Quick Start for Newbie
 

Hi, SSD, and Welcome Aboard! :sunny:

I hope you don't mind that I took the liberty of moving your first post to our dedicated SH4 forum.

To answer your questions as best I can:

You came to the right place. We have many members who love to help where we can. Even those of us who don't have the answers still try to help out.

I'm pretty sure there is no way to do it in-game. However...

On the main directory of your PC is the 'Documents' folder (in older systems it's called 'My Documents'. Inside is a folder labeled 'SH4'. That folder contains all the records for your career and should tell you what you need to know.

There are several for SH4:

1. Game Fixes Only, by Webster. This fixes most of the bugs that come with the stock game, while still allowing you to play stock.

2. Real Fleet Boat, by the RFB Team. This one attempts to alter all the AI parameters to reflect historical accuracy.

3. Trigger Maru Overhauled, by Ducimus. Increases difficulty beyond historical standards, with the idea that it's easy to figure out those standards and "game the game", so to speak. TMO makes you play more like a real captain, since you don't know what the enemy is capable of .

4. Operation Monsun. This one lets you play a full-war Atlantic campaign along the lines of SH3. It's the only supermod available for those U-boat fanatics among us.

Please note that these all require SH4 1.5, or 'U-Boat Missions', as it's known. If your version is 'SH4 Gold' then you're good to go.

After that there are dozens, and maybe hundreds, of mods that change this or that little bit to tailor the game to your liking. There is no way to learn about them all without years of involvement. Fortunately there are people here who have experience with most if not all of them, and love to tell anyone who will listen about their personal favorites. And yes, I'm one of them.

Don't worry about it. It's hard to have an eight-year-old game that hasn't had questions asked before. Take your time, have a look around this forum, as well as the others, and ask anything you like.

We're here to help.

welcome aboard!
 

Hello, SculpinSubDriver,
 

and welcome to SubSim:)

Welcome to SubSim SculpinSubDriver.:salute:

Welcome :sunny:

Welcome aboard SculpinSubDriver! :salute:
We're always happy to have new members to harass, er, ahh, help. :D

As you peruse the forums, you will come across such members as me, Armistead, Wolferz, Donna, Swamprat, and others who are members of a highly exclusive, and respected club called Ubirats. We are all members that have befriended each other over at the Ubisoft forum. With changes they made that we didn't like, we came here in search of acceptance. We forced the membership to accept us and now we have our own, dedicated thread under General Topics. It's called "The Bilge." Actually, we had to accept it as part of the agreement to let us stay. Since you came from the Ubisoft forum, you may be accepted as an automatic member. I don't know, we'll have to discuss it.

While you're waiting for acceptance into our club, you can go help polish the props. The crew polishing them seem to keep getting banged up for some reason.

To many mods in the download section to simply list them all here and give any kind of good detailed description of them unless you want to read for the next 8 hours.

Descriptions of them are listed with them in the download section and you can also read about them in their perspective thread about their creation and workings.

Generic Mod Enabler - v2.6.0.157
1_TriggerMaru_Overhaul_2-5
1_TMO_25_small_patch
RSRDC_TMO_V502
RSRDC_V5xx_Patch1
Improved Ship Physics 2.6_TMO_RSRDC
TMO_Visuals_for_RSRDC
FJB_Navigation_Maps
FJB Color Navigation Map
Gyoraitei
11 New Ships + Yamato AA Fix by Miner1436
Ship pack 1
SMALLER SEA PLANTS SMALL
SMALLER SEABED ROCKS
#5 Depthcharge Sound
#2 Other Clouds
Webster's Eliminate Floating Plankton for v1.4 and v1.5
Aircraft_reflections
Hull_Numbers
TMO Smoke Mod
Classe_Balao_CamoTri
MAP_TABLE_MOD_1,3
TMO+RSRDC missions pack

Wow, bookoo replies. I very much appreciate the support.
Two more questions
1. Again for dummies, how do you install mods?
2. How do I change my avatar (I think that's what it is called)?
Thanks again

699i vs Sub Command
 

I have played 688i for a bit and am wondering how Sub Command compares with it.
Anyone have experience with both that would be willing to share pros/cons?
Thx

Most mods can be directly installed following the folder path. Inside the folder with the mod name should be another folder that says 'Data'. You can just put that Data folder into the main folder and your computer will do the rest.

Now that you know that, don't bother. Instead use JSGME. It will do it for you, and has the added benefit that if you don't like that mod you can easily remove it again.

The Subsim avatars are built in. They will change themselves with post count, but the only way to have a custom avatar is to make a small donation. Sorry, but that's one of the ways Subsim stays alive.

SH4, Load Games
 

My game kept crashing so I uninstalled and reinstalled. I answered in the affirmative when asked if I wanted to save previous games. Now, with the new install, it says that the load failed for all of my saved games.
Is this recoverable or are they toast?

How do you install a mod? Read the stickies of course.

Did you apply any mods (or patches perhaps) to the game before this? Please be more specific about what happened before.

As it is likely that adding mods to the game made those savegames invalid. It depends on which mods you applied. Graphical enhancements can usually be done safely, but it's better to be safe then sorry. If you change mods (enable or disable them), then do so while you have ended your patrol and are docked in base. With the supermods you need to start an entirely new campaign. (and apply them to a fresh new installation)