Strategic War Mod

[Mescator]

Originally Posted by General Tso

One concern that I have is that all of the common campaigns (the standard one, RSRDC, TMO, etc...) do not have enough Tankers and Troopship. Has anybody been able to sink those kind of ships on a regular basis?

See Tankers probably once or twice a Patrol. Sometimes 3 times. Troopships i think i've sunk 2 in the last 3 or 4 months.

Edit: Using RSRD

[General Tso]

Thanks for the historical info Jan Kyster. I've been using those type of web sites to get the numbers in the game as close to being historically accurate as possible. One of the things that I discovered while researching this mod is that there are no hard figures on Japanese ship production and tonnage sunk by U.S. submarines. Some of the values can differ by over 100% depending on where you look! So I have tried to make the numbers in the mod be as accurate as possible, but not at the sacrifice of game play.

Thanks for the ship siting info Mescator. That's exactly what I'm looking for. Your numbers are higher than I expected and give me hope that things will work out OK as far as finding the different ship types within the game. I and using TMO with RSRD on my system. Any campaign should work with this mod. It's just a matter of whether it provides enough targets of each type (Warships, Freighters, Tankers, and Troopships) without providing to many and unbalancing things. Since I'm creating the mod using RSRD I'll probably recommend using it, but it may not be absolutely necessary. When you say 2 Troopships in the last 3 or 4 months do you mean in game time?

[Mescator]

Originally Posted by General Tso

When you say 2 Troopships in the last 3 or 4 months do you mean in game time?

Real life, but you know it probably is equal xD. Don't play as much as I'd like to. They are fairly rare though, but i usually don't look at classifications so you probably want some more regular skippers to pitch in

[Istar]

Shouldn`t all the info you need to know about shipping be in the game files ?
(The various .mis files ?) It is defined in there what is spawned where and when and how often.
I`m not an experienced modder but maybe one of them could help you where to look and how to interpret the data.
If you could even make the program get it`s data from there then there is also no need to balance against various versions like stock (lot`s of traffic), TMO (less traffic) and RSRD(are there even other ships besides mine here ? ) since the program could do it for you. And since it would only be reading the files there is no risk of breaking anything game wise.

Though like I said.. get a experienced modder to help you out.

[General Tso]

I did do a few searches through the campaign folder for certain ship types and the tankers and troopships definitely come up less often then standard freighters. But since I'm not familiar with the campaign files I'm not sure of the exact situation. Any input from somebody familiar with the campaign files would be great!

So far I've been staying away from reading the campaign files into the mod because there is a lot of data there and it would greatly slow things down. Since it looks like the campaign files may have to be read eventually for several different reasons maybe I should at least look into seeing what is involved. Your idea may be good way to start using the campaign files, but I'm not certain if it will make it into the first version.

[Istar]

If it indeed would slow things down, maybe you could keep the reading of the campaign files a one time thing the program does when linking it to the proper game you wish to use it with. Then the program could write the data it needs in a file of it`s own and use that for further reference.

[vanjast]

I had a DGen campaign all worked out on paper but never had the time... but I'll part with some thoughts..

- Japan needs the raw materials from it's conquered countries to survive. Convoys (and ship numbers) are important for it's survival. Every fully laden ship returning home adds to the points pool.

Points are allocated to:-
1) Ship building
2) Aircraft building
3) Army supplies - troopships reinforcing territories

Convoys travel back and forth...

YOU are COMSUBPACs strategist, and you manage your subs.
You might allocate points to your pool, by the points value of the ships sunk(more challenging), or just have an infinite, steady influx of points from the mainland (as it was).

As the strategist, you allocate your sub fleets patrols watching them move on the BIG map. So there you are drinking your beer when on the map, one of your subs starts flashing - CONTACT...???

When you click on the flashing sub... DGEN writes single mission/patrol files relevant to this action.. off you go to the single mission 'activity' and the action starts.

At the end on the action which can be anytime, you exit - DGEN analyses the report and updates the relevant stuff,... the AI takes over you sub again (heaven forbid)... and you're back to your beer, and re-routing other subs to intercept...
As you can see.. you can now play multiple subs in many areas 'simultaneously' - you'll be very busy.
I've yet to work out what happens when many subs flash on the map at once..

