[REL] SH3 Dynamic Campaign 1.2a

[areo16]

SH3 Dynamic Campaign



aka"SH3DC"

Version 1.2a


By Machiavelli and contributors: LGN1, foxidrive, abc0502, mfm4aa and JScones

SH3 Dynamic Campaign gives Silent Hunter III a truly dynamic campaign. This essentially means that when ships are sunk they will no longer appear within the campaign during that patrol or subsequent patrols. Even if they are a generic tanker or if they are a renowned capital ship, they will no longer appear within Silent Hunter III within that specific career. SH3 Dynamic Campaign is career specific, so each career has its own unique ship sinking/removals from the campaign layer. Don't worry, the stock/original campaign files are restored after SH3 Dynamic Campaign is closed. SH3 Dynamic Campaign also has an uninstall function.


Download

Mirror


Changelog:

SH3 Dynamic Campaign v1.2a Features:

• Fixed many bugs
• More “debugging” friendly
• Added bottom status bar for script status
• Added ability to run scripts without running Silent Hunter III.
• Added many other features to inform the user.

SH3 Dynamic Campaign v1.2 Features:

• New front-end graphical interface.
• All in one installer.
• One installation and program for both EASY and ORIGINAL modes
• Table view to view dynamic campaign removed/sunken ship data
• New option to input ship data for removal, after player forgot to mark sinking position on navigation map
• Works now with pre-SH3DC campaigns using the above feature
• Backup file feature
• Crash recovery feature
• Uninstall feature

Official Site: http://hostedgames.yolasite.com/


Installation Instructions:
1. Download
2. Unzip
3. Read the “Instructions.doc” file within the download (this file).
4. Enable the "JSGME - SH3 Dynamic Campaign Mod v..." folder (the folder next to the "Instructions.doc" file) with JSGME. Or copy it and overwrite files in your Silent Hunter III installation folder; your choice.
5. Inside the same folder as “Instructions.doc” there is SH3DC_Installer.exe. Run it. This will run you through the SH3 Dynamic Campaign installation. Follow its instructions to install SH3 Dynamic Campaign. If you have SH3 Commander installed, it will ask you about that too.
6. Once installed, if you selected to have a shortcut created, you can use the shortcut in the Start Menu.
7. Start "SH3DC.exe", or its shortcut, to play SH3 Dynamic Campaign.
8. Enjoy!


(old picture from v1.2)

[areo16]

How to Play SH3 Dynamic Campaign:

Playing with SH3 Dynamic Campaign EASY
SH3 Dynamic Campaign ORIGINAL does everything that SH3 Dynamic Campaign EASY does. EASY only requires that the player marks sunken ships on the navigation map with the pencil tool in-game. No other edits are necessary; not in the Marks.txt file, nowhere! However, the patrol must be saved then reloaded in order for the changes to take effect. EASY mode is best for players who DON'T use the navigation pencil for other purposes.

1. SH3 Dynamic Campaign will launch Silent Hunter III itself. If you wish to play with SH3 Commander, Sh3 Dynamic Campaign will launch it for you; then you launch Silent Hunter III through SH3 Commander. Either way, SH3 Dynamic Campaign should be running in the background as you play Silent Hunter III. Do not close SH3 Dynamic Campaign window when scripts are running. The background scripts will close themselves.
2. In Silent Hunter III, when you sink a ship (right after you sink a ship), mark where the ship sank with the pencil on the navigation map. This should create an "X" on the map with a mark name like "Mark 1", or "Mark 2" etc...
3. Then you can either do “a” or “b” below:
a) Save and exit your campaign. Then reload your campaign in order to see the changes (you don't have to exit Silent Hunter III, just exit the patrol).
b) Or, if you want to wait to the see changes take place at another time, you can continue sailing and save and exit whenever you see fit. But remember, you must save, exit and then reload your patrol in order to see the changes of SH3 Dynamic Campaign.
4. SH3 Dynamic Campaign will update the campaign layers and now you will be playing a dynamic campaign!
5. Have fun and never stop modding!


