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Ducimus
05-18-06, 05:43 PM
Ok here it is. Its all modulaized, like a plugin. The nice thing about the layout is that its easy to change or alter anything you dont like. I would recommend using this over a fresh install.




There are three (errr four) files to download:
Modded_vanilla_1.7z - 98 MB
Contains rubinis UC with changes outlined in readme
http://rapidshare.de/files/20968007/Modded_vanilla_1.7z.html


Modded_vanilla_2.7z -33 MB
Cotains everything except Fubars skins, and bordininstumente 1.1
http://rapidshare.de/files/20969931/Modded_vanilla_2.7z.html


Modded_vanilla_3.7z - 70 MB
Contains the sound files im using
http://rapidshare.de/files/20972653/Modded_vanilla_3.7z.html

VIIC_depth_fix.zip
This is a fix that i forgot to put in before i compressed the files and FTPed them. Esentualy it lowers the Crush Depth of the VIIC to 268 meters instead of 278 meters. Considering that the max sonar depth is 275 meters, the old VIIC file is extra cheesy. Unzip into:

MODS\GPLAY_UBOAT_changes\data\Submarine\NSS_Uboat7 c

and overwrite the existing file, that is.. if you want to. :rotfl:

http://rapidshare.de/files/20973753/VIIC_depth_fix.zip.html





Updated Readme. (note: the readme included in compressed files, doesnt reflect a few minor last minute name changes i made)

Modded Vanilla.

I guess thats the name of this package. Since i can't really think of a fancy name, nor do i care to present this as something akin to GW or NYGM.

What this release essentually is, is a modification repackage, with alot of tweakings here or there by me, tuning SH3 to my personal taste. I do not take any credit for the orginal works, only the changes that i have made.

Many of the orginal works, i do not remember who did them. My habit was often to download mods that i thought would improve my gameplay, and then insert them into my total mod package. From there i would either obsorb them into the "total package" and/or edit the features i didnt like or disagreed with. I keep a naming protocol on what every mod does in function for easier idenfication and tinkering. So often the orginal names of the mods would get lost as a result.

Note: Other then the adapdation of reduced crew compartments in the engine room, motor room, and damge control. Any simulatiries in between this mod collection and GW or NYGM's is purely coincidental.

Installation:
Unpack into sh3/mod/ directory, you need JSGME, something which i assume everyone has and knows how to use.

Additional Recommended Mods not included
1.) Fubar's crew skins
2.) Fubars Sub skins
3.) Bordinstrumente 1.1
4.) NYGM-Tonnage war terrain add in.


Any changes I made, Listed by Module, Ive made so many changes, i have to say that this list is not all inclusive:


---------------------------------
MISC_LEIGH_LIGHTS

-Orginally someones Leigh lights mod, i removed entries which conflicted with other mods.

--------------------------------
GFX_PASCALSSMOKE
1.) i resized Pascal's orginal smoke texture files to a smaller resolution. The orginals were too high in resolution and killing framerate.

2.) Included file from Marhkimovs smoke mod so it displays similar to his smoke mod.

---------------------
GFX_ATMOPSHERE_16k

Orginally this was the Atmosphere16K _light mod. I basically vivisected it, replaced alot of graphics from Marhkimovs ocean madness, then moved the scene.dat file to MY_SENSOR_MOD for easier editing.

------------------------------
AIRPOWER ADJUSTMENTS

***GPLAY_Airpower 1.4c HT
-Unchanged. Comes from Rubini's Harbor traffic 1.47

***MISC_Hollywood
- one of Goldjgs earlier damage models. edited Includes Improved airpower entries.

-------------------------------
UBOAT ADJUSTMENTS

***GPLAY_UBOAT_Changes
(most of my attention was on IX boats)

1.) Used values from NASA battery fix for underwater range on all uboats

2.) Diesal ranges at *near* correct value
- VIIB is 8700 @ 10.75 Kt
- VIIC is 8500 @ 10.75 KT
- IXB is 12000 @ 10.75 KT
- IXC is 13850 @ 10.75 KT ( i used C/40 range value)
- IXD2 is 23700 @ 12 KT

3.) Crush depths (yes i have a depth fetish)
- VIIB 250 M
- VIIC 268 M
- All IX boats 257 M

4.) Slowed crush rate. Crash speed is now 0.5 This allows for deeper diving at
cost of H.I.

5.) Top speeds
- VIIB is 17.6 Surfaced / 8 submerged
- VIIC is 17.0 surfaced / 7.6 submerged
- IXB is 18.2 surfaced / 7.6 Submerged
- IXC is 18.9 Surfaced / 7.3 submerged
- IXD2 is 19.6 surfaced / 6.9 submerged

6.) Changed hitpoints
- IXB now has 300 HPs
- IXC now has 320 HPS
- IXD2 now has 340 HPS

7.) Changed Diving speeds
- Adjusted VIIC to crash dives a little bit faster then stock. Think of it as a C/41.
- IXB now crash dives a couple seconds faster then stock, but slower then VIIB.
- IXC crash dives a little faster then stock, but slower then IXB.

