View Full Version : Pearl Harbor and jap planes
Hi all
I am trying to set up a mission of the attack on Pearl Harbor but several problems keep popping up.
first- all the planes want to attack my sub and not the BBs or anything else, I have marked the ships as not docked and even put a DD sailing at 5 kts and still they come after my sub! any thoughts on that?
second- ME keeps spawning strange ships into the harbor when I do try to play it, such as a carrier suddenly appearing at dock. is there a way to stop that?
I can see now some of the problems other members have had trying to make this mission and I guess why they gave up. found several old posts that have talked about making this mission and both just tried up in postings, or the download links became out of date.
any help would be great.
I think when you make a mission at PH, you are then going to get whatever campaign units that are scripted at that location, in your play. You might want to experiment with missions out in the boondocks first. Start simple.
Second, I wouldn't waste time trying to change the behavior of the aircraft. We just don't have a way to do it. It's a submarine operations game; enemy aircraft are going to attack you when they see you. That is the way the game was built. The pilots don't have an elaborate target priority list. I would place my sub on the far side of the big ships, or even underwater. That should help.
Col7777
01-21-16, 03:53 AM
I'm far from being an expert on this sim so forgive me if I'm way off the mark.
Is it not possible to copy the ship units and make new ones but label them as a sub not a ship then the aircraft may attack them as well, just a thought. :hmmm:
37
It's not necessary. Aircraft will attack ships. It's just that if they see your sub first, or maybe even at the same time, they are apt to attack your sub. Iow, there is no checkbox on the aircraft "ignore player submarines".
It's a submarine operations game; enemy aircraft are going to attack you when they see you. That is the way the game was built.
Bonjour,
Yet US aircraft attack Japanese ships ...
thanks guys for the thoughts and ideas, on placing my sub on the far side from the surface ships- the planes actually flew right over the BB and still came after me-crazy.
on thoughts about labeling the surface ships to sub, that might be a thought to try, I'll let you know what happens.
I may try diving my sub also and see what happens.
I have made a couple of missions and was wondering if anyone would be interested, 1st is protect Wake Island from the 2nd invasion force and then seek out the task force that was covering to the north, then I made a intercept of the attack force just after the Pearl attack.
If anyone would like to check them out, I will upload them.
again thanks for the comments and ideas.:)
Cybermat47
01-21-16, 05:00 PM
Bonjour,
Yet US aircraft attack Japanese ships ...
Is this in U-Boat missions? :hmmm:
Bonjour,
Yet US aircraft attack Japanese ships ...
IJ aircraft will attack US ships, too. I had to make a mission of this nature to test aircraft physics recently, so I know it happens.
I have no idea why sfc would have trouble getting them to attack ships. He might want to double check what kinds of loadouts the aircraft have. If they have depth charges, they might want to attack subs. I would try some variety of a/c. See if they all behave the same.
Btw, I used RFB+RSRDC in my missions. Maybe that has some effect here.
thanks for the suggestions and comments everyone.
I tried several different planes and so far the zeros and bettys will attack, sometimes the asw kates will attack, but never will the vals.
I put the BB at a dock setting and undocked-same thing
I put speed at zero and it seemed the planes didn't even see it, put speed even at .1 and the attacking planes see it.
I haven't tried planes from rfb+rsrdc but will try some different mod planes tomorrow.
to answer one question- no this is not a u-boat mission, strictly wolves of the pacific.
i put a CL in with the BB and the jap planes sank it in no time, then took the CL out and the planes damaged the BB to list to port. so something is happening at least.
again thanks everyone:hmmm:
Hmmm...........
When I was testing my a/c, I used mostly merchants, as I didn't want AAA taking out the a/c. I also used a few DD's, at first. I had the target ships sitting still. As far as I could tell, not moving, or docked has no effect; the a/c attacked every time, Vals too. Sometimes, they would not drop on the first pass, but make 2 or 3 before they liked the set-up. That seemed odd to me, but they eventually attacked.
One thing- I had most of the a/c coming in at low altitude, probably less than 3,000 ft. in most cases. If yours are high, they may indeed have trouble seeing the targets.
If you do figure out what the problem is, update the thread. This would be good to know.
