[REL] FOTRS Ultimate Project

[torpedobait]

New Career out of Midway as of 12/8/41; USS Grayback (SS-208) Gar class, 75% realism:

1. In port at Midway as of 10/05/1942:
2. Five patrols; 239,504 tons of shipping and a couple of escorts;
3. Finally offered a surface radar (SJ-1 Improved); I was expecting a surface radar set after the third patrol, ending in Mid-July 1942;
4. Surprised there was no offer for a new boat after five successful patrols. (sigh).
5. Preparing to go out on sixth patrol. End Report.

EDIT: After completing sixth patrol received offer made (and accepted) for USS Balao, apparently already at Midway, as the base did not change. Date of transfer appears to be 11/20/42 according to the Office calendar.
Strange that the brand new boat only had the older SJ Radar, whereas my previous command had been upgraded to the SJ-1 Improved after the fifth patrol in that vessel. No other anomalies detected so far. End Edited Report.

[CapnScurvy]

Before we get too far along, I'd like to express our gratitude to those modders that have recently given us permission to use their work. On behalf of propbeanie, s7rikeback, cdrsubron7, Rockin Robbins, XTBilly, max-peck and myself, I'd like to say THANK YOU for allowing us to use your work in the coming version:

ZUIKAKU1944
noshiro
Sergbuto
JU_88
Jeff Groves (Privateer)
Keltos01
AOTD_MadMax
DarkFish
Hitman
ETR(3)SS
Florida Sailor

Without a doubt there are other contributors that, knowingly or not, have contributed to the project.......Ducimus, lurker_hlb3, vickers03, jimimadrid, Nisgeis, aanker, sober, fred8615.......

As you can see, there's more than just a few involved that have given inspiration, ideas, solutions to issues, that have been used in the mod to get us this far. I'm sorry to say, there are many more that have provided "insight" into correcting the Stock game that I've missed not giving credit. An example would be someone's post that points to a "possible problem/solution", that was further expanded into action taken to correct. It's really a Community effort when it comes down to it! I fully expect someone to come along in the future expanding what we've explored, to further take the game beyond our efforts......and that's a good thing!

Again....Thank you!!


========

One other note, we're not done yet!! There's still work to be done, but we're happy to keep the "ball rolling" with the next Beta.

[Hitman]

Smoke on the horizon!!!!!

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Smoke on the horizon!!!!!

Hopefully, it's a ship, and not our sub with an electrical fire...

Originally Posted by torpedobait

New Career out of Midway as of 12/8/41; USS Grayback (SS-208) Gar class, 75% realism:

1. In port at Midway as of 10/05/1942:
2. Five patrols; 239,504 tons of shipping and a couple of escorts;
3. Finally offered a surface radar (SJ-1 Improved); I was expecting a surface radar set after the third patrol, ending in Mid-July 1942;
4. Surprised there was no offer for a new boat after five successful patrols. (sigh).
5. Preparing to go out on sixth patrol. End Report.

EDIT: After completing sixth patrol received offer made (and accepted) for USS Balao, apparently already at Midway, as the base did not change. Date of transfer appears to be 11/20/42 according to the Office calendar.
Strange that the brand new boat only had the older SJ Radar, whereas my previous command had been upgraded to the SJ-1 Improved after the fifth patrol in that vessel. No other anomalies detected so far. End Edited Report.

Ship upgrades are a problem, and not just from a "date" perspective. We've been finding all of the February 29th and June 31st kind of dates, and may well have most of them banished from existence in the mod. However, we have just begun to research some issues that actually date back to March of 2007 and beyond - issues that were "fixed" with the "updates". There is a little setting in the subs' UPC files for "UpgradeClass=", and the old boats are "0" zero, then there are the "1" one boats, "2" two boats, of which, the Gar and Gato are, the "3" boats Balao and Tench. We are going to at least re-arrange them, because the Tambor and Gar are the same, not the Gar and the Gato. As it stands now torpedobait, you'll probably have to wait on the Balao availability at Midway in March of 1943, before you get a new boat. (If you happen to get a Gato, can you please, please, please let us know as soon as it happens?) You will probably be offered a new conning tower before long though... sorry... but that's the way the game is currently set-up. We'll do some experimenting here in a few weeks, and see if / how we can remedy this - hopefully without an "early retirement" issue, like the game used to do you after an "upgrade" to a new boat. In the meantime, there is a "formula" that is used to calculate your patrols and tonnage sunk for your "Captain's Rating". One average patrol can set you back a good bit. A single poor patrol can hammer your career to where you get next to nothing for upgrades ever, in spite of having other stellar patrols. That is hard-coded. I had a couple of links to old Ducimus posts concerning all of the above, and I managed to crash the browser on my tablet and lost them... I'll have to try and find them again for you, but for now, nightie-night!

[hauangua]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

That is hard-coded. I had a couple of links to old Ducimus posts concerning all of the above, and I managed to crash the browser on my tablet and lost them... I'll have to try and find them again for you, but for now, nightie-night!

Maybe this can help?

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...+tower+upgrade

[propbeanie]

That is one of the threads...

