Help with modifying aircraft please.

[CybaGirl]

Can someone please let me know how I can go about modifying the aircraft in SH3?

As in what files do I need to edit or change to do the following:

1. Change the year in which the aircraft becomes available.

2. Harder or easier to shoot down.

3. More deadiler or less deadlier to the U-Boat in their attack.



If someone would be kind enough to let me know how I go about all of this I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks..

[bigboywooly]

Ah Cybagirl

Ok
1,Open C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\data\Roster\British\ Air and pick a aircraft
Say Mosquito

[UnitClass]
ClassName=FBMosquito
UnitType=301
AppearanceDate=19410615 <---Alter this date
DisappearanceDate=19480101
DisplayName=BR FB Mosquito

[Unit 1]
Name=BR FB Mosquito
DOC=19410615 <-----Alter this date to match the one you changed above
DOD=19480101

The aircraft still wont show unless you add them to airbases though :nope:

C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\SilentHunterIII\data\Land pick an airbase
Say LAB_LargeAirBaseGB - open the cfg

[AirGroup 1]
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19401231
Squadron1Class=LBAN03
Squadron1No=2
Squadron2Class=LBSSunderlandMKIII
Squadron2No=1
Squadron1Class=FBMosquito<--- New section added to include your earlier aircraft
Squadron1No=2

Whatever aircraft you choose to show earlier needs to be done this way

2, You can either make the aircraft weaker\stronger or the AA Shells weaker\stronger
I believe you can use the minitweaker for this

3, For this you will need to alter the crew rating of the airbase you want
Open up the campaign_lnd in the mission editor and search for the airbase you want to change

Example in pic is Belfast

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2958/screenhunter1833dc.jpg

In the drop down menu pick a rating and OK
When you have finished all your changes choose the "save land units layer as "

Alternatively open the lnd in notepad and manually lower\raise them through there

Hope that helped
:rotfl:

What exactly are you trying to do and where ?
And what mod ? or Stock :o

[CybaGirl]

Hello Bigboywooly, and thank you very much for your help :).


Ah Cybagirl


2, You can either make the aircraft weaker\stronger or the AA Shells weaker\stronger
I believe you can use the minitweaker for this


Do you know where I can get this minitweaker from? Also is there a way to modify these settings in notepad and if so where are they located and in which file?



Hope that helped
:rotfl:

Yes great help thanks very much :).


What exactly are you trying to do and where ?
And what mod ? or Stock :o
At first I was trying to figure out how to bring the Sunderlands into the game earlier :).

I also have a mod called Airpower 1.4c HT but the dam planes always kill me when I enabled this :cry:. So I would like to know how to modify the planes in this mod so they don't kill me all the time and I can enjoy the other benefits of this mod :).

I am also running SH3 with many mods enabled with JSGME. I guess you could say that I am modding and playing the game to my own taste. Once I have finished playing the game this time around. I intend on giving Grey Wolves a go.

I would also like to learn more about modding the game. So this is another reason why I asked this question :).

Oh and one more thing if you dont mind helping me further :).

Can you please tell me if one mod (Float Planes Mod) had the following listed in the LAB_LargeAirBaseGe.cfg file which is highlighted:

[AirGroup 2]
StartDate=19400602
EndDate=19451231
Squadron1Class=DBJU87Stuka
Squadron1No=16
Squadron2Class=LBJU88
Squadron2No=16
Squadron3Class=FBMesserschmittBF109
Squadron3No=12
Squadron4Class=LBSArado
Squadron4No=10
Squadron5Class=LBSFW200
Squadron5No=8


But another mod (Airpower 1.4c HT) used a different setting in the LAB_LargeAirBaseGe.cfg file as shown highlighted:

[AirGroup 2]
StartDate=19400602
EndDate=19451231
Squadron1Class=DBJU87Stuka
Squadron1No=6
Squadron2Class=LBJU88
Squadron2No=6
Squadron3Class=FBMesserschmittBF109
Squadron3No=4
Squadron4Class=LBSFW200
Squadron4No=2

As you can see in this example Squadron4 is using LBSFW200 in one mod (Airpower 1.4c HT). Where as in the other mod (Float Planes Mod) it is using the LBSArado at number 4 and the LBSFW200 has been moved to number 5.

