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

[Dani]

In particular, in all cases, if first contact with the convoy is reported late in the afternoon (close to darkness), then the player is always (? - in my experience) ordered to attack alone. Contact reports do not seem to be required during the night in this circumstance.

Less contact reports means also less time is needed to form a pack. About 11-14h,right? Is this limited with time? If this time runs out, no wolfpack can be formed?

If h.sie programmed the pack to attack only at night, maybe the problem is that after your contact late afternoon, the pack don't have time to be formed that night, but also can't be formed (attack) after 11-14 hours because it's day.
So you get only attack orders.

Maybe by unchecking 'less contact report' and playing the harder version, you will be able to send reports in the afternoons, so the pack have enough time to be formed and attack the next night.

English is not my native language, so I hope you understand what I was trying to say.

[h.sie]

After a PM with Stiebler it's clear that his discovery is no problem at all. He told me that he was ordered to attack alone in high storms after several contact reports. This is as intended, because in high storms chance rises that wolfpack can have fuel problems or similar.

So there remain 2 issues I have to look into:

1) High amount of "attack alone" after the 1st contact report (fitzcarraldo)

2) Less lost messages in early war, more lost messages in late war.

[Depth Charger]

[QUOTE=h.sie;1775195]@THOSE WHO MADE NUMEROUS (MORE THAN 20) TESTS:

Hi

I been struggling with something else the last few days and a clean install was needed.

Cant give exact numbers but I have done a few campaigns now starting in June 42 and from there on into 1943, I will get at least 3 or 4 chases out of about 5 or 6 missions. It is odd for me to have a mission where I cannot initiate a chase. It would also be fair to say that I am observing a median of about 80% in the field for being able to start a chase within a mission. It wont be every convoy, but I will find one if I look. (In the AL sweet spot)

Also, in regards comments re lost messages. I would say that about 15% of them are getting lost for me. I am assuming that your range runs to about 70/75 minutes because I have learned that late at night after about 10pm, the attack order will normally arrive and so if it is late, I delay sending the next contact report until I first get the reply to the previous contact report I sent, just in case it is the actual attack order. (I missed one once, only to watch my own party start without me...)

Lastly, turning a chase into a successful attack is about a 50/50 thing for me dependent upon things like when I pick up the convoy's trail, course changes, the weather, or me just being stupid by sending the wrong speed and heading data in the contact report.

So far the balance seems about right for me. As much as, I am loving the wolf-packs, the most important lesson that I am learning is that the workload for an attack is also enormous.

Now that I am used to it, an order to go in straight away and attack alone is just as good as an order to start shadowing the convoy. I would hate it if every convoy I found needed to be tracked for hours and hours and making every other sighting a chase could backfire...

Other than that, oh man, what a pleasure!

Kindest

DC

[h.sie]

@DeptchCharger: Thanks for that detailed report. Anyway, I like the idea to make the probability of lost messages dependent on year.

Your are right to simply wait for the BDU response before sending the next contact report, but it is risky, since response times of more than some hours are possible.

[Rubini]

Hi h.sie,
(excuse me by my english, its worse than ever)

I know that probably isn´t the best moment to give/ask you about new ideas to the hardcode fix mode wish list...but after think about all what you and Stibler have bring to life I come with some ideas (well, i guess that you already have a lot of them, by yourself or by all this entire community at once...). Anyway take a look (I guess that these ones are in the exacty line on what you want/look for: gameplay fixes for the game) and excuse me if someone already put here these ideas:

1. Sh3 allow us to sail all the time with the engines at ahead full/ahead flank without any overheat. I can remember in Sh1 where we had an advice from chief enginner about the risk of overheat after some (not long) time in quick speed. For sure in real life this was (and yet is) a big issue for any machine. So, this could be a very good addition to realism and strategy to Sh3. A simple feature absolutelly absent !

2. Now that you knows how to put a unit into the game - Wolfpack - an old wish of all us here could finally come to life: Resupply on demand, I mean, you can ask to BDU about a resupply and if you are lucky you could have one somewhere. Another idea on the same line, is to just simulate a last chance for a very damaged/without_fuel uboat (perhaps before Stiebler´s surrender, as a prior last chance). In this situation the kaleum could ask BDU for a emergence repair ship; then, if you are a lucky kaleum, perhaps BDu have one on that region where you are almost "lost" on the ocean, take some repair and go back home. Perhaps we could also have some chance (a bad one in truth) to have also a enemy patrol (navy or airforce) nearby to just push the danger factor of repair on ocean.

Thanks again by your great effort on all this! This mod rocks!

Rubini.

