[REL] Radio Stations and Music Mod

[stufer]

Fred,

Thank you very much for your answer - that is the way that seemed to make most sense to me. I was only curious as to how it all functioned, and to be honest I like it that way too!

I am getting a new HD soon so I may try it out with that cumulative idea.

But for the time being, I think I will adopt your approach to it - the oldies in the Washington folder etc...

I was playing last night and thoroughly enjoying the comedy shows on NBC - they are dated now (obviously) but it gives a great insight into the mindset of the times and I found some of them really funny!

I have always been a big fan of 1940's music, so to have access to such a lot is fantastic. It is really very generous of you to provide so much great listening for free - and it must have taken ages to compile and set up the radio shows the way you have. You are to be highly commended sir!

All the best,

Stu.

[fred8615]

Originally Posted by sckallst

My first post on this forum just had to be in this thread. I've got your NBC station and the yearly music loaded up and, as someone who values immersion about as much as anything in games of this kind, I have to say that you've singlehandedly at least doubled the value of my recent SH4 purchase. Very many thanks.

Thank you for the kind words. FYI, I'm currently working on a second add-on for the NBC station, which will add additional episodes of the shows already in the station as well as a few new series.

To Rip:

It would make things so much easier if UBI had set up the radio to work that way. While you can have multiple stations use the same folder (it's how my four different AFRS stations work) everything still has to be inside that folder.

[stufer]

Hi Fred

Me again!

I have all of the stations downloaded now and absolutely loving it. I am having a slight problem though but I don't know if it is related to the stations, RSM or me (probably that one!).

I prepare the stations for patrol restart in RSM before each patrol, but the NBC one still plays the old events every time. I think it happened on one of the Los Angeles stations too, but can't remember which.

The one that sticks in my head the most is the one on Dec 8th 1941 that starts by calling London and relates the speech by Churchill. That one plays over every time I restart the patrol, then all of them from that point.

In comparison, the KGMB Honolulu station does not replay the earlier broadcasts (that is the one that I have been comparing to check if RSM is working right).

I have clicked the Apply Changes in the events section of RSM and it doesn't throw up any problems. Similarly, when I Prepare Stations for Patrol Restart, that doesn't say there are any problems either.

Would you (or anyone else for that matter) have any clue why the NBC station doesn't seem to take note of the RSM stuff?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Cheers
Stu.

[Digital_Trucker]

Sounds like an RSM problem to me. If you look at the events.ini for the stations that are repeating, are any of the events commented out?

[stufer]

Hi DT

Thanks for the response. I checked the events.ini files last night and gave it some testing. It was strange - sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. I had most success when my savegames were all in capitals, but it was still not assured - sometimes it worked and sometimes not.

Sometimes it commented out all the events up to the start of my patrol, but not the ones that played after the patrol began and sometimes it didn't comment out any at all and sometimes it did it right - it was very odd! This was happening with all stations, not just the ones I had originally thought.

I think I must have buggered up my install somehow, so tonight I will attempt to remove the mods I have and try it on a clean version. I am using 1.5 and TMO by the way, if that makes a difference.

Can I check - is RSM supposed to comment out all events whose start time is prior to the time of my savegame. For example, if an event is scheduled to play at 08:00 and my savegame is at 08:01, should that event be commented out? Or is there a minimum time - say a day later?

Cheers
Stu.

[Digital_Trucker]

Nope, it should comment out anything at your save game date/time or earlier. I don't think mods would have anything to do with it (unless they also change the log file). I do remember RSM acting up like that when it was in development and I'm positive I solved whatever problem that was, but I don't remember if the fix was before or after the first release. While (or before) you do a complete reinstall, try downloading the latest RSM (link in my sig) and see if that takes care of the problem.

[stufer]

Hi DT

Yep, reinstall seems to have fixed it! At first I tried it with version 1.0 of the game and it wasn't working so thought I had a major problem, but I'm guessing that RSM 1.2 is perhaps not compatible with that version of the game as it works like a charm on version 1.5. So far I have only tested it with the Washington station so will give it a go with one of the other stations now. Fingers crossed!

All seems to be going fine - thanks very much for your help and this wonderful application.

All the best
Stu.

[Digital_Trucker]

Glad it's working for ya now, Stufer. I'm not sure about whether there were any problems between RSM and 1.0 or not. I wrote it after a couple patches had come out, so I never really tested it on the older versions.

[kylesplanet]

Just for reference, I have RSM 1.0 installed with 1.5 and it works fine. I accidentally installed it instead of 1.2 but it works just fine so I didn't change it.

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by kylesplanet

Just for reference, I have RSM 1.0 installed with 1.5 and it works fine. I accidentally installed it instead of 1.2 but it works just fine so I didn't change it.

Thanks for the info, kp. Just for safety's sake, I'd say go ahead and replace 1.0 with the newest version. It may not be correcting the "repeat events" problem correctly. It may be something that you wouldn't notice unless it was around the time of Pearl Harbor when there are so many events that are obvious repeats.

[kylesplanet]

Will do DT!

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by fred8615

And now, I can go back to playing the game again! Right after I have a nice, quiet, nervous breakdown, that is.

You deserve it, dude, but if you're gonna have an NB, have a rowdy, raucous one. It tends to stretch out the time between them more than the nice, quiet ones. Thanks for the hard work on the add-on.

[csengoi]

Digital_Trucker,
Are you planning to make stations for OM? It would be great to have stations from 1939, not only from december 1941.

I love radio stations!!!

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by csengoi

Digital_Trucker,
Are you planning to make stations for OM? It would be great to have stations from 1939, not only from december 1941.

I love radio stations!!!

Who me? Must be a case of mistaken identity:p, Fred's the radio station maker.

[fred8615]

Originally Posted by csengoi

Digital_Trucker,
Are you planning to make stations for OM? It would be great to have stations from 1939, not only from december 1941.

I love radio stations!!!

Not knowing there would eventually be a U-boat version, I set the stations up to be active during the U.S. involvement in WWII. Since I don't play as a U-boat, and never will, I didn't see the need for before that period.

That said, if there is interest in expanding these stations to cover September, 1939 to December, 1941, I just might create add-ons to do so. And if someone else wants to, you of course have my permission.

In the meantime, there is a way to fix the existing stations so they will at least play music (but nothing else) before December, 1941. After pasting the channel info into radio.ini for whatever stations you want, use Replace to change this:

Antenna=01.01.1941

to this:

Antenna=01.01.1939

As I said, there won't be any programming, and you'll have to put the pre-1941 music in the 1941 folder for stations that have one, but it'll give you U-boat sailors something for now.