[REL] Operation Monsun

[propbeanie]

Alas, nay! Nein! Kein! Nicht! No siree Bob! These are in the game itself, as released to the general public, from the first release, through v1.5. As mentioned before, you won't usually encounter any issues. Look in the "Drive:\ Game \ Data\ Submarine \ AnyBoat \ AnyBoat.upc" files, and you'll see these. They're throughout the game any place dates are used, including all of the UPCData folders & files. The game most likely does not use "dates" per se, but rather 'counts' the days from the beginning, and converts that data to calculate a given date when needed. It seems to count fine, and will usually display "Messages.txt" when it's supposed to, but besides overlaps of dates for equipment and flotilla starts, what happens in the game enigine? Only the tracers know...

[KaleunMarco]

i am so tired of the CTD ending during OpMunson.
the current one occurs mid-patrol mid-August 1942. i am approaching a large convoy and at the spawn point {bang} CTD.
i've rebooted.
used smart-game-boost and no game-boost. no difference.
nothing seems to work.
argh.

probably no solution, so i restarted and cruised in a different direction.
this is maddening!

[propbeanie]

If you're off the coast of Ireland, we had that about a half-dozen pages (or more) back. If you're off the Northwest coast of France, that was just a few pages back from here. There are some bad ship calls in the layers... It happens, as you saw in FotRSU, and is just a little too easy of a mistake to overlook in a game that has absolutely ~NO~ error catching or controls...

Edit: OK, went on a "hunt", and I did NOT find the northwest of France issue... that must be in a separate thread somewhere below here in the section... but I did find:

Radio Station Manager issue:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...97#post2446797

Surviving Operation Monsun (advice):
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...63#post2088363

Ireland was you:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...79#post2510979

I'll keep trying to find the northwest of France. We found it to be a bad ship call, but I can't remember which one it was... I fixed all of them in my game after that... I wonder if I can find that from edit dates?...

- or was that "niner delta duece"?...

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

If you're off the coast of Ireland, we had that about a half-dozen pages (or more) back. If you're off the Northwest coast of France, that was just a few pages back from here. There are some bad ship calls in the layers... It happens, as you saw in FotRSU, and is just a little too easy of a mistake to overlook in a game that has absolutely ~NO~ error catching or controls...

Edit: OK, went on a "hunt", and I did NOT find the northwest of France issue... that must be in a separate thread somewhere below here in the section... but I did find:

Radio Station Manager issue:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...97#post2446797

Surviving Operation Monsun (advice):
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...63#post2088363

Ireland was you:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...79#post2510979

I'll keep trying to find the northwest of France. We found it to be a bad ship call, but I can't remember which one it was... I fixed all of them in my game after that... I wonder if I can find that from edit dates?...

- or was that "niner delta duece"?...

this time, the theatre of operations was off the coast of Portugal although i may be meeting the same convoy as NW France just a bit earlier than the last guy.



after i restarted and ignored the issue above, i sailed north and west of ireland and that is where i ran into another spawn-CTD. i wish i had captured a map when i encountered this issue back in 2017.



did we find a solution for the 2017-off-the-cost-of-ireland? i mean did we find the offending convoy/ship?

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

There are some bad ship calls in the layers... .

i have identified a small subset of convoys so now the issue is ..how does one identify a "bad ship call"?

[propbeanie]

There-in lies the rub... The "Game \ Sea \ NShipName \ NShipName.cfg" file has a line in it "UnitType=101" or whatever the number. The "Game \ Roster \ Country \ Sea \ ShipName.cfg" file has a corresponding "UnitType=0" line. Those have to match (these do not here in my quick example) exactly. You might consult the Names.cfg file in the Roster folder for these kind of lines:

;Warships
Type0=Patrol Craft
Type1=Corvette
Type2=Frigate
Type3=Destroyer Escort
Type4=Destroyer
... etc.

There's Warships, Merchants,, Subs, Airplanes, Land, etc... Those particular "UnitType=" lines also have to match each and every "call" for them in the Campaign files. However, in something like OM, don't forget that you're more concerned with "Game \ Data \ Campaigns \ CampaignGE \" and all other MIS files on the German side. ~ALL~ the MIS files... As an example, here's a few lines from the 44a_US_Merchants.mis file:

[RndGroup 1]
GroupName=44A_Allied_Merchants_001
Category=0
CommandEntry=0
Long=-14886600.000000
Lat=5797400.000000
Height=0.000000
...

That's a portion of the RGG "definition". Then the "Ships" it uses would be like:

[RndGroup 1.RndUnit 1]
Type=101
Origin=American
Side=1
CargoExt=-1
CargoInt=2
CfgDate=19440601
No=1
Escort=false
SpawnProbability=100
CrewRating=2

Which is a "Generic" call for an American Tanker. Note that there is not a "Class=xxx" line there? Those complicate things a bit further, such as:

[RndGroup 21.RndUnit 59]
Class=DERiver
Type=3
Origin=Canadian
Side=1
CargoExt=-1
CargoInt=-1
CfgDate=19440105
No=1
Escort=true
SpawnProbability=100
CrewRating=2

Which is a ship call in the Lant_Convoys_44.mis file. That Class= has to match the CFG files' "ClassName=xx" line... "xx" being the specific type of ship...

