Strategic War Mod

[General Tso]

The mod may be downloaded here (version 1.019).

You need a minimum screen width of 1280 to run this mod properly.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?di2c8u6jjapilqo

Instructions for installing the mod are located at the bottom of this first post.

This mod is called Strategic War Mod and it works differently than most SH4 mods.
The mod is a separate program that you run from your desktop while the game isn't active.
It reads your most recently saved campaign game then displays the current status of your campaign.
It currently doesn't change any of your game files so game-play within SH4 itself is not altered.

I always thought that one of the shortcomings of the Silent Hunter series is that the player isn't given a reason to sink ships (other than for the fun of it).
This mod attempts to correct that by creating certain goals and strategic options with a person's current campaign.
Since saved game files for SH4 are not designed with this in mind I was greatly limited in what I could do, but I think that the mod is getting to the point where it might be worth trying.

In this mod you are given different reasons for sinking Warships, Freighters, Tankers, and Troopships.

Here are some screen shots that should give you an idea of what the mod is like.
The first picture is the main screen of the mod.
The next picture is of a help screen from within the mod and should give you a pretty good idea how to achieve victory.
The third picture is another help screen with some additional information.


Main Screen:



Help #1:



Help #2:



How to install this mod.

The mod itself doesn't need to be installed. However you do need to install the Python scripting language plus an additional library called PyGame in order for the mod to work.


Step #1:
Download and install the Python scripting language. Note: PyGame currently requires version 3.1.3 of Python.

You can download Python here.
http://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.1.3/python-3.1.3.msi


Step #2:
Download and install the PyGame library.

You can download the PyGame library here. The PyGame library must be installed after you install Python.
http://pygame.org/ftp/pygame-1.9.1.win32-py3.1.msi


Step #3:
Download and unzip the mod. Open the "Strategic War Mod" folder. Double click on the "StrategicWar.pyw" icon to open the mod. If you want easier access to the mod just make a shortcut from this icon like normal.
You can extract the Strategic War Mod Folder to just about any location you like as long as you don't place it somewhere that would cause problems with another program that isn't expecting it.
I would recommend that you do not extract it to your SH4 mods folder as it may cause problems if you tried to do something with it while using JSGME. Placing it in your SH4 game folder should work OK.

If you get a "Load Failed" error when the mod starts:
The mod requires access to the game's "data" and "SaveGames" folders. By default it attempts to find these folders on it's own. If that fails then the mod will generate an error and you will need to manually enter the path. To do this open the options.txt file located in ModData folder (which is located in the mod folder). You can open it with any text editor. There is an option line for the "data" folder and one for the "SavedGames" folder. You may need to set one or both of these. Follow the directions in the options file when entering the path there.


There is no need to start a new campaign when trying out this mod for the first time.


You can change the display options in the options.txt file. There are instruction in the options file. The options include a full screen mode and a windowed mode where you can specify the size.

[keltos01]

So here what you sink affects the war outcome ! this is the missing dynamic campaign

even if only a text based game addon it might give the sinkings a real purpose missing from the game

good work !

keltos

[NeonsStyle]

What a great idea... I stopped playing sh4 ages ago
because of this very reason... endless patrols, with
no variation, and no real point. If this mod works,
it might really give us a reason to fight.

What I really want tho, is ffs some variety in my
missions. When I first starting playing sh4, in my
first campaign, I had some good missions, sneaking
into harbours, deploying commando's n things like
that. But after those first few missions, from then on
it was the same thing over n over n over, go here,
find ships, sink them... I just wish each patrol
was different from the last... mixed in some commando
in dangerous water missions along with sneak into
harbours... I've only ever seen 2 of those missions.
The rest are all the same - sink a convoy. Got to
be mechanical...

But this mod, might at least give a damn good reason.

[Laffertytig]

this looks fantastic

anyone here played the old red storm rising game? it was great in that your patols affected how the overall campaign played out, if you had a successful patrol then it would influence how other units would perform etc.

i wonder if such a things would be possible in sh4, or even sh3. an external program such as this could be run alongside the game maybe with a basic map of the pacific and with each patrol the results could be fed into it to influence how the war played out.

am i just dreaming or could this be achievable?

[General Tso]

Originally Posted by Laffertytig

this looks fantastic

anyone here played the old red storm rising game? it was great in that your patols affected how the overall campaign played out, if you had a successful patrol then it would influence how other units would perform etc.

i wonder if such a things would be possible in sh4, or even sh3. an external program such as this could be run alongside the game maybe with a basic map of the pacific and with each patrol the results could be fed into it to influence how the war played out.

am i just dreaming or could this be achievable?

