[REL] FOTRS Ultimate Project

[cdrsubron7]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Yeah, the mission name lied. I was Davey Jones Locker bound.

Where in the Philippines is that?

Warning! Just like TMO, FOTRS Ultimate is NOT a reality mod as far as enemy AI goes. They can and will attack you with deadly accuracy without pinging once. I had been under the impression that FOTRS escorts were pretty benign until riled. Obviously, in a mission, with veteran crew that changes.

Since the core of this game is from TMO v1.7 and the mind of Ducimus should we expect anything less. Just a thought for the future, boss. It might be a good idea to include something in the optional mods with a turned down AI for players of lesser skill than us (can't believe I just said that).

Great mission. Lots of replay value there. After I dry off!

Glad you liked it, boss.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by cdrsubron7

It might be a good idea to include something in the optional mods with a turned down AI for players of lesser skill than us (can't believe I just said that).


Glad you liked it, boss.

I'm sure not going to make any claim of being a great player. It's hard to do that when fishies are eating out of your eyeball sockets......

Personally, I don't get the chance to play long enough or often enough to say I'm good at playing the game.

Yikes! 1006 posts in the thread. This project is very intimidating sometimes. There's a lot of high expectations out there. Our mission is not to dissapoint.

[cdrsubron7]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

I'm sure not going to make any claim of being a great player. It's hard to do that when fishies are eating out of your eyeball sockets......

Personally, I don't get the chance to play long enough or often enough to say I'm good at playing the game.

Yikes! 1006 posts in the thread. This project is very intimidating sometimes. There's a lot of high expectations out there. Our mission is not to disappoint.

Never been my claim either. I have a certain level I'm comfortable playing at and don't really change it much. I'm gonna have another talk with Florida Sailor about a couple of things that might need to be addressed. After I get them figured out I'll mention them here in the thread.

BTW, boss. When is the next beta version do out?

[granite00]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Warning! Just like TMO, FOTRS Ultimate is NOT a reality mod as far as enemy AI goes. They can and will attack you with deadly accuracy without pinging once. I had been under the impression that FOTRS escorts were pretty benign until riled.

I may have missed it, but since FOTRS Ultimate is about player options, will there be options for a less deadly AI?

[max-peck]

Originally Posted by granite00

I may have missed it, but since FOTRS Ultimate is about player options, will there be options for a less deadly AI?

I think it is Rockin Robins eventual goal to have several JSGME available options for the enemy AI

You may need to ask him about this though

I just paint the things

[cdrsubron7]

Originally Posted by granite00

I may have missed it, but since FOTRS Ultimate is about player options, will there be options for a less deadly AI?

More than likely there will be something along those lines. In what aspect we don't know yet as we really are working on other things at the moment.

These are executive decisions made by the boss, however.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by granite00

I may have missed it, but since FOTRS Ultimate is about player options, will there be options for a less deadly AI?

My goal is to have a stock AI, TMOwTw level, FOTRS level, TMO level and a next to impossible ultra brutal level. These AI mods will plug into FOTRS Ultimate. You won't need to be in port and will even be able to switch in the middle of combat. Just save and exit, load up the AI of your choice, reload and resume play.

First we'll release the core mod. Then we'll work on and release a family of Certified FOTRS Ultimate Plugin Mods. We'll be introducing some neat new concepts to prevent mod soup for people who use the FOTRS Ultimate plugin system. All others pay cash.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by cdrsubron7

BTW, boss. When is the next beta version do out?

Lets make a list of the things we're working on right now:

1. Sonar station zooming in and out with scroll wheel
2. CapnScurvy is working on a couple of things
3. I have to scan our posts and see what everybody's working on!

[max-peck]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Lets make a list of the things we're working on right now:

1. Sonar station zooming in and out with scroll wheel
2. CapnScurvy is working on a couple of things
3. I have to scan our posts and see what everybody's working on!