We have the good fortune of working with a spreadsheet wiz with s7rikeback on the FotRSU team, and he has a spreadsheet in the Support folder that makes life oh-so much easier for editing the Campaign and other MIS files. He has the Folder, ShipName, Call Name (might be different because of the use of "N" for a lot of Sea folders), Type= line, Countries used, etc., and all I have to do is click a button to sort them how I need them, and then "Search" through the files with Notepad++ or some other "Search" agent, and find the Calls that I need...

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

There-in lies the rub... The "Game \ Sea \ NShipName \ NShipName.cfg" file has a line in it "UnitType=101" or whatever the number. The "Game \ Roster \ Country \ Sea \ ShipName.cfg" file has a corresponding "UnitType=0" line. Those have to match (these do not here in my quick example) exactly. You might consult the Names.cfg file in the Roster folder for these kind of lines:

ok, in Lant_42.MIS, one of the suspect convoys, ON_Large_42, has an entry:
[RndGroup 51.RndUnit 61]
Class=DDTown
Type=4
Origin=British
Side=0


there is no entry for DDTown in C:\Ubisoft\SilentHunter4\Data\Roster\British\Sea.


so....is it easier to change this one entry to an escort that is being used or should i just delete the lines for this entry? or do i create a new file DDTown.cfg and copy lines from a similar ship? (this would seem to be the most risky)

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by mark bonamer

ok, in Lant_42.MIS, one of the suspect convoys, ON_Large_42, has an entry:
[RndGroup 51.RndUnit 61]
Class=DDTown
Type=4
Origin=British
Side=0


there is no entry for DDTown in C:\Ubisoft\SilentHunter4\Data\Roster\British\Sea.


so....is it easier to change this one entry to an escort that is being used or should i just delete the lines for this entry? or do i create a new file DDTown.cfg and copy lines from a similar ship? (this would seem to be the most risky)

and...
after further review...
there are entries for a British DDTown in the dotMIS file of the two convoys that are passing Portugal.

[propbeanie]

You are getting the hang of this rather quickly! Excellent find. Now, take the Data / Roster / British / Sea / DDClemson.cfg and rename it DDTown.cfg - looks to be the simplest "fix" for it... If you open the Clemson file in the British folder, you'll see that it's referring to "ClassName=DDTown"

Edit: Another thing you can do to "test" a game is to run the Museum. Make sure you have LAA enabled on the SH4.exe file first though... If it crashes, that usually means there are issues with the ship just after the crash. Some mods just will not run the Museum, but it's not always the ship definitions. I'm trying OpMonsun's now...

Edit2: 1st run crash after B17G in the US planes (... Ships "fly" across the screen too...
... well, the "US LB HeavyBomber" and the "AM B24 Level Bomber" both crash it... This might take a while... lol

Edit3: OK, there are file name mis-matches, as well as ClassName mis-matches, so while I wait on other happenings, I'll noodle in OM for a bit, and go through things and try to match them up, and get back with you...

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

You are getting the hang of this rather quickly! Excellent find. Now, take the Data / Roster / British / Sea / DDClemson.cfg and rename it DDTown.cfg - looks to be the simplest "fix" for it... If you open the Clemson file in the British folder, you'll see that it's referring to "ClassName=DDTown"

Edit: Another thing you can do to "test" a game is to run the Museum. Make sure you have LAA enabled on the SH4.exe file first though... If it crashes, that usually means there are issues with the ship just after the crash. Some mods just will not run the Museum, but it's not always the ship definitions. I'm trying OpMonsun's now...

cool.
i like the easy fix.

going to try it right now.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by mark bonamer

cool.
i like the easy fix.

going to try it right now.

no joy.
ctd

i am going to go back and review the merchies in the dotMIS file and see if there are any anomalies.

[propbeanie]

There are. See my edit3 above. Several of the planes I've looked at don't have "matches" either...

Edit: as consolation, here's our first "target" in the Museum:

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by mark bonamer

no joy.
ctd

i am going to go back and review the merchies in the dotMIS file and see if there are any anomalies.

well....there has to be another issue because i cared for the lack of DDTown and the only other ships in the convoy are type=1 (no Class anomalies) and types 101 and 102 which do not use Class=.


suggestions, thoughts, wild fantasies?

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

There are. See my edit3 above. Several of the planes I've looked at don't have "matches" either...

Edit: as consolation, here's our first "target" in the Museum:

ok, but planes are not part of the spawn for this convoy, are they?

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by mark bonamer

well....there has to be another issue because i cared for the lack of DDTown and the only other ships in the convoy are type=1 (no Class anomalies) and types 101 and 102 which do not use Class=.

suggestions, thoughts, wild fantasies?

I have plenty of wild thoughts and fantasies, but none of them fit to publish, unless it's a single copy for my wife...

In the meantime, see the pic above, and see if you can get it in the Museum. Don't try to scroll through though. After the Museum finally opens to the Iowa Class BB, use the drop-down menus and go to the British ships, then the Destroyers, then the DDTown, and see if you get what I got. If not, there's a mistake. As far as the other ships, don't forget that the files "overlap" each other. I'm going to do a an SH Validator run on the install, and I'll give you a list of "suspects" here shortly...