Hardcode modifications requests
 

So, maybe we could put here all the things we really would like to be working, but which can only work with some modification to the hard code of SH3...

This has been done in the past, so why not hope for future improvements?


Please don't rain on my thread saying that nobody will ever do further hard code fixes, one never knows...

#1 Guns' firing behaviour


I will start with something that has bothered me from the beginning.

There are several guns on a ship, and they have their own firing range. But as soon as the ship detects an enemy ship, all the guns (even the light AA guns) will turn towards the enemy ship and fire at it, even if the enemy ship is much farer than the guns' max firing range...

The correct behaviour would be rather this one:

- the gun will start moving towards the enemy target when this target is less than {the gun's max firing range + 1 km} away.

- the gun will start firing only when the target is less than {the gun's max range} away.

#2, the dream of dreams, remove 32bit\4gb ram limitations :doh:

Best regards,
Vd

Yeah, sure! :yep:

But it's probably not an easy fix, else I believe H.Sie or Stiebler would have fixed it long time ago...

#3 ASDIC detection vs. depth


So, Stiebler added a fix where the enemy ASDIC doesn't work very well when your U-Boot is in shallow waters.

In my opinion, this should depend not on the sea bed's depth, but on the distance between the U-Boot and the sea bed. Hence, if your U-Boot lies on the bottom, the enemy destroyers' ASDIC should not be able to detect you whatever the depth.

Only way to do that is to recompile the original source code to 64 bit.
That might sound easy given one has the source code but can open up a lot of bugs, will increase the size of the major files like the exe, dll's, and act files.
Each and every file would need recompiled and tested for problems.

SH3 Commander and other add-ons would no longer work also.

Adding new crew voice lines for orders that are currently unvoiced. I've been told that current understanding of the code says this is impossible. Probably a minor thing for most people, but more immersion is always good, and having the chief say "raising snorkel," or the radio man saying "detecting radar signals!" would be incredible.

Also, an old SH dream is to be able to manually control which motors are doing the work. In Iron Coffins the author describes using the e-machines while in port and starting the diesels only later. I know American boats in the Pacific would use them during night surface attacks to prevent being heard when the seas were calm. It'd be amazing to get to choose when to use which.

- Escorts in correct escorting positions, numbers and tactics (get rid of the routine wandering off into never neverland, leaving the entire convoy flank exposed "tactic").
- Convoys correct sizes
- Aircraft use correct attack profiles and weapons
- Better damage model; damaged batteries leak chlorine gas, less predictability (always the forward deck, flak guns damaged first, i.e.), fuel/oil leaks which increase the chance of detection, etc., etc.
- better silent running mode vs the invincible state it currently is.
- depth charge noise masking
- convoy noise masking
- enemy a/c that spot you relay that info. to nearby escorts/convoys.
- moonlight affects. (thanks rik007!)
- more wolfpack attacks. Even with H.sie's mod, there are not nearly enough with virtually none in some historically active areas. Pack attacks were the norm, not the exception, and there are way to many single attacks still.

Probably come up with others later :) Btw, all the above were in AOD.

#4
Time compression that works larger than 256X
Correct caps when rain or shine

Seriously:
Step 1: install cheatengine
Step 2: install x32dbg
Step 3: install NASM
Step 4: Fire up sh3
Step 5: Fire up cheatengine
Step 6: Fire up x32dbg
Step 7: After some research:
Step 7: Start coding your solution in NASM
.....

Although the requirments you have are very simple - provided you have the C++ code in front of you. Soon you will learn that they are very complicated in Harde code fixing. For example: how do you know if a gun is an aa gun? How do you know if it is a gun? Where is the check done that a ship is within 1 Km? How do you know if a ship is firing? And which ship? How are the ships stored anyway? How many guns are there on a ship? etc, etc.

It will take a few months to create it (or fail). If you are working full time on it maybe a few exhausting weeks...

To some degree this is a difference in the design of the American and German subs. American subs had the diesels power a generator and used only electric motors for propulsion, similar to a diesel-electric locomotive. German subs had the electric and diesel motors both attached by clutches to the propulsion shafts and used the same machinery as either a generator or a motor, more like a hybrid car. The American system was bulkier but simpler and more flexible. For example the awkward arrangement where the Germans would have to run on one engine for propulsion while the other charged the batteries was not necessary for the Americans (and was actually only done at slower speeds by the Germans - at high speeds they would drive both propellers with the diesels and clutch in one or both electric motors as generators). The Americans could just run the diesels at full power and always have the most efficient distribution of energy. But both approaches had advantages. German subs could be "jump started" by towing with the electric motors engaged, making it easier to capture them :haha:



It's likely that the Germans had to use electric motors in port because their system would require a minimum speed when on diesel power. This is not implemented in SH3 but any combustion engine has a minimum speed at which it can run.

The reason for the use of the motors in port is because the diesels (to the extent they were even reversible, see below), were relatively more difficult and time consuming to reverse. You had to shut the engine off, shift the cams over and then restart it. As a weight-saving measure about mid war, reversible diesels were no longer supplied.

The motors on the other hand are very easy to reverse and quick. You simply place the speed rheostat on full field, switch the travel direction switch to the opposite direction, and you are done. This causes a significant initial surge in armature current, but the starting resistors can handle that until CEMF starts building in the opposite direction.

When departing from a U-bunker, the electric motor would allow you to have a very slow speed (thus avoiding to create huge waves), and would prevent the emission of toxic vapors from the diesel engines.

Also, if you can't go reverse with the diesel engines, then you can't use them to leave the bunker, because you entered in the bunker moving forward, remember?... :03:



I understand the point, thank you!

Re
 

Player controled "dive planes" and to ba able to use "electric motors" on the surface

If I had the C++ source code in front of my I would not have hesitated to fullfill your request :):)

So, the game is coded in C++? :hmm2: