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

[h.sie]

Yes, they seem only to be able to shoot at 0°. I placed one VIIA in waiting position and made 2 merchants passing the VIIA at 1000m range. In the moment the ships were at 0° shooting position, they got hit/sunk.

[Stiebler]

I have played around a bit with the 'Report Contacts' button and it seems it can be quite useful sometimes!

I'm wondering whether it's a good idea to break/remove this feature Have you thought about using instead of the 'Report Contacts' button one of the special maneuver buttons in the chief engineer menu? Breaking these special maneuver buttons does not have such consequences as breaking the 'Report Contacts' button because you can perform all the special maneuvers yourself. I think this would be a much more solid solution than breaking the 'Report Contacts' feature. It would also make sense: You order the Chief Engineer to prepare the special maneuver of sinking the boat and then the radio man sends the message.

Sorry guys, but I'm moving faster than you can make alternative suggestions.

I have now a completely functioning surrender mod (for the second time), this time based around the concept of:
1. Use Report Contacts button (reprogrammed) to notify an intention to abandon ship. SSB has given me a nice shiny new red Report Contacts button to adorn the radio controls.
2. Then send Radio Status Message to BdU. This brings up a dialog box informing the player that the boat is abandoned, and there are 10 minutes in which to self-sink (scuttle) the boat.
3. Then the black screen of death, modified to show how many crew survive and whether you are rescued by Allies or U-boat.

I need only to write the documentation to have completed the mod - after spending some two weeks of daily, multi-hour, work on it. It would be a very expensive mod, if I billed my time. Therefore you can understand that I am very reluctant to start having to look for code intercepts for the Chief Engineer, neither does he have any spare buttons, even if their function can be replicated with key presses.

I find it hard to believe that the Radio Contacts button is useful. No one here knew its purpose, when I asked earlier, which shows how useful it was. I had to discover the function for myself, and I found it worthless in operation. I claim "squatters' rights" for the use of this button, since I discovered its use and its coding, although I shall be happy to find an alternative option if Hsie's wolf-packs mod ever needs it. But that is unlikely to be soon.

Stiebler.

[h.sie]

Looking in Sergbutos Readme gives an explaination:

Since it was not possible to limit the ammo amount, the gun rotation/elevation is greatly limited and the sub can fire only directly ahead.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by h.sie

Looking in Sergbutos Readme gives an explaination:

Since it was not possible to limit the ammo amount, the gun rotation/elevation is greatly limited and the sub can fire only directly ahead.

I would remove that restriction and set the recoil time of the gun to a large value. That way you can limit how often the gun fires. I wonder why he couldn't limit the ammo amount Seems strange. There are other ways to 'limit' the firing time of the gun. Set the clip size to 1 and set the reload time to a large value will do the same thing (all done in .sim file).

[SquareSteelBar]

This mod comes from the very early times of SH3 modding and was exclusively done by hex editing.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by SquareSteelBar

This mod comes from the very early times of SH3 modding and was exclusively done by hex editing.

Nothing wrong with hex editing. That's how I do all my work (I don't use S3D - dumbs down the mind) Keeps the mind 'fresh' and the skills strong using Hex editor In SH5 we have a tool made by the devs (Goblin Editor) that makes modding easy in some areas. Now what should interest you all is that this tool can be used for SH3 (I've used it to open/change files in SH3). Note: It cannot save to .dat files so save to a .sim, .val, or .zon file and copy over to .dat file. This tool makes it REALLY easy to see/adjust .zon files

[h.sie]

@TDW: Thanks. After reading Sergbutos readme, I had the same idea and already tried it. Now, the sub shoots in all directions, regardless of it's heading. Overkill. Both ships sunk. One can now enlarge the reload time / recoil time in order to give the sub a realistic fire ability. Or maybe there is a way to restrict the ammo? We'll see.


