go straight to the objective and complete it and sail back, and kill any stuff that gets in my way? Or are we meant to do the objective AND go hunting all over the world on each mission? Its just that while im sailing towards my objective, I often hear things on the radio saying things like, "Burma" (or somewhere), is being invaded, please help out. But that places is about 20 thousand miles away, so do I just ignore those messages or do I go out of my way? And lastly, do the missions ever get any more exciting? Do I stay in the same bit of ocean forever, doing the same kinds of missions over and over? ALSO:

I like to play in a historically accurate sort of way, because that's just what a realism geek I am. I sail out at about 10 knots to my patrol area, and if I run across a convoy or task force on the way, I'll radio in a contact report. Sometimes COMSUBPAC will tell you to go after them, and that becomes your new mission. Sometimes they say leave them alone and I do. Once I get to my patrol area, I go about 6 knots and stay within 60 nm of the star icon on the map, and sink things I can, ignore things I can't. Once I complete the mission, I radio in a status report. Sometimes they send you other places. Sometimes not. I tend to not chase things around the map too much. You're only really required to patrol your area for 48 hours. You can go harbor raiding if there's anything promising looking around where you're at. Might be a nice diversion.

Originally Posted by quitefrankly

4) There is a "Transfer" button on the telephone in my barracks room or whatever. When/why do people transfer? Do I do it whenever I get bored of this part of the world? Or does it reset my career? Do I get different missions in a new part of the world?

Different fleets have different boat types at different times during the war. The patrol areas are different, as well. You keep your same career (and crew I believe), but I think you need to repurchase any sub upgrades.

Originally Posted by quitefrankly

5) The planes I shoot down, don't seem to show up in the damage/score at the end of a mission. Does that mean its best to just try to ignore/avoid the planes whenever you come across them on a mission?

The submarine's greatest enemy was the plane, and one well placed bombing run can end your career. I travel submerged during the daylight hours and surface at night. If for whatever reason I'm on the surface in the daytime, I make sure the radar is on and I crash dive on any plane contact (they're the ones travelling "very fast"). This is part of the reason I don't like chasing very far for convoy reports and whatnot. I just have a big aversion to surface travel in the daytime hours.

[AVGWarhawk]

Good Stab Mookie!

[quitefrankly]

Thank you so much for the reply

1)
The no cd spoof is a bit of a pain I have several games I like to play so its a pain to be swapping DVD's every 20 minutes, not to mention whenever I want to listen to a music CD grrr. I can just do it for this game though I suppose, because those numbers are annoying That solves that mystery though anyway

3) Wow, I didn't realise that about radioing in. That could make things more interesting if they let me skip my boring photography mission, and chase after a fleet of enemy ships or something I never usually radio after completing the mission too, so that could be great if they give me more to do. I really like that.

4) I see, thank you. I might just wait until I'm bored of the sight of the pacific area, and then transfer to somewhere else.

5) Yeah I find the planes quite deadly too - even without the mod. I still rarely submerge the sub though - probably because I'm playing on medium difficulty. I think I will try to avoid them from now on though. I used to shoot them down hoping I got points for them, but now I will just avoid them, and only engage if I have to.




You answered all my questions anyway, apart from one. Any chance of having a go at that please? Or someone else? It was the question about how I seem to get lots of missions repeated over and over. I have done approx. 7 missions in the career so far, but out of those 7, there have only been 2 types.... "Photograph the harbor" and "disrupt merchant shipping". Its very boring. Is that just a flaw with this game? Does it get better? I'm sure when I start using the radio it will improve things, but do they ever get more interesting and better randomized? Could it be another no-cd spoof that will fix itself when I start using the original DVD?


Thank you so much by the way for answering all those other questions. Very kind

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by quitefrankly

so its a pain to be swapping DVD's every 20 minutes,

Call it a gut feeling but your not going to like SH4 all that much.

[quitefrankly]

How come? I like the game, its just I listen to lots of music, and I have about 6 games, so its a lot of swapping. I don't have a short attention span or anything.. I often play games for several hours at a time - straight... I'm just lazy and its a pain to reach under my desk every time I want to play something else or play some music.

So dont assume.

[SteamWake]

Music is easy. Just spool em up on your fixed disk or a thumb drive.

Games are a different matter.

But yes your right I shouldent assume. Again it was a gut feeling.

[AVGWarhawk]

You be just fine. As far as music...load up the gramaphone folder and play away No having to put in a CD to listen while you play. I love the gramaphone.

I play the Gladiator sound track.