So what I am wondering is would this have an impact on the mod in where LBSFW200 was originally at number 4?

Thanks again for your help :).

[bigboywooly]

Not sure whats included in the Airpower mod so cant comment on what it adds

The squadron number makes no difference

I am surprised you find the Float planes mod easier as each squadron has a large amount of aircraft

Squadron1Class=DBJU87Stuka
Squadron1No=16 <----amount of aircraft of that type in the base

Compared to the Airpower mod

Squadron1Class=DBJU87Stuka
Squadron1No=6

you can get the minitweaker here

http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=45337

As the files you need to adjust are the zone files this is the best way to do it
Notepad is no good

The program makes a back up of any file you alter
IIRC changes dont take effect till the back up is removed so put it somewhere safe in a folder in case of error then you can rollback

[CybaGirl]

Hi Bigboywooly, and thanks for your help once again :).



The squadron number makes no difference

I am surprised you find the Float planes mod easier as each squadron has a large amount of aircraft

Squadron1Class=DBJU87Stuka
Squadron1No=16 <----amount of aircraft of that type in the base


So thats what those numbers mean :). Thank you for that. There is still alot I have to learn about modding. But I am getting there and I have learnt so much already.



you can get the minitweaker here

http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=45337

As the files you need to adjust are the zone files this is the best way to do it
Notepad is no good

The program makes a back up of any file you alter
IIRC changes dont take effect till the back up is removed so put it somewhere safe in a folder in case of error then you can rollback

Thanks for that. I downloaded the program installed it along with the additional tweak files. But didnt make much sense to me :(. As I dont understand how you create a tweak file that isnt already included. For example the AFB_Mosquito is just one of the planes which is not included with the tweak pack. So I am thinking that I cannot change any values for this aircraft.

Also my main concern with the minitweaker is. What about the .dat .sim .zon files that have been modded by someone else?

As I am thinking that the tweak files that I downloaded for the minitweaker wont be the same as the ones which are already modified by someone else. If you know what I mean? So if i mod these files. Wont that throw the settings out for the mod that is also using these files?

Or am I thinking about this wrong?

Also one other quick question and sorry to take up so much of your time.

But I was wondering do you know how to merge the information from the following files from one mod,

guns.dat
guns.sim
guns.zon


into the same named files in another mod?

Normally I would just use notepad to add the additional information from the mod to the required file in question. But I cannot seem to do that with the guns.dat guns.sim and guns.zon files.

So this is why I am wondering how you merge the information into just one file.

Thank you very much for all your help once again :)..

[bigboywooly]

Hmmm there are ways to make a new tweak file from an existing one
Am not sure on that one so will let someone who does answer it rather than steer you wrong

You can merge the dats\zones and sim files

What mod do you want to take them from and add them too ?

I take it if you are using the Mosquito you are using the Guns.dat that came with them as that will include the rockets

[CybaGirl]

Hmmm there are ways to make a new tweak file from an existing one
Am not sure on that one so will let someone who does answer it rather than steer you wrong


Ok thanks and I will worry about this a little later on :).


You can merge the dats\zones and sim files

What mod do you want to take them from and add them too ?

I take it if you are using the Mosquito you are using the Guns.dat that came with them as that will include the rockets

Yes I want to include the rockets as I am dying to see how they work :). But basically I want to know whats in the

guns.dat
guns.sim
guns.zon

for the following mods which I am using.

Harbour Traffic 1.47

Air Attacks Mod Part 1 ( I enabled this one as I wanted to include these new planes. But it over wrote guns.dat and guns.sim which was already modified by Harbour Traffic 1.47)

NCB_GrafSpee (This one I havent enabled as it says that it will over write the guns.dat guns.sim guns.zon and I didnt want to take the risk of the rockets or something not working from the Air Attacks Mod Part 1)

Anyway they are the mods I want to merge the dat, sims and zon files into each other for the moment. I am sure there will probably be other mods that I will want to do this to later on down the track. So that is why I was wondering how I would go about doing this :).

