Just getting back to DW
 

I just found some really great videos on how to play DW and with luck, I found my old disks and ring bound manual. I intend to begin learning the game using the basic game updated to 1.04 and the Win10 wrapper. So far so good working on my Win10 computer.

My question is: as I am just getting started, is there any really important mods that I need or can I just play the plain vanilla game and then later install some mods. If there are some important mods that I need now, what are they and were?

I have downloaded RA 1.41 and 2 updates, but have not installed them as I don't want to break any part of the basic game or original missions.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the above?

Thanks in advance.

Play the original with the latest patch if you wish, but the RA mod provides a far more interesting and (maybe) realistic experience. The AI seems to be smarter, detection ranges more believable, weapons seem to behave as you'd expect them to, CM's etc also seem to be more effective.

But the missions that come with RA don't seem that spectacular and I'm not sure where people are uploading new missions anymore.

Welcome back Coral.
(Great, now I always hear Rick Grimes when I read your name... :shifty:)

I can only advice to go for RA. There's little reason not to play with it, as DW vanilla is simply lacking in all departments.

You can play all old missions with RA, except FFG missions, as RA basically created a new class, which renders the mission unplayable - but this can be easily edited/fixed in the editor if needed.

All others work and are generally compatible.
However, some missions are hit and miss, as the sensors get changed drastically from vanilla, which can cause problems, but mostly, it won't.

The missions provided by RA, as Wildcat mentioned, are rather crap.
The problem is, the Russians don't do any quality assurance, nor do they seem to give a damn about immersion, as every briefing from them is cluttered with typos or grammatical errors, because they use google translate AFAIK.
Now, one exception is the Red Storm Rising campaign, it comes with RA - but has to be installed seperately (for whatever reason?). The file is in your missions folder, you'll see it.

RSR by Bill Nichols is the best campaign available for DW in my opinion, and adds something to the game, the developers overlooked: Immersion.

:salute:

Thanks to everyone for their insight and comments. Based on the above and my reading on the forums, I have the following questions:


1. I read on the steam forum, the following when running DW for Win10: " I also recommend that you make the dangerouswaters.exe Large Address Aware using this tool. https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/large-address-aware.112556/" Does anyone have any thoughts on this?


2. It appears that using the RA mode is a one way street, so my question is: can you have multiple installs of DW, one plain vanilla and one with the RA mod, by having 2 folders, one labeled DW plain and one labeled DW_RA-and then just switching folders depending on the one you want to use? I know I did that in Falcon and IL-2, two other old games.



3. I have read the forum on how to install RA and this is what I have found:
-clean install of DW
-patch DW to 1.04
- unzip the RA 1.41 file in the DW folder, and run the .BAT file,
- unzip the hotfix #1, go to the Graphics folder, and run the !_Patch_DWX_141_1.bat there
---extra notes: Do not use the patch01 that included inside the 1.41 mod. Do not replace the files manual. Download the zipped patch01 and "extract here" inside the DW directory. Let the program to do all the replacements (yes to all) Then run the "!_Patch_DWX_141_1.bat"
- finish extracting the hotfix #2 in the folder and replacing the existing files (have no .bat to run) Download the zipped patch02 and "extract here" inside the DW directory. Let the program to do all the replacements (yes to all).
---more notes: from another user “For me on Windows 7, I have to install RA 1.41 as an administrator. However, the Patch #1 batch file cannot be run as an administrator. I just run it normally (double click) and it works.”


One post I read (it was old) said that you had to replace some doctrine files, but I think that those instructions was replaced with 1.41. Correct?


I am going to post a separate reply concerning some mods that I found.

Question on a few mods
 

I am trying to get my head around some mods for DW. Some threads on these mods are over 50 pages long. So the following is some questions that I have:

Is DWX and RA the same [or at least DWX superseded by RA] ? It appears so.

The latest version of LWAMI is 3.11 and I have downloaded it. It's nice that it is JSGME friendly. My questions are
It appears that LWAMI and RA are not compatible. Correct?

What is the latest version of RSR that will play with DW 1.04?

The latest version of RSR for use with RA appears to be inside the RA mod. Correct?

Never heard of something like that. I mean it definitely sounds like it could be useful if DW is running out of memory, but I don't think DW uses that much memory.

You can do this using JSGME (generic mod enabler). There are instructions included in the README for RA that tell you how to do this. I have my game setup this way, so feel free to ask more questions regarding how to do it.



That all sounds correct. I believe that part about running as an administrator is something I said :haha:

Yes you can!
http://i.imgur.com/VmY2p2L.png
This is how I do it. I always keep a vanilla install for multiple reasons, then an RA vanilla and my own version where I modify a few things myself (I play SP only, so it's no issue on my end).


See, that's the perfect example for the chaotic documentation the Russians do. Instead of having a thread here that contains the latest info, they spread stuff here and there and if you're lucky, you'll catch it.
It's so frustrating.

It's been a while and I do not remember the steps exactly, but the above sounds correct, though I did replace the doctrine file... I think.
I don't know, lol.

FPSchazly and Nippelspanner
 

Thanks for responding.

FPSchazly

I have been watching your YT videos so It's nice to know that you are available to answer questions on this forum.

Please see my post #5 for questions on mods.

The instructions for using JSGME with DWS/RA are very confusing even though I have been using JSGME for years [actually there is a newer version of that program on the DCS forums that I use]. The instructions in RA refer to DWX when using JSGME, but I assume that refers currently to RA. Correct? When I am ready to this, I will get back to you for assistance.

What mods do you use? LWAMI? RA? What does LWAMI impove in the game?

Nippelspanner

Thanks for the example for multiple installs.

I am available for questions here and/or you can post on any of my videos and I'll get back to you.

So, LwAmi is built for JSGME and works well in that regard. With RA and JSGME, additional work needs to be done after installation to ensure that save games aren't overwritten/deleted when switching back and forth (this happened to me recently :wah:). I like Nippelspanner's solution better.

DWX and RA are the same. LwAmi and RA are not compatible. As Nippelspanner said, RA-compatible RSR is included with RA.

Update
 

Moving along, I decided to make 3 DW folders. DW-stock [not to be used], DW-in which I have installed Lwami by JSGME--although I have not yet activated Lwami, and finally, DW-RA in which I will within the next day or so try to install RA. This is the easiest and safest way to handle multiple mods in my opinion.

Now back to the videos.

Full screen verus Windows mode
 

I am trying to get the game to run in windows using the -w or the -windows command but to no luck. Has anyone run the game in windows and if so how?

RA comes with compatibility files. Check the main folder after install.
No idea about vanilla.

Edit: NVM this, I misunderstood your post...

Window mode require 16-bit desktop colour depth before launching DW.

You can turn on this mode by editing Dangerouswaters.ini file.

16 bit color
 

p7p8
Thanks for the tip, but in Win10, no joy. I even went into compatibility and changed it to 16 bit color.

Thanks anyway.

you have to set your screen to 16bit mode.

in win7 you can do this by minimizing all windows, right click anywhere on your desktop wallpaper (but not on an icon/file) then clicking "screen resolution"

the bit depth should be on the window that pops open, or you may have to click another button or two (advanced settings) before the bit depth menu appears, but it is there. set it to 16, apply, and leave it open and just revert it back to 32 once done playing.