[REL] Merchant Fleet Mod for Silent Hunter 3 - Page 83

jaxa · 06-24-15, 07:53 AM

4GB Patch is absolutely necessary for Merchant Fleet Mod, of course with minimum 4GB RAM onboard.

Sailor Steve · 06-24-15, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Narf

Were they old rustbuckets or new ships? Did you have other mods enabled which might have changed things? As bstanko6 already said that might been a big game changer in how much firepower you needed. Did you have critical hits that I don't seem to get anymore (the first encounter log, if you didn't exaggerate things, seems to indicate so)?

Now I'm embarrassed. I don't know the answer to either of those, even though it was me who set my game up. I didn't pay attention to the apparent age of the ships, and the only screenshot I took is too far away to tell.

As for critical hits, I don't know how to change that, so I don't have an answer there either.

On your comment about the 4-Gig Patch, I don't know how you're running the MFM without it. My brand-new PC continually crashed until I installed the patch.

Narf · 06-24-15, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaxa

4GB Patch is absolutely necessary for Merchant Fleet Mod, of course with minimum 4GB RAM onboard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

On your comment about the 4-Gig Patch, I don't know how you're running the MFM without it. My brand-new PC continually crashed until I installed the patch.

Well, somehow, I can do without, evidently. Magic?

But really, I don't know WHY it works, but it does. The PC is on the old side, but it does have 8 gigs of RAM, so it shouldn't actually work. I have no explanation besides the above.

jaxa · 06-24-15, 10:05 AM

Car with 3 wheels can drive, but why do it if with all 4 wheels drives faster and better?
With 4GB Patch your gameplay will be faster, loading time will be faster and probably it will be less possible CTDs than without it.
It's your choice.

hauangua · 06-24-15, 10:25 AM

i narf and welcome in subsim

I am puzzled by what you said but what are the characteristics of your PC? and what Operating System ... 32 or 64 bit

Narf · 06-24-15, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaxa

Car with 3 wheels can drive, but why do it if with all 4 wheels drives faster and better?
With 4GB Patch your gameplay will be faster, loading time will be faster and probably it will be less possible CTDs than without it.
It's your choice.

I have no CTDs at all, my loading times are short (for HDD-based game, short meaning under a minute) and my game is running smoothly even at more than 1024x. So really, when I say everything runs perfectly fine, I mean perfectly fine and not some makeshift BS on crutches.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hauangua

i narf and welcome in subsim

I am puzzled by what you said but what are the characteristics of your PC? and what Operating System ... 32 or 64 bit

Thank you!

The short version of my PC's characteristics:
AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE
8GB RAM
Win 7 64bit
Radeon HD 5770

In case you need more data that I didn't mention here's the full dxdiag:

jaxa · 06-24-15, 11:55 AM

If everything runs well without 4GB Patch I can say only one - congratulations

iambecomelife · 06-24-15, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Narf

So, I recently decided to reinstall SH3 and it only took me two patrols to get tired of encountering only the same half dozen of merchies again and again. So I went ahead and installed your mod. So far, so good. No problems installing and running the game with the mod, the ships show up just fine (although I wish the recog manual had a search function - scrolling through all the ships takes quite long, so I have to tab out and look in the actual mod files to find out what running depth I should set my eels to) and they certainly are one amazing sight to behold. Great work, really!

However, it didn't take to long to notice that the mod also granted all ships an armor plating that is beyond silly. Before installing it, I was able to sink C2's with 7000+ tons in one or two good torpedo hits, in the worst case I had to add another ~20 keel line shots with the 88mm after I screwed up my first eel. Now even a measly 5000 ton freighter will eat 3-4 torpedos (no duds) midships before it even considers sinking, which is a tad too unrealistic for my taste. The cannon has become a pea shooter, too - after hitting one of said freighters with two eels I decided to end it with the cannon, and it took me over 100 shots(!), nearly all water line, before it was destroyed. And even then it just stayed afloat despite being "destroyed". I could understand if it was a hulk after being burned out,the deck shot to pieces and the ship abandoned, but after the hull at and below the water line is turned into swiss cheese?

The critical hit rate has also turned (close to) zero - where I before encountered the occasional nice surprise explosion and breaking-apart of a ship after a single lucky eel or a few shots, now I don't see any of that anymore.

Lastly, the engines are now either made of wet papers, or the AI decides to stop the ship instantly after getting hit. Because any hit now results in the ship stopping in over 90% of the encounters. In one of them I actually hit the bow with the 88mm three times and the ship stopped.

It cannot be an interference of another mod, since it also occurs when this one is the only one active. All of the above is sadly impacting the game to such a degree that I had to turn it off again - I'd rather only encounter the same ships again and again than having all the great ships of the mod but being able to sink only 3-5 of them before the ammunition runs out.
I was a bit surprised to see nobody else noticing this while browsing the thread. Granted, I did not read everything, but at least on the first and last dozen pages I saw nothing of the sort. Is it just me? Perhaps just very odd coincidences? If not and the problems persist, is there a way for me to fix it? Like tuning down the ship's armor or hp, or increasing the damage of my weapons if the the armor changes are across the board?

