I have a question for experienced tweakers

[TheTranceMan]

I am just getting back into SH3 after a hiatus of about 3 years. i had been busy tweaking the hexadecimal files before life became too busy and had to shelve the game.

Anyway, I start the game up and continue where I had left off; patrol 34 in the trusty type IXb out of Brest when suddenly in mid patrol, I realize that my sub is doing 230 kts submerged!

I cannot for the life of me figure out which value in which file is responsible for this. Does anyone know? I would hate to fresh-install and lose all of the other wicked changes that took me long hours to tweak.

It only seems to affect the speed when running submerged using the snorkel. Otherwise, surface flank = 38 kts and submerged flank electric = 27 kts. I know that's faster than a type IX ought to run, but I was tweaking to have more fun, not to increase realism. I can barely remember how to tweak let alone figure out what the hell I did to cause this. Any help is much appreciated.

[Gerald]

:salute: It seems that some of your files that you've worked with have been given an extra kick, are you doing active modding otherwise?

[Wreford-Brown]

You've been playing with the .sim file.

There's no need to change hex values anymore as skwas' S3ditor (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=119571&highlight=s3ditor)is the easiest way to change these values.

Open NSS_Uboat9b.sim in the Program Files\Ubisoft\GWX\data\Submarine\NSS_Uboat9b folder

unit_Submarine, unit_Ship, max_speed gives your surfaced speed.
unit_Submarine, E_propulsion, max_speed gives your submerged speed.

It's an easy change so I've uploaded a 'fixed' .sim file to my MediaFire site: http://www.mediafire.com/?sv73f0cay41q2de. Your old values should still be there - 38 surfaced, 27 submerged. Let me know if it works.

[Hans Witteman]

Hi mate,

It is pretty dangerous to hit a bunch of whales at this speed:har:

Best regards Hans

[TheTranceMan]

It's definitely not the max_speed values in the .sim file. The speeds I listed are the actual speeds experienced in-game. The values in the .sim file are actually default (26 surfaced, 7 submerged, I think).

I am replacing individual files via unmodded backups until I find the file responsible. Still no luck.

Thank you for the file, BTW. I'll be able to compare more values, perhaps my backup isn't original.

[Gerald]

Certainly, but no submarine peaks of 26 knots surfaced

[TheTranceMan]

I figured it out. It was the drag values. Apparently, to make the subs behave in a simulated fashion while submerged, they are given a special set of drag coefficients that applies only when underwater. I may not have been using a snorkel before, but now that I am, the diesel engine overwhelms the normal drag coefficient making the sub a speed demon while snorkeling.

[Gargamel]

I figured it out. It was the drag values. Apparently, to make the subs behave in a simulated fashion while submerged, they are given a special set of drag coefficients that applies only when underwater. I may not have been using a snorkel before, but now that I am, the diesel engine overwhelms the normal drag coefficient making the sub a speed demon while snorkeling.

That's actually very interesting, as because a lot of people want super fast ships, so they increase the engine power. But that ends up sucking down the fuel too fast. By changing drag coefficients, you can achieve the same result without losing fuel... hmmmm.... :hmmm:.

For future reference, could you explain what exactly got changed?

[TheTranceMan]

That's actually very interesting, as because a lot of people want super fast ships, so they increase the engine power. But that ends up sucking down the fuel too fast. By changing drag coefficients, you can achieve the same result without losing fuel... hmmmm.... :hmmm:.

For future reference, could you explain what exactly got changed?


within the "NSS_Uboat9b.sim" file there are tons of values, most of which I have no idea what their effect is.

If you start screwing with the drag, you will also need to start adjusting the rudder values and the rebound values, otherwise you will end up with a boat that can't maintain a specific depth. This is a process that unfortunately, you'll have to cater for a specific speed. I remember going through countless iterations before I ended up with a stable boat. I never ran it with a snorkel though, would never have expected a result like that.

There is a very easy fix to the fuel issue. in the boat's .sim file is a value; "milessurfaced", that governs the rate of consumption. just change it to a higher figure to decrease consumption rate.

For the record, there is something else gong on, because i have replaced the file with an original untampered one and the sub is still getting an unreasonable speed boost from the snorkel. methinks that somewhere there is a file that has a value that I changed which governs the power increase from the snorkel. Would anyone know which file I should look for it in?

[Victor Schutze]

I am just getting back into SH3 after a hiatus of about 3 years. i had been busy tweaking the hexadecimal files before life became too busy and had to shelve the game.

Anyway, I start the game up and continue where I had left off; patrol 34 in the trusty type IXb out of Brest when suddenly in mid patrol, I realize that my sub is doing 230 kts submerged!

I cannot for the life of me figure out which value in which file is responsible for this. Does anyone know? I would hate to fresh-install and lose all of the other wicked changes that took me long hours to tweak.

It only seems to affect the speed when running submerged using the snorkel. Otherwise, surface flank = 38 kts and submerged flank electric = 27 kts. I know that's faster than a type IX ought to run, but I was tweaking to have more fun, not to increase realism. I can barely remember how to tweak let alone figure out what the hell I did to cause this. Any help is much appreciated.


2..:o
:rotfl2:

[TheTranceMan]

You've been playing with the .sim file.

There's no need to change hex values anymore as skwas' S3ditor (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=119571&highlight=s3ditor)is the easiest way to change these values.


Now that I've spent a little time with this program, I find that it is still more cumbersome than a hex editor. I wrote for myself a decent library of custom tweak files that that let me make edits much faster. Now that it is all starting to come back to me, there's no way I could justify ditching them when I know exactly where to go and what to change for an edit.

The speed boost, BTW, ended up being the upgraded engine. In the basic.cfg file there is a section for boat upgrades; the boost for MANBuchigeblase was set to 6 instead of 1.4.

I have now made adjustments so my boat runs with snorkel around 38kts submerged. It will still top 130kts at flank, but I'll just be mindful to reduce engine rpm when snorkeling. The boat seems to run great - nice and stable, so I'm not going to spend much time fixing what's no longer broken.

I also have a whole bunch of personal mods if anybody is interested in them. I made a nuclear torpedo with a kill radius of 3200m, along with custom torp skins and gui icons to easily distinguish torp types. More importantly, for anyone still tweaking, I wrote a tweak file that correctly identifies the torpedo types within the .sim and .zon files. The file included in wolfies tweakpack had them all screwed up.