I did just find the other:

Of refits, new commands, rank, and retirements

specifically Post #10

Finding a "balance" with all that info will be the "fun" part of all of our future "testing"... ahem... ~Lots~ of testing...

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Hopefully, it's a ship, and not our sub with an electrical fire...


Ship upgrades are a problem, and not just from a "date" perspective. We've been finding all of the February 29th and June 31st kind of dates, and may well have most of them banished from existence in the mod. However, we have just begun to research some issues that actually date back to March of 2007 and beyond - issues that were "fixed" with the "updates". There is a little setting in the subs' UPC files for "UpgradeClass=", and the old boats are "0" zero, then there are the "1" one boats, "2" two boats, of which, the Gar and Gato are, the "3" boats Balao and Tench. We are going to at least re-arrange them, because the Tambor and Gar are the same, not the Gar and the Gato. As it stands now torpedobait, you'll probably have to wait on the Balao availability at Midway in March of 1943, before you get a new boat. (If you happen to get a Gato, can you please, please, please let us know as soon as it happens?) You will probably be offered a new conning tower before long though... sorry... but that's the way the game is currently set-up. We'll do some experimenting here in a few weeks, and see if / how we can remedy this - hopefully without an "early retirement" issue, like the game used to do you after an "upgrade" to a new boat. In the meantime, there is a "formula" that is used to calculate your patrols and tonnage sunk for your "Captain's Rating". One average patrol can set you back a good bit. A single poor patrol can hammer your career to where you get next to nothing for upgrades ever, in spite of having other stellar patrols. That is hard-coded. I had a couple of links to old Ducimus posts concerning all of the above, and I managed to crash the browser on my tablet and lost them... I'll have to try and find them again for you, but for now, nightie-night!

OK, I'm fine with the boat upgrade timings. I was just used to getting an offer after three good patrols. I think having to wait for four, five or six patrols is more than reasonable.

To clarify, following that sixth patrol in the GAR, I went direct from that boat to the Balao, bypassing the GATO entirely. Another small surprise was that usually when offered a Balao class you have to pick it up at Mare Island/Treasure Island. Not so this time. It was delivered to me at Midway!

[CapnScurvy]

Regarding this Balao upgrade prior to its intended actual game appearance (it's not supposed to be present until early 1943)!

Propbeanie is right that it takes a lot of testing.......long wait times to load the game, play a test mission, calculate results, unload the game etc., etc.

We've made changes for the yet to be released Beta version. BUT, when we do release the upcoming version we will have all of you to help in trying it and giving feedback!! This is where the "rubber really meets the road", when the community puts the mod thru its trials and we see what shakes out??

As I said, we've made significant changes to this upgrade issue, only time will tell how well we've done?

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by torpedobait

OK, I'm fine with the boat upgrade timings. I was just used to getting an offer after three good patrols. I think having to wait for four, five or six patrols is more than reasonable.

To clarify, following that sixth patrol in the GAR, I went direct from that boat to the Balao, bypassing the GATO entirely. Another small surprise was that usually when offered a Balao class you have to pick it up at Mare Island/Treasure Island. Not so this time. It was delivered to me at Midway!

As expected... however, that date you got the Balao? As I mentioned previously with "the Balao availability at Midway in March of 1943", you got it in late 1942? - this is what we're trying to "fix"...

[Rockin Robbins]

A bit late but we're coming up on a release here after I get four okays from the team. Lots of juicy changes coming up! I think you'll like it.

[Larrywb57]

And it isn't Christmas eve!! Thank you team!!!

[BarracudaUAK]

Cool, will have to give it another try.
Drivers have improved so maybe I won't get lag in the tower like I did.


Barracuda

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

As expected... however, that date you got the Balao? As I mentioned previously with "the Balao availability at Midway in March of 1943", you got it in late 1942? - this is what we're trying to "fix"...

Here's another one that you may already know about:
Patrolling in Davao Strait on 4/11/44 (16:37 Base Time) at approximately 126-0E, 05-58N, Balao encountered a large group of troop ships headed by a Hatsuharu class Destroyer and trailed by two other escorts. The Hatsuharu destroyer was all black, except for highlighted turrets.

Probably not the game's fault, but the Hatsuharu made a run at me that I evaded with minor damage, and since I was at periscope depth and he was now behind me, we prepared to fire a stern torpedo as he reached effective range (about 400 yards). As I raised the scope the game crashed, freezing my whole system. I had to reboot.

It could have been a hundred different reasons, but it was the first time a game crash has taken down the whole system. I was able to reload a previous saved game, find the same convoy (Hatsuharu still had that black skin, and this time took it out with a down the throat shot at 600 yards. No crash. No freeze. Probably something in my system or environment.

Anyway, this post is just in case you hadn't see this skin before.

[propbeanie]

The Hatsuharu again... - and Davao Gulf again...

We'll definitely look into it. Thanks.

[CapnScurvy]

To chime in about the Hatsuharu, this "skin" issue is one we worked on some time ago. Our efforts have yet to be released, but soon will with the next version of the Beta. Sooooooo, let's cross our fingers, and expect the thing is "fixed" in the future version.