TorpX when you worked on the plane files, did you ever run into where a plane does not have any options for the load? I mean in misssion editor, the files for the plane shows load out options but none show in ME.
this is mainly the B6N2 tenzan and the G4MBetty torp bomber. both of these list the air torpedo JP as the weapon and I did put those files with the rest of weapon files.
I may change the file to just torpedo but not sure how that will go.
more later.:06:
I didn't try to test every model of a/c. I tested a representative cross-section using every type; dive bomber, level bomber, torpedo bomber, fighter-bomber.
IIRC, most a/c had a choice of loadouts. Some maybe only had a 'basic' load out. That would mean guns only, so they could only strafe targets.
The problem I found that I couldn't fix, is that the torpedo bombers didn't work. I was able to get the Kates to drop torps properly (instead of dropping like bombs), but the torps themselves wouldn't explode, so they can never get hits.
I tried to modify the a/c to make their physics more realistic, but couldn't really change very much. Most things seem to be hard-coded, but they did attack -either my sub, or any allied ships present.
HERE (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=211235&page=3) is the thread, post #199 and thereabouts.
If you are trying to make a Dec. 7 war-start event, there might be some issue with the IJ planes not considering the ships enemies yet?
I assume you are using v1.5 of the game. All my work was with this version.
been side tracked with the home port thing, but what I did find is that if I submerge the planes attacked ships.
then if I can put a loadout on certain planes, then they attacked ok.
I was able to get torps on one class and even saw one drop its torp but no explosion on the ship. so this is like what TorpX stated-why I have no idea.
the big question I am working on now is why some planes show no loadout at all.
anybody run into this situation? and if so, what they found to fix it:06:
IIRC, in RSRDC, the basic load out planes are fighters, like the zero, which would not usually have bombs, or such. About stock, I have no idea.
If you haven't already done so, it would probably be worthwhile to look into RSRDC files and see how lurker changed things to get the load out he wanted. Apart from messing with the aerial torps, I didn't want to make any changes there.
I have tried those mods you mentioned, as far as I copy and pasted the files into my game along with rooster info and so on.
tried putting the japan air torp in the needed spot, but some still show no load out.
so I will stick to classic zero-kate-val- and maybe throw some bettys in for giggles.trying figure some of that out has really given me a headache.
if any one has any suggestions on the files needed to make panes work, let me know please.
good night:)
TorpX I found a fix that will give you a true torpedo attack.
as you mentioned, you could see the torpedo dropped but no damage done.
well here is a link to air torpedos that work and does damage
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=197762
there is links (that work) for downloading the mod that Rubini developed a few years ago, I wish that he had uploaded to SUBSIM but I noticed so many guys have put their stuff else where and then it gets deleted over time.
you can either use the mod or just copy and paste the air_torpedo_nodes.dat file under data/library and then change the kate loadout to LinkName=AiR_torp_rack.
i did this and it works great, I may try it on the betty torpedo bomber also.
I believe you can figure all this out ok, but if you need to ask me anything -go right ahead.
now if I can just get the VALs to bomb all the time!
I also tried putting 2 us fighters up over my ships and while the japs attack- they just fly on the waypoint. ever have that happen?
fix one thing and get 2 more to figure out! haha
later:up:
I saw that page the other day, but didn't try to use the mod, as it is a SH3 mod. If you can get the SH4 torps to explode, that's great.
About the Vals; When I tested them, they would always bomb, but sometimes they would make several aborted runs beforehand. It's not ideal, nor was their accuracy great, but that's the game for you. Make sure every bomber in your missions has a load; I don't think there is any way to change loads by group. Iow, you have to click on every single plane, one by one. Sometimes, I verified they had bombs by stopping the action, and using the external cam to zoom in on them.
I put in some USN fighters to fly around to "protect" my ships. I never saw them react in any way to IJ planes, or vice-versa. Since it's a sub game, I wasn't too surprised. I believe people have noted this before.
One more thing about formations of aircraft. It is possible to have them in close formations, but there is a danger of them colliding. This happened in my tests frequently when I had them close together and used TC to speed things along.
Crannogman
02-01-16, 10:03 PM
I managed to put together a PH raid, and the attackers ignored me. However, they spent their bombs on the destroyers & cruisers in dock rather than the battleships (maybe a better strategy overall). With how close the ships are packed in there, they were all blowed to kingdom come. I think it'll work so long as you have enough ship targets for the Japanese to go after. Also, I used GFO
first- the air torpedo mod works most of the time when loaded as a mod, I tried just putting files in the proper spots and it worked a couple of times(the US planes attacking jap ships) then did not work till I loaded it as a mod.
needed to lower damage rate cause one torp sunk jap BB!
if you do install mod and look at avenger load out and it shows nothing, don't worry it still works.
second- as others point out the US fighters don't do anything. I wonder if there is a way to change that. anybody try working on that? ideas?
third- in ME there is a box called "random area radius" anyone know what that does? tried changing setting but don't see anything off hand.
third-any ideas of why the Vals do nothing?
I saw a mod that is supposed to make aircraft more aggressive, I may try to check that out.:06:
I finally found mod parts that do fix the kates to drop torpedoes and they do work, that came from the fall of the raising sun and a little tweaking on my part. also have gotten the planes to attack the surface ships by having my sub submerged, haven't try to just run a mission without a sub but may try that or see if I can make one of the BBs into the main ship.
eventually I would like to upload the mission for pearl harbor attack where the fleet had been put on a war footing because of the Ward sinking the midget sub.
I also have 2 missions done where your sub is to protect Wake Island from the second invasion attempt and then chase down the carrier group that was covering that invasion attempt.
the second one is intercept the pearl attack force just after the attack.
anyway that is where my attempt is standing.:)
Sniper297
02-12-16, 11:03 PM
I still have 1.4 so I never tried the torpedo fix mod, but I found that the TBD (Douglas Devastator) will launch a torpedo, firing it out the back of the plane going the wrong direction, and oddly enough it gets occasional hits making small holes below the waterline. This mod;
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=4358
I had a lot of similar problems with, the F4F Wildcats cruising right past IJN aircraft, which ignored the Wildcats in turn. However the Zeros, Vals, and Bettys were just as happy to attack assorted US ships as my sub. Possibly that's affected by the mission parameter "ignore player sub" setting, but I need to check that on to get the mission to save at all. The American SBD (Dauntless dive bombers) also happily attack Japanese ships, but they, like the IJN dive bombers, will make multiple dives even after dropping the only bomb they had.
The dive bombers and torpedo bombers on both sides if set to Veteran or Elite crew rating will occasionally get hits rather than near misses, and even sometimes will actually sink an enemy ship - on one occasion the TBDs hit the "sweet spot" on a KONGO and blew it up. That type of thing is extremely rare, more often than not the plane gets shot down by the ship's AA before it even has a chance to drop anything.
As for the loadout, IIRC you have to right click on the plane, select loadout and select the load you want. To get the chaos I was looking for at the start, I used a bunch of Zeros with elite crews and 250kg bombloads flying over the Manila docks - most are shot down by NORTHHAMPTON and SOMERS before they get in range of my 40mm, but my crew does get a few.
Some old videos;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig8i3SSVwoM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsA-iSv2BLA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckj2ypU9p08
If you download the mod and examine US_NavalBases.mis you'll see that I had to do a lot of fiddling with placement, routes, speeds, and timing to prevent weird conflicts and planes flying into the ground, also timing everything to give the player sub enough time to actually get credit for sinking some capitol ships - main trouble with having allies is if you slam 6 fish into a battleship, then a friendly ship gets in the last hit with a .50 cal while it's rolling over, you get no credit at all for the kill since the last hit before it's "destroyed" is the one that counts. :/\\!!
sniper those were great vids you uploaded there. I know it took alot of work to get it that good!
on the plane thing, the kates in the mod I mentioned above works really great, I sent 6 kates after 2 old nevada class BBs and they got 4 out of 6. plus I tried the betty torpedo bomber and she got a hit.
when I sent some kates with bombs, they got several hits also.
and yes, if you set them to elite, they do better then vets or any other setting.
I am also playing 1.4 because I like alot of the settings in it, but I have taked quite a few mods and taken pieces of the and put them into my main game.
the thing that was throwing me off on the load out turned out to be the avengers mainly because it showed no load out, but when I sent 4 after a jap BB, they sank it with 3 hits! I have to lower the damage settings on those and the fall of the raising sun mod planes. these work great.
right now I am trying to fix up Pearl Harbor to look a little better-such the sub dock-the area from there to the dry dock area and so on.
the problem I am having right now is trying to edit the tga files in mission editor, if I can figure that out I think I can build a pretty good attack mission.
what I am doing is a what if story, what could it have been like if the ships had been ordered to even half alert status. I think it will be interesting.
I have looked through your mod and one of the ideas I liked was the secret base for resupply, it is a pain to have to leave a area because you are out of torps and half way to a base a big juicy task force pops up, but it would be interesting if the refit location could only give you say half a load. that would be better.
if you want, I could put into a zip file the planes and equipment files needed to add to your game so you can have the good attacking planes. these do not change anything in the base game, by copy and pasteing them into the right spots- you just add them- then mission editor will see them and use them.
let me know what you think:)
Sniper297
02-13-16, 02:17 AM
"trying to edit the tga files in mission editor"
Sorry, my head just exploded. A .tga file is an image, can be edited with any halfway decent image editor, or can be sent to windows paint via something like DXT/Bmp from http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/ Also works for .dds files.
The mission editor doesn't do image files, you need an image editor to repaint anything.
As for the docks my original mod "Manilla Raid and Resupply" added some shore batteries in the land units layer, and for some reason that lead to a really strange glitch that locked all the interior gauges to the 12 o'clock position after resupplying, saving, then reloading the save. So I left them out of the second version ("Gone Asiatic") and had no trouble since (knock on wood). Not saying that will happen in your mod, but be aware of it and test to make sure you don't have that bug.
Torpedo fix - don't really care, when I'm actually playing rather than beta testing I don't actually see the friendly air attacks that often. I do see the aftermath when one has a successful strike, and sometimes I'm rescued from a depth charging when an SBD sinks a FUBUKI that's pinging on my tail, so they are worthwhile.
Curious, are you editing the US_NavalBase.mis or the PearlHarborAttack.mis ? I tried fooling with the PearlHarborAttack.mis once because I thought it was silly that it existed but didn't actually show up in the campaign, but when I changed the end date I still couldn't intercept them.
I know that ME can't edit tga files, the problem I was having was the paint net program would open it but was super small and not very clear when I made it larger.
I found dds files for the bases/towns/ whatever that I can edit(that was late last night), so I will work on that some today.
on the two missions that I have made, I'm just using the regular set up. on the pearl mission, I may use the pearl harbor mission or not. not sure yet.
I have to experiment with it first then will decide which way to go.
will keep posting here on what I figure out.
Red Devil
02-13-16, 04:25 PM
They recognise you - you're evil!!! :down:
red devil-what does that mean?:06:
Red Devil
02-14-16, 06:49 PM
sfc: i replied to a post without a quote.
It was stated that the Japs went for the gamer, not the ships - hence my reply :arrgh!:
ok, no problem- I just wasn't sure what it was meaning. please forgive this old fa_t for not understanding.
I am having a terrible time trying to edit some of the dds files, because the different paint type programs are a real paint in the tush.
managed to get some planes on ground, just have to time them so they self destruct as the attack starts.
trying to build some tank farms, but no luck yet.
does anyone know how to get the game to not put additional ships into the mission, I keep having carriers showing up at the docks.
Red Devil
02-14-16, 09:47 PM
Go and have a pint instead. From another old timer :shucks:
Sniper297
02-15-16, 02:25 PM
Well, once again;
http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/
Several free graphics utilities to download, the most versatile is in the bottom row third from right - DXTBmp
Set that up to "send image to editor" for whatever image editor you use, then by opening DDS or TGA with DXTBmp, send to editor and edit, then switch back to DXTBmp and "reload after edit" you can save any file in the correct format regardless what image editor you're using. I have the old JASC Paint Shop Pro 7 and was never able to get the DDS plugin to work at all, so I just gave up and use DXTBmp instead. Another advantage is it splits any image with an alpha channel into main image and alpha so you can edit them separately if needed, so no problems with image editor quirks screwing up masks and layers.
I saw your listing before but had not gotten around to trying them.
I will give it a try after I get done here.
again thanks
sfc:up:
vBulletin® v3.8.11, Copyright ©2000-2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.