Two small FOTRSU / General SH4 questions

Tabris · 12-10-23, 07:45 PM

Ahoy skippers,

After zealously sticking to SH3 with GWX for a few years, I'm finally in the middle of my first SH4 career. I'm running FOTRS, and as the manual warns, the mod is a little bit easy. I believe I've been following orders pretty well, but the sheer number of lone merchants has quickly given me quite the inflated victory tally even despite following the "boring" orders.

Patrol 1 from Manilla: 37,000 tons. I immediately realized we were not having nearly enough duds, so I went and enabled MoreDudz
Patrol 2 from Surabaya: 7500 tons. Ah good, the duds are working
Patrol 3 from Freemantle: 10,000 tons
Patrol 4 from Midway: 57,000 tons

It's only August '42 now. The most fun I've had was in attacking task forces, but they move so fast it's hard to get any hits at all, and you don't get a second chance against them because we haven't got enough speed to overtake them. Historical hindsight means I can work around the Mark 14 issues except in very poor seas, and the 3" gun is actually very effective, certainly moreso than Greywolves' 8.8cm gun. Air radar makes getting plastered by planes almost impossible. It's gotten easy enough that I'm thinking of retiring from the USN early and going back to the Atlantic to try out NYGM (Fifi), but I've been convinced to give SH4 one more patrol first. Our orders are to support operations around Guadalcanal.

My question is this: Any tips to find more dangerous targets? I get the Japanese didn't have many convoys in 1942 but I figure if there's anywhere we'll have to tangle with DDs it'll be around Guadal. For someone who has been there, what kinds of contacts can we expect? Will there still be fleets upon fleets of unescorted merchants? Should we go in closer to shore in hopes of finding naval targets, even if that's not historical?

My second question is smaller and more technical. Can anything be done about the men whispering when we're in combat? I understand when SH4 was new there was a serious bug where the crew would get stuck in "panic" mode and yell for the entire patrol, but that isn't a problem for me, the men always correctly revert to calm mode, it's just that they always enter the silent running state when panicked state would make more sense. I hope this is fixable somehow.

Thanks for the advice, all

12-10-23, 07:45 PM	#1
Tabris Electrician's Mate Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Oregon, USA Posts: 131 Downloads: 180 Uploads: 0	Two small FOTRSU / General SH4 questions Ahoy skippers, After zealously sticking to SH3 with GWX for a few years, I'm finally in the middle of my first SH4 career. I'm running FOTRS, and as the manual warns, the mod is a little bit easy. I believe I've been following orders pretty well, but the sheer number of lone merchants has quickly given me quite the inflated victory tally even despite following the "boring" orders. Patrol 1 from Manilla: 37,000 tons. I immediately realized we were not having nearly enough duds, so I went and enabled MoreDudz Patrol 2 from Surabaya: 7500 tons. Ah good, the duds are working Patrol 3 from Freemantle: 10,000 tons Patrol 4 from Midway: 57,000 tons It's only August '42 now. The most fun I've had was in attacking task forces, but they move so fast it's hard to get any hits at all, and you don't get a second chance against them because we haven't got enough speed to overtake them. Historical hindsight means I can work around the Mark 14 issues except in very poor seas, and the 3" gun is actually very effective, certainly moreso than Greywolves' 8.8cm gun. Air radar makes getting plastered by planes almost impossible. It's gotten easy enough that I'm thinking of retiring from the USN early and going back to the Atlantic to try out NYGM (Fifi), but I've been convinced to give SH4 one more patrol first. Our orders are to support operations around Guadalcanal. My question is this: Any tips to find more dangerous targets? I get the Japanese didn't have many convoys in 1942 but I figure if there's anywhere we'll have to tangle with DDs it'll be around Guadal. For someone who has been there, what kinds of contacts can we expect? Will there still be fleets upon fleets of unescorted merchants? Should we go in closer to shore in hopes of finding naval targets, even if that's not historical? My second question is smaller and more technical. Can anything be done about the men whispering when we're in combat? I understand when SH4 was new there was a serious bug where the crew would get stuck in "panic" mode and yell for the entire patrol, but that isn't a problem for me, the men always correctly revert to calm mode, it's just that they always enter the silent running state when panicked state would make more sense. I hope this is fixable somehow. Thanks for the advice, all