[REL] FOTRS Ultimate Project

[CapnScurvy]

I've uploaded the work I've been doing for the next Beta to Double R. A new Beta should be out soon.

My latest changes have to do with the remaining crew repeating the "Yes Sir". I had fixed the Officer of the Watch from doing it, but several more crewmen needed the same work over.

The SD Radar will now turn "ON/OFF", giving you the ability to not get a Radar Report of aircraft (especially friendlies) when your surfaced and using Time Compression. You'll be able to turn "OFF" the SJ too, eliminating its reports:



Your watch crew will still report on objects detected (Air / Surface). You can either elect to not fill the Watch Crew slots within the Crew Management Page, or expect them to still report what they see.

The SD will also have a Command Button within the Radar Menu :



The default SD status is "OFF"....you'll have to either use the "T" key to turn it ON, or the above Command Button. The Message Text Box will provide the status as to which mode its in....ON/OFF. The SJ will display its Command Button as above....lite up.

The "Help" menu in-game was revised to mark the changes, plus the Keyboard Layout images are revised too. By all means....make a printed copy to use while playing.

Some changes were made to the U.S. subs regarding their .eqp and .sen files.

Corrections were made to Pearl Harbors friendly traffic. The following had occurred several times during my tests:



I found several plane groups were set to fly too low...100 meters or so, while trying to fly over the island. Not going to happen without a "Boom"! The repaired harbor traffic file is included.

Besides the work we had done previously on the 0.53 version of the Beta, this next release will help in getting us closer to our finish line. Plenty more to do but, you guys give us your opinion to what you notice, and we'll try to fix it!

==================

I just realized that this new, yet to be released Beta has these modified fixes/additions within:

This addition tries to fix the Subs upgrade/refit orders with common date's throughout the equipment inventory. This includes all Conning Towers, the various sensor upgrades, the various sub guns. Dates are to follow a pattern through out the game time period, which I hope will allow for an upgrade/refit with no problems in loss of equipment, or mismatch of equipment.

The crew management was overhauled to allow for correct implementation of crew, and their respective Qualifications. The proper qualified crewmen will be placed in their respective sections...no more torpedo man in the watch area, unless you put him there. Deck Gun crew were enlarged to have 4 men manning the guns. A different Ammunition image was used for the guns, with the added Burst Shell for the Anti-Aircraft shell. Renown will be required to upgrade equipment as the different equipment becomes available, yet if you wish to return to an older/smaller gun, it will be available too.

A correction was made to the stock game Balao Torpedo files that caused two tubes not to be displayed upon an upgrade.

The default Deck Gun will be the Stern 3"50 Caliber for all boats. However at specific intervals you'll be able to upgrade to a 4"50, then a 5"25....choosing either a Stern, or Bow. There are a few exceptions, the Narwhal will only have twin 4"50's; the S-Class will only have Bow mount deck guns, a choice of all three as time allows. There will be an offer to purchase the twin 5"25's after Jan. 1945 for most of the other subs.

The default AA weapon will be the .50 Caliber Browning for all boats (I put it on the S-Class, Start of War Conning Tower). As time allows, an offer to purchase the 20mm's (first the single, then the twin) will come before the 40mm's (single and twin). These upgrades will be purchased with Renown while you're in port.

Additions to the sound file relate to the Burst Shell, plus new "Yes Sir" phrase to eliminate the repeat of the phrase on a given command...a stock game issue.

The camera was corrected to allow for the proper assent/descent of the sub.

I shortened the maximum limit of Time Compression from 8192 to 2048 in the hope of giving the game a chance to come out of a TC without issue. It will require the player to wait a bit longer, but the trade off is to gain in game stability.

By request, I checked and found the Camera Icon on the HUD display to be less transparent then it could be. It should appear brighter now.
Changes to the Early War Conning Towers include a taller platform for the AA guns to "see" over the sides of the tower. The S-Class early war tower will get AA guns.

Changes to the menu.txt and menu_1024_768.ini files were made to reflect the above changes.

I added the Propbeanie "UPCchangeReviewII" to this Scurvy Fix. There was a "Jap_CoastalBattery.mis" file in it, plus a merge with his UPC files with mine. I made some minor changes to s7rikebak's P40 Warhawk to the armament and its "basic" loadout. It will have a bomb and firing wing guns for attack, plus will be located within the U.S. Airbases for use as any other aircraft.

The 40mm Bofor Twin will now work as expected. It was causing a CTD when fired...a stock game issue. That's why the gun was never present in-game....it had some errors that had not been corrected.