Playing with SH3 Dynamic Campaign ORIGINAL
SH3 Dynamic Campaign ORIGINAL does everything that SH3 Dynamic Campaign EASY does, but it also requires that you edit "Marks.txt", which is located in the "SH3 Dynamic Campaign\Dynamic Campaign" folder. ORIGINAL is for people who use the navigation map pencil for other purposes in the game, like marking things on the navigation map. "Marks.txt" tells SH3 Dynamic Campaign which pencil marks are sunken ships.
1. SH3 Dynamic Campaign will launch Silent Hunter III itself. If you play with SH3 Commander Sh3 Dynamic Campaign will launch it for you, then you launch Silent Hunter III through that. Either way, SH3 Dynamic Campaign should be running in the background as you play Silent Hunter III. Do not close the SH3 Dynamic Campaign window when scripts are running. The background scripts will close themselves.
2. In Silent Hunter III, when you sink a ship (soon after you sink a ship, so you don’t forget), mark where the ship sank with the pencil on the navigation map. This should create an "X" on the map with a mark name like "Mark 1", or "Mark 2" etc...
3. Then you can either do "a" or "b" below:
a) Save and exit your campaign (you don't have to leave the Silent Hunter III menu) and alt-tab out of Silent Hunter III (or exit it all together). Then open "Marks.txt" within the "SH3 Dynamic Campaign\Dynamic Campaign" folder of your Silent Hunter III install directory. This file is where you must place the name of the in-game navigation map marks where sinkings occurred with the campaign name and the patrol number. Edit "Marks.txt" as follows (assuming your career name is "John Doe", you are on Patrol 4, and you have not sunk any ships in any prior patrols, and the pencil mark of the sunken ship on the navigation map is labeled "Mark 3" in the game):

Career:John Doe
Patrol 4
Mark 3

Ensure that there are no empty lines in Marks.txt, except maybe at the end of the file. Then save "Marks.txt" and reload your career. (Remember, if you exited Silent Hunter III in order to make the edits, you must relaunch SH3 Dynamic Campaign first to play SIlent Hunter III).

b) Or, If you want to wait until you're ready to exit your patrol, so until you exit your patrol you may want to write down the mark name (example "Mark 1" or "Mark 3") to remember what marks are sunk first, and/or what marks are sunken ships (if you use the navigation map pencil for other purposes). If you write down your marks, you don't have to save right away (after your sinking and marking). You may save when you exit your patrol.
After you've exited your patrol open "Marks.txt" within the "SH3 Dynamic Campaign\Dynamic Campaign" folder of your Silent Hunter III install directory. This file is where you must place the name of the in-game marks where sinkings occur with the campaign name and the patrol number. Edit "Marks.txt" as follows (assuming your career name is "John Doe", you are on Patrol 4 and the pencil mark of the sunken ship on the navigation map is labeled "Mark 3" in the game):


Career:John Doe
Patrol 4
Mark 3

Ensure that there are no empty lines in Marks.txt, except maybe at the end of the file. Then save "Marks.txt" and reload your career. (Remember, if you exited Silent Hunter III in order to make the edits, you must relaunch SH3 Dynamic Campaign first to play SIlent Hunter III).

6. SH3 Dynamic Campaign will update the campaign layers, but you must have saved, exited your patrol, then reloaded your patrol (after you've made the necessary edits to Marks.txt) in order to see the changes in Silent Hunter III. Silent Hunter III only loads ships upon initial patrol load and not during the patrol. NOTE: You don't have to exit Silent Hunter III in order to see the changes, but you must have to exit the patrol in order to see the changes. You can, however, edit "Marks.txt" and continue playing your patrol, but you will have to reload the patrol to see the changes. You can, also and as mentioned previously, wait to edit "Marks.txt" while keeping track of your marks on paper, then making the changes later.
7. Have fun and never stop modding!



NOTES ABOUT MARKS.TXT
- Do not place empty lines within Marks.txt, except at the end of the file if necessary.
- You may skip the patrol numbers that you didn't sink any ships in, or had forgotten to mark sunken ships in, or if you are using SH3 Dynamic Campaign mid-campaign.
- The campaign line in Marks.txt must begin with "Career:" (that's the word "Career" then a colon) followed by the career name.
- Lines with patrol numbers must begin with the word "Patrol", followed by a space and then the patrol number.
- The marks should be in the order of which they were sunk. If you are unsure what marks were sunken first, do the best you can. The first ship sank will be the first one written in the in-game captain's patrol log.




THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND ABOUT SH3 Dynamic Campaign:
- SH3 Dynamic Campaign EASY does not require a "Marks.txt" file like SH3 Dynamic Campaign ORIGINAL, and it only requires that the player marks sunken ships on the navigation map with the pencil tool in-game. No other edits are necessary. However, the patrol must be saved then reloaded in order for the changes to take effect.
- SH3 Dynamic Campaign program must be launched every time you launch Silent Hunter III in order for the dynamic campaign to take effect. The dynamic campaign changes will not be made or noticed until SH3 Dynamic Campaign is launched and running in the background of Silent Hunter 3.
- SH3 Dynamic Campaign EASY doesn't have any lesser features than SH3 Dynamic Campaign ORIGINAL, it's just an easier way to play SH3 Dynamic Campaign and only works for players who don’t want to use the navigation map pencil for other things.
- SH3 Dynamic Campaign program has several options to choose from: you can uninstall SH3 Dynamic Campaign, backup files, or do crash recovery. NOTE: if you uninstall SH3 Dynamic Campaign you need to deactivate the mod in JSGME as well.
- You can only see the dynamic campaign changes if you reload your saved patrol after you've marked the sunken ship location.
- Do not close the SH3 Dynamic Campaign window when scripts are running. Background scripts will close themselves.
- If Silent Hunter III crashes prematurely, run SH3 Dynamic Campaign and choose the "Crash Recovery" option to restore Silent Hunter III back to normal.
- Each of your campaigns will have its own unique ships removed from the campaign layers that have been sunk in that campaign. This ensures that each campaign is unique.
- Randomly created ships will not be removed from the game as they are random and not unique/specific ships. Removing them would remove many other ships that were not sunk, so that wouldn't make sense. Those are random and not specific ships.
- SH3 Dynamic Campaign does not alter land or air units, just naval units.
- SH3 Dynamic Campaign will now work on ships sunk in campaigns created before SH3 Dynamic Campaign was installed. You must click on the "Forgot to mark a sinking?" link in SH3DC. Player must know career, patrol, ship class and long. and lat. in meters to remove sunken ship from dynamic campaign.
- SH3 Dynamic Campaign should work with stock and ALL Silent Hunter III mods.
- SH3 Dynamic Campaign creates a backup of your original campaign layers in the "SH3 Dynamic Campaign\Dynamic Campaign\Original Backups" folder within your Silent Hunter III directory. It also makes backups of your EnglishNames.cfg, FrenchNames.cfg and GermanNames.cfg files from your "Data\Roster" folder.
- There is a backup of the SH3 Dynamic Campaign files that you downloaded. These can be found in folder "SH3DC-BACKUP" within the "SH3 Dynamic Campaign" folder in your Silent Hunter III directory.
- If you want to create a new career with SH3 Dynamic Campaign, but without using SH3 Commander, just click on the "New Career" box. The career name you enter must be the exact same as the career name you will enter in Silent Hunter III. Alternatively, you can launch Silent Hunter III and create the career, save it and exit. And then launch SH3 Dynamic Campaign, and it will detect the new career.
- If you want to create a new career and play SH3 Commander you must check the "New Career", enter your career name, and check the "SH3 Commander" box and then click "Start Career" button. You will then create your career in SH3 Commander, while keeping SH3DC running in background, and then launch Silent Hunter III from SH3 Commander.
- SH3 Dynamic Campaign is not programmed to work with single missions because that wouldn't make ****in' sense.
- If you are unsure where a ship sank, estimate. A ship sinks when it is placed within your in-game patrol log and/or you are alerted about the sinking by your crew.
- SH3 Dynamic Campaign is very precise and knows what ship you sank down to the dekameter (10 meters of precision). So if your pencil mark isn't precise, it will still find the ship you sank.






New Careers Non-SH3 Commander
If you want to use a fresh/new campaign with SH3 Dynamic Campaign you must tell SH3 Dynamic Campaign that you'd like to do so. You must check on the "New Career" box and then you must enter the name of your new career. Then, once SH3 is launched you MUST create the career in-game using the EXACT name that you input into SH3 Dynamic Campaign. You can then play that career.
You are welcome to create the new career in Silent Hunter III and then exit it, before launching SH3 Dynamic Campaign, as SH3 Dynamic Campaign will detect the newly created career. If the career is already created, you don't have to check "New Career" box in SH3 Dynamic Campaign.