Fair complaints. - The MFM ships are, in part, the "children" of modified vessels from certain supermods in which the sinking model was adjusted. As a result, some may be hard to destroy.

If you open the Torpedo.zon file with S3ditor, you can increase the damage hitpoints and damage radius of the torpedoes as compensation.

As for shell damage, I feel like taking about 50-100 shells to sink a merchant ship is about right - See the following reports:

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/730.html

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/1318.html

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/730.html

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/2479.html

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/760.html

Narf · 06-24-15, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

As for shell damage, I feel like taking about 50-100 shells to sink a merchant ship is about right

Oh, I totally agree with you there - if we were talking about using only the cannon to sink a ship with non-explosive cargo and without scoring a lucky hit. However, 2 Torpedoes and then 100+ shells is a bit too much for a 5000-tonner.

Thank you for your answer, I will certainly try to find a good balance for the Torpedoes so that they are neither OP nor feel like throwing cheesecake against the bulkhead.

Narf · 06-26-15, 08:09 PM

Another question:
I just finished a patrol in which I hit my first convoy, and a big one at that. Half the convoy was marked neutral, but since they were in an ONS, clearly bound for Britain (wasn't far off the coast either) and they started zig-zagging after my first attack hit one of the hostile ships, I considered them valid targets. Since the convoy was only escorted by two ships, a corvette and a destroyer who ran in front and aft of the convoy I was easily able to sneak up from the side and have a field day, sinking most of the large ships after several attack runs - only that one T3 tanker was one hell of a lucky bastard, escaping destruction because everything fired on it turned out to be duds.

Having returned to port after destruction of more than 60k tons of ships, I expected one hell of a reputation boost from that patrol, only to be awarded my lowest rep turnout I have gotten yet. Those neutrals were clearly considered invalid targets and deducted from the rep count by the game.

So are there any other criteria from which I can deduct whether a neutral is valid or invalid prey?

Sailor Steve · 06-26-15, 08:21 PM

No, there aren't. Neutrals will always bring a minus to your renown.

You can, however, change that yourself. Open your SH3 folder and select Data/Cfg, and open Basic.cfg. You'll find the following right at the top.

[RENOWN]
RenownReachGridObjCompleted=500
RenownPatrolGridObjCompleted=200
CompletedPatrol=100
NEUTRAL=-1
ALLIED=1
AXIS=-10
WrongShipSunk=-5000
FirstRankRenown=1000
SecondRankRenown=3500
EndCampaign=-5000

You can change those values to anything you want. I changed AXIS to -1, since no U-boat captain was ever convicted of a crime for sinking his own merchants, which were usually disguised as Allied ships. I changed Neutral to 0, because while I didn't think I should be penalized for sinking a neutral I also didn't want to make them easy targets.

Narf · 06-26-15, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

No, there aren't. Neutrals will always bring a minus to your renown.

You can, however, change that yourself. Open your SH3 folder and select Data/Cfg, and open Basic.cfg. You'll find the following right at the top.

[RENOWN]
RenownReachGridObjCompleted=500
RenownPatrolGridObjCompleted=200
CompletedPatrol=100
NEUTRAL=-1
ALLIED=1
AXIS=-10
WrongShipSunk=-5000
FirstRankRenown=1000
SecondRankRenown=3500
EndCampaign=-5000

You can change those values to anything you want. I changed AXIS to -1, since no U-boat captain was ever convicted of a crime for sinking his own merchants, which were usually disguised as Allied ships. I changed Neutral to 0, because while I didn't think I should be penalized for sinking a neutral I also didn't want to make them easy targets.

Hm, that sucks

When a neutral is Britain-bound and even part of a convoy, it should always be a valid target. Anything carrying contraband to the Island apes has to go to the bottom of the sea!

I could understand if there was a ban on attacking US vessels to not make them join the war (I'm still in 1940), but anything else should be fair game if encountered in hostile waters.

I guess I'll heed your advise and edit the file. Thank you for the help!

bstanko6 · 06-26-15, 08:46 PM

Iambecomelife is correct on the many rounds it took to sink ships. Otto Kretchmer was a legend in surface night attacks, it took him over 80 rounds to knock out a tanker that was already torped!

Narf · 06-26-15, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bstanko6

Iambecomelife is correct on the many rounds it took to sink ships. Otto Kretchmer was a legend in surface night attacks, it took him over 80 rounds to knock out a tanker that was already torped!