I loved the old Red Storm Rising game. I played that for many many hours on my Amiga computer. Actually as far as influencing the war, to a limited extent that's what this mod does, it only affects values in the mod (not in the game) and it doesn't have a built in map (which is a couple of big minuses of course). It might even be possible to consider a dynamic campaign where the mod changes the campaign files within the game. But that would a major task with potential for major problems. So I don't see it happening in the immediate future.

[Laffertytig]

yep that would be very cool but as you say, much work would be required.

still cant wait to try out your mod. any idea how close to release you are?

[Fish40]

Very interesting concept! Good work!

[General Tso]

Thanks for all the great comments. All of the features in the mod are currently implemented and appear ready to go.

For the most part I've only run the mod using artificially created campaigns so there still needs to be some game balancing done. One thing that would be a help would be some input from different players on how many tons they think they could sink in a average patrol. It would be helpful if the tonnage was broken down into Warships, Freighters, Tankers, and Troopships. Since ships other than freighters aren't necessarily sunk on every patrol you need to either use fractions or else give the tons you think you can sink over a period of time - like a year, or the entire war.

One concern that I have is that all of the common campaigns (the standard one, RSRDC, TMO, etc...) do not have enough Tankers and Troopship. Has anybody been able to sink those kind of ships on a regular basis?

[Borgneface]

Hello,
Sorry for the late comment!
I agree this looks really good.....I like Dynamic campaign! Used it with Il2 Sturm...
Good show

[Jan Kyster]

I would have said there are three links with error and can't see download link either

- but now see your sig (Soon available)



Looks very interesting!

[fitzcarraldo]

Great work! This utility seems a great addon. Is it possible a similar mod for SH3?

Watching for download...

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

[General Tso]

I just added a note to the first post - I hope to have the mod ready within the next two weeks (maybe sooner). Right now all it needs is some testing for bugs and a lot of game balance testing. Once I feel that I have done as much of the testing as is possible by myself I'll make the first version available for anybody to test and play (and to point out anything that I missed ). After that we will hopefully have a solid version for anybody to play.

If anybody wants to give some ideas on the average tonnage sunk per mission that would help with the game balancing. If I don't get a good grasp on the average tonnage by the time I release the first version, I plan on using the difficulty level in the mod to help narrow things down. If I find that everybody is using the easy level - I'll make it more difficult and vise versa.

Edit: I don't want to scare anybody off with all of this testing talk. All you need to do is play your campaign like normal then checkout the mod every so often as see how things are going. If the mod version is upgraded you can still continue with the same campaign so like I mentioned above the testing shouldn't require any changes in your game play (other than checking out the mod and letting me know whats happening).

[razark]

Looks like a cool idea. I'll have to check it out once it's ready. I loved the dynamic campaign aspect of RSR (and other Microprose games. Adds quite a bit of interest to see your actions actually affecting things.)

I'd really love to see it modify the actual in game campaign, but I'm guessing that would take a lot of work, and be quite a bit for one single modder. Maybe version 1.2?

[General Tso]

If this mod works out well as is. I'd be all for trying a dynamic campaign next, but as you said it would be a lot of work for a single modder. It would have to be a team effort.

There would be two options available as I see it.
1. Edit the campaign itself to do thing like reduce or increase certain types of Japanese shipping in specific places. Also Japanese/U.S. bases could change hands at different times depending of the player's actions. I'm not currently familiar with editing the campaign file so I'm not sure if this is possible, but it looks like it should be.

2. Edit the players saved game files. With this we could do things like causing your stay at base to be longer if your submarine is damaged. The more damage - the longer the stay. Different damage conditions could cause different results. We could even have things like major hull damage causing an extra long stay in base which would duplicate traveling to the main land for major dry dock repair. Meanwhile within the campaign the Japanese keep building more ship tonnage and gaining ground. The player would probably have to save the game just before entering base and then go to the mod while in base, but I think it could be done.

A good intermediate step might be to make some static changes to the campaign file that are done before the player even starts the campaign. Thing like adding more Troopships and Tankers (if necessary).

But that's all down the road. For now the main task is seeing if the mod if worthwhile as is.

[Jan Kyster]

Originally Posted by General Tso

...all it needs is some testing for bugs

Don't overdo it - we're not used to be spoiled....


Some links, sinkings by boat:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japa...ses/index.html
http://pigboats.com/ww2/ww2sinkings.html
http://www.valoratsea.com/JANAC.htm

US losses and damaged: http://www.usmm.org/shipsunkdamaged.html