Realism- and gameplay-related hardcode fixes for SH3.EXE

[NGT]

Originally Posted by Stiebler

NYGM already incorporates AI Sergbuto's AI U-boats, spawned randomly from some convoys, and they provide an excellent diversion for the escorts. As the player closes a convoy which is being attacked, you see constant flashes, and the escorts are all over the place, frequently damaged. In fact a lot of the damage seems to have been caused by convoy ships firing on each other(!), and you see burning and sinking merchant ships.

This part of a wolf-pack attack, then, is already complete. The only real problem is that it is not always possible to reload a game that has been saved after a wolf-pack attack.

Any further contribution to the game can really only be eye/ear-candy.

Stiebler.

Indeed, yesterday, I was close to a convoy (NYGM) and every ship was shooting against something, I supposed a periscope (?), I don’t know, it was somewhat dark.

Indeed, there were about 6 destroyers going to that direction, leaving me space to go on and attack.

The problem is, an SH3 bug, that every ship fires against the enemy without taking care about the rest of the ships of the convoy, so every ship between the guns and the target, suffers damages, indeed collateral damages, and above all, too heavy…

It is like if they start shooting against me. I use this; I go close to a merchant ship, or behind it, and they shank they own merchant by trying to sink me.

________________

@h.sie I see you are open for doable modifications / ideas.

I don’t ask anything; just I say what I consider it as being a problem:

Few days ago, in Biscay Golf, I was in combat with a destroyer. Suddenly, a Condor (German plane) appeared and started bombing the destroyer. On above, a British Sunderland came and started bombing ME —while submerged in periscope depth—, BUT, there was no fight engaged between the two airplanes, the one completely ignoring the other.

This is a problem for me; the airplanes do not enter in conflict between them… (Very stupid situation, especially when allies are bombing the French ports, by that making the Messerschmitts useless…)

Other problem, we can not order heavy flak to shoot against ships… We must do that personally.

Other problem is, the Radar, switching on / off. During (while in) strong winds and waves, the U-boot goes inside and out of the waves but the Radar stays off, thus we need to switch it on after every loop diving in the high waves. (…but the electric / diesel engines go on / off automatically whether diving or surfacing, without any special order to switching on/off. The same as well for hydrophone etc.)

Finally, the biggest ever problem of this game, mainly after the apparition of supermods, is the inability for saving under various circumstances. In fact, with my moded NYGM (just by adding more airplanes and ships, and Wide MaGui) it is impossible to save in mid patrol. I have to organize my life so that I find 2 hours for playing a patrol till the end as it is impossible to recuperate any saved game.

If it is virtually impossible to solve the "save bug", in the other hand, I ask myself whether if it would be possible to be warned whenever the saved game can't be playable, before quitting definitely the patrol.

Thank you for hosting

[h.sie]

@irish: Thanks. I meant that I have to check via programm code if there is an U-Tanker near the Sub. If so, the message should be "refuel at the U-Tanker". Otherwise: "Go back to harbour". So far I don't know how to determine the presence of an U-Tanker via program code. Or......do you mean that I should not consider U-Tankers at all because they are rare and/or already sunk?

@NGT:A lot of problems, only a few solutions:

Destroyers shooting at own merchants: Changing this would require to change the destroyer AI. This is not possible for me at the moment. Yesterday I located AI routines in SH3Sim.act, but that finding is by far not sufficient. Easy solution: Don't look at that battle behaviour in detail (with external cam?). In RL a kaleun surely looked through a peri only for a short timespan for aiming purposes. I think he didn't see details.....

Aircraft ignoring each other: Also an AI change (see above).

Heavy flak against ships: Maybe possible -> Added to Todo-List!

Radar on/off. This is maybe possible. -> Added to Todo-List!

Savegame CTD: I never had any CTD, but the reason might be that I never played a serious career so far. But since I plan to do so in the next time, I try to avoid CTDs (related to Sergbutos AI-Subs) using the following workaround: I installed a boot manager on my PC and installed a second Windows only for playing SH3. When I pause a career, instead of saving it and shutting off the PC, I switch the PC into hibernation state (while sh3 runs) and reboot, in order to use the other system for working, surfing, modding. When I continue to play, I reboot and wake the system from hibernation. No savegame reload necessary. A whole career without saving and risking CTD, even when submerged or during a battle or near a convoy. Disadvantage: SH3-Commander RandomizedEvents won't work, so maybe a compromise is the best solution: Saving in non-critical situations and hibernating/freezing the system in critical situations (e.g. battles).

[LGN1]

Hi,

the main limitation, and for me it's a crucial one, of the present wolf packs is that I have no influence on them. As h.sie has mentioned, they are just there, attack and vanish. I think it would add a lot if YOUR behavior/report had an influence. With the idea described above you would even get a rough idea when to expect the AI attack (if you correctly predict the convoy's course )

Concerning the status reports:

- BDU might give you an order to return even when close to a milk cow. Maybe it's out of fuel How can you judge BDU's eternal wisdom

- It was my intention not to write 'grid further south'. You can always go further south, except on the south pole

- Currently, I use SH3 Commander to give new orders. However, as I mentioned earlier, it has quite some limitations.

As h.sie has pointed out, it's anyway up to the player to obey these orders. But that's the case with most things in-game.

