[REL] FOTRS Ultimate Project

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by adrians69

Is this mod compatible with Operation Monsun, or does that not affect it? Thanks in advance!

Neither is compatible with the other, since they share quite a few files that are edited differently in each mod. This is where MultiSH4 can be one of your best friends. You have several installs of SH4, one for each of your favorite mods, and use MultiSH4 to write to a different Save folder for each mod, which effectively keeps the mods 'segregated'...

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

... Planes shouldn't be attacking you with deadly precision after seeing you almost from the horizon and we know that...

There might be a relatively easy way around some of the floatplanes being so strong, in that the CrewEfficiency setting for the spawning ship might influence how fast, strong & accurate the planes' response to a detected player's sub is. Experiments along those lines will commence shortly...

[RampantParanoia]

I was harbour crawling around the Marshall Islands and I found a ship spawned inside another ship - an Old Fast Merchant and a Fast Merchant in Kolonia (158 11' E 6 58' N, 26th Dec 1941). I'm on my first patrol in a Tambor, let me know if you need any more information.

Pictures -

 

[CapnScurvy]

Regarding the Gar and its Hydrophone, I've got it fixed. The older Gar followed the Gato, but since we put it into a folder by itself the Gar had to have it's own Hydrophone setup.....it will when we want to release the "Fix". The mouse or Home/End keys will move the Bearing Dial now.

I'm also looking at the Help (F1) file and found some things that was keeping it from displaying all the keyboard assignments that the file actually contains. A whole section was missing from the in-game Help file.

Speaking of this, the "I" key will now take you directly to the Torpedo Management page. FOTRS had the "I" key assigned to the "Submarine System" which is the page for the various "equipment damage control" of the submarine. Not surprising this is how the Stock game had it!

[RampantParanoia]

Originally Posted by CapnScurvy

Speaking of this, the "I" key will now take you directly to the Torpedo Management page. FOTRS had the "I" key assigned to the "Submarine System" which is the page for the various "equipment damage control" of the submarine. Not surprising this is how the Stock game had it!

Pressing "I" is still taking me to the "submarine system" page in 0.71 :/

[propbeanie]

Excellent news Capn!

Originally Posted by RampantParanoia

I was harbour crawling around the Marshall Islands and I found a ship spawned inside another ship - an Old Fast Merchant and a Fast Merchant in Kolonia (158 11' E 6 58' N, 26th Dec 1941). I'm on my first patrol in a Tambor, let me know if you need any more information...

Date - if you have it - would be very helpful, though I'm reasonably certain which files to look in, and there are only five layers to look at. Hopefully, this is just something I overlooked when bringing other people's work into the game, and isn't that dad-blamed Jap_HarborTraffic file loading again...

Edit: I may have found it, if you are between December 8th, 1941 and February 28th, 1942, in that one of the ships there is set to start spawning on January 1st, 1938, with a chance of a new ship every 200 hours at a 50% rate... where's my calculator... (smoke fire explosion confusion)... That is 35,040 hours, which would be 175 chances, which is 87 definite chances at a spawn, so it wouldn't surprise me to see some doubles early in the game... Even if this is the wrong time period, the fix will be with the next version release. This is the kind of stuff that helps us make this mod better!

Originally Posted by RampantParanoia

Pressing "I" is still taking me to the "submarine system" page in 0.71 :/

That's what I'm getting also, in a Tambor, Salmon, & Narwhal...

[RampantParanoia]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Date - if you have it

December 26th 1941.


Glad I'm not the only one getting the wrong screen haha!

[propbeanie]

Thanks, RampantParanoia... as I suspected... So, all of the 41a files have to be checked and edited... sheesh. something simple, something missed...

[cdrsubron7]

Got my first look at one of the new Japanese AI submarines. The Sentaka-Dai Type Fast Submarine.






It sinks real nice also.

[yyzBegonia]

Just ask about it, when we'll get "custom" plugins? I just can't wait for CapnScurvy's OTC for this!

[torpedobait]

Found out the hard way not to ignore a destroyer that is charging in your direction but not straight on. Happened to use the external camera to check relative positions and found a spread of six torpedoes coming my way! They didn't sink me, but one did hit my bow causing severe damage and limiting my ability to go deep. Be careful, gentlemen, very careful.

On an amusing note, a bit later I was running directly at a Mogami class that I had crippled, thinking I'd go underneath her and unleash at least one stern torpedo to finish her off. I checked the underwater view to ensure I had enough clearance only to see six torpedoes stream past me. Two of them toasted the Mogami, robbing me of the kill points. That said, it was cool to see the Japs take out one of their own.

On the whole, so far things are much harder in the new release. If trying to intercept the Lingayan Gulf invasion fleet you will come to an early demise if you try to get in close. The escorts are brutally efficient at sniffing you out, and difficult to evade. It can be done, but at the expense of staying too far from the real targets to be an effective killer. Discretion is called for. I've lost three boats/careers so far with little to show besides two small passenger carriers and one Takao class cruiser. I've started a fourth career, but will put it off until tomorrow. The frustration of losing previous boats affects my decision skills, so I'm letting it rest overnight.

