Strategic War Mod

[irish1958]

Yes.
Someone made the Pacific too big.
Bummer!

[Galeocerdo]

Installed and runs with no errors.

Ran program after completion of first war patrol with SS-195 (USS Sealion). Hopefully allowing opportunity to earn the proper patrol history she was historically denied.

After intercepting the inbound Legasby invasion force we sent a (the?) troopship and two tankers to the bottom. I couldn't help but wonder how a robust dynamic campaign system would handle this outcome. Upon patrol completion I ran your mod and everything was reflected in the program, seems to work fine. While your Strategic War Mod may not operate to such a detailed level as to modify historical outcomes there seems to be great potential here.

Thanks for the hard work and good luck with whatever plans you have with this project.

G

[General Tso]

Thanks, yeah currently your success in the game only changes what happens in the mod and not within the game. I'm thinking of looking into making some modestest changes within the game. If I do that the first think I'll probably look at is increasing the time spent in base when your sub gets damaged. It would give the player an additional reason to keep the sub healthy and would probably be an easy mod to add.

[Jan Kyster]

Before entering port for ending a patrol, I open Data\Cfg\UPC.cfg and edit entry MinimumsDaysInBaseUS to reflect length of patrol, damage, refits to be done (tower, paint, equipment etc.) or simple fatique (as after heavy lengthy battles).

Normal setting in TMO is 14 days and depending of the above I may go as long as 2 to 3 months in port... this also reflects what I've seen in many war patrol logs...


Nice job!

[General Tso]

I was thinking of changing the CareerTrack.upc file in the save game folder. I'm not sure if that would be possible, but I was thinking of looking into that possibility if anybody is interested. I wanted to do it that way because it would only change the player's save game.

The main question would be - is there an entry that I can add to the end of that file that would allow me to change the current date. Maybe a "change base" entry back to the same base or a "start patrol" entry would work? Does anybody out there have any experience editing the CareerTrack.upc file?

[Patchman123]

Where do you extract this file to?

Originally Posted by 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/file/ep3g9y...d%20v1.019.zip


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.


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.

[General Tso]

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.

[tomoose]

Great work General Tso!!

I know this is pushing my luck but have you had a look at SH3 Commander?
People have been screaming for something similar for SH4 for years.

Just a suggestion.

Thanks again.

[General Tso]

I'll check it out.

[Newinger]

Originally Posted by tomoose

Great work General Tso!!
I know this is pushing my luck but have you had a look at SH3 Commander?
People have been screaming for something similar for SH4 for years.

Just a suggestion.

I second this! You already have a very good base for doing this! I tried your tool and it looks great!

[Laffertytig]

anywhere else to download this, link aint working.

[General Tso]

I just tried using the link and it worked OK for me. Maybe it was a temporary problem.

[Laffertytig]

whenever i click the link on the 1st page i get a page not found message. how big is the file, maybe you could email me it?

[Laffertytig]

ive now tried both IE9 and firefox fox but still no joy.

what browser are you using to download from mediafire? is the download defo working?

[General Tso]

I'm using Firefox.