[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by torpedobait

Could the offer for a Balao have anything to do with an accumulated tonnage figure? Or a number of completed and successful patrols? It seems like in TMO three "good" patrols was enough to get a new boat, but the progression was more in line with upgraded boats, not a jump over classes - usually from whatever up to GAR, then GATO then BALAO (but as I said, not up to TENCH, at least for me). In FOTARSU it takes five or six successful patrols to get the first boat class upgrade. Just wondering if there is a connection, meaning that changes were made in FOTARSU to make it take longer to get a new boat, and that something in those changes skewed the BALAO availability.

As an old programmer myself (Assembler & COBOL, mainly) I know how easy it is to think that my code was right - the eye sees what it wants to see - yet a fresh pair of eyes would reveal a slight or even glaring error. Not saying that is the case here, but clearly the sim is not acting according to expectations. I regret not having the current skill set needed to dig into this for you.

Compared to other aspects of the mod development, this is a pretty small issue. By reporting it I'm not complaining, just trying to get anomalies onto the "fix" list for "someone, someday".

I don't think that this is related to a mod soup in my game. I started a new career after deleting all previous saves (actually, I always delete the entire "SH4" folder and its subfolders) before starting a new career. Unless there is some residual elsewhere in the game files, it should be clean. Otherwise, what you are saying is that to start a new career with the expectation of being on an exact, equal footing with previous careers, you have to reload the game from a pristine edition. I can do that, but it shouldn't be necessary. I do run 3 environmental mods, as I've said before:
1. FOTARSU Unmark Removal (to eliminate the surface sub marker);
2. Lite Fog v2 + 300' Underwater visibility (so I can see targets at about 400 yards in the rain and dark);
3. Webster's Stop the Shouting (Drives me nuts to have a screaming crew if there is ANY damage to the boat);

If any of those, which I apply uniformly via JSGME to every game start, has any effect whatsoever on dates or boat availability I'll be shocked. That said, I'm willing to disable them, start a new career from a pristine install, and try to replicate the Balao availability if you think it necessary. But I was having SO much fun!

Originally Posted by propbeanie

... I do not see how the boat would be given, unless it's something buried in one of the UPCUnitsData files, or has been edited in, or is leftovers from a previous mod...

Understood about just wanting to report issues. This is why we are doing 'beta' testing - to find the issues. Rest assured, even if you were complaining, we'd still check it out. CapnScurvy will probably find something - he's sharp like that. When we're doing changes to the mod, just as an example, there are roughly 260 "ships", and each of those has upwards of 24 or more files - this is just the "Sea" folder. Each of those has a corresponding CFG file in the Roster folder for each country, and some ships are represented in every country. Extrapolate that across the mod, and there is no way that a mod team of 4-12 people have the time, much less patience to look in every nook and cranny of the mod. We need "targets" to shoot at, which is what you guys have supplied with your reports. Thanks...