[gap]

Originally Posted by vdr1981

Okay, contact colors are the definitive evidence that there are actual neutral ships within Allied convoys.
Way to many IMO...


Good news. If I got you correctly, neutral ships wrongly assigned to convoys only belong to some nations. Other nationalities are represented within convoys by their "free" counterparts.
That is only true for this convoy, on next encounter situation will probably be very different depending of current game's date...


That's an obvious oversight. A Free Panamian roster should be setup (that's easily done)..
I fail to understand why there's so many regular Panamian freighters in allied Atlantic convoys even in first campaign (1939/1940) if you guys have set campaign to spawn FreePanama ships within allied convoys? Shouldn't they bee ignored by the game in this case?

It is obvious that you and Trev know much more about campaign files then I do and the purpose of my previous post is to help you guys to determent the cause of the problem but that's the best i can do I'm afraid, especially in upcoming period...

I was aware of neutral ships in convoys for years but I looked at it as feature and just recently I discovered that this is actually unprecedented and unseen bug in previous SH titles...

I'm looking forward hopefully for upcoming solution because It's going to be really hard for me to find inspiration for further work on SH5 while game continues to spawn those "green ships" in such legitimate targets as large allied convoys...I'm afraid that these kind of issues can really trow me back in SH3/4 world once again .
All seems kind of pointless if game's gonna penalize me if I sink "wrong" ship during convoy engagement...

No worries Vecko, SH's convoy settings are quite flexible, and I am sure we can fix the inaccuracies you have spotted, though it can be a tedious work.

The little I know about campaign files, I know from Trevally. Now I will try and give you the details of how convoys are set in campaign, and hopefully Trevally will fill-in the missing details.

For each campaign, convoys are listed into GroupTypes.cfg. The composition of each convoy, is detailed GroupTypeDefs.cfg.

With Happy Times - convoy HX- for instance, we have a first section containing general information (see my notes below):

[HX_]
Role=1 ; I ignore what this setting means
Doctrine=0 ; can be either defensive (0) or offensive (1), the latter useful for taskforces
EscortPosition=1 ; should be the arrangement of escorts within the convoy, but I am not sure about that
EscortSpacing=900.000000 ; self explanatory
ConvoyRowSpacing=900.000000 ; self explanatory
ConvoyColSpacing=900.000000 ; self explanatory
Columns=0 ; self explanatory
IsWolfPack=false; self explanatory

The next sections are about convoy's combination. One section for each group of ships which may spawn together with the convoy. The settings of each section, specify certain characteristics shared within each group.

[HX_.EscortUnit 1]
Type=4 ; this group of ships must be composed of destroyers (type 4), as set in their cfg file. For a liste of possible types see data\Roster\Names.cfg
CountryName=British ; this group of ships must be composed  of units in the British roster. Within the limits imposed by the unit type/country combination, group's composition will be randomized every time the convoy will spawn
ExternalCargo=-1 ; type of external cargo carrried by the group. List of possible 3d freights found in data/Sea/CargoDef.cfg. -1 means no cargo.
InternalCargo=-1 ; type of internal cargo carried by the ships of this group. Can be either no cargo, oil, ammunition, or inert cargo
CrewRating=3 ; you know what is means!
Weapons=0 ; either early, mid or late war armaments. I am not sure wether weapons start/end dates set in ship eqp files are actually used and, if yes, how they interact with this setting
Sensors=0 ; either early, mid or late war sensors. Again, it is possible that this setting overseeds dates set in sns file
Tactics=0 ; I used to know the meaning of this setting, but I can't remember right now
Camouflage=0 ; either early, mid or late war camoufflage, painted on ships' AO map. As above, dates set in ships cfg file could be overseeded by this setting
Required=false ; I think this parameter sets wether the game must force this group of units into the convoy, rather than rolling the dices for deciding if each ship in the group will spawn or not (see settings below).
No=4 ; I can be wrong, but this must be the maximum number of ship within the group
SpawnProbability=100 ; This is the spawn probability of the ships of this group. Iam not sure wether it applies to the whole group or individually to each ship in the group, but I am inclined to the latter 
GroupLinkId=0 ; No idea here

; please scroll to the section [HX_.ConvoyUnit 1], for an optional setting not featured above. As for the rest, each section resambles the other.

