[WIP] Gone Asiatic 3

[Sniper297]

Working on a new version of a 5 year old mod, with a lot more randomness to make encounters less predictable.



This is one of the random attack groups, could be anything from a single light cruiser to several heavy cruisers and battleships. At waypoint 1 there's a 40% chance of looping to waypoint 10, arriving at the Corregidor narrows 4 hours after player start. If it goes to waypoint 2, a 25% chance it shortcuts to 10, 6 hours. If (again 25% chance) it loops from 6 to 10, 8 hours, if it follows the entire path 16 hours.

In theory. Problem is it works great in the mission editor simulation, but in game the first one showed up 5 days after the career start time.

Don't know what the actual maximum repeat interval is, at first I set it for 720 hours (30 days) and that wouldn't spawn at all in the ME. Right now I have it set for 192 hours (8 days) and that works fine in the ME but in game 5 days?! Whichever route it took it should have arrived off Corregidor 4 to 16 hours after player start, or if it didn't spawn at the start then 8 days plus 4-16 hours - 5 days is just plain weird.

I hate to use predefined groups with random paths, the looping possibility makes the "when and where" unpredictable, but the "what" is always the same. Might end up having to if I can't get the random group to work.

[Sniper297]

Gets worse. First problem is the start for the simulation, year and month, no day. Dial up 1941 - 12, it starts 12-01, 00:00, which is the player start time regardless of the actual starting date. First patrol out of Manila is usually 12-10, second 12-23, if the start time is 08:00 for both and the first in the simulation arrives at 12-01, 03:00, then it arrives in the game at 11:00 on the 10th and the 23rd. Wondered where all this Maru traffic was coming from at the beginning of a career, not in the two .mis files I'm playing with.



Checked out the 41a_Jap_Merchants.mis and it has several random spawns in Tokyo Bay on 12-1, the five spawn points in Manila Bay are set to start February 42. Note the merchies are entering Manila on the 12th, which is kinda weird by itself. However;



Here I am 2 1/2 hours after career start on the 10th, and here's a Japanese maru cruising in unescorted without a care in the world.

Basic game obviously still needs work.

[propbeanie]

You are running into what I sort of pointed out to The Kraken Wakes in spawning. If you are like lurker_hlb3, and you're only going to spawn a group one time and one time only, you can use a text editor and set the "RepeatInterval=1" and the "DelayMinInterval=1", and the group would spawn in two minutes, but you would have to make absolutely certain that the Max Groups Instances Created is ONE (1), and the Max Number of Units is no more than the maximum in your group's definition, else you may have 10,000 RGG coming out one after the other every minute... If you instead want to use the RGG for multiple spawns, then you'll have to set the RepeatInterval to the desired frequency, such as 736 hours (44160 minutes or 30.6667 days), and then if you are starting on December 8th, 1941 at 0800 hours, you would set that group to spawn on November 7, 1941 at about 1555 hours, so that the first spawn is at your start time. Adjust the RGG's spawn as necessary to show up when you want it to. Just remember that some text edits you make are ruined by the Mission Editor, and you don't even have to Save the file. Open it and click on an "Accept" button for just about anything, and the ME will alter your file without telling you... sort of like what Windows does with mods in the Program Files folder.

One thing that I have recently "discovered" about the Mission Editor is that it does NOT "play" the scenario correctly under certain conditions. Condition one being that you've used the "player" and run through the scenario, and discover you want to make an edit. You do so, and go to play the scenario again. Hmmm... still not quite right. Further edits and now something else has gone whacky... what thuh? What happens is that the ME gets confused like the game does, and once you make an edit, it's like the ME can't find it, or it uses the edit on another RGG somewhere else. So make your edit, Save, and then Exit the ME, open it again, and open the file again and play the scenario. It doesn't always happen, but enough that it can definitely drive you bonkers if you let it... It is worse if you "Merge" files for comparisons between say the HarborTraffic and TaskForce, to make sure you aren't going to get run over by an Ise...

[Sniper297]

Yeah, one thing I looked at was the .tsr file that gets generated after saving a mission, deleting that seems to cause no trouble, maybe NOT deleting is a problem.

"RepeatInterval=1" and the "DelayMinInterval=1"

I'll look into that, what I'm wondering is would it generate one and one only for the whole career, or once per patrol?

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by Sniper297

...
"RepeatInterval=1" and the "DelayMinInterval=1"

I'll look into that, what I'm wondering is would it generate one and one only for the whole career, or once per patrol?

I... do... not... remember... and I do not have my notes for that anymore... Hard drive crash a few weeks ago, and it is ~really~ hurting the few days... sigh...

I have never deleted the tsr like that, but it is a bit like the "Save" folder, in that it is somewhat rebuilt when deleted. You can customize some of the "equals", such as you might have "Objective_01=Objective_01", and you could change it to "Objective_01=Hart has spoken specifically to you: ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK!", and that shows up at the bottom of your "orders" screen as you go out on patrol. You delete the tsr and let the ME recreate it, and you'll have "Objective_01=Objective_01" again.

[Sniper297]

Haven't seen that, the ME creates a new one each time I edit a mission, but the game doesn't. Apparently

[Text]
MissionBriefing=mission briefing
MissionTitle=mission title

isn't missed by the game itself, it already knows something called mission briefing must be the mission briefing.

Couple tips & tricks, for the random spawn groups I figured out an easy way to sort them - I never used a CHITOSE seaplane tender or a minesweeper in any of the set groups, so use one of those in random group 1 as the leader, the other in random group 2. Since nothing else entering Manila Bay has a minesweeper at career start, whatever time I see a minesweeper that must be random 2 arriving.

Another trick after screwing around with tedious numbers, instead of trying to calculate how much space I need between ships, just place a temporary sub then move the ships up to but not touching;



Sub is in the same position as the coordinates in the flotillas.upc file, space ships alongside, delete sub, and...



Your starting point in game doesn't need to be adjusted with trial and error.

[Sniper297]

Just added to my notes, I think I finally understand the error message;

"Unit's date of commission is later than leader's entry date"

and more importantly, what to do about it. Tried changing entry date on the group leader, the ME obstinately changes it back, so that doesn't work.

Trick is to place all the different units in formation, then select the one with the latest entry date, use that one to create a new group. It looks weird on the ME map to have the lines from all the ships going to one in the lower left corner, but it works fine in game, the leader of the group doesn't actually need to be whatever ship is at front center in the formation.