How do you manage to complete patrol in one gaming session?

[MarkShot]

Given that SH2 has save/reload bugs I was wondering how do people playing PA manage to complete patrols?

I have already written a post-processor for PACG which greatly speeds up the game by:

(1) Eliminating the frequency of the many base generated activities.

(2) Removing the primary requirements to reach the patrol marker or return to base.

(3) Eliminating contact reports and just use the the Koralle Editor to display potential shipping lanes.

Even with this, I see that a single patrol can run many hours. I just cannot muster the patience to only play PA until I get through an entire patrol.

If allow the game to save my patrol and reload it, then enemy escorts will cease engaging me and my patrol will be come a turkey shoot, correct?

So, is everyone playing their patrols through to the end?

[PeriscopeDepth]

I don't. I play SHI. And hopefully SHIII when I get a new system, if I work up the courage to install something that contains SF.

PD

[John Pancoast]

Reviving dead thread...........hmmm.....I was thinking of getting PA, but does this issue of not being able to save mid-patrol still exist ?

[Sailor Steve]

Unfortunately, it was a bug that came with SHII, and as far as I know no fix was ever found.

[John Pancoast]

Unfortunately, it was a bug that came with SHII, and as far as I know no fix was ever found.

Ok, thanks :(

[horsa]

Yes , unfortunately this was a code access issue and everything in the mod was done without code access.

It is possible to pause the game and come back later. Not ideal, but it does mean you don't have to play it through in one session.

[MarkShot]

I actually set up a separate clone of XP in its own disk partition. If I am playing and just want to stop, I just hibernate that partition. When I boot that partition again, the current SH2 gaming session is reloaded again.

[Threadfin]

A typical patrol takes about 2-3 hours for me, not too bad for a single session.

Hi JohnP, F4 wingman DB here :)

[John Pancoast]

A typical patrol takes about 2-3 hours for me, not too bad for a single session.

Hi JohnP, F4 wingman DB here :)

Hah ! Hey DB, what a surprise!

p.s. has the BB server been slow lately; haven't noticed anyone on it much, or am I hitting it at the wrong times ?

[John Pancoast]

I actually set up a separate clone of XP in its own disk partition. If I am playing and just want to stop, I just hibernate that partition. When I boot that partition again, the current SH2 gaming session is reloaded again.

This sounds interesting. Seeing as my family also uses my (? :)) pc, worth looking into.

However, how do you hibernate a partition ?

[WutWuzDat]

I actually set up a separate clone of XP in its own disk partition. If I am playing and just want to stop, I just hibernate that partition. When I boot that partition again, the current SH2 gaming session is reloaded again.

This sounds interesting. Seeing as my family also uses my (? :)) pc, worth looking into.

However, how do you hibernate a partition ?

2 Diff installs of Xp

[MarkShot]

I took my main install of XP and cloned it to another partition. I disabled the network card in the device manager for the cloned partition. Thus, I got rid of firewalls, spyware sweepers, virus scanners, and Windows Update. As the partition has no access to the Internet, there is no reason to maintain or patch it; just use it to play PA when I want. You can enable hibernate through power options and then you select it through the shutdown prompt (hibernate instead of shutdown). Next time you boot, everything gets reloaded.

Tools involved:

Partitioning - Partition Magic
Multi-booting - System Commander
Cloning - Norton Ghost

[MarkShot]

One word of caution, do not allow your hibernated partition to be visible as part of any other installations file system. Doing such will result in corrupting the hibernated partition's file system. This is because while hibernated various file system data structures are effectively cached in the hibernated memory image. (It's safe to allow your secondary XP partition to be visible elsewhere if you do not use the hibernate option - no file system conflicts then.)

[John Pancoast]

One word of caution, do not allow your hibernated partition to be visible as part of any other installations file system. Doing such will result in corrupting the hibernated partition's file system. This is because while hibernated various file system data structures are effectively cached in the hibernated memory image. (It's safe to allow your secondary XP partition to be visible elsewhere if you do not use the hibernate option - no file system conflicts then.)

Ah, makes sense; thanks for the info. !

[Threadfin]

He went away for a week and the server was down, but it was back up a few days ago and I hopped on and flew a sortie or two east of Sarajevo. But haven't tried to join in about a week. OFP and GPL are the flavors of the week :)

[John Pancoast]

He went away for a week and the server was down, but it was back up a few days ago and I hopped on and flew a sortie or two east of Sarajevo. But haven't tried to join in about a week. OFP and GPL are the flavors of the week :)

Ah, ok, thanks.

[Hitman]

In the 1.1 patch for PA there was an option to start your patrol already in the assigned hunting area. That eliminates a considerable amount of time in hight TC used just to go there and back from your home base.

[MarkShot]

How did one enable that option? (I don't recall seeing it.)

Thanks.

[Hitman]

Choose as home base "Pearl Harbor" in the PACG generator when creating a campaign. Since Pearl is right of SH2 map's end (Which lies exactly in the offical daytime division area) and you can't sail there, I decided to use it as an easy option for those who wish to start in the patrol area already. You will start there and the fuel you have will be just the one left after having eliminated the amount needed to travel from and back to the base. So when you run out of fuel or torpedoes you hit ESC and the mission is correctly finished, no need to return to base ;)

Happy hunting