[REL] Merchant Fleet Mod for Silent Hunter 3

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Walruss

ok, dl'ed the febuary 2011 name pack, installed it to shecommander/cfg, then finished the patrol I was on. Same problem:

0225 Grid CG 94 Ship sunk! M26X, 5313 to1855 Grid CG 91 Ship sunk! SLaunch01, 20 tons1855 Grid CG 79 Ship sunk! O01B, 6178 tons0952 Grid CG 27 Ship sunk! M07B, 5036 tons
see, it's not just 'x' neutrals... the O01, M07 and launch all flew the red ensign

Strange - I haven't played in career mode for a while but the naming feature worked fine the last time I did. I will have a look at the latest ship names and see what might be wrong.

[iambecomelife]

[QUOTE=Merchant Raider;1595214]Hi All
Having trouble getting MFM to load, i am running xp and have GWX i installed a clean copy of SH3, loaded the main mod and part 1 of the skin pack ?, any ideas ?
REGARDS[/QUOTE

I would also recommend trying the light version first, with no skin packs.

If you do get the skin packs to work then as long as you use SH3 Commander (as someone else stated) ships will switch over to camo by themselves, as long as you launch the game with Commander. You don't need to do anything to get it to work.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Walruss

ok, dl'ed the febuary 2011 name pack, installed it to shecommander/cfg, then finished the patrol I was on. Same problem:

0225 Grid CG 94 Ship sunk! M26X, 5313 to1855 Grid CG 91 Ship sunk! SLaunch01, 20 tons1855 Grid CG 79 Ship sunk! O01B, 6178 tons0952 Grid CG 27 Ship sunk! M07B, 5036 tons
see, it's not just 'x' neutrals... the O01, M07 and launch all flew the red ensign

And you definitely have Use Real Ship Names checked in Commander's options, and updated your Personnel file in Commander after exiting the game and before looking at your logs? If so, I'm stumped as to why you're getting no names at all. That's just weird. There are definitely names for M07B and O01B, I just checked.

But I can tell you that you don't have Display Names for those classes in your EnglishNames.cfg file in Silent Hunter III\data\Sea, otherwise I'm pretty sure you'd see the Display Name at least ("Medium Merchant," etc.) instead of the class (M07B). If Commander requires a Display Name to be present in that file in order to link a ship up to the data in the Ship Names file, that could be the problem. I don't know that this is the case, however. Someone else here may know. Anybody?

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I mean, I'm assuming that's the effect (and point) of having A and B classes that are designated American and British respectively and only appear in the roster for their designated nation. If indeed that is the case, I haven't done a comprehensive search of the rosters or anything.

I guess I could go back through all the MFM names and remove anything that isn't specifically American or British. The problem is that pretty much every nation used similar-looking ships, and some of them are designs used by everyone. The good news is that a huge amount of ships changed hands but not names, so though the Maersk line is Danish, there were a great many seized by the British at the outset of the war. Also, as I've pointed out in the past, M35B has British and Canadian names, and M27B is a type used by almost every European nation. But sinking a British ship and getting a Dutch name isn't so bad, for the reasons listed above.

Likewise the 'A' classes. Many US ships flew the Panamanian flag for tax purposes, and a great many US ships had Spanish-sounding names, so any mixup inside the 'A' and 'B' ships is reasonably plausible. Even if every ship appeared in every roster the flags would still rarely match the names. That could only be done with an individual file for each ship, and as IABL and I have both mentioned this is pretty much impossible with SH3.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I guess I could go back through all the MFM names and remove anything that isn't specifically American or British. The problem is that pretty much every nation used similar-looking ships, and some of them are designs used by everyone. The good news is that a huge amount of ships changed hands but not names, so though the Maersk line is Danish, there were a great many seized by the British at the outset of the war. Also, as I've pointed out in the past, M35B has British and Canadian names, and M27B is a type used by almost every European nation. But sinking a British ship and getting a Dutch name isn't so bad, for the reasons listed above.

Likewise the 'A' classes. Many US ships flew the Panamanian flag for tax purposes, and a great many US ships had Spanish-sounding names, so any mixup inside the 'A' and 'B' ships is reasonably plausible. Even if every ship appeared in every roster the flags would still rarely match the names. That could only be done with an individual file for each ship, and as IABL and I have both mentioned this is pretty much impossible with SH3.

I'm looking at Ship Names from so many angles now, my head is spinning.