I plan to finish Razz Dazz Freighters (7 freighters still to do) , that will give us the whole of the Japanese Merchant Marine

I wasn't planning on touching the IJN units

[cdrsubron7]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Lets make a list of the things we're working on right now:

1. Sonar station zooming in and out with scroll wheel
2. CapnScurvy is working on a couple of things
3. I have to scan our posts and see what everybody's working on!

I will work on the WTW version of the AI for FOTRSU. It was one of the things I was going to talk to Florida sailor about.

[propbeanie]

At present, I'm going through all the other sound files in FotRS Ultimate and being sure everything is compliant with what digital audio should be, with no "clipping" of the "zero" realm. I'm also attempting to replicate a couple sound anomalies I've encountered, and one that cdsubron7 just had the other day. It is *very* difficult to fix that something that ain't broke all the way...

Warning - verbosity!:
As for "skill level" of playing SH4, I'd have to say I'm a "casual" player until the last 10 or so weeks. I know a few "tricks" to beat the AI, how to approach a convoy, how to get away from a few DD chasers, etc. But if caught in what I call a "pinwheel", yah know the drill, you get about 5 or six DD over your head, and they take turns atcha - well, I haven't a clue on those. Stay below the thermal, move very slow, and be quiet... So I'm ~not~ "expert" or even "veteran" level "skill". The best thing I do to avoid those is to not get stuck there to begin with... I tried to play TMO for probably several years, added the training wheels when they came out, and liked it much better, but I always came back to what I call "GFO+", which is GFO with a couple extra mods I rotate in and out as the mood suits. I do enjoy a challenge of getting away from the DDs, and sometimes, they do have me dead to rights while I've been testing, 'cause I have been making quite a bit of racket, and sometimes on purpose... Big thing for me with mods - updates. How many times was TMO "broken"? then you'd have another patch...

However, I'm on a campaign right now in FotRS Ultimate beta, being very stealthy, and it reminds more of TMO2.5 than it does GFO, not that that'd be a *bad* thing for some folks, just that it is a bit tiring for me to have to crash dive a dozen times between Midway and Honshu because the airplanes seem to "home-in" on my boat. Out of about 8 encounters going to Honshu, only one of them went wide of my location. The others were all coming at me. Whether from the side, in front or behind. None of them saw me, but they all came at me... Leaving the area - and I'm into my third day of trying to extricate myself from the area - it's been the same thing with the airplanes. Right at me, crash dive, wait a while, sometimes all day, try again. Go a few hours, airplane, crash dive... I have been close to the coastline, looking for convoys or singles ships, but this is early 1942. Did they have that much worry at the time about subs off their shores? Also, the only ships I've encountered this patrol have been destroyers. I have also avoided them. The one merchant I encountered was last campaign, and it about took my conning tower off...

While I'm not certain what or how the AI is set to in FotRSU, it will most likely have to be turned down a bit for those of my "skill" level, else I'll be back in GFO+ most of the time, which is basically just a "perty stock" version. That " TMOwTw level" you speak of is right up my alley RR... The good thing is, this is already more stable than v1.3 of regular FotRS is. I haven't played enough of v2 in SH4v1.4 to draw a conclusion on comparing them. Either way, this thing sure is perty... 'specially with CapnScurvy's gussied-up insides and with them new merchie skins I've seen on parade in some of the SMs I've built for testing... Wish I'd see just ~one~ on this patrol... sigh

[cdrsubron7]

Wish I'd see just ~one~ on this patrol... sigh

Ya got'em on the run, pb. They're running scared.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by cdrsubron7

Ya got'em on the run, pb. They're running scared.

I must have, eh?...