Another stock game flaw was not getting the Captain's Log Book to show the complete page at higher resolution...like 1920x1080. It was corrected. The Camera for the Hydrophone/Sonar station was changed to allow a larger viewing area due to it narrowing with a 1920x1080 resolution.

[zeus]

a bug in silent hunter 4. Few climate changes

[Lt commander lare]

Hi i have not encountered any issues as of yet but if u can before the next Beta Release maybe there could be more Lifeguard Duty Missions for the Campaign but thats it for me.

[propbeanie]

CapnScurvy, thank you for including that PH plane fix in there. There are other locations like that too, though not as many mountains around them. I had used the delete key to get rid of some of the planes around Pearl, but hadn't looked at too many of their height settings, though I had reconfigured the routes on some of them to keep them away from that little airfield on Ford Island. For the release after this, I'll add-in the Midway buzzers too. There's a few of them down too low there also.

Originally Posted by zeus

a bug in silent hunter 4. Few climate changes

That has been an issue since day one with Stock SH3 & 4. There is a key press, but I'm forgetting what it is right now... <Ctrl> <N> simultaneiously?... Naw, that's follow nearest warship sound contact in FotRSU... Are you stuck in a storm, or dead calm?... Do you save a lot, and load again? As an example, you play for an hour, save and exit, play another hour the next day?

Traveller had a mod a few years back, and I might look into what all he does for that, and see if it could work in FotRSU, but I do NOT remember if it worked well or not...

Originally Posted by Lt commander lare

Hi i have not encountered any issues as of yet but if u can before the next Beta Release maybe there could be more Lifeguard Duty Missions for the Campaign but thats it for me.

We'll do a little add-on mod to re-activate the SpecOps SubRons, just for you Lt commander lare... I've got two little projects for that, one of which works, and one which doesn't... but I'm taking the hammer to it tomorrow, and the chain saw come Saturday, if it won't bend to my will... I"m not as smooth as CapnScurvy... no where near...

[james_nix]

Here is something I do for my games, I change the UPC files so when I go to battlestations, everyone puts on helmets, except for the sonar guys.

I'm not sure about WWII but when I was in the Coast Guard, we all but on helmets at battlestations regardless of what we were doing. Even if on the bridge and at the helm. The sonar guys had those big Darth Vader helmets that could fit headphones that they don't have in the game.

Maybe something to consider adding to add a touch of jena se quois.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by james_nix

Here is something I do for my games, I change the UPC files so when I go to battlestations, everyone puts on helmets, except for the sonar guys.

I'm not sure about WWII but when I was in the Coast Guard, we all but on helmets at battlestations regardless of what we were doing. Even if on the bridge and at the helm. The sonar guys had those big Darth Vader helmets that could fit headphones that they don't have in the game.

Maybe something to consider adding to add a touch of jena se quois.

The problem is that in WWII nobody wore helmets, even for riding bicycles, with the possible exception of gun crews on deck, and I don't think they wore helmets either.

Sounds like a great plugin mod though! Don't let us forget your idea when we get to the plugin mod stage of development.

[Moonlight]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

We'll do a little add-on mod to re-activate the SpecOps SubRons, just for you Lt commander lare... I've got two little projects for that, one of which works, and one which doesn't... but I'm taking the hammer to it tomorrow, and the chain saw come Saturday, if it won't bend to my will... I"m not as smooth as CapnScurvy... no where near...

What's needed is a takeaway mod propbeanie, I've just finished my 4th patrol with the 0.54 version and 3 of them were either stick an agent on the Japanese mainland or insert some soldiers on the Japanese mainland.

Some of the members might like these kind of missions but I'm not one of them, a mod to reduce these to 1 every 2 years would be a good idea me thinks.

Edit, what would be really useful is a Uzo button on the Deck gun menu group so you can get range to target.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by Moonlight

What's needed is a takeaway mod propbeanie, I've just finished my 4th patrol with the 0.54 version and 3 of them were either stick an agent on the Japanese mainland or insert some soldiers on the Japanese mainland.

Some of the members might like these kind of missions but I'm not one of them, a mod to reduce these to 1 every 2 years would be a good idea me thinks.

Edit, what would be really useful is a Uzo button on the Deck gun menu group so you can get range to target.

We could probably edit those specops missions to fall within a smaller time period for each one, and that should reduce their occurance, but that will be for a later version. 54 should be on the stove, not to a simmer yet, in fact, all the ingredients probably aren't in... Let me try to run through all of those Insert missions real quick and close that up...

