Realism- and gameplay-related hardcode fixes for SH3.EXE

[LGN1]

Originally Posted by h.sie

@LGN1: Imagine the following situation: A destroyer hunts you without exactly knowing where you are, so he throws depth charges randomly. one of these depth charges causes a little damage of an unimportant instrument, say, the coffee machine. In real life the crew would NOT start repairs, because this would cause noise. But in sh3, the crew would immediately start repairs, so that your position will be known by the destroyer. My idea was to delay the effect of the repair noise on detection probability, so that you have about 1 minute time to look into the damage screen and decide if immediate repairs are really necessary or not. If not, you have time to order silent running.

Best solution would be a dialog like "System damaged, Sir. Should we start repairs? Yes, No, Cancel". But new dialogs are heavy for me, maybe impossible, because they change program flow.

Hi h.sie,

if you have ordered silent-running before getting hit the crew will not start repairing. I guess it's quite sensible that you should be running in silent mode when there are destroyers close As I said earlier, I interpret the silent-running order in the way 'Guys, don't reload torpedoes, don't repair anything, and don't breath too much '

Anyway, I was thinking that a fix without a delay is much easier and would do the same. However, if it doesn't make any difference a time delay is also fine.

Cheers, LGN1

[Magic1111]

Many thanks h.sie for all your fantastic MODs !!!

I use four of your MODs (Bad weather Fix; V15D4; No continuous ship...; ColoredHull...) and I must say, I can´t play without these MODs !

I´m very happy with your MODs and I wish you all the best for your work to make SH3 better and better....

Best regards,
Magic

[Stiebler]

Released: V15D4 for NYGM.

Same as V15D4, but with repair time fix disabled, for NYGM users who have compatibility problems.

h.sie

Thanks very much, H.sie.

Stiebler.

[h.sie]

"and I must say, I can´t play without these MODs !"


@Magic: Thanks very much for feedback! If some guys like you really cannot play without my mods, time has come to think about including DRM.

[coronas]

Same as V15D4, but with repair time fix disabled, for NYGM users who have compatibility problems

Thank you, master!

[Dani]

Released: V15D4 for NYGM.

Thanks!

[Silent Ace]

@H.sie:

Sea water into sections with batteries led to the production of toxic chlorine gas inside the submarine, which would SH3-GWX can be simulated as the rapid growth of CO2.

[Hitman]

Playing a bit yesterday I remembered something else that has been wished for everyone for a long time ago

Would it be possible to change the action to follow when sighting an airplane from "dive to periscope depth" to "crash dive"? (pop-up window that appears 1st time you sight one)

[h.sie]

@LGN1: Regarding: Repairs affect Detection Probability:

I found the memory position and the code responsible for the detection probability (DP). But changing DP manually only changes the colour of the stealth meter (this ugly ship symbol that indicates the DP) but does not change the behaviour of the enemy. So this variable is only for generating output but cannot be used for controlling something.

I found no other DP variable that could be used to control something similar to your initial idea: Simply rise this variable in order to rise the probability that the enemy detects you.

So I looked deeper into the code and found that DP is calculated from 4 variables: One for engines sound level, one for visibility of the Uboat and the other two I don't know. The idea is obvious: I tried to rise the variable that contains the engines sound level in order to simulate repairs sound. But no change of the enemy behaviour. So the situation is clear: These variables also are only for generating output but cannot be used for controlling something.

So I looked one level deeper into the code in order to understand how this engine sound variable is calculated. This search lead me from Sh3.exe into Sh3sim.act which, if I see things right, deals with sound sources and controllers and so on. So I assume, things are much more complicated than just rising a variable in order to simulate repairs sound. I assume one has to add a separate sound source or similar for repairs, but without SDK this is impossible for me.

I think now, detection is a complicated interaction between the enemy ship and your sub and is not controlled by a simple DP variable. I fear to mess around with sound sources and controllers in Sh3sim.act, and I'm very pessimistic that I'll be able to do the job.