[h.sie]

Hi Rubini,

Thanks for your kind words.

Yes, my todo list is growing and growing, and (...weird...) the better my fixes are, the more wishes arise. The consequence from this process is that I will never be finished. Thus, I must set a stop-point somewhere.

The wolfpacks took 4 months, and at the moment I am 100% exhausted. Your wish #2 is very complex to program, similar to the wolfpacks - but ATM I'm not in the mood for complex projects.

Your wish #1 is different. It's not hard to do and a small project. I have already started to program that one some months ago. But it needs some work. This is what I can do in the next time if I feel bored.....

Sorry for not being more cooperative ATM,
H.Sie

[Fish In The Water]

Originally Posted by h.sie

The wolfpacks took 4 months, and at the moment I am 100% exhausted.

Sorry for not being more cooperative ATM...

No need to apologize. We all have to guard against burnout and in your case you've more than earned a little recovery time. Better to slow down now and recharge your batteries so we can all look forward to more wolfpack type projects in the future. Thanks again for all the hard work and take care my friend!

[h.sie]

@Fish:

[Rubini]

Originally Posted by h.sie

Hi Rubini,

Thanks for your kind words.

Yes, my todo list is growing and growing, and (...weird...) the better my fixes are, the more wishes arise. The consequence from this process is that I will never be finished. Thus, I must set a stop-point somewhere.

The wolfpacks took 4 months, and at the moment I am 100% exhausted. Your wish #2 is very complex to program, similar to the wolfpacks - but ATM I'm not in the mood for complex projects.

Your wish #1 is different. It's not hard to do and a small project. I have already started to program that one some months ago. But it needs some work. This is what I can do in the next time if I feel bored.....

Sorry for not being more cooperative ATM,
H.Sie

We all understand mate. I know very well the hard part of be (and to like to be) a modder.

Anyway, at the time (if this time really happens one day) to mod and test the engine overheat and/or the resupply/rescue on demand please contact me and I will be glad in help you with pleasure. I can't stop mod too, I'm always making something on my Sh3.

[Jaeger]

there is one point, hitman pointed out multiple times regarding to the chance of meeting a convoy: in sh3, all enemy shipping has the same noise level. in reality, single merchants made noise in a 20 km radius, a convoy was hearable up to 100 km. this would it make much more easy to find convoys. my idea is: put one shipinto each convoy, which has an louder engine. would this be possible?

[Rubini]

Originally Posted by Jaeger

there is one point, hitman pointed out multiple times regarding to the chance of meeting a convoy: in sh3, all enemy shipping has the same noise level. in reality, single merchants made noise in a 20 km radius, a convoy was hearable up to 100 km. this would it make much more easy to find convoys. my idea is: put one shipinto each convoy, which has an louder engine. would this be possible?

This will not work, Sh3 limits the sound (and all it's live world) to IIRC ~30km (that magic bubble). What can be done is to raise the radio report probability and the frequency of this report to minimize this convoy issue. And this is doable just adjusting these settings on RND. I made this fine tune on my rnd file, the game is much more fun and playable IMHO.

[Robin40]

First mission test

convoy successfully shadowed

wolfpack attacked

Going to career mode....this mod is awesome

Thx hsie

[Jaeger]

Originally Posted by Rubini

This will not work, Sh3 limits the sound (and all it's live world) to IIRC ~30km (that magic bubble). What can be done is to raise the radio report probability and the frequency of this report to minimize this convoy issue. And this is doable just adjusting these settings on RND. I made this fine tune on my rnd file, the game is much more fun and playable IMHO.

Can you adjust the convoy report frequency without touching the single merchant frequency? if so, can you tell me how to do this or release it as a mod? i have a nygm campaign file with zig zag mod by lgn1.

[Rhodes]

Got two situation to report:
1: When sending a patrol report, the reply come back blank. Just "From: BDU, To U-297" but to message to read. Got that 2 times. Since I have WB's Mid-Patrol Radio Orders mod in sh3 commander, I'm thinking that it may some conflit with this but only after I finish my patrol I can disable the mod and see.

2: I lost the sounds of "new message received" when geting one. Can be because of the fixes for SH3?

[Rubini]

Originally Posted by Jaeger

Can you adjust the convoy report frequency without touching the single merchant frequency? if so, can you tell me how to do this or release it as a mod? i have a nygm campaign file with zig zag mod by lgn1.

It´s absolutelly possible and Nicolas (IIRC) released a small tool that changes these(and others) settings on RND. But let´s not hijack h.sie thread, try to open a new thread on the forum about this issue or make a search or contact me by PM.
Let´s return here to help h.sie with our experiences with wolfpack.