My Verdict

[STEED]

Well My PC died so it went in for repair and upgrades for SH4 I picked up a second hand copy from a friend who said "Good luck and within a week you will sell it or bin it." So as you can see he was not happy, I patched it will 1.2 only anyway my verdict on Sh4 and lets puts the eye candy to one side and get to the point. Some of the interface I did not like and when I get minor damage which would not technically sink me but my boat goes into a death dive and good night.

Crew management sucks what the heck dose those (I,II,III) positions means and I have to save the campaign myself or I will loose it, this looks like a rush job to me. This game should never had come out for a minimum of another six months.

PS: Please ubi fix it. This game has potential to be a good game.

[MaxT.dk]

Another one... You forgot to ask for 1.3 patch as the other dozens of threads already did

[TheBrauerHour]

Honestly I don't think people give the new crew management system a chance. I, II & III are your 1st, 2nd and 3rd watchs or shifts. See, it is broken by watch cycles so you don't have to waste your time manually rotating people in your sub due to fatigue. This also lets you put a good balance of people on each watch. If you see trouble, then call battlestations, and the entire boat shows dark grey. That means the whole crew is up out of their bunks and at stations.

The system is really a good system. I am not going to get into a comparison with SHIII because SHIII manages in a different way. Both are good as I play both.

Hope that is helpful!

[STEED]

Originally Posted by TheBrauerHour

Honestly I don't think people give the new crew management system a chance. I, II & III are your 1st, 2nd and 3rd watchs or shifts. See, it is broken by watch cycles so you don't have to waste your time manually rotating people in your sub due to fatigue.

Thanks for that bit of info, why the heck the guide book could not me that and about 20 other things I don't know.

But I am still getting sick of my boat going into a death dive to the bottom of the sea which is starting to put me off playing this game, another thing what about this patrol area business? I stopped and sat on the marker for a few days I also sailed around the marker and through it for a few days and still the patrol is incomplete. I had no trouble dropping the spy off to his location as that came up complete.

[Major Johnson]

[Quote]why the heck the guide book could not me that and about 20 other things I don't know.[Quote]

It's the majority opinion that the manual is much to be desired. Thank God for everyone in this forum sharing all their tidbits.

what about this patrol area business? I stopped and sat on the marker for a few days I also sailed around the marker and through it for a few days and still the patrol is incomplete.

I have a working theory about this too. I'm wondering if it's tied in with sending a status report?? How can the home base know where you are if you don't tell them?? In my current mission I was assigned to one patrol area, while cruising out there, I got into the habit of sending a daily status message. When I got the patrol area it immediately grayed out, then I got sent to another patrol area and it didn't go grey. But I realized that I hadn't been sending any reports like I was. Somewhere between here and there, I hit the escape key to save/end the game and it said that patrol area was complete! I'm thinking I must have sent off a message, which does report your position. A possibility??

[STEED]

Originally Posted by Major Johnson

I have a working theory about this too. I'm wondering if it's tied in with sending a status report??

In the case of dropping the spy off I came close to the marker near shore and I was asked to launched the boat for the spy which I said yes and indeed the marker turned gray. In the case of patrols I have sent status reports but what I will try out is to send more of them and see how this works out.

[orangenee]

I'm in the habit of sending a status report after an engagement, usually after a months game time it registers as complete if I've sunk so many ships. They either let you come home or send you to another place, I think it also depends on how many torps you have left as well.

[Powerthighs]

what about this patrol area business? I stopped and sat on the marker for a few days I also sailed around the marker and through it for a few days and still the patrol is incomplete.

Have you read this thread?

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...=Mission+Guide

I keep my radius to within 50nm though.

Note that Patrol mission requires you stay within a certain radius for 48 hrs. The Sink mission requires that you report to the area then go anywhere and sink 10,000 tons.

Following these rules I haven't ever had any problems.

[STEED]

Well more reports was a no go and I have been close to the marker for three to four days. I shall give it another go by the way the campaign dose not seem to save its self when I get back to port as I lost my first one, the only way around it is for me to save the game then all is well.

[joea]

Steed, Beeery posted a "How to complete a mission" guide, very useful apparently and you actually have to send messages to HQ now. I tired SHIV briefly but my comp can't run it. Once you figure out crew and damage management I think it's better than SHIII (and once UBI fix the kinks left). TDC is cool too.

[NefariousKoel]

I actually think the crew management and interface is a huge leap over SH3.

No more having to drag the bugged guys stuck in the electric room back to diesels when surfacing. No more having to stop TC and check crew fatigue and micromanage that mess.

As for interface, I couldn't stand having to click on some dude's picture and then click on a button above him, and then yet another button in a list that pops up over that. One click on a symbol and the commands are right below. Although a couple are missing atm. The TDC is great now that I can input all the manual inputs all while looking through the scope. No more switching to the attack screen and back all the time.

[STEED]

I cracked the patrol issue it looks like five days before the patrol star goes gray while we are on this subject I got a second one and did that after which I was down to one torp and then another patrol area popped up. No thanks with one torp left my crew done there bit, do this patrol markers just keep popping up?

Anyway I don't need to worry for my next patrol it's looks like it's snapshot time, better read the guide that was posted see how I do.

Thanks all for your help.

[codmander]

sh4 game is eye candy crud sh3 is a great subsim if your not happy with sh4 stick with the -knotzees- they knew how to build a better sub anyway:hmm:

[NefariousKoel]

Originally Posted by STEED

I cracked the patrol issue it looks like five days before the patrol star goes gray while we are on this subject I got a second one and did that after which I was down to one torp and then another patrol area popped up. No thanks with one torp left my crew done there bit, do this patrol markers just keep popping up?

Anyway I don't need to worry for my next patrol it's looks like it's snapshot time, better read the guide that was posted see how I do.

Thanks all for your help.

Your patrol shouldn't have taken 5 days to complete. I always put a 60nm/90km circle around the patrol icon and stay within that for 48 hours. Completed every time!


You might be continually given further missions when you report in after completing your current one. Ultimately, it's up to you if you think it possible to complete or head back to base. If I had 1 fish left, and it was a photo mission, I'd probably pass since it's likely gonna involve getting in shallow water crawling with enemy Destroyers. Can't dive past Peri depth in a bad situation... better have plenty weapons.

I don't think you get penalized if you've finished your first mission on a patrol. After that, it's just extra Renown.

Also.. note that if you want to enable Anti-Aliasing (which I suggest you do), you'll have to manually set it in your video settings in Windows. It's not a bad idea putting some mods in either. Real Fleet Boat and Trigger Maru are the two current mod packs. Try them both and see which you like the best. They have fixes for certain things to boot. I prefer much of TM myself, since my enemy Destroyers seemed way too tame with stock.

[Reaves]

I just submerge and stop all engines once I reach the patrol zone. Time compression eventually causes mission complete.

The problem is you need to stay within a certain area for the 24 hours (i think it's 24) and if you leave that zone after 12 hours you need to start all over again.