The SHIV Guide | Forums

[Magic452]

Welcome to the Forum

What I notice in particular is that when I open the Quick Mission I want to play, I can change the speed setting for only TWO torpedo's.

Check what kind of torpedoes you have loaded, only the MK 14 has two speed settings. All the rest only have one speed.
You get some rather strange load outs in quick missions.

1) Do I need to install all patches?
You only have to install Patch 1.4, it includes all other patches.
If you get a file that says silent_hunter_4_1.4.exe you have the right file.
You can get it here if you aren't sure.
http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/In...tab=download&dcId=63

To add to what Yooperbacker said,
Make a copy of the patch file to some safe place or burn to a disk.
Open the file and it's a .exe file so it will run and install the patch.
To check start the game and on the load screen it should say V1.4 in the lower right corner, I think?
I don't run Vista, and never will, but as I understand you must run it as a administrator or you can't run patches or mods.

Mods are a horse of a different color and are installed using a program called JSGME.
There are mods available for 1.4 but they are hard to find and are not supported now.
All the new mods are for the 1.5 UBoat add on.

Magic

[Anemone1960]

I appreciate the suggestions, but I still need some help.

Here's where I'm at today:

I have two laptops, one running Windows Vista, the other running Windows 7. Both are powerful systems easily capable of running the game.

On the Vista laptop, I loaded the game directly to the C drive, opted NOT to run the game, performed a defrag, then did a restart. When it was back up, I downloaded the 4th patch.

I opened the game and I am still able to change the speed of only TWO torpedo's in the "Battle off Samar" Quick Mission using a Gato-class sub. This is before I fire any torpedo's off and it remains that way. The game also starts making the switching sound repeatedly and non-stop.

On the laptop running Windows 7, I loaded the game in c/Programs, opted NOT to run the game, performed a defrag, then did a restart. When it was back up, I downloaded the 4th patch and upon running the game I encountered the same glitches.

It's not the computers. It's the game and something I'm not doing, or not doing correctly.

Can someone give me some step-by-step instruction?

Thanks in advance.

[Magic452]

First are you sure that the 1.4 patch is installed?
On the load screen or the menu screen that follows, it should say V1.4 in the lower right corner.
If 1.4 is not loaded the game will do all sorts of bad things.
You said you downloaded the patch did the patch file actually run? I believe the patch is an .exe that you must open to run it by double clicking on the file. I don't think it auto runs, been a long time since I had to do that.


Second make sure you are opening the game with SH4.exe and not the default desktop icon that says GU.exe
To check this right click the icon and open properties and see what it says. If GU.exe you must change it by creating a short cut for SH4.exe and move that to the desktop you can find it in the main SH4 folder.

Third did you install the DirectX 9 that came on the disk, SH4 needs that version of DirectX.
This most often causes graphic problems.

The torpedo load out for that mission is 4 Mk 14 and 2 Mk 18 in the bow and 2 of each in the stern, so you should be able to change speed on 6 Mk 14 torpedoes.

Magic

[whitet3260]

I was referred to this page by a long-time member. It has lots of good information for the newcomer (me) but lacks organization. The lack of documentation on SHIV is awful. It would be a more popular game if Ubisoft or the forums would come up with a document that is more "user manual" organized and actually had the kind of information that is here. As it is, Ubisoft appears to have NO interest in promoting the game. Heck, I'd even fork out twenty bucks for a book - that's how desperate I am. Anyway, thanks for your effort.

[whitet3260]

Might add that the game loads and runs nicely under Windows 7 also.

[reddeath267]

just wanted to say that this guide is really awesome. my gameplay has improved significantly thanks to this guide. i wanted to suggest adding some information about some of the more obscure topics like torpedo specs, management of the crew for best efficiency and, even though its partially covered, a section on escort detection abilities and techniques on avoiding them.

thanks for all the help and once again kudos for such an awesome guide

[steevjp]

fantastic post, this will really help me as a noob , the main thing for me was setting up the attacks, the hydraphones thing threw me, i dont even know where to find them in SHIV, but ill find out now I think.

[CanadianSailor]

Finding a downed airmen.

Been stuck on a lifeguard mission. How do I actually find the airmen. How close do I actually have to get to the map marker to be able to see them?

[cmdrmoosicvs]

Downed airmen are marked by a die matker that looks like a pinkish mist rising at their location visible for quite a distance ( at least a couple miles). you need to aproach them without time compression and close to a few hundred yards. with your binoculars, look at them and when you center them in your binos the lifeguard icon will light up, click the icon when it lights up and it should pick the guy out of the water. Now, there are sometimes more than 1 airmen at the same location and in heavy seas they are hard to see so look really good. Hope I helped, happy hunting.

[CanadianSailor]

I've been in the spot for a while now and have even resorted to using the free camera to fly around. Just empty ocean. This is a lot like the stupid cake in Portal.