I'm loving this new release. You guys have done magnificent work!

[Larrywb57]

On my second patrol out of Pearl Harbor with a porpoise class submarine, orders to go to the Marshall Islands for patrol for five days. Upon arrival to the objective star on the navigation map, noticed a lot of aircraft with pylons. Discover a seaplane tender inside the lagoon near by the star on the map. Got inside the lagoon, setting up an attack run on the warship which was ID as a 'Seaplane Tender Chituse class'. The weather was not the best to stay hidden in shallow water, fifteen meter waves, light fog and no precipitation. Before launching torpedoes, the warship sunk. Only thing left was a red symbol on the navigation map. A day or so later, still noticed a lot of float planes in the area. After reconnoiter the area around the lagoon, discover another seaplane tender, ID as same class of ship in the exact position and in the same orientation as the sunken warship earlier. After seven torpedoes, which three detonated before reaching the target, only thing above water was the bow of the warship. Later in the patrol, still noticed a lot of float planes patrolling during daylight hours forcing the submarine under to avoid detection. Once again another seaplane tender of same classification was in the same location as the other two warships. With map contacts on, the black dot was sitting on top of the red icon of the sunken ship. Warship was sunk after four torpedoes hitting the target. Left the area after the objective was complete and low on fish, checked the captain log to discover that no listing of sunken ships.

Location: Long 162°E. 20'N Lat 11°24'N. And/or 2649.0 nm from Pearl Harbor at a heading of 255°.
Date: February 16, 1942.
Included is a picture of navigation map, thanks to Propbeanie for his help.

 

Great job FOTRS Ultimate, enjoying every moment of this awesome mod. One question, using nothing but the v0.71 edition. Can the mod Big Better Protractors be used. Hard to see the numbers on the map compass with these old eyes!

Larry

[CapnScurvy]

Originally Posted by Larrywb57

Can the mod Big Better Protractors be used. Hard to see the numbers on the map compass with these old eyes!

Larry

Good question, and worth answering. I'll check!

Originally Posted by yyzBegonia

…………... when we'll get "custom" plugins? I just can't wait for CapnScurvy's OTC for this!

My next couple of issues with the mod come first:

1. AI Sensor modifications...... after "verifying" that what they read is what you get? In other words, checking to see if a 1000 yards maximum range is truly a 1000 yards range? I've got my suspicions that it is not and that's why the AI (game controlled units) Visuals, Sonar, Radar, Hydrophone are producing superhuman tendencies in-game. Not that a little of this is all bad but, I want more realistic game play.

2. To go along with the above, the player controlled Hydrophone is going to miss 80% of the contacts you'll run across when using the Hydrophone yourself. The subs Sonar man picks up the contact just fine, the player however, won't hear a thing. This is a known issue and it's been around since day one of the game. Few know that it isn't due to the subs Hydrophone performance, but rather it's caused by each AI ship units performance parameters (engine_RPM; Engine_ power). THIS is the key area that effects how well you "hear" a contact with the Hydrophones. And, it's been perpetuated by modding these figures to cut out the "jack rabbit" acceleration of many of the AI ships!! Talk about one thing leads to another.....here's a good example of it! My plan is try to get both engine performance and Hydrophone operation to work together, providing both with realistic behavior.

If I can accomplish these "yet to be done" tasks...….OTC is coming.

Larrywb57,
I’ve been using this mod for months without any perceived issues.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by Larrywb57

On my second patrol out of Pearl Harbor with a porpoise class submarine, orders to go to the Marshall Islands for patrol for five days. Upon arrival to the objective star on the navigation map, noticed a lot of aircraft with pylons. Discover a seaplane tender inside the lagoon...
Location: Long 162°E. 20'N Lat 11°24'N. And/or 2649.0 nm from Pearl Harbor at a heading of 255°.
Date: February 16, 1942.

Great job FOTRS Ultimate, enjoying every moment of this awesome mod. One question, using nothing but the v0.71 edition. Can the mod Big Better Protractors be used. Hard to see the numbers on the map compass with these old eyes!

First, Bigger Better Protractors should work fine with v0.71 - second, looking into excessive spawning of the Seaplane Tender. I'm wondering if maybe it doesn't have enough water beneath it where it spawns, which messes up a correct spawn, but not enough to stop the planes...


Edit: OK, Larrywb57... excellent report. This is partly due to what RampantParanoia observed the other day, in that when I split the Jap_HarborTraffic file into 6 parts, to follow the rest of the different layers, I left the original 19380101 start dates in the file. Like I quoted above: "That is 35,040 hours, which would be 175 chances", but this RGG is set to spawn at a 90% rate... sheesh, there could be 157 of those ships spawned between 19380101 and 19420228. Thankfully, there was a "limiter" set to six - which is now "1" (one) anyway, besides moving the Start to 19411115 and moving to slightly deeper water... What would happen Larrywb57, is that each time you'd go outside the spawn area, the game would run the same algorithm for a new spawn, and since it made one before at 90%, it's most likely going to do it again... Which brings up another point, like Eddie Money says - ya wanna go back, but ya can't... NEVER go back - it just confuses the game... and whatever you do, don't climb on the keyboard rack...