BUT: As you wrote above: "I guess it's quite sensible that you should be running in silent mode when there are destroyers close".

That means: If you follow your own rule to order Silent-Running when destroyers are close, there will not be any repairs that could betray your position -> This problem can be solved by discipline.

[LGN1]

Hi h.sie,

thanks a lot for all your efforts! It's a pity that it seems to be so complicated I have only one idea that might be useful: if privateer is right, torpedo reloading increases the DP, so I guess one of the four variables is connected to torpedo reloading (he mentioned RPMs and reloading). Maybe it's possible to trigger the 'status reloading' when repairing ,i.e., abusing the torpedo reloading noise to simulate repairs

Anyway, thanks again for all your efforts so far. Even without the increased DP your work is a huge step forward!

Cheers, LGN1

Concerning your edited comment: You are right as long as you don't have to do repairs. However, as soon as you HAVE to do repairs it's not becoming more dangerous for you (if DP is not increased). In other words, you can easily enforce the 'house rule' that you don't do any repairs during an attack, however, this does not help you in the situation that you have to do repairs and live with the increased sound/risk in real life.

[h.sie]

@LGN1: I'll try to "abuse" torpedo reloading sound for repairs in the next days. maybe easier, since it's perhaps only an ON/OFF flag - we'll see. If that won't work, I'll give up.

@Hitman: Couldn't your "problem" easily be solved by hitting "C" everytime bridge crew reports aircraft? Even simple fixes are hard for me to program and thus I prefer to concentrate on essential bugs/issues.

[Hitman]

@Hitman: Couldn't your "problem" easily be solved by hitting "C" everytime bridge crew reports aircraft? Even simple fixes are hard for me to program and thus I prefer to concentrate on essential bugs/issues.

Well of course, but the standard action is good for when you play a bit away from your computer. Not all players like to stare at the screen seeing the dot move at 256x TC, so I for example like to let the game run and meanwhile classify papers, do some house maintenance, etc. In those situations, the seconds away can mean death if an aircraft pops up

But no problem, I just throw the idea in the air because it could happen that you say "Oh yes I noticed that when looking at the code and it would be an easy 5 minutes fix". If it takes more than those 5 minutes, then as you say it's better to keep your efforts on other more important things

[h.sie]

@LGN1: There is something very irritating regarding silent-running:

In a special adjusted test mission with a destroyer in 2000m distance I fine-adjust engines rpm (without silent-running) in order to have a detection probability of DP=5, which is equal to an orange/brown colour of the stealth-meter. (DP in game is understood as the average number of minutes until enemy will detect you).

This state is very labile, because the stealth meter either has the tendency to get red or green, but that's practical to see, what else affects DP.

Now I shoot one torpedo (which the destroyer seems not to hear). DP is unchanged 5. The crew starts to reload, but the DP is still 5. Now I take all crew out of the bow torpedo room, so that no reloading can be done. DP is unchanged about 5.

Now I order silent-running. DP=1000, Stealth-meter green.

For me that means, that reloads do not affect DP directly.

But ordering silent running does. This I don't understand.

Result: Reload work sound cannot be taken for simulating repair sound.

By the way: DP is calculated from 4 variables. None of these 4 changes if I start/stop torpedo reloading.

[LGN1]

Hi h.sie,

can it be that when you ordered silent-running the rpms dropped and therefore the stealth-meter went green

Concerning torpedo reloads: maybe the sound of reloading cannot be heared at a distance of 2000m

Anyway, my knowledge about the torpedo reloading is just from this comment/post:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...76&postcount=5

It might be good to get privateer into the discussion.

Cheers, LGN1

[LGN1]

I have tested it myself and you're right, h.sie. Ordering silent running even at 0 rpms changes the color of the stealth-meter to green. At least concerning the stealth-meter it seems that the findings in this thread http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...76#post1442676 are wrong Maybe the stealth-meter is more eye-candy in this case

Anyway, it seems that the issue is more involved than I thought. Maybe without further input it's better to leave it alone.

Cheers, LGN1