Still I think any way to get names in the logs for all those neutral classes, for those who use them and may sink them when appropriate, would be cool. Any way you look at it though, it's complicated!

Especially considering that I'm also still playing around with the idea of different files entirely for early war and late war.

You do so much fantastic work on this already, I absolutely don't want you to feel like people are demanding an even bigger task than Ship Names already involves!

I just like throwing things out there to see what's possible, and find out what's not from those who know better. Still learning the ropes of how all these different files/folders/etc. work together, all in all I think it was easier when I was just going into the logs and changing names around after the fact.

But if nothing else I'm gradually working my way through the existing file and noting which ships are which nationality, where I can, and have a basic table set up for all the countries (at least the ones on the Flaggen chart) indicating their status as AL/AX/Neutral at different times... oy... some of them changed more than once, it's crazy!

For me I just have to keep reminding myself that the end result I want is something that will not give me a name of a ship that I absolutely would NOT have sunk, for any reason, at a particular time in the war. Most notably this involves US ships prior to Dec 1941, obviously. Getting names for the MFM 'x' class ships is adding a whole 'nother fish to the kettle.

[Walruss]

So.... No help on getting mine working then? :P

[Robin40]

Originally Posted by Walruss

So.... No help on getting mine working then? :P

As I said already, try MFMInterimBeta and look at the readme file

[Damo]

Originally Posted by Walruss

ok, dl'ed the febuary 2011 name pack, installed it to shecommander/cfg, then finished the patrol I was on. Same problem:

0225 Grid CG 94 Ship sunk! M26X, 5313 to1855 Grid CG 91 Ship sunk! SLaunch01, 20 tons1855 Grid CG 79 Ship sunk! O01B, 6178 tons0952 Grid CG 27 Ship sunk! M07B, 5036 tons
see, it's not just 'x' neutrals... the O01, M07 and launch all flew the red ensign

I had this problem and it's to do with the englishnames.cfg not having references to the MFM ships. I noticed that in the Interim MFM version there is a readme providing the info that you need to paste over to your englishnames.cfg but in the full version there is not. What englishnames.cfg does is assign display names to the ships so for instance, with the M07B you need to have an entry in englishnames.cfg that reads 'M07B=Medium Merchant 7'. Now I don't know how this is linked to Sailor Steve's shipnames.cfg and the lack of a name being allocated but I do know that when I updated my englishnames.cfg and updated my Personnel files it miraculously rectified itself, even past patrols that weren't displaying names.

What I'll do is post my MFM section of englishnames.cfg below. I've manually added all the ships that were missing using the folders from the MFM as a guide and even added the neutrals so now all ships will be named properly in the UI (Medium Merchant 7 instead of M07B). Now whether this fixes the ships being assigned names and cargo details for you I don't know but give it a try and check again after you update your personnel file in Commander.

Englishnames.cfg can be found at: C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\data\Sea (Win XP). Make a backup of the file and open, scrolll down to the bottom and add the following text:

;Iambecomes MF mod
L01B=Heavy Merchant 01
L02B=Heavy Merchant 02
L03B=Heavy Merchant 03
M01B=Medium Merchant 01
M02B=Medium Merchant 02
M03B=Medium Merchant 03
M04B=Medium Merchant 04
M06B=Medium Merchant 06
M07B=Medium Merchant 07
M08B=Medium Merchant 08
M09B=Medium Merchant 09
M10B=Medium Merchant 10
M11B=Medium Merchant 11
M12B=Medium Merchant 12
M13B=Medium Merchant 13
M14B=Medium Merchant 14
M15B=Medium Merchant 15
M16B=Medium Merchant 16
M17B=Medium Merchant 17
M18B=Medium Merchant 18
M19B=Medium Merchant 19
M20B=Medium Merchant 20
M21B=CAM-Ship 02
M22B=Medium Merchant 22
M23B=Medium Merchant 23
M24B=Medium Merchant 24
M25B=Medium Merchant 25
M26B=Medium Merchant 26
M27B=Medium Merchant 27
M28B=Medium Merchant 28
M29B=Medium Merchant 29
M30B=Medium Merchant 30
M31B=Medium Merchant 31
M32B=Medium Merchant 32
M33B=Medium Merchant 33
M34B=Medium Merchant 34
M37B=Medium Merchant 37
M38B=Medium Merchant 38
M39B=Medium Merchant 39
M40B=Medium Merchant 40
S01B=Light Merchant 01
S02B=Light Merchant 02
S03B=Light Merchant 03
S04B=Light Merchant 04
O01B=Ore Freighter 01
O02A=Ore Freighter 02
Q01B=Medium Merchant 17
T01B=Tanker 01
T02B=Tanker 02
T03B=Tanker 03
T05B=Tanker 05
T06B=Tanker 06
T07B=Tanker 07
T08B=Tanker 08
T11B=Tanker 11
T12B=Tanker 12
T13B=Tanker 13
T14B=Tanker CAM-Ship
T16B=Tanker 16
T18B=Tanker 18
P01B=Converted Transport 01
P02B=Converted Transport 02
P03B=Converted Transport 03
L02A=Heavy Merchant 02
L03A=Heavy Merchant 03
M01A=Medium Merchant 01
M03A=Medium Merchant 03
M05A=Medium Merchant 05
M06A=Medium Merchant 06
M07A=Medium Merchant 07
M09A=Medium Merchant 09
M10A=Medium Merchant 10
M13A=Medium Merchant 13
M15A=Medium Merchant 15
M16A=Medium Merchant 16
M17A=Medium Merchant 17
M18A=Medium Merchant 18
M19A=Medium Merchant 19
M20A=Medium Merchant 20
M22A=Medium Merchant 22
M25A=Medium Merchant 25
M30A=Medium Merchant 30
M34A=Medium Merchant 34
M39A=Medium Merchant 39
M40A=Medium Merchant 40
S01A=Light Merchant 01
S02A=Light Merchant 02
S03A=Light Merchant 03
S04A=Light Merchant 04
M01X=Medium Merchant 01
M02X=Medium Merchant 02
M03X=Medium Merchant 03
M06X=Medium Merchant 06
M07X=Medium Merchant 07
M08X=Medium Merchant 08
M09X=Medium Merchant 09
M10X=Medium Merchant 10
M11X=Medium Merchant 11
M12X=Medium Merchant 12
M13X=Medium Merchant 13
M14X=Medium Merchant 14
M15X=Medium Merchant 15
M16X=Medium Merchant 16
M17X=Medium Merchant 17
M18X=Medium Merchant 18
M19X=Medium Merchant 19
M20X=Medium Merchant 20
M22X=Medium Merchant 22
M24X=Medium Merchant 24
M25X=Medium Merchant 25
M26X=Medium Merchant 26
M30X=Medium Merchant 30
M31X=Medium Merchant 31
M32X=Medium Merchant 32
M33X=Medium Merchant 33
M34X=Medium Merchant 34
M37X=Medium Merchant 37
M39X=Medium Merchant 39
T01A=Tanker 01
T03A=Tanker 03
T09A=Tanker 09
T10A=Tanker 10
T11A=Tanker 11
T13A=Tanker 13
T16A=Tanker 16
T17A=Tanker 17
T18A=Tanker 18
T19A=Tanker 19
RP01A=Repair Ship
AK01A=Naval Cargo Ship 01
AK02A=Naval Cargo Ship 02
AK03A=Naval Cargo Ship 03
AM01A=Ammunition Ship 01
T01X=Tanker 01
T02X=Tanker 02
T03X=Tanker 03
T04X=Tanker 04
T05X=Tanker 05
T08X=Tanker 08
T10X=Tanker 10
T16X=Tanker 16
T17X=Tanker 17
T18X=Tanker 18
AO01A=US Oiler 01
AO02A=US Oiler 02
O01A=Naval Oiler 01
P01A=Converted Transport 01
P02A=Converted Transport 02
P03A=Converted Transport 03
F01B=Steam Trawler 01
F02B=Steam Trawler 02
F03B=Steam Trawler 03
F04B=Steam Trawler 04

Save the file and then try updating your personnel files in Commander. If there's no difference, try running the game, opening your patrol logs and then exiting and updating personnel files again. If still it isn't fixed, try doing another patrol (mine fixed itself after I'd done a new patrol, I didn't try checking straight after the edit) and then repeat the steps above. At the very least, you will have proper names for the ships in the UI and in game patrol logs, whether it kicks Commander into displaying the additional info or not is something you'll have to report back here for others having the same issues.

[Sailor Steve]

Damo, I see T13B in your list. I doubt it will hurt anything to have a ship in the list that isn't really there, but T13A is the American T-2 tanker and there is no T13B counterpart, as no other nation ever had any.

