New ships in campaign

[Trollus]

Hi
I've downloaded some of the new cargos available, but I don't know if they even appear in the campaign. What files should be modified (except for adding entry to englishnames.cfg)? How should I change it? There's a mod which adds some new ships to convoys, but I cannot use GW due to my hardware configuration.
Is there a way to edit the files and have new ships in convoys?
Thanks

[jasonb885]

Hi
I've downloaded some of the new cargos available, but I don't know if they even appear in the campaign. What files should be modified (except for adding entry to englishnames.cfg)? How should I change it? There's a mod which adds some new ships to convoys, but I cannot use GW due to my hardware configuration.
Is there a way to edit the files and have new ships in convoys?
Thanks

Not with Improved Convoys, at least. I specifically hard code ships to ensure the convoys are realistic in composition.

New ships came out long after I'd done that.

I'll add new ships if someone wants to present a list of those with some realistic chance of showing up in convoys.

A new generic merchant or tanker would be nice, though in IC as a rule around 90% of the ships in the majority of convoys are cargos, as that is fairly realistic.

:up:

[Boris]

Yeah, there aren't many new cargo ships out... we'll have to wait till AG124 and iambecomelife start releasing their merchants. Most of the new ships at the moment are'nt ones that would commonly appear often in convoys.

Trollus, the way I put the new ships in into the convoys was to open the campaign_rnd, in the data/campaigns/campaign folder with notepad, and manually change some of the most common ship types at random.

You can open your enlishnames cfg file to refernce the ship letters and replace the one's you want. Make sure you have the right cargo on board, or you will get a crash when loading: ie. if you change a 102 (cargo) to a 103 (transport) you have to change the cargo values to match (just compare to existing entries to make it easy...
Put in whatever feels realistic to you.

[AG124]

Yeah, there aren't many new cargo ships out... we'll have to wait till AG124 and iambecomelife start releasing their merchants. Most of the new ships at the moment are'nt ones that would commonly appear often in convoys.

I may be releasing a 4,100 GRT freighter on Sunday. If not, then it will definitely be released next Thursday. There really need to be more generic 102's in the game, so I hope this one will help.

[Boris]

Yeah, there aren't many new cargo ships out... we'll have to wait till AG124 and iambecomelife start releasing their merchants. Most of the new ships at the moment are'nt ones that would commonly appear often in convoys.

I may be releasing a 4,100 GRT freighter on Sunday. If not, then it will definitely be released next Thursday. There really need to be more generic 102's in the game, so I hope this one will help.

Great news!

[Wulfmann]

A long time ago I realized making a new RND file when new ships were released was not the way to go.
I made my RND file so all the warships and many 102 (cargo) ships were not asked for by named class. So, when I get a new 102, it is automatically available to join the war with no modification.
But, since this is made to my taste of SH3 there are 2 to 3 times the escorts in every convoy and no escort is less than a 3 rated crew.
That means it is very hard!.
Perhaps I should make a light version which would make all the new warships and 102 cargoes available to anyone.
Or, Jason, why not make a version of yours that removes a number of the class named entries?
Then I can just play!:rotfl:

Wulfmann

[Trollus]

Hey thanks for reply, It seems to be a bit hard to do... For now I've changed a displacement for a 'large cargo' (from 17.600 to 10.300 BRT, it was too much i think). Also during the last patrol I spotted three large cargoes in the North Channel. There sholud not be such a situation so I've chagned unit's type to 'tanker' in .cfg file in hope it will not to often. Hope I didn't mess up anything. Just started to modify any files in sh3.

[Trollus]

Hey thanks for reply, It seems to be a bit hard to do... For now I've changed a displacement for a 'large cargo' (from 17.600 to 10.300 BRT, it was too much i think). Also during the last patrol I spotted three large cargoes in the North Channel. There sholud not be such a situation so I've chagned unit's type to 'tanker' in .cfg file in hope it will not to often. Hope I didn't mess up anything. Just started to modify any files in sh3.