Maybe throw in a bit of simple code breaking as well

;---------------------------------------------------------------
Assuming all works out well with the DGEN, you could have a battle on your hands. If you don't sink enough ships.. you'll see more aircraft and enemy ships.... making life very difficult.
This is from the Allied POV, and an AXIS DGen can also be made.

Maybe I should put some time into this

[General Tso]

Istar, That might work. In order to keep things simple the first version of this mod won't read the campaign files. Once I get to the point of using the campaign files I'll look at that idea more closely.

vanjast, You have some interesting ideas there.

[Alexander Tau]

Looking forward to trying this out. I have always thought that while excellent in many ways Silent Hunter does lack info in-game for the Captain.

Those rare chances to assist friendly forces are always some of my favorite moments in SH. Knowing more about the War around me would also add a lot to the game.


A.T
(-)

[irish1958]

Does anyone if there is a map in which all the sinkings of Japan's ships are located? And broken down to merchant shipping and warships?
I haven't played the game anywhere as much as most, but I have felt that the amount of merchant shipping in the routes between Japan and the South China Sea ports and the Sea of Japan is grossly inadequate.
Japan had no oil and had to import 100% so there must have been a huge amount of tanker traffic; this is also true for other strategic materials.
Why is there not much more traffic in these areas?
In SHIII there is a mod called SH3Contacts which allows one to increase traffic by writing to the campaign files.
Nichols has made (a private) mod for SH4 but never released it.
Perhaps if you PM him, he might reconsider. This would solve you problem with the campaign files.
I am looking forward to this strategic mod; It will add to the game in a big way. But to improve game play, especially if your orders are to sink a certain type of ships, it is necessary to have the ships in the game in sufficient quantities to make the game interesting.

[fitzcarraldo]

Originally Posted by irish1958

Does anyone if there is a map in which all the sinkings of Japan's ships are located? And broken down to merchant shipping and warships?
I haven't played the game anywhere as much as most, but I have felt that the amount of merchant shipping in the routes between Japan and the South China Sea ports and the Sea of Japan is grossly inadequate.
Japan had no oil and had to import 100% so there must have been a huge amount of tanker traffic; this is also true for other strategic materials.
Why is there not much more traffic in these areas?
In SHIII there is a mod called SH3Contacts which allows one to increase traffic by writing to the campaign files.
Nichols has made (a private) mod for SH4 but never released it.
Perhaps if you PM him, he might reconsider. This would solve you problem with the campaign files.
I am looking forward to this strategic mod; It will add to the game in a big way. But to improve game play, especially if your orders are to sink a certain type of ships, it is necessary to have the ships in the game in sufficient quantities to make the game interesting.

I think RSRDC is the most accurate campaign, historically speaching. Contact Lurker for the information about the merchants and ships included.

Best regards

Fitzcarraldo

[iambecomelife]

This is pretty much a dream come true for me! Thank you for adding an element missing from so many subsims.

Excuse me for getting ahead of myself, but I'd like to know how easy it would be to adapt the mod to an Atlantic campaign? I am working on a WWI mod for Silent Hunter 4, and I would really love to have this sort of strategic combat between Germany and the Allies. The basic principles would be the same, as during WWI the main objective was also to starve an island nation into submission by sinking merchant ships.

[General Tso]

As long as the Atlantic campaign uses the same save game file format (which I assume it does) it would be pretty straight forward. It would still require some programming ability and the values within the mod would need to be changed to something appropriate for Great Britain and Germany.

I word of caution concerning this mod. I think it can add some interesting new ideas to the game, but in it's current form it's pretty basic.

By the way speaking of WWI, you can kind of blame that war on the slight delay in me releasing this mod. I downloaded the demo for "Rise Of Flight" which is a pretty good WW1 flight simulator. The demo is only good for 14 days and the actual game is very expensive, so Ive been spending a lot of my computer time playing and tweaking the demo. Once I actually make up my mind concerning that game, I'll finish up this mod and release the first version. That should hopefully be sometime soon.

[jakla1027]

Whats the current status of this great sounding MOD??? Please give us an update!!!

[Treetop64]

Sounds like a great idea. Who knows, in time it could end up getting a life of its own and blossoming into something very comprehensive and in-depth much like DCG did for IL-2; started off fairly simple but evolved into an extremely useful and comprehensive utility.