[HX_.EscortUnit 2]
Type=4
CountryName=British
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=3
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=2
SpawnProbability=80
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.EscortUnit 3]
Type=4
CountryName=Canadian
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=3
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=90
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.EscortUnit 4]
Type=1
CountryName=Canadian
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=3
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=2
SpawnProbability=20
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 1]
Type=102
Class=KLWarSupplies ; this setting is used when we want a group to feature only ships of a certain class, rather than randomizing among the ones of the same type
CountryName=British
ExternalCargo=2
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=5
SpawnProbability=100
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 2]
Type=102
Class=KLWarSupplies
CountryName=British
ExternalCargo=0
InternalCargo=0
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=6
SpawnProbability=20
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 3]
Type=101
CountryName=British
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=100
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 4]
Type=102
CountryName=British
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=4
SpawnProbability=100
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 5]
Type=102
CountryName=Canadian
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=4
SpawnProbability=100
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 6]
Type=101
CountryName=Panama
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=100
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 7]
Type=102
CountryName=Panama
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=3
SpawnProbability=100
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 8]
Type=102
CountryName=FreeBelgium
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=50
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 9]
Type=102
CountryName=FreeDenmark
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=50
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 10]
Type=102
CountryName=FreeFinland
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=20
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 11]
Type=102
CountryName=FreeFrench
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=2
SpawnProbability=80
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 12]
Type=101
CountryName=FreeGreece
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=100
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 13]
Type=102
CountryName=FreeGreece
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=100
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 14]
Type=102
CountryName=FreeGreece
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=40
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 15]
Type=102
CountryName=FreeNetherlands
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=20
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 16]
Type=102
CountryName=FreeNorway
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=20
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 17]
Type=102
CountryName=FreePoland
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=2
SpawnProbability=80
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 18]
Type=102
CountryName=FreePoland
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=100
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 19]
Type=102
CountryName=FreeSweden
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=10
GroupLinkId=0

[HX_.ConvoyUnit 20]
Type=101
CountryName=Brazil
ExternalCargo=-1
InternalCargo=-1
CrewRating=2
Weapons=0
Sensors=0
Tactics=0
Camouflage=0
Required=false
No=1
SpawnProbability=20
GroupLinkId=0

Now that convoys are set, when and where will they spawn in campaign? There are many mission layers where convoys in GroupTypes.cfg can be set for spawning in campaign, but proper convoys usually are set in convoys.cfg. A search within the campaign folder with notepad++, will make sure that we are not missing any important convoy entry. For each convoy we have at least three sections. The first section is relative to the port of departure, and it can be shared by many convoys leaving from the same location. For convoy HX the port is Halifax:

[LanesGraph.Node 21]
Long=-7623029.000000
Lat=5349180.000000
Height=0.000000
IsFromSingleMis=false
Name=Halifax
Radius=2.000000
MaxSpeed=0.000000
RelatedSPRadius=20.000000
SpawnHeading=0.000000
Category=1
LayerOperation=0
RelatedMapLoc=
ShowOnMap=false
IsLocked=true

The second section links each convoy to its port of departure, as well as setting its start/end dates and cruising speed:

[LanesGraph.Node 21.NodeGroup 1]
Type=HX_
Name=HX
Country=British
Speed=9.000000
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19451231
ReportPosTime=2170
ReportPosProbability=60

The third section, sets for each convoy its destination, route (optional), and frequency. I suspect that, if need be, more than one sections of this type can be set for each convoy:

[LanesGraph.Node 21.NodeGroup 1.NGMission 1]
Name=Liverpool
ObjectiveType=0
TargetNode=Liverpool
PathNodes=
UsePath=false
CooldownMonths=0
CooldownDays=10.200000
CrtCooldownHours=12.000000
CooldownHours=1
Priority=0
RewardPoints=0
StartDate=19390916
EndDate=19451231

I wish I could help with detailed explainations on each setting in convoys.mis, but I am afraid I would mislead you. For sure I remember the cool down settings are important ones, and they determine convoy's frequency in campaign. For further details, I am sure our Trev will pop up at the right moment