Somehow I doubt that those were two clean torpedo hits midships, and that the tanker was as small as 5000 tons if it can soak up that many hits. Also one has to differ between a singular exception and a general trend. And the general trend I experienced was, as said above, 3-4 torpedoes per ship or two torpedoes and over 100 shots, all of both the torpedoes and shells very good hits, were needed to get a mere 5000 ton freighter to sink. And that, in my opinion, is too much.

desertstriker · 06-27-15, 01:32 AM

I could actually see that for a tanker if only because the way they are designed. After all we are talking about a ship that is designed to carry liquids.

06-24-15, 07:53 AM	#1231
jaxa The Old Man Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Poland Posts: 1,485 Downloads: 413 Uploads: 0	4GB Patch is absolutely necessary for Merchant Fleet Mod, of course with minimum 4GB RAM onboard. __________________ SHIII + GWX 3 Gold + V16B1 hardcode fixes + SH3Commander SHIV + OM + OMEGU SHV + WoS

06-24-15, 10:05 AM	#1234
jaxa The Old Man Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Poland Posts: 1,485 Downloads: 413 Uploads: 0	Car with 3 wheels can drive, but why do it if with all 4 wheels drives faster and better? With 4GB Patch your gameplay will be faster, loading time will be faster and probably it will be less possible CTDs than without it. It's your choice. __________________ SHIII + GWX 3 Gold + V16B1 hardcode fixes + SH3Commander SHIV + OM + OMEGU SHV + WoS

06-24-15, 10:25 AM	#1235
hauangua Grey Wolf Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Verona, Italy Posts: 913 Downloads: 1333 Uploads: 0	i narf and welcome in subsim I am puzzled by what you said but what are the characteristics of your PC? and what Operating System ... 32 or 64 bit __________________ Parked under the balcony with my U-27 waiting Juliet finish makeup

06-24-15, 11:55 AM	#1237
jaxa The Old Man Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Poland Posts: 1,485 Downloads: 413 Uploads: 0	If everything runs well without 4GB Patch I can say only one - congratulations __________________ SHIII + GWX 3 Gold + V16B1 hardcode fixes + SH3Commander SHIV + OM + OMEGU SHV + WoS

06-26-15, 08:21 PM	#1241
Sailor Steve Eternal Patrol Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: High in the mountains of Utah Posts: 50,369 Downloads: 745 Uploads: 249	No, there aren't. Neutrals will always bring a minus to your renown. You can, however, change that yourself. Open your SH3 folder and select Data/Cfg, and open Basic.cfg. You'll find the following right at the top. [RENOWN] RenownReachGridObjCompleted=500 RenownPatrolGridObjCompleted=200 CompletedPatrol=100 NEUTRAL=-1 ALLIED=1 AXIS=-10 WrongShipSunk=-5000 FirstRankRenown=1000 SecondRankRenown=3500 EndCampaign=-5000 You can change those values to anything you want. I changed AXIS to -1, since no U-boat captain was ever convicted of a crime for sinking his own merchants, which were usually disguised as Allied ships. I changed Neutral to 0, because while I didn't think I should be penalized for sinking a neutral I also didn't want to make them easy targets. __________________ “Never do anything you can't take back.” —Rocky Russo

06-26-15, 08:09 PM	#1240
Narf Swabbie Join Date: Jun 2015 Posts: 10 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Another question: I just finished a patrol in which I hit my first convoy, and a big one at that. Half the convoy was marked neutral, but since they were in an ONS, clearly bound for Britain (wasn't far off the coast either) and they started zig-zagging after my first attack hit one of the hostile ships, I considered them valid targets. Since the convoy was only escorted by two ships, a corvette and a destroyer who ran in front and aft of the convoy I was easily able to sneak up from the side and have a field day, sinking most of the large ships after several attack runs - only that one T3 tanker was one hell of a lucky bastard, escaping destruction because everything fired on it turned out to be duds. Having returned to port after destruction of more than 60k tons of ships, I expected one hell of a reputation boost from that patrol, only to be awarded my lowest rep turnout I have gotten yet. Those neutrals were clearly considered invalid targets and deducted from the rep count by the game. So are there any other criteria from which I can deduct whether a neutral is valid or invalid prey?

06-26-15, 08:46 PM	#1243
bstanko6 Admiral Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Murwik Naval Academy Posts: 2,122 Downloads: 390 Uploads: 13	Iambecomelife is correct on the many rounds it took to sink ships. Otto Kretchmer was a legend in surface night attacks, it took him over 80 rounds to knock out a tanker that was already torped! __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] BSTANKO6'S SH5 NAVAL ACADEMY http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPbe...W2NArCA/videos DISCORD https://discord.gg/6tFeTSUmVc

06-27-15, 01:32 AM	#1245
desertstriker Eternal Patrol Join Date: May 2012 Location: mod soup bar and grill Posts: 1,756 Downloads: 998 Uploads: 0	I could actually see that for a tanker if only because the way they are designed. After all we are talking about a ship that is designed to carry liquids.