@SSB: Only Hex-Editing without S3D? Wow

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by h.sie

@TDW: Thanks. After reading Sergbutos readme, I had the same idea and already tried it. Now, the sub shoots in all directions, regardless of it's heading. Overkill. All sunk. One can now enlarge the reload time / recoil time in order to give the sub a realistic fire ability. Or maybe there is a way to restrict the ammo? We'll see.

Yes you can restrict ammo. In wpn_Cannon controller you tell it what shells to use and the amount of each type of shell. Simply set the amount to the value desired.

Subset of wpn_Cannon controller in .sim file:
00000969 AD 00 00 00 61 6D 6D 6F 5F 73 74 6F 72 61 67 65 ....ammo_storage
00000979 00 24 00 00 00 41 50 00 0E 00 00 00 73 68 65 6C .$...AP.....shel
00000989 6C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0B 00 00 00 61 6D l.............am
00000999 6F 75 6E 74 00 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00 48 45 00 ount.....$...HE.
000009A9 0E 00 00 00 73 68 65 6C 6C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....shell.......
000009B9 00 00 0B 00 00 00 61 6D 6F 75 6E 74 00 00 00 00 ......amount....
000009C9 00 24 00 00 00 41 41 00 0E 00 00 00 73 68 65 6C .$...AA.....shel
000009D9 6C 00 CC 96 81 C9 5F CE FE D3 0B 00 00 00 61 6D l....._.......am
000009E9 6F 75 6E 74 00 C4 09 00 00 24 00 00 00 53 53 00 ount.....$...SS.
000009F9 0E 00 00 00 73 68 65 6C 6C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....shell.......
00000A09 00 00 0B 00 00 00 61 6D 6F 75 6E 74 00 00 00 00 ......amount....
00000A19 00 .

Probably the reason why he couldn't limit the ammo because they are using the same 88mm deckgun as the player's sub. Thus one needs to clone that gun so you can limit the ammo.

[h.sie]

Now it all works IN PRINCIPLE:

After discovering a convoy I sent a contact report. Then, a AI-Sub was beamed to a waypoint of the convoy. The convoy began to zigzag, but that didn't help. 2 ships sunk.

Still not the right time for optimism. It will need a huge amount of fine-adjusting to get a satisfying result, and it's still not sure, that a satisfying result is possible....

But that's enough for today!

(Yeah!)

[h.sie]

@TDW: Cool. Thanks. So I'll clone the gun and restrict the ammo. should be possible.

[LGN1]

@h.sie: Isn't it already limited in your Sergbutos WolfpackMod V2 Reloaded.rar mod? clip_size=2 and AP shells, ammo=6

@Stiebler: I agree the 'Report Contacts' button is not important. I thought otherwise because when I tested it I got different distances and bearings over time. However, the reason for this was just that my boat was moving
All the information that you get from using the button is also present (and more conveniently) on the map. So, you are right, it's not important.

[h.sie]

@LGN1: Not tested yet. Maybe, because it only sank 2 and not all 8 ships of a convoy.

What I don't like is that the VIIA Subs are discovered very early, although they are submerged. But that's because they are treated as surface ships for the game.

@SSB: I will first try to get a solution with the existing VIIA sub (in submarine folder) before I try to move them to the Sea folder and use your suggestion regarding .eqp file.

[LGN1]

As I have written in the other thread, I think the crucial part is getting a unit at the right place depending on the player's action.

I guess which unit is finally used does not really matter. It probably could be any and it could be easily changed by anybody.

[h.sie]

@LGN1:

I agree: The problem can be divided into 2 independent parts:

1) Beam one or more unit(s) to a certain position depending on player's action (players estimation of the convoy's course and speed).

2) Have a AI unit that is capable of attacking a convoy.

I, persononally won't start to program 1) without knowing that 2) is possible. Now, after my tests from today, I think 2) is halfway solved. With little modifications, Sergbutos AI subs can be used for that purpose, but have to be fine-adjusted......

h.sie

[urfisch]

great progress!!! very good work guys!!!