Cheers, LGN1

[LGN1]

Originally Posted by NGT

Other problem is, the Radar, switching on / off. During (while in) strong winds and waves, the U-boot goes inside and out of the waves but the Radar stays off, thus we need to switch it on after every loop diving in the high waves. (…but the electric / diesel engines go on / off automatically whether diving or surfacing, without any special order to switching on/off. The same as well for hydrophone etc.)

This issue annoyed me, too. However, some time ago I asked myself whether the radar on a u-boat actually COULD work during high waves I don't have a definite answer, but if I look at the construction and see how a submarine tower moves during a storm, I have doubts that the radar could be used efficiently during storms.

Cheers, LGN1

[Aces]

@h.sie,

Hi mate,

If you ever stumble upon in passing how/where the game stores the current bearing of the attack peri, obs. peri and UZO and how this information might be read and utilised then please let me know.

Thanks and kind regards

Aces

[h.sie]

@Aces: I already tried that some months ago without success, but I'll inform you of course if I find the appropriate code segment.

[Aces]

Thank you mate,

Much appreciated.

Kind regards

Aces

Edit: Please forgive my ignorance but is possible to trace code excution to find out what's being stored where?. EG. to see what happens when one moves the scopes or UZO in game. If one could just find the sol.bearing gauge and where it get's its bearing from.

[h.sie]

I found a solution for the radar problem. With my fix the radar is still switched off when the boat dives in a high wave, but it's immediately switched on automatically when the boat comes out of the wave. This could be interpreted as an temporary dysfunction due to water. If the boat is at periscope depth or deeper once, radar is switched off definitely. My fastest mod ever: Took 5 minutes.

This will be a nice addition for forthcoming V15G, which also will contain:

• Stieblers U-Tanker Mod with a small addition by me: Pseudo-docking at an U-Tanker now allows reloading of 1-4 air torpedoes (besides refuelling and repairs of pressure hull).
• Stieblers BDU-Congratulations, also with little addition and extra BDU messages and congratulations.
• Stieblers WarNews Mod
• The WatchOfficer now also reports if fog disappears.

[fitzcarraldo]

Originally Posted by h.sie

I found a solution for the radar problem. With my fix the radar is still switched off when the boat dives in a high wave, but it's immediately switched on automatically when the boat comes out of the wave. This could be interpreted as an temporary dysfunction due to water. If the boat is deeper than 10 meters once, radar is switched off definitely. My fastest mod ever: Took 5 minutes.

This will be a nice addition for forthcoming V15G, which also will contain:

• Stieblers U-Tanker Mod with a small addition by me: Pseudo-docking at an U-Tanker now allows reloading of 1-4 air torpedoes (besides refuelling and repairs of pressure hull).
• Stieblers BDU-Congratulations, also with little addition and extra BDU messages and congratulations.
• Stieblers WarNews Mod
• The WatchOfficer now also reports if fog disappears.

Great, Hsie! Will it overwrite the V15F or will we need the SH3.EXE not-patched for application? I like a BAT installer "updater" from previous versions

Many thanks and regards!

Fitzcarraldo

[Magic1111]

Originally Posted by h.sie

I found a solution for the radar problem. With my fix the radar is still switched off when the boat dives in a high wave, but it's immediately switched on automatically when the boat comes out of the wave. This could be interpreted as an temporary dysfunction due to water. If the boat is deeper than 10 meters once, radar is switched off definitely. My fastest mod ever: Took 5 minutes.

This will be a nice addition for forthcoming V15G, which also will contain:

• Stieblers U-Tanker Mod with a small addition by me: Pseudo-docking at an U-Tanker now allows reloading of 1-4 air torpedoes (besides refuelling and repairs of pressure hull).
• Stieblers BDU-Congratulations, also with little addition and extra BDU messages and congratulations.
• Stieblers WarNews Mod
• The WatchOfficer now also reports if fog disappears.

Sounds wonderful h.sie, can´t wait to test V15G....!

[h.sie]

@fitzcarraldo: There will be no updater. To patch from

V14b (stock sh3.exe) to V15G

takes the same time for you (about 4-5 seconds) as to update from

V15F to V15G.

For me it takes hours to configure the updater. Should I also make an updater for V15B? .

[Aces]

Hi mate,

I receieved my £2.99 SH3 CD yesterday so that I'd have the no-starforce no -cd version. When I ran the V15F batch file it reported that it couldn't find any suitable exe. I ran the v15E batch and it worked just fine without any other changes!.

Kind regards

Aces

[h.sie]

@Aces: You can only patch once. The basis of patching must always be the original unpatched file. So you can patch from V14b (original, unpatched) to V15E or V15F, but not from V15E to V15F. So make sure you use the unpatched file. Even applying the 4GB patch changes the checksum so that the patcher script won't be able to find a compatible version.

If this doesn't help you, please send me your exe. I'll look into it.

[SquareSteelBar]

What's the MD5 checksum of your unpatched sh3.exe?

Is it identic to this one?

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...6&postcount=59

[Aces]

Hi mate,

I only did patch once. I copied over the sh3.exe from a fresh install of the new cd-rom. I ran the patch program downloaded with v15f and got the error. I then ran the v15e patch program and that ran just fine with the same sh3.exe!.

Previously and in a different game install I ran the v15e on a starforce remopved and no-cd fixed original game exe and that ran fine but I waited for the new cd install to try v15f.

Although I'm at work I'm sure that it's the purple hills version. The bizare thing is that v15e worked and v15f didn't with the same sh3.exe.

Regards

Aces