[AG124]

That shouldn't mess up anything at all, and the ship will indeed appear more often. But no one will have to make such fixes when there are a greater number of smaller freighters released. :cool:

Looking back at the first four ships which I released, I now realize that they are not as decisively useful as new freighters (type 102) I will try to work on some of those next. Also, Dan and Der Teddy Bar are fixing the .zon file for the Lake Ship, which is a type 102, although it is not a very typical design.

This is a list of the rest of my ships, and what needs to be done before they are released (tonnages are approximate):

Heavy Merchant (102- 4,100 GRT): Minor adjustment to position of two vents.

Rose Castle (102 - 7,000 GRT): Minor edit of hull. Was causing a CTD but not anymore for some reason.

Belize (102 - 2,300 GRT): Flag needs to be moved; cranes need to be moved again with Pack3d to fix damage model.

Caribou (102 - 2,200 GRT): Should work, but hasn't been tested.

USS Pyro (102 - 7,800 GRT): Working fine, but zones are wrong.

Empire Celt (101 - 8,300 GRT): Working fine, but zones are wrong.

Meigle (102 - 800 GRT): Not tested; keel below waterline using superstructure textures.

E.G. Seubert (101 - 9,800 GRT): CTD.

"Generic Tanker": (101 - 8,100 GRT): Looks like crap; to be rebuilt.

"Troop Transport Hospital Ship Clone": (103) Just clone of transport with new skin; not planning to release. Also, has landing crafts instead of lifeboats.

Lake Ship (102 - 1,700 GRT): Needs new zones; in progress.

Lord Strathcona (102 - 7,800 GRT): Incomplete.

Granville (102 - 5,100 GRT): Should be working, but not tested.

[Der Teddy Bar]

The problem with all modified ships are that the zones are still in the original location etc.

The issue of old zones and zone location may become more obvious at the release of the NYGM Ship Damage Mod Ver2. This is due in part to zone values being re-assigned and then customised to a specific vessel. I say 'may' as the current zone values were not configured with these new ships in mind and probably are just as 'out of place' as the new values that the ship will pick up.

[jasonb885]

That shouldn't mess up anything at all, and the ship will indeed appear more often. But no one will have to make such fixes when there are a greater number of smaller freighters released. :cool:

Looking back at the first four ships which I released, I now realize that they are not as decisively useful as new freighters (type 102) I will try to work on some of those next. Also, Dan and Der Teddy Bar are fixing the .zon file for the Lake Ship, which is a type 102, although it is not a very typical design.


Indeed.

Whenever those ship (pun intended), I'll excitedly look into adding them in some fashion to ImprovedConvoys, the standalone version. The ships with corrected zones will probably eventually get picked up by NYGM TM as well I suspect.

Currently I walk a list and grab a random ship for each tonnage class, those being small, medium, and large cargo. Right now only small has more than one entry, those being KSQ and KSS. More of the medium and large variety are certainly welcome. Of course, as the war progresses into 1943, an increasingly large number of ships are of type LL and eventually VV, so generic cargos get phased out. That's part of a Liberty ship adoption curve that Observer came up with and I implemented as best I could in the convoy generation process for IC.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing these. The other ships didn't seem general enough to be realistically included in convoys. (And tankers only make up around 10% or so of a typical convoy in the NA -- IC convoys are almost boringly accurate.)

[booger2005]

Having the new cargo ships appear in convoys is a change that can be made in 5 minutes. Pick one ubiquitous convoy ship, for example the C2 (which represents a rarther rare ship type with an unusual configuration) and turn all the entries to generic:

1) Open the RND file with WordPad
2) Do Edit, Replace, Class=KLS with ;Class=KLS and click Replace All

And there you go. All C2s are now generic cargo entries.

Personally, I don't care if convoy tonnage breakdowns are perfect. I think that it is much more important to finally see a convoy with more than 4 types of cargo ships other than the Liberty.

[jasonb885]

Having the new cargo ships appear in convoys is a change that can be made in 5 minutes. Pick one ubiquitous convoy ship, for example the C2 (which represents a rarther rare ship type with an unusual configuration) and turn all the entries to generic:

1) Open the RND file with WordPad
2) Do Edit, Replace, Class=KLS with ;Class=KLS and click Replace All

And there you go. All C2s are now generic cargo entries.

Personally, I don't care if convoy tonnage breakdowns are perfect. I think that it is much more important to finally see a convoy with more than 4 types of cargo ships other than the Liberty.

Obviously IC isn't targeted at you, then.

:roll:

[Trollus]

I totally agree with you, more types of ships in convoy means more fun:] I use one of the newest version of improved convoys. Good mod, it's harder to find anything, game becomes more difficult and interesting. The man who wrote this mod should really consider adding new ships or, at least, describe how to do it. One question: are the westbound convoys modelled? (I mean those who return to New York/Halifax)
Thanks

[booger2005]

Having the new cargo ships appear in convoys is a change that can be made in 5 minutes. Pick one ubiquitous convoy ship, for example the C2 (which represents a rarther rare ship type with an unusual configuration) and turn all the entries to generic:

1) Open the RND file with WordPad
2) Do Edit, Replace, Class=KLS with ;Class=KLS and click Replace All

And there you go. All C2s are now generic cargo entries.

Personally, I don't care if convoy tonnage breakdowns are perfect. I think that it is much more important to finally see a convoy with more than 4 types of cargo ships other than the Liberty.

Obviously IC isn't targeted at you, then.

:roll:

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, but its my opinion. :-?

[Wulfmann]

There is another way so you still have your C2s but some variation that allows new ships to automatically be available to be in a convoy

Notice the 2 ships from the RND.mis file below.
The first only has the type=102 which means it is possible for any 102 to spawn (C2, C3, small merchant, new large merchant etc etc)and vary each time you re-run this mission or catch the same convoy next month.
When all ships are class named they will be the same every time so your convoy will be identical month after month.
Does that sound right? Not to me but, IMO.
If one opens the RND.mis file in the campaign folder and goes through the convoy groups (61-118) he can change some of the ones that have class names to no class name, delete it, and makes for instant variation as well as being available to any new 102 ship when added.
So, do that and the next time one of these new beauties is graciously added by a member of the community, it will start showing p without ant other changes needed.

Wulfmann

[RndGroup 61.RndUnit 3]
Type=102
Origin=British
Side=0
CargoExt=2
CargoInt=0
CfgDate=19390201
No=4
Escort=false
SpawnProbability=100
CrewRating=2

[RndGroup 61.RndUnit 4]
Class=KSS (This is the line you delete)
Type=102
Origin=British
Side=0
CargoExt=1
CargoInt=0
CfgDate=19390201
No=3
Escort=false
SpawnProbability=100
CrewRating=2

[Trollus]

Hey Man, that's a good idea, I'll test it next week, but to check I'll need some of those merchants, hope our Artists finish the job;)
Thanks to all of you

[Wulfmann]

T, Remember to save your working copy of the RND.mis file outside the game. If you make a mistake and you must re-do the RND, You will have your known good one to restart the effort..

Wulfmann

[booger2005]

@ Wulfman:

I think the find and replace feature is what makes working directly in WordPad efficient. Essentially, I was describing a way of deleting the entries you mentioned by "commenting them out" en mass. If your going to go through the longer way of only replacing certain ships in the convoy with generic entries, then I think you would be much better off working directly with the mission editor. Then you can see at a glace exactly what convoy you are working with, there wil be less scrolling to do, less chance of accidental deletion, etc... In short it will be much quicker and safer than WordPad.

If you replaced all C2s (or C3s or whatever) with generic entries you will still see them but only at a 1/(total # cargoships) frequency. Also, the frequency will be greater earlier in the war when Liberties and Victories can't spawn.