What goes where and why

[Sniper297]

I read over the tech tips, many of which don't appear to have much to do with modding. What I think would be useful is some kind of list of which files do what along with what other files they're interlocked with. I also read the text mod tutorial, ran out of breadcrumbs and kept getting crashes trying to start Asiatic 1941 balao class. Then I found a balao mod someone else had made, hee-hee!

Anyway, few things about this game -

First mod I got was to eliminate airplanes, granted aircraft WERE a hazard to subs but all the aircraft built by the Axis and Allies combined during the entire war wouldn't have been sufficient to provide 24 hour coverage over the entire Pacific.

A subchaser and two of them stupid little gun boats would be an anti submarine patrol, not a "TASK FORCE". And you wouldn't likely see them little gunboats outside a harbor to begin with, if you met one in the middle of the ocean her crew would have trouble just standing up on deck and would never be able to load and train a gun, let alone fire it with any accuracy in anything other than a dead calm. Even with a mild swell they would be too busy bailing to attack a sub, those are not deep water vessels.

Given that there's no feature to back one screw while going ahead on the other to turn faster, the rate of turn should be increased for all subs to compensate.

Torpedoes should DEFAULT to high speed. Need to have a quick command for settings, in real life the captain would say "set all tubes to 20 feet, high speed, contact, open outer doors on one thru six". Having to click each one in turn to change all the settings, open the outer door, then move on to the next one and do it all over again is not only tedious and time consuming, but unrealistic since in the real thing you would have a bunch of guys doing all that for you. Even having something like SHIFT Q to open all the outer doors at once would help.

Anyway, rant over, what I would like to see is a list broken down by category, for example to hack the speed, turning rate, placement and type of guns you need to hack this file plus that file and add something to these other files.

:up:

[Webster]

well just ask a specific question and you get your answers but as far as i know theres no "modding guide" that covers all basic modding types.


one thing with v1.4 and v1.5 mods is when v1.4 was changed to v1.5 the game changed some ship "types" clasifications and that causes crashes if the mod is for the wrong version game but a simple edit can sometimes fix the mod to make it work.


give some specifics, maybe a link to the mod and what game version your running and all the mods you have installed while trying to run it.


dont worry, you'll get plenty of help from the guys at this sight but you do need to give detailed info so we can help you. :up:

[Sniper297]

Well, that's basically it, my little pet peeves are some of the things I would LIKE to modify. Japan just didn't have that many aircraft used for scouting or ASW operations, getting rid of all aircraft fixes that problem but it would be better if there were a FEW (repeat FEW) random encounters in the logical places. (Six miles west of Midway isn't a logical place, they didn't have that kind of range!) Restricting ASW patrols in general, and them silly gunboats in particular, to logical places like harbor entrances and straits, rather than meeting several dozen in mid ocean every day. Default settings for torpedoes, performance of subs, frequency of ship traffic, I'm not really interested in historical accuracy there because I'd rather be sinking battleships in 1945 instead of plinking sampans. Gameplay is difficult to strike a balance, I got a couple of your mods and increased the torpedo power over and above what you did (if only the game would give you credit for ships damaged as well as ships actually sunk) but decreased the ammo and fire rate for the deck guns. Range would be another thing that would be nice to tweak, I'm schizophrenic about wanting to use limited fuel and then hating the fact I can't chase after task forces (REAL task forces with battlewagons and carriers instead of gunboats, I need MORE MORE MORE of those!) without running dry.

I'm just rambling here, taking a break from building a route for one of the train simulator games to avoid burnout, so I've been playing SH 4 almost exclusively this last week. One bug I note still hasn't been fixed (I have 1.4) is the "ghost ship", sink a big tanker and run into another one later in the same area - it blows up and sinks but don't produce the sunken ship graphic on the chart and you don't get credit for it, it's the "ghost" of the one you sunk previously.

[Webster]

"Range would be another thing that would be nice to tweak"


this is found in the sim file under "ranges" you have "surfaced" (fuel) and "submerged" (batteries)

now what you set isnt what you get in the game so testing is the only way to get it where you want it

usually fuel gets about 90% of what its set to and batteries can be anywhere from 90% to 10% of what its set to so keep notes and try different combinations of speed AND mile settings

[Sniper297]

Well, I'm gonna need another hint.

