Quote:
Originally Posted by Jean Led
Thanks for the suggestions and clarification you two! 
Honestly Im hard pressed to choose and will probably try both.
( I currently have on this pc sh3 gwx, lsh3, s5 twos, sh4 dark waters and sh4 ksd 2 ace. I think I need to be interned its becoming an obsession  )
FotRS-U seem to have a lot of add on possibilities which I love, especially to make it less easy because that is not appealing to me.
Which one has the best damage model ( for own ship and for ennemies)?
Escorts using mid war sonar is an add on in jgsme or you have to run with it? I rather go with realistic but keep it challenging.
Also identification book differs a lot? I dont like scrolling for hours through similar ships and see which one has a bent micro mast compared to the other that does not. I really like the system of sh5 and some modded sh3 interface of organising by superstructure, smoke stacks and so on.
Is there any of that?
Sorry for being overly precise but thats what I love about mods  |
Definitely give both a try
Far as sonar..
Well, in TMO the escorts do start with what in the game is "mid war sonar" , this was done because the early war sonar(while escorts could be tough) in TMO was just too easy to evade , even with modifications, and if modified to a point, it had same settings as mid war sonar. Basically even with Elite escorts, if went below 250-275 feet, escorts with Type93-1 sonar lost contact quickly. This made early war far too easy and quite boring t be honest. I used to rarely run patrols in early war because of it.
Thus, I decided to use the Type 93-3A (Active) and Type 93-3P(passive) sonars for most escorts from the start. Quite realistic in terms of capability actually, as these sets do not give them super abilities in early war, but makes them a challenge. Player can thus still operate in realistic manner and survive, but they are just not push overs. Contrary to what some may think, Japanese ASW were not pushovers, even in early war.
Coming from the U boat side of things, you may think mid war sonar and Allied mid war sonar comes to mind, but Japanese sonar was very different. Much different undersea war in the Pacific than Atlantic.
I suggest reading books "Clear the Bridge!" by Rear Admiral Richard O Kane (top US skipper of WW II), Thunder Below by Admiral Eugene Fluckey(another top skipper), Wahoo (also by O Kane), Silent Running by Admiral James Calvert (Calvert as a junior officer on USS Jack, ran the Torpedo Data Computer, successful submarine), and Torpedoman by Ron Smith for the Enlisted perspective. Also for a great overall work, Silent Victory by Clay Blair Jr, and also reading the patrol reports which are available to view for free at
https://www.hnsa.org/manuals-documen...atrol-reports/.
These books and the reports will provide greater understanding of the Pacific Submarine campaign and much of what you read can be applied into the mods when running a patrol. Especially say in night surface attacks. Ability to conduct realistic night surface attacks, including getting inside the convoy in some instances, is a major part of TMO. Not easy, can still get shot up, but things have been balanced and tweaked so it is possible, requires player to think and even at times, some luck. IMHO, about most fun one will have in a sub sim. Of course, this tactic did not become standard until late 1943 and into 1944 for US subs.
Check out the SH 4 patrol report and/or screenshot threads or the "Tell us what you are up to in your campaign", I have posted a lot of reports of my patrols, including night surface attack reports there. I also added a "Night Surface Tactics" post as well, to explain things for conducting this in TMO.
Can't say which has "better" damage models, sure both are better than stock.
I have always hated how SH 4 handled damage, esp with depth charges, so for player submarines, I did a rework of damage model for more realism. Now, it is rare for "instadeath" when a charge is close, unless its a direct hit. Most subs lost by depth charges were lost as damage to critical systems accumulated which will overwhelm your boat and crew, causing boat to reach collapse depth or force to surface, of course can't always surface. In upcoming version, damage model is further refined.
For enemy ships, I did not do much in first version of TMO Update but in upcoming version, there are longer, more realistic sinking times. Make sure you use TheDarkWraith's fire damage mod for SH 4 when you run TMO, really adds to things.
Recognition manuals in mods are the same. The different rec manuals in SH 3 and SH 5 mods were done likely due to hard code fixes, which we do not have in SH 4. There is a "identify vessel " feature in TMO (believe in FOTRS as well). Crew, in US subs, did the identification anyways based on Captains descriptions, so let your crew identify it, then find it in the rec manual.