We do have an issue, on my computer, with my install... I can't get back to Pearl. I've tried three times this morning, and each time I get close, the machine shoots the game out from under me and throws up the ole "This game has quit working". The first time, I was coming in with a TC setting of 4096, and it crashed after "radar contact!" from one voice, and then "bearing 356" in a twisted voice, like the voice is a man's, but is playing about twice the speed that it should. Went back to my saved game, which I didn't save at Midway, so I'm back about the 144th longitude... nutz. Second attempt, I saved at Midway. Came toward Pearl, and reduced my TC to 2048 coming in, never went above 256 after the first radar contact. Strange thing, same voices are doing the announcements. Crashed just as the first dialog popped-up asking if I wanted to re-fit or end patrol at Pearl. So I re-loaded my Midway save and tried again. This time, I came in at 1024, and reduced to 64 TC as I approached Pearl. I took my time each time "radar contact" and "bearing 35x" came across, then I'd TC to 32 or 64, but I'd hit the "+" s l o w l y between each hit to get there, and would usually get interrupted. Sonar had maybe 3 contacts... I'll bet I got a good two dozen "radar contact" reports, at least... Anyway, about 12 minutes later (yes, I'm trying to watch the clock, 'cause I got other things to do), I finally get to the "Re-fit, End patrol" dialog, and it didn't crash. Hurray! Until I answered and clicked on "End Patrol", and then it asks "Do you want to dock at Pearl Harbor"... why, yes, why wouldn't I?... It crashed... Needless to say, I've given up for now and will try again later. I think I'll save out around Kauai so I don't have to put up with all that TC and waiting, getting impatient, and expecting another crash...

First patrol... and this is another strange part. When I saved yesterday, it was after another airplane radar contact, so we went deep to do the obligatory Ahead one third for the rest of the day and surface at night, when the radio operator comes on the message box and says "New objective!"... Well, it'll just have to wait, we're going down for the plane that is coming right at us (again), from Tokyo apparently hundreds of miles away (or perhaps some aircraft carrier that is stationary, so my sonar can't hear it...tic), with no hope of ever returning, just so he can see if we're out here... Anyway, when we pop back up at 2130, the "new" objective is to patrol the South China Sea... Now, if that would have come across like six days ago, OK, I could have done that instead of troll up and down the Eastern coast of Honshu, only finding airplanes and destroyer patrols... Oh well. How much fuel do they think a Porpoise can hold, anyway? Still gotta get back home and get re-assigned, to a desk, I guess...

All of this brings up the question(s): How do we check the functionality of the Campaign stuff in FotRS (besides this frustrating exercise in apparent futility), and is there a way to reduce the number of planes and ships that "patrol" around Midway and Pearl? Maybe perhaps it's one of the ships or planes that we're encountering approaching Pearl that is causing the CTD?...

btw, this is a Core 2 Duo Quad-core Q8300 Yorkfield 2.5ghz cpu in an Intel DP43BF LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Motherboard with 8 gig of Crucial ram, a GIGABYTE GV-R455D3-512I Radeon HD 4550 512MB 64-bit DDR3 PCI Express video card, and a 440w ps. Not the latest-greatest by any stretch, but definitely more than what SH4 and any mod would ever need...
.

[propbeanie]

I may have to give up on this... It's crashed twice more since. Here's a few screen grabs:

This is about the 12th radar contact of the patrol:


... and the zoomed-out view of them, coming right at me...

Where'd they fly out of?...


... and about the 15th here from North & East of Wake:


... and the zoomed out view, again, coming directly at my boat. Is this supposed to be a Wake patrol?...

I, of course, didn't stay up top to find out if it was a friendly...


Last, but not least, the "crash" dialog, of which I get two, trying to get into Pearl:



When it crashes, it's after about the 10th-12th radar contact report coming near, and after at least the 2nd "Ship spotted" report. From my perspective, there's just too much going on in the Pearl Harbor area for the computer to deal with (or my "fresh" install is borked). What I'm going to try next is to come in submerged, in order to avoid all the "Radar Contact!" reports...

[cdrsubron7]

See if this helps with the plane problem, pb. I've used it for quite awhile and is very effective. It doesn't eliminate the problem, but it does tone it down.

Webster's Better Air Patrols for v1.4 and v1.5