Thanks again for your help.

[Madox58]

On the tweak files:
In a lot of cases you can copy a units tweak file, rename it to match the new unit, open the tweak file and correct the path to the new units file,
and your done. Unless there were extensive mods to the new unit it should work.
From there, in the tweak files folder is a guide to write new tweak files.

[bigboywooly]

Well if you look at the HT air attacks mod you should be able to see if it comes with a Guns.dat or not
I would personally stick with the ones with the rockets in
The Spee you will see for a month if you are in the southAtlantic
As you arent you wont lol

Edit
Just looked at the HT 1.47 and the Guns.dat in there is Sergs anyway and includes the PTboats firing "torpedos"
As the Air attacks mod is Sergs too its safe to assume ( or is it :rotfl: ) that the Guns.dat in that release will include all his previous work

So if you add the Air attacks mod after the HT and Spee you should be ok

If you use JSGME its easy to reverse if doesnt work ok

[CybaGirl]

Thanks Priater for your reply.

On the tweak files:
In a lot of cases you can copy a units tweak file, rename it to match the new unit, open the tweak file and correct the path to the new units file,
and your done. Unless there were extensive mods to the new unit it should work.
From there, in the tweak files folder is a guide to write new tweak files.
So let me get this straight :).

Basically you are saying its ok to say copy the AFB_P38J_sim.txt and rename it to AFB_Mosquito.sim.txt then from here just edit and change the things that I want? Of course changing the paths to the right folder for the Mosquito.

Is this right?

Also what is the Locate alternate game folder button for? As I couldnt find any reference to this in the readme. Is this for storing the backups? Or is it used to locate the Silent Hunter III game folder if it is installed somewhere else?





Edit
Just looked at the HT 1.47 and the Guns.dat in there is Sergs anyway and includes the PTboats firing "torpedos"
As the Air attacks mod is Sergs too its safe to assume ( or is it :rotfl: ) that the Guns.dat in that release will include all his previous work

So if you add the Air attacks mod after the HT and Spee you should be ok

If you use JSGME its easy to reverse if doesnt work ok
Ok thanks will follow your recomendations and yes I use JSGME. I think I would be lost without that program :). I use to do everything manually before I came across JSGME :(.

BTW what program did you use to view the Guns.dat from the HT 1.47 mod?

Thanks again to the both of you for your help..

[Madox58]

So let me get this straight :).

Basically you are saying its ok to say copy the AFB_P38J_sim.txt and rename it to AFB_Mosquito.sim.txt then from here just edit and change the things that I want? Of course changing the paths to the right folder for the Mosquito.

Is this right?

Yep. the path is in the rules file itself, near the top.


Also what is the Locate alternate game folder button for? As I couldnt find any reference to this in the readme. Is this for storing the backups? Or is it used to locate the Silent Hunter III game folder if it is installed somewhere else?

Again, you got it.:up:
It's incase you have several installs, you can point it to the right one.


I would think BBW used Pack3d to view the Guns.dat files as that is what I'd do.

[CybaGirl]

Ok thanks just needed to double check :)..


I would think BBW used Pack3d to view the Guns.dat files as that is what I'd do.

Ok thanks is this some kind of program and if so do you know where I can get it from?

Thanks..

[Madox58]

Here You go!
http://files.filefront.com/P3dAllVersionrar/;6607417;;/fileinfo.html

[CybaGirl]

Here You go!
http://files.filefront.com/P3dAllVersionrar/;6607417;;/fileinfo.html

Thanks very much :)..

[HundertzehnGustav]

heh a chick that likes planes....:doh:

what the heck?:o

respect though...:hmm: :rock:

and welcome to the modding world:up:

[bigboywooly]

Yes was pack3d
Version 3 works best