"this is found in the sim file under "ranges" you have "surfaced" (fuel) and "submerged" (batteries)"

A search in the Silent Hunter folder for "sim" turns up 177 files either with "sim" as an extension or part of the name. Searching this forum for keywords "cruising range" or "fuel range" gets about 500 hits. I found a couple where people asked about adjusting range but with answers that either argued about what the range should be or suggested using the unlimited fuel cheat. I looked in the logical places, \Data\Cfg\sim.cfg, \Data\Submarine\NSS_Sargo\NSS_Sargo.sim, and assorted other files but I'll be hanged if I can find any editable range.

[Armistead]

Sound like you're running stock and just wanting to tweak some files or adding small mods. Why not try a Supermod that deals with most of your complaints. Air traffic is silly in stock. Websters GFO mod sounds just right for you. It fixes the many bugs and corrects things like air traffic. I think he did make some of the settings more realistic, but it's much closer to stock than TMO or RFB as far as gameplay.

If you don't want historical gameplay with realistic settings and just want to attack large ships, you ought to look at many of the single missions created by numerous people. There are tons of them and most are much better than stock. In fact you can make your own and just chase BB's.
Sounds like single missions would fit the style of play you seek.

The stock game does a fair job with real TF's and battles, but a mod like RSRD corrects the convoy and TF's layers, the battles and invasion forces are almost identical to history. Nothing like running into a 50 ship convoy and partake of all the historical battles. I spend most of my time in large convoy battles or chasing TF. I think there is a version of RSRD that works with GFO.

If you just like blowing the crap out of stuff, they're are a few subs modded with nuclear torps, 5 deck guns, strong decks. One sub is basically a BB that dives and you can take on a TF with it.

Playing a campaign is time consuming and can be boring, with moments of fear...just like real war....Just doesn't sound like it's your style...I would check out the single missions.

[Sniper297]

Well, no offense but I have tried supermods which all too often go too far the other way and modify things I don't really want modded. Fuel is just one example, either you run with unlimited fuel and never have to give it a thought, or run with realistic fuel and have to let the Yamato steam off over the horizon since you'll run out of gas trying to do an endaround.

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/4466/49094203.jpg

That's the file I THINK everyone is talking about, \Data\Submarine\NSS_Sargo\NSS_Sargo.sim, only it says the range is "predefined", does that mean it's hard coded and can't be changed, or predefined in a different file somewhere?

[LukeFF]

That's the file I THINK everyone is talking about, \Data\Submarine\NSS_Sargo\NSS_Sargo.sim, only it says the range is "predefined", does that mean it's hard coded and can't be changed, or predefined in a different file somewhere?

You're obviously running an old version of S3D there. Range values for player-controlled submarines have been editable for some time now.

[Sniper297]

Well, there you go, thanks! :salute:

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/816/57094005.jpg

I had the correct file, I just wasn't aware there was a newer version of the 3ditor thingamy.

What I was originally looking for in here was something like this;

http://steam4me.railpage.org.au/trainsim/tutorials/rt_fold.html

That's a file and folder breakdown of what does what for Microsoft Train Simulator I wrote about 8 years ago, it would be helpful if we had something like that for the sub sims.

[Sniper297]

Finally got my SemiSuperSargo, got an idea of why there never was a modding guide - files that affect these things are scattered all over creation, if I want 40mm Bofors on a Sargo in 1941 there are half a dozen files in different folders that need to all be in synch for that to happen.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/4954/89568535.jpg

And there she is, December 1941 with the late war conning tower and fore & aft Bofors, but now that I did it I'd be hard pressed to explain it to another newby. :doh:

Anyone ever notice, when you start a career with an after deck gun you're stuck with an after deck gun? Try to change an after deck gun to a forward one midway thru a career and there's no crew slot for ANY deck gun after that, if you want a forward deck gun you have to start the career with a forward deck gun. :damn: