[REL] FOTRS Ultimate Project

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by gutted

No need to pile on.

Anyway think i just ran into one of those super escorts. Couldn't shake him, and he dropped a charge right on my head at 400ft.

Believe me, that's been a big bugaboo ever since we decided to use the FOTRS 2.0 campaign files. As soon as we're happy with the contents of the campaign files themselves, that's our next stop.

The most interesting part: why couldn't we hear the drop and run out from under it at 400'? Are we dealing with those #@$@# side throwers? If so, the escorts don't have to be too accurate. They just fill 10,000 square feet of ocean with charges and you almost have to be somewhere in that 100' x 100' area.

If it's side throwers doing the damage we'll have to make those escorts a bit stupider. Needless to say, you were below the thermal layer at silent running, less than 100 RPM like I was when the same thing happened. Escort charges from the convoy, straight at me. Hits me with the first group of charges. I didn't have time to scream. The charge went off on my deck....

Looks like the AOTD crew thought Superman AI was justified in a multiplayer environment. They doubled down on Ducimus' harder enemy AI.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by xian302

also is there any tutorial videos for this mod

also is there any tutorial videos for this mod

There will be. I have a partial set right now that I and THEBERBSTER agreed was insufficient. I plan to have both instructions and a video. Most likely the video will be on YouTube and you'll get a link to save bulk in the mod itself.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by CapnScurvy

While looking into the FOTRS Tambor files I came across this:

Cool! We're modding the actual calendar! Actually, folks, the stock game is chock full of invalid dates which destroy appropriate equipment availability, campaign operation and melt the ice cream. Just about all those stock errors get incorporated into every mod.

A side project of ours is to release a Stock Game Corrections mod which will be made to apply before any supermods in your JSGME list. It will straighten out SNAFUs like the above November 31 date.

A side side project will be to attempt to persuade Webster to update GFO to include stock game fixes he might have missed. It would make GFO, a fabulous supermod, if you're a beginner or a vet player you NEED to play it, even better. Webster hasn't had a lot of time lately, so that could interfere.

[gutted]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Looks like the AOTD crew thought Superman AI was justified in a multiplayer environment. They doubled down on Ducimus' harder enemy AI.

I reloaded a save and tried again, killed me a second time. Reloaded and tried again.. but instead of trying to escape I charged into the small convoy after firing all my forward tubes and parked myself about 10 feet under a disabled ship until he went away.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by gutted

I reloaded a save and tried again, killed me a second time. Reloaded and tried again.. but instead of trying to escape I charged into the small convoy after firing all my forward tubes and parked myself about 10 feet under a disabled ship until he went away.

If you still have the save I'd love to play with it!

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by gutted

I reloaded a save and tried again, killed me a second time. Reloaded and tried again.. but instead of trying to escape I charged into the small convoy after firing all my forward tubes and parked myself about 10 feet under a disabled ship until he went away.

That's what I've found... The Three Horsemen have been doing some experimenting with RGG and regular groups, and at least in this mod, it seems that any little, and I do mean little - November 31 is ~big~... but any little thing wrong and the RGG and even the regular Units can be trashed, producing any manner of anomaly, the least of which would be bad skinning. With that in mind, if you see a vessel with only part of it's skin, let us know where you are and what the date is. There's something a little wrong somewhere around it.

Also, if you have the "pleasure" of being attacked by a Matsu DD from mid- to late- 1944 on (location being a factor in the time frame), be prepared to ~die~... it'll be a quick one, but you will NOT escape... In the "Tachibana" load-out of this vessel, it has four side-throwers, two to a side, that throw staight out, one far, one medium throw. Just aft of those is another side-thrower each side that throws at an angle of about 45 degrees and in a little closer. Then you have the two racks on the backside. Full 180 degree coverage with eight cans at a time, the rear racks dropping two for every one thrown, so basically 10 cans each grouping... and they've got all the latest / greatest in sonar and radar, and even set to just the "competent" middle of the road AI setting, they get you.

Also, there is *supposed* to be a "depth charge dropped" sound in FotRS, since it's in AOTD_MadMax's ReadMe file as a thanks to Nvdrifter...

[Rockin Robbins]

Attention Team Members

100_FalloftheRisingSun_Ultimate_v0.53 is now available for team testing on Area 51.

v0.52 public beta will continue to be the current version for public beta testing until Tuesday, January 10. Getting a lot of challenging observations from the peanut gallery. Forgive us if we're testy at times. You get it in your head that you are somewhere near the end well before that is actually the case. It can make us cranky when we have to readjust our perception of how much progress we've made.

Pay no attention to the grouchy old men behind the curtain. Something wonderful will come of all this as long as we don't step in too many piles of dog squeeze.

I thought someone somewhere might be a little interested in how we do our mod cauldron runs, where we mix new ingredients into our mod for the next version. Interestingly, I don't use JSGME for the process. I'm rendering an 8 minute video of the actual production of v0.53. It'll be up on YouTube in awhile and I'll edit this post to contain the link.

I just found a whole bunch of commercial music I can use in my videos and the worst that would happen would be they would run a commercial attached. I'll do them one better and if I decide to use them I'll post full credit and links to buy the music. I like weird stuff and if someone else is weird enough to be curious to hear more that's really cool! Nice to see that some artists achieve a healthy balance between vital exposure and vital income.

Edit for those who'd like to see a mod assembled, this is the actual assembly (no rehearsals, no reenactment!) of FOTRSU v0.53 on my Ubuntu Linux computer. When I was previewing the video I thought "Crap! That is one fast computer there!" No, it's a mediocre computer running Linux, where such things can be expected of third rate machines. Hope you find it interesting....

[Factor]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

And make no mistake. When this gets fixed your name goes in the credits. Being a crash test dummy should have its rewards!

I don't need credit. It would have been noticed sooner or later. Credit gutted for knowing the correct fix. Without his input, I would have not been able to fix it myself.

PropBeanie, playing .52, encountered a white (no skin?)Hatshuhari June 21 '44 near Luzon St, 122E 15" - 19N 45' and a Momi class same general area and earlier time also no skin. On mission from Midway to South China Sea, refueled Saipan Aug 17 '44 , friendly airplane fly over included B-17s and TGA shape not found displayed on map.
I must not be as observant as some of the other CTDs I guess, but the game has been very stable (one CTD that I could not reproduce), saved and restarted in many situations(submerged, in midst of ships, etc), and jsut good fun to play.
Great work so far you guys.

[gutted]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

If you still have the save I'd love to play with it!

Saved over it. I usually only keep 1 save file called "CURRENT" while out on patrol.

But I'm going to start making a temporary save before any engagement with escorts, and if i come across another killer i'll hold onto it.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by gutted

Saved over it. I usually only keep 1 save file called "CURRENT" while out on patrol.

But I'm going to start making a temporary save before any engagement with escorts, and if i come across another killer i'll hold onto it.

That would be fun to tangle with.They are nasty--probably the nastiest ever in SH4.

Although the plan is to tone down the bloodthirsty DDs, the real bad guys will continue to be available through a masochist plugin!

[propbeanie]

I'll send you a linkie RR for the Matsu test, and you can see and experience 4 DD on one Fleet Boat, nothing to hide under or near, other than the ocean blue... didn't work too well for me... But it is almost as if your best chance of surviving ~some~ of the attacks on a Convoy with multiple DD is to just bull right in and then hide close by. - But it's very tough to tell from a distance whether you've got a "competent" crew, or an "elite" crew on the DD coming at you... When you're in a hurry though for more CTD testing, you do some crazy things sometimes... I haven't tried that Submarine on the surface at high noon trick lately though...

[Rockin Robbins]

I had a weird thing happen. Loaded up v0.53 and reloaded my last save, stalking a convoy, two escorts and two merchies about five miles away--within sight.

But on reload the sonar lines were there but nobody was visible in the periscope! Danger, Will Robinson! Any interaction with ghost ships would result in immediate crash to desktop, IF I'm lucky.

Obviously the campaign changes were enough to cause problems and I had to resume in port. It's really weird about those sonar spikes though. But without them I would have continued hunting and chances are the first ship I hit with a torpedo would have crashed the game.

[gutted]

Silly RR, never install campaign mods while out at sea

[Rockin Robbins]

I was playing SH4 roulette there, gambling that my particular campaign files weren't played with. Oh well, nothing a push of the reset button wouldn't cure!