[Walruss]

Damo, your suggestion did the trick! Had to do a new patrol, but I was planning on heading out tonight anyway :P Just had to give the girlfriend the laptop to play with

Thanks for the help guys

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Robin40

My only duty is to get positive renown points...so I don't sink neutral vessels

As already pointed out, "neutral" vessels in the MFM are not necessarily neutral as many of them are sailing in the rosters of enemy nations. Sinking one of those gives the same reward as sinking a ship that is clearly flying the colors of the enemy. You don't lose renown for sinking a ship sailing for England just because it's unmarked or disguised as something else.

Again, since none of the "neutral" classes are included in the Lite version of the mod, that's irrelevant to you, but it's not irrelevant to folks who are using and discussing and trying to resolve issues with the MFM, and for whom simply uninstalling it and using something else is not an acceptable solution.

[Robin40]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

As already pointed out, "neutral" vessels in the MFM are not necessarily neutral as many of them are sailing in the rosters of enemy nations. Sinking one of those gives the same reward as sinking a ship that is clearly flying the colors of the enemy. You don't lose renown for sinking a ship sailing for England just because it's unmarked or disguised as something else.

Again, since none of the "neutral" classes are included in the Lite version of the mod, that's irrelevant to you, but it's not irrelevant to folks who are using and discussing and trying to resolve issues with the MFM, and for whom simply uninstalling it and using something else is not an acceptable solution.

well...you will know if the sunk vessel is disguised or not after you will gain/lose renown points

I prefer not to risk losing points...that's my opinion...however, clearly anyone can act as he likes

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Robin40

well...you will know if the sunk vessel is disguised or not after you will gain/lose renown points

I prefer not to risk losing points...that's my opinion...however, clearly anyone can act as he likes

Renown rewards can be edited to suit one's style of play and the possiblities added to the game with the use of mods like the MFM.

I currently have the renown for sinking a neutral set to 0, not -1, so I do not lose points for sinking neutrals anyway. The only time I am likely to sink one is if I hit it by accident in a convoy, which would be an enemy convoy so IMO it's already given up any real claim to neutrality. I might change it from 0 to 1 for that very reason.

[Robin40]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Renown rewards can be edited to suit one's style of play and the possiblities added to the game with the use of mods like the MFM.

I currently have the renown for sinking a neutral set to 0, not -1, so I do not lose points for sinking neutrals anyway. The only time I am likely to sink one is if I hit it by accident in a convoy, which would be an enemy convoy so IMO it's already given up any real claim to neutrality. I might change it from 0 to 1 for that very reason.

clearly anyone can act as he likes

[Damo]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Damo, I see T13B in your list. I doubt it will hurt anything to have a ship in the list that isn't really there, but T13A is the American T-2 tanker and there is no T13B counterpart, as no other nation ever had any.

I also run the Community Units mod, which had some of IABL's ships in it. If that particular ship is listed in my englishnames.cfg it's because either it was listed in the MFM mods folders or it was already there in the IABL ships listing that Community Units already entered into Englishnames.cfg. As you say though, having it there even if it doesn't exist in game doesn't seem to cause issues so it's not an issue as far as I can see, I'm just covering all the bases.

Originally Posted by Walruss

Damo, your suggestion did the trick! Had to do a new patrol, but I was planning on heading out tonight anyway :P Just had to give the girlfriend the laptop to play with

Thanks for the help guys

Glad it solved the problem, I wish there was a readme in MFM full that had the required entries, as there is in the Interim. Hopefully people will see my post in future and be able to 'fill in the blanks'.

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I currently have the renown for sinking a neutral set to 0, not -1, so I do not lose points for sinking neutrals anyway. The only time I am likely to sink one is if I hit it by accident in a convoy, which would be an enemy convoy so IMO it's already given up any real claim to neutrality.

I do the same, if I were to accidentally sink a genuine neutral I would think that Bdu would just deny the incident rather than reprimand me for it creating records that could be used against Germany during any possible war crimes investigation.

Originally Posted by Robin40

clearly anyone can act as he likes

That's true, after all you should play the game in a way that entertains you, the individual. As far as the neutrals are concerned, I always check them out regardless of what flag is painted on the side. If they are armed, they are fair game, if not I will surface and approach. If they begin to zig zag and evade, I know they are legitimate targets as true neutrals won't do this in the game. Conversely, if I see a possible neutral in a convoy I will reposition or go as far as calling off the attack if there's a high chance of me accidently hitting it. Although I have neutrals set to 0 renown, I still have a modicum of conscience.