New Careers with SH3 Commander
If you are using SH3 Commander, SH3 Dynamic Campaign (after you've click the "New Career" box and entered your new career name), click the "SH3 Commander" box and click the "Start Career" button. This will start SH3 Commander (you must keep SH3DC running in the background). Then create your new career in SH3 Commander also, using the same career name. After you've done that you can run Silent Hunter III from SH3 Commander and the SH3 Dynamic Campaign will be working for your new career.
You are welcome to create the new career in SH3 Commander first and then exit it, before launching SH3 Dynamic Campaign, as SH3 Dynamic Campaign will detect that newly created career. If the career is already created, you don't have to check the "New Career" box in SH3DC.

[Sailor Steve]

Sounds pretty cool. Downloading now.

[jaxa]

Never played using this stuff. Could somebody described his opinion about it? Reading instructions it sounds very promising.

[areo16]

Well guys, I've tried to make it as user-friendly as possible. If you run into any bugs there is a script_status.log file that you can post here and I can try to find out your problem.

I designed the whole thing, the frontend and the background scripts. But I couldn't have done it without other people's help, listed above.

Basically, it adds realism by removing ships from the campaign layer.

I've been working on this project for years. Let me know what you think.

[areo16]

I've updated the links guys. So if you downloaded it in the last 24 hours then it will not work for you if you are running a 32 bit version of Windows.

Please reinstall using the latest links if you are not on a 64 bit version of Windows.
Thanks guys.

[areo16]

Originally Posted by BL!TZKR!EG

Congrats on another fine release.

I have made up my mind and will make Front-End support your COOL programme.

Thanks! I'm looking for feedback from users. I want to make sure there are few bugs. I'm getting little feedback atm.

[areo16]

Originally Posted by BL!TZKR!EG

Sure, and understandably: It's summer-time.

Some feedback:

1)
The mirror at 4shared did not work for me: Reason is that it is heavily loaded with unsecure JAVAScripts, I suspect cross-site-scripting and do not allow that. The download @mega worked easy & fine.

2)
I propose to have the MD5Sum listed, it is= b8e1503b1a6d6be860cee001c662150f

3)
I strongly suggest your program and grant you my support. I have therefore included it with the nomenclature and offer a mirror-download at S3A. The link is:


All in all you could have it like this:


Current Version= 1.2a
Filesize= 21.465.064 Bytes
MD5Sum= b8e1503b1a6d6be860cee001c662150f

Mirror #1 - download from MEGA

Mirror #2 - download from 4shared

Mirror #3 - download from S3A


What do you think?

Thanks!

[Coldshot]

Originally Posted by BL!TZKR!EG

Has this happened in the meantime, appreciated friend?
Or how far are you?

I would also really love to know, this seems like a really interresting mod, but it is currently just not working for me

[areo16]

Originally Posted by Coldshot

I would also really love to know, this seems like a really interresting mod, but it is currently just not working for me

Thanks for your support guys.

I am working on the fix. This fix requires memory manipulation so finding base pointers is taking time. But I have found all I need. The next release will be much quicker and much more precise and also require less human work.

Now I need to rewrite what the batch scripts do in C++. This shouldn't take too long.

Btw, can you tell me why the program isn't working for you? Perhaps I can throw in a fix in the next release?

[Coldshot]

Hi Areo, your work is very much appreciated. I hope everything works out for you.


As for why it's not working, i'm not sure, maybe it has something to do with the fact that i have the .exe modified by "HSIE"? But you have said in some previous post that your mod is compatible with any other mods, so i don't really know.

The issue i'm having is that after i installed the mod/software, activated the folder with JSGME, followed everything in the README file; opened the SH3 Commander through the mod and then SH3 on SH3C, i get an error message saying that a "unknown error occurred. The program will be closed" or something like that, and then the Script doesn't run (but the software does not close), when i finished the patrol, saved the game etc; exit the game and look at the software, it registers the patrol (with a "patrol (number)" in a new tab) but doesn't register the sinking (i have tested with the sinking of a HMS Nelson). And it doesn't matter if i uninstall, restart the computer, reinstall etc, i still receive the same error message everytime i try to run the game, so i gave up

I'm gonna provide my list of mods below, in case this helps you.