I don't know about doing a range-finder on the gun. Way beyond my skill level. As I'm coming up, I lock the periscope on the target and let the crew do the dirty work and get wet with the ocean spray... or, if I do some fun-time myself, I try to remember to look at the range in the periscope or TBT prior to going to the gun. I usually forget, and have to go back again, which is why I usually leave it to the crew. 'Course I use the deck gun very seldom anyway...

Originally Posted by propbeanie

We could probably edit those specops missions to fall within a smaller time period for each one, and that should reduce their occurance, but that will be for a later version. 54 should be on the stove, not to a simmer yet, in fact, all the ingredients probably aren't in... Let me try to run through all of those Insert missions real quick and close that up...

I don't know about doing a range-finder on the gun. Way beyond my skill level. As I'm coming up, I lock the periscope on the target and let the crew do the dirty work and get wet with the ocean spray... or, if I do some fun-time myself, I try to remember to look at the range in the periscope or TBT prior to going to the gun. I usually forget, and have to go back again, which is why I usually leave it to the crew. 'Course I use the deck gun very seldom anyway...

There is a command Ctrl-V which gives range to nearest visible target. Well, that's what I use on my laptop keyboard but I think it is in TMO.

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by keltos01

I usually back up at the time of launch to prevent hearing those metal crunching sounds.. and flipping the raft..

My experience is that the raft flips immediately after launch, almost without fail, except when the sea is like glass (a very rare occurrence).

[DicheBach]

I was led in here by a link by propbeanie, so humor me while i try to get my bearings . . .

Is this like . . . "one of the best overhaul/realism/detail" type modes for SH4+Uboats?

(I own both from Steam purchases: Silent Hunter 4 and "Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific U-Boat Missions").

BTW, what "engine" is this game developed in?

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by CapnScurvy

I shortened the maximum limit of Time Compression from 8192 to 2048 in the hope of giving the game a chance to come out of a TC without issue. It will require the player to wait a bit longer, but the trade off is to gain in game stability.

While I agree there are times when the stability might be affected by too much TC, especially on return trips to port after a long mission (large save file, I presume) or by equipment that cannot handle all the activity, this is not the case for the majority of game play time. I'm thinking an arbitrary maximum setting for TC is a joy killer for those who can handle a higher TC and navigate the large empty ocean in good (real) time. I have tried running a patrol with no more than 2048x and it literally drives me nuts!

Is there any way you can either give the user the option to limit TC, whether by eliminating the artificial max of 2048x, or by a plug in mod? Thanks for your consideration of this request.

[torpedobait]

I made a couple of minor notes to pass on to the Mod Team, but first a shout out for improving the load time. That probably goes unnoticed by many, because we tend to take a reasonable load time for granted, but comparing current load times to TMO for example, shows the tremendous improvement in FOTARSU. Thanks a bunch for that one!

1. A small item for a future update is the description for the Balao. The ship designation is missing. It currently reads "USS Balao" wherever you look. It should read "USS Balao (SS-285). I know what it is because I looked it up enough times on Wikipedia to have it memorized, but it would be nice to have it in the game too.

2. The problem of crew shouting hysterically after the sub takes damage is another joy killer. No matter the state of repairs, the crew continues to shout all the way back to port. Makes you want to toss one or two overboard until the rest get a grip!

3. Something else related to damage is the spraying water in the control room. That sound continues even after all repairs are completed. I'm guessing that is in the game software, though, and may not be fixable. But just in case, there it is.

Keep plugging away at guys. I love what I'm seeing (and using).

[JoeSnow]

I've located the files for my sonar mod and Campaign_RND. Looking at them I realized I never finished the campaign and stopped at the end of 44. If my skippers live that long, they retire --not much left to do/sink as 45 rolls on. It'd be easy to finish that up though.

My mission editor isn't working atm and I'm not sure what's going on there. Are you all using the stock editor in SH4 directory? I want to be on the same page as much as possible.

If someone wants to PM me a link to upload these files I can do it this weekend. I'll also include a couple test missions with the sonar mod that are simple setups.

Cheers!

[cdrsubron7]

Originally Posted by DicheBach

I was led in here by a link by propbeanie, so humor me while i try to get my bearings . . .

Is this like . . . "one of the best overhaul/realism/detail" type modes for SH4+Uboats?

(I own both from Steam purchases: Silent Hunter 4 and "Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific U-Boat Missions").

BTW, what "engine" is this game developed in?

First, welcome aboard, Dichebach. Happy to have you with us.

To answer your first question, yes. that is what we're hoping to accomplish. Right now with the Beta release FOTRSU is still a work in progress. The best way to find out is d/l the latest release and give it a try and see for yourself.

As for what game engine is used in SH4 I don't really know, but considering the game is 10 years old, the graphics are still quite good.