[REL] Depth charge water disturbances

[makman94]

FANTASTIC mod TDW !!!!!!

what a big 'surprise' when i read the OP ! is it only me that i have the feeling that mods like this ( and the ones from H.Sie-Stiebler ) are opening the new 'age' on sh3's modding ??
one major thing that is missing from sh3 is the 'clever' AI (i mean...to get rid of this 'stupid' zig-zag on their main course without changing course at all).TDW,you think that there is something that can be done on this area ??

@TDW : congratulations also for your mod with the ship's damage by fire
when you want...you are a real 'storm' in modding ! sh3 ....definetely 'miss' you

[Chubster]

Originally Posted by Magic1111

Hi WB !

Very interesting, but one question: Should we use / activate both MODs in SH3-Commander together or only one of them ?

Best regards,
Magic

Ok at the risk of getting flamed here....what am I missing. I keep seeing references of installing mods via SH£ Commander - How do I do that then ?

No mention of it in its manual ?

[frau kaleun]

The Date, Flotilla, Uboat, and Random folders included in your Commander installation can be used to make Commander enable mods into your game based on the in-game date, the flotilla you're in, the boat you're playing, or at random.

If you make a folder in the Date folder and name it 19410101, for instance, and then put a mod's 'data' folder in it, Commander will write that mod's files into your game when the game is launched but only if the in-game date is on or after Jan 1 1941.

The Random function is a little more complicated to set up, but it can be used to enable different versions of the same mod or file into the game at random every time you launch SH3.

It's referred to, albeit briefly, on page 19 of the Commander user guide.

[slipper]

Could someone please suggest a program to open the dat files with please? i would like to try adjusting a few values for myself just as a trial if possible.

regards

slipper

[Fish In The Water]

Originally Posted by slipper

Could someone please suggest a program to open the dat files with please? i would like to try adjusting a few values for myself just as a trial if possible.

regards

slipper

S3D - Silent 3ditor

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=119571

Or, if the link isn't working there, you should be able to get it from the 'download' section of his homepage:

http://s3d.skwas.com/

Have fun!

[slipper]

Thanks a lot, much appreciated

regards

slipper

[LGN1]

Hi,

I made some small tests and it seems to me that the mod is not fully working as intended. It would be great if someone could try to confirm my findings to figure out whether it's a problem with my installation or with the mod.

I took a single Black Swan without any ASDIC and put it in the campaign SRC file. Then I started a campaign and closed to 1000m to the Black Swan without being detected (with silent running the Black Swan does not detect you). I increased my speed to full ahead and the Black Swan started to attack me. After the first depth charges, I turned on silent running again (became 'invisible' again), and started my stop watch. Exactly after the 'Lost contact time' in sim.cfg the Black Swan stopped searching although I set the lifetime of the 'Bold' to 10min and the last depth charges exploded only 3min before (I set the lost contact time to 10min, too).

From testing a real bold with noise I know that the Black Swan reacts to the noise setting.

After turning on the bubbles in the mod, I saw that they vanish quite quickly, although the bubbles from a 'real' bold stay for the whole lifetime of the bold.

My suspicion is that the lifetime of the 'depth-charge' bold is somehow determined by the lifetime of the effect in particles.dat that spawns the bold

Anyway, it would be great if someone else could confirm these findings and if true, I hope we can improve this excellent work from TDW!

Cheers, LGN1

[LGN1]

Hi again,

I did some further testing. By increasing the life time of the 'bold-spawning' effect in particles.dat, I could force the 'bold' bubbles to stay for several minutes. However, I still could not observe any difference in the behavior of the Black Swan It seems to me that the created 'bold' does not work properly

Can anyone describe a test/set-up where you can observe a clear difference between using the mod and not using it?

I get the feeling that Rubini's comment in the 'ship damaged by fire' thread is still the problem:

Originally Posted by Rubini

... Later I understood why/the sutil difference: Sh3 manage differentely objects that are made for player use (torpedos and bolds are good example) in contrast with others objects like bombs, DC, etc.

In others words, a full working virtual torpedo or a full working virtual bold are both yet impossible to we handle without SDK.

So, no dice with DC making noise/disturbance until now!

Cheers, LGN1

[Rubini]

Hi LGN1,

I made that commentary because that time I tried a similar approach that TDW made but without success - i get CTD in truth.

TDW approach fixed the CTD problems and in my tests (they were not a deep tests, I need to say this) seems that the mod works. It´s difficult to test (it´s a bit subjective the measurement of success on this particular mod) because the DD/AI behaviour is also influenced by others factors.

What I could observe is that with that settings that I suggested posts above it´s a bit more easy to see the results. But by the exposed above i´m not sure, perhaps others factors were influenced my results.

The noise setting on the mod is a good point to investiagte too. On the sh3 files its =0, we are trying to set it to =0,5 but I guess that nobody have sure if it works or not yet. If i have new inputs on the matter I will post here.

