Two Questions About SH4.

[miteymitey]

I've been playing SH4 for 3-4 years now and really enjoy it. Prior to that I had played SH1 for several years. That was fun too, but the graphics in SH4 are much better. Now for my questions.
1st, a couple of weeks ago I ran into a problem in that I could save my game (patrol) but couldn't open it again. This was on the 5th patrol of my 12th career. I Kept getting a message that SH4 had encountered a problem and needed to close. I could open prior patrols without any problem, but if I saved them I couldn't open them either. I thought I was going to have to reinstall the program. Then it dawned on me that there might be some kind of limitation on how many patrols, or games, you can save. I haven't deleted any files since I upgraded to V1.4. I went and deleted my entire 1st career and everything went back to functioning properly. Is there a maximum amount of data you can have in the saved files and, if so, is there a way to quickly delete saved files?
2nd, I'm having trouble getting my deck gun aimed at distant targets (5000+ yds). When trying to attack a ship from it's stern, the safest way I've found to engage a ship with an active bow mounted deck gun, my mouse frequently bounces the scope from one side of the target to the other and won't let me put the crosshairs directly on the ship. I'm using a general purpose 800dpi Logitech mouse, not a gaming mouse. Will using a higher resolution gaming mouse solve this problem or is the problem a result of using the zoom on the deck gun scope? This is on a 24" widescreen monitor powered by a Nvidia Geforce 9800GTX+ with SH4 set at 1920x1200.

Any info will be appreciated.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Welcome abroad mitey.
Ah yes, the dreaded "SHIV Has Stopped Working And Needs To Close" message. Also known as a failure to load. I haven't had this happen too often, though when it does, it seems to be for a variety of different reasons, each one being unique.
One thing that I was once told, and seems to have significantly decreased the incidence of this problem, is to always save games from the Control Room. I've had it happen a couple of times since but, one was due to my antivirus software being in the middle of an autoscan during game save and the other was after a power failure in mid game (probably corrupt files).

As far as your mouse bouncing around, does it do this when you're not gaming? If so, you may need to replace your mouse-pad or try using a piece of black construction paper as a pad instead. Sometimes something as tiny as a crumb or a slight discoloration in you mouse-pad can interrupt the lazer signal and send your mouse-pointer clear off the screen.

This failure to load problem has happened to most, if not all of us, at one time or another.
Welcome to the PTO.

[miteymitey]

I had a WOW Pad, the large rectangular one, that I used for a couple of years but it wore out. I just bought a new Zowie Gear Spawn P-TF Pad and it is truly awesome. Got it off Newegg at a great price. It has a really nice surface and has really improved the accuracy of my mouse but I'm still having problems getting the crosshairs to line up on target at long range. For instance: I'm closing on a medium old tanker from her stern, at 5000+ yds. I point my deck gun in the general direction and then go to the second zoom level on the scope to line up for a shot. The vertical crosshair is a tad too far to the port side of the target, so I gently move my mouse to the right but it jumps too far to the starboard side of the target. Then I try to move my mouse back to the left and the crosshairs jump back to it's previous position and it's too far to the port side of the target. There isn't a point between those two positions that I can get the crosshairs to land on. I have to wait until the target zig-zags a bit and presents more of a side view before I can get the crosshairs on target to fire. This is both time consuming and dangerous as when the target tacks to port/starboard it can gets it's deck gun in position to fire at me. The jump isn't as great if I go back to the first zoom level but then I have difficulty even seeing the target, especially at night.

[Armistead]

If you're playing stock seems I recall it was hard to aim at higher magnification, each small movement caused too much. Years ago I recall a mod that corrected this for stock, but the problem has been solved in most supermods. With mods the movement smoothly follows the mouse, in stock it seemed the mouse moved in digits.

CTD's result from numerous issues, game of pc related. Most of us battle our own systems and eventually find what works. I haven't had one in over a year now....

Make sure you have DX9c

Point your shortcut to sh4, not gu.exe..Right click on your shortcut, properties, the target line should read..
"C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific\sh4.exe"

Updated drivers, even though some older drivers seem to work better for older systems.

Don't overwrite the same file more than twice, never save near contacts or ports and save in the control room.

Alt/tabbing out can cause bugs and seems to be an issue for some with causing save or CTD issues.

Obvious, defrag, don't run any programs or services you don't need, keep a healthy gaming PC....

[magic452]

As Armistead said the supermods fix this problem.
But you have more speed than a fleeing merchant so use a little patients and speed to close to 2 or 3000 yards and give you a bigger target.

Subsimming is a game of patients.

Welcome to the boat mate.

Magic

Originally Posted by miteymitey

2nd, I'm having trouble getting my deck gun aimed at distant targets (5000+ yds). When trying to attack a ship from it's stern, the safest way I've found to engage a ship with an active bow mounted deck gun, my mouse frequently bounces the scope from one side of the target to the other and won't let me put the crosshairs directly on the ship.

Have you tried pressing CNTRL key as you aim your gun? It should slow down the traverse speed (Shift should increase it).

[miteymitey]

Well, of course, getting closer will present a bigger target but it also increases the the target's ability to find and fire on you with it's deck gun. Most commercial vessels don't have really great accuracy with their deck guns, but they do get lucky sometimes. Staying at distances of >4000yds, preferably >5000yds, greatly decreases the probability that they will draw blood. And the whole objective is to inflict losses on the enemy without sustaining losses for yourself.

As for the Super Mods, I've looked at a few of them but can't make heads or tales out of which ones do what. Any suggestions as to which one would be best to solve my problem?

Haven't tried the "Ctrl" button yet. I'll give that a try.

By the way, Thanks to everyone for all the feedback.

[magic452]

If you do it right they won't even get a shot off but you have to let the crew do the shooting while you con the boat, it's kinda fun to chase them down.
I assume you want to shoot them yourself. It's fun that way as well.

The best way to mod the game is to just give them a try, with JSGME it's easy to add any of the super mods, if you don't like it you can easily take it out.
Start with just TMO, RFB or FOTRS and see what happens. You can always go back to stock but I don't think you will.

If you like stock try Webster's Game Fix Only mod, Fixes a lot of things without changing game play.

Plenty of help here if you have problems.

Magic

[miteymitey]

Well guys, I think my problem is solved, at least for the time being. I tried holding down the "CTRL" button while I moved the deck gun scope into position and it allowed me to get the vertical crosshair exactly where I wanted it. And yes, I prefer to fire the deck gun myself. I do let my gun crews handle AA though.
I may take a look at the mods again, just to see what might be of interest. I saw one some time ago that's supposed to increase the aggressiveness of the enemy escorts. That would be interesting.

But, again, thanks for the help. Happy sailing.

[magic452]

That would be TMO.

Magic