GWX - Captain America's Officer Icons
GWX - No Medals on Crew
M.E.P v5
Optional - FSF for MEP v5
Optional - ShipVanishingHull for MEP v5
Optional - Stock Reflections for MEP v5
Rbs1_SH4_Effects_GWX_30_71
Torpedo damage Final ver2.0
OLC's Modified Searchlight Beams for GWX3
WB's Renown Replacement
WB's Mission Orders Lite v1.1
LifeBoats&Debris_v4
Rbs3withlifeboat
No Ship Identification
No Ship Spotted Speech
Supplement to V16B1 (JSGME)
GWX3_Stiebler4C_Addon_for_V16B1
EnvSimAct_10



Edit: Oh, and i also need to start the mod after i have completed at least one patrol, if not get an error message saying that a certain file/folder (can not remember which) was not found and the program doesn't run.

[areo16]

Originally Posted by Coldshot

Hi Areo, your work is very much appreciated. I hope everything works out for you.


As for why it's not working, i'm not sure, maybe it has something to do with the fact that i have the .exe modified by "HSIE"? But you have said in some previous post that your mod is compatible with any other mods, so i don't really know.

The issue i'm having is that after i installed the mod/software, activated the folder with JSGME, followed everything in the README file; opened the SH3 Commander through the mod and then SH3 on SH3C, i get an error message saying that a "unknown error occurred. The program will be closed" or something like that, and then the Script doesn't run (but the software does not close), when i finished the patrol, saved the game etc; exit the game and look at the software, it registers the patrol (with a "patrol (number)" in a new tab) but doesn't register the sinking (i have tested with the sinking of a HMS Nelson). And it doesn't matter if i uninstall, restart the computer, reinstall etc, i still receive the same error message everytime i try to run the game, so i gave up

I'm gonna provide my list of mods below, in case this helps you.

GWX - Captain America's Officer Icons
GWX - No Medals on Crew
M.E.P v5
Optional - FSF for MEP v5
Optional - ShipVanishingHull for MEP v5
Optional - Stock Reflections for MEP v5
Rbs1_SH4_Effects_GWX_30_71
Torpedo damage Final ver2.0
OLC's Modified Searchlight Beams for GWX3
WB's Renown Replacement
WB's Mission Orders Lite v1.1
LifeBoats&Debris_v4
Rbs3withlifeboat
No Ship Identification
No Ship Spotted Speech
Supplement to V16B1 (JSGME)
GWX3_Stiebler4C_Addon_for_V16B1
EnvSimAct_10



Edit: Oh, and i also need to start the mod after i have completed at least one patrol, if not get an error message saying that a certain file/folder (can not remember which) was not found and the program doesn't run.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. It should work will all mods including hardcode fixes.

Could you be kind enough and upload your "SH3 Dynamic Campaign" directory here, or send me a link to it via pm. This is the folder inside your SilentHunterIII folder. That way I can make sure my next release fixes this issue.

(Note: I might just release a hotfix just for you on what i have now completed. But I need to make sure what the bug is first)

Thanks.

-areo

[Coldshot]

Sure, as soon as I have time I'll reinstall your mod and send you the folder.

But do not hurry, do everything on your time.

[Kiane]

I have been trying to get this mod to work, but when I click on the "Start SH3 Commander" button on my old career, nothing happens (nothing happens even without SH3 Commander).

When I try to test it out on a new career, I can get SH3 Commander and SH3 running through the DC launcher, but I get an error message, "An unknown error has occurred. The program will be terminated" when the game menu loads up.

None of the ships I sink in either case get recorded (tried to be sneaky and played old career after launching through new one once).

If it's any help, I get the exact same message when I click on the "Run script only" button.



PS: Could you add the German specific letters to your program? My commander has a "ü" character which just shows up as an empty box.

[areo16]

Originally Posted by Kiane

I have been trying to get this mod to work, but when I click on the "Start SH3 Commander" button on my old career, nothing happens (nothing happens even without SH3 Commander).

When I try to test it out on a new career, I can get SH3 Commander and SH3 running through the DC launcher, but I get an error message, "An unknown error has occurred. The program will be terminated" when the game menu loads up.

None of the ships I sink in either case get recorded (tried to be sneaky and played old career after launching through new one once).

If it's any help, I get the exact same message when I click on the "Run script only" button.



PS: Could you add the German specific letters to your program? My commander has a "ü" character which just shows up as an empty box.

Hi Kiane, thanks for the valuable feedback. I need to rerelease my latest path that I've been working on. This should fix most bugs. I will also ensure foreign characters works.

Thanks again for the valuable feedback.