And just to comment: the damage by fire mod really works, I have tested it a lot and it´s flawless and totally customizable by the player.

PS: I always tested the dc/bold mod with the u505 SM where we have a lot od DCs and DDs over you. Perhaps the disturbance is too small to affect a only one DD behaviour with only few DCs exploding over you?

[TheDarkWraith]

If you really want to see if it's working or not (and it is) set the size to some ridiculously large value and set the time to some ridiculously large value.

[Wreford-Brown]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

If you really want to see if it's working or not (and it is) set the size to some ridiculously large value and set the time to some ridiculously large value.

And test it in 1945 when DD's are all over you like a rash!

I'm happy that it works and very grateful to TDW for creating this mod.

[LGN1]

Hi all,

thanks for replying!

Originally Posted by Rubini

It´s difficult to test (it´s a bit subjective the measurement of success on this particular mod) because the DD/AI behaviour is also influenced by others factors.

The noise setting on the mod is a good point to investiagte too. On the sh3 files its =0, we are trying to set it to =0,5 but I guess that nobody have sure if it works or not yet. If i have new inputs on the matter I will post here.

And just to comment: the damage by fire mod really works, I have tested it a lot and it´s flawless and totally customizable by the player.

Because it seems to be quite subjective I would like to have a definite test set-up to find good parameters. I tested a non-zero noise on a regular bold and it works fine.

I do not doubt that the damage by fire mod works. However, as far as I know it does not use any object only used by the player (like a bold and torpedo).

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

If you really want to see if it's working or not (and it is) set the size to some ridiculously large value and set the time to some ridiculously large value.

I did that and could not see any effect. The 'new' bold definitely works differently from a 'real' bold. Could you please give an exact set-up in which I can see/reproduce that it's working. I do not want to 'attack' your work in any way, I'm glad about what you achieved so far. However, I think it still needs work.

Originally Posted by Wreford-Brown

And test it in 1945 when DD's are all over you like a rash!

I'm happy that it works and very grateful to TDW for creating this mod.

Again, please describe a clear situation where you can observe a reproduceable difference with and without the mod. Not just 'it feels differently' or 'I ran a mission once and observed...'

Cheers, LGN1

[LGN1]

Hi,

as recommended by TDW, I tried the U505 mission with noise=10000, lifetime=60, and surface=10000. Even with these settings, I couldn't see any obvious effect. Although the escorts dropped many depth-charges they always knew where I was

After adding 'bold bubbles', I observed again that they vanished after a few seconds.

Can anyone confirm this? Or am I the only one testing this mod/trying to find out good parameters

Cheers, LGN1

[Rubini]

Originally Posted by LGN1

Hi,

as recommended by TDW, I tried the U505 mission with noise=10000, lifetime=60, and surface=10000. Even with these settings, I couldn't see any obvious effect. Although the escorts dropped many depth-charges they always knew where I was

After adding 'bold bubbles', I observed again that they vanished after a few seconds.

Can anyone confirm this? Or am I the only one testing this mod/trying to find out good parameters

Cheers, LGN1

I'm playing the hole game again since 1939 (well, I'm at middle 1940 now)...when I enter 1943 and above I will have more time to test the matter. Then I will post my finds here.

[Wreford-Brown]

Originally Posted by LGN1

Hi,

as recommended by TDW, I tried the U505 mission with noise=10000, lifetime=60, and surface=10000. Even with these settings, I couldn't see any obvious effect. Although the escorts dropped many depth-charges they always knew where I was

After adding 'bold bubbles', I observed again that they vanished after a few seconds.

Can anyone confirm this? Or am I the only one testing this mod/trying to find out good parameters

Cheers, LGN1

I'm definitely not doubting what you're saying, but this is a mod that will need extensive testing by a large number of players before we'll have some verifyable stats as there are so many variables that effect how DDs hunt.

The parameters you set would have created a bold effect that was 10km wide for an hour and the escorts could have been dropping into that 10km bubble (which just happened to be on top of you) or maybe the bubble was just too wide, watering down the effect? I'm assuming that you were using your usual avoidance procedures (depth and direction changes) and the DDs were still tracking you.

When I've used TDWs stock settings and been hunted by DDs they have tended to drop depth charges behind me, where they originally dropped them. I'm assuming that they have detected the bold effect of their first drop and then continue to hammer the same area creating further bold effects.

I'm happy that the mod is working for me but will admit that there is a possibility that it is just a psychological advantage. As far as I'm concerned, even a psychological advantage is an advantage and given that TDWs other mods do exactly what they say on the tin I've got no reason to doubt this one.

I'm not conducting bespoke testing as I'm just trying to enjoy my career but I'll keep reporting in as I find other occasions where this mod either works or doesn't.