8.) CFG changes
- Adjusted Torpedo tube assignments for spread shots to be more logical.
- decks awash
- snorkel depth adjusted to what i thought was optimal.
- Greatly increased weather parameters to allow the use of deck / flak guns

9.) Interior Change
-IXB now uses type 7 interior. I thought this interior was closer to reality since the IXB is said to orginaly have a periscope in the control room, which was later deleted in the IXC model. Besides that, the VII interior has working fuel gauge.

----------------------------------
CORE FILES

***GPLAY_Unified_vanilla - ( Rubin's Unified campaign)

1.) Changes to LND Layer
a.) Removed inland cities from LND layer. (I found it unneccessary clutter and the game has to render enough on the map as it is already.)

b.) Added additional Air bases in the Indian ocean.

c.) Supply ship brake is now available in feb 43 until the 12th flotilla ceases to exist. modified help entires to reflect brakes changes.

d.) Lowered Various crew ratings on air bases in the LND Layer. Primarly because im not making the snorkel avialable until Early 44.

2.) Changes to SCR layer
a.) No friendly minefields or subnets in SCR layer.
- Im usually in too big of a hurry to get the hell out of the harbor and accross the atlantic to my patrol area to bother with playing slalom.

b.) Removed the massive mine fields around GB from SCR layer.
Reasons:
- I have a suspicion that the game can only render/generate so much at once.
- Posts by Cmdr Gibs stating wierd rendering issues.

3.) Changes to RND layer
a.) Adjusted RND group entries on the US East coast and Caribean
- Year 43, and 44 entries are now mini convoys that will usually spawn 3 ships with two elite DE's.
- Increased the time span in which the convoy orginating near curroco will appear in
the game.

b.)Adjusted RND group entries for Indian ocean
- Increased spawn rate and group composition in the indian ocean for 1943.
- 1944 entries are now mini convoys with 2 or 3 elite DE's.
- late 44 early 1945 entries are mediem convoys with 3 to 4 elite escorts.
- adjusted task force groups. Should now be spawnng from 41 tell the end of the war. Also changed group composition.

c.) all Hunter Killer groups are now elite in crew rating. Hunter groups are still veteran. (note, i did not take a broad brush and jack up all crew ratings to 4 in this RND layer , although i was tempted to.)


4.) Flotilla changes
a.) 12th flotilla is now based in penang after Febuary 1943
b.) Replaced all grid assigments for the 12th in 43-44 with south atlanitc locations.

5.) Additions to Unified Campaign
a.) Fixed wierd ingame map rendering issues by adding the file data/terrain/TerMaps.cfg from HT 1.47 (what would happen is at a certain zoom level, cities would be shown in the ocean, this fixes that.)

b.) Added visual effect in the crew management screen from NYGM's Tonnage war that reduces the crew slots in the Engine room, Motor room, and damage control. This is only a visual effect, you can still place more then 5 crew members in these compartments. (Note, FLB's Navi map mod which shares the same files as this addition continues to work. I intergerated both of these features into the same file.) ** this was a minor asthetic change, but one that annoyed to heck out of me. Much appreciation for NYGM's team for figuring out a fix for this annoyance.





----------------------------------------------------------
CAMERA

***MISC_Camera_VII and MISC_Camera_IX

A.) includes modified camara.dat file. Orginaly was a cam mod by another modder.
Allows you more freedom of view within the submarines various camera positions.

B.) Includes modified Commands_en.cfg
- Added a "go back" ablity (ins key) to every station available, in a logical manner.
For example, damage control, the log book, TDC tactical maps, everything has a goback function.
Idea was to create better immersion and not have to rely on hotkeys as much - to encourage player
movement within the boat. I did not however remove the hotkeys to varios stations, although i seriously thought about it.

C.) Removed the <, >, and F12 keys from the keymapping. You can still look at the exterior of your
sub, but now you have to use the sliding menu to do it. And no more jumping around ship to ship
views to see what your torpedo's did, or ship idenfitication cheese before you even pop the periscope. How now you can chase down those sound bearings, and not know if you have a C2 cargo, or a tugboat until he's in view.

D.) The difference between the VII camera, and the IX camera, is the goback function on the observation periscope. VII returns you to the aft control room, IX returns you to the conning tower.


----------------------------
SOUND

***SOUND_Atmopsheriec_and_sound_Effects
This is acutally a combination of alot of sound mods that i painstakenly cherrypicked and in some cases resampled so they played correctly over the months to create the right combination i like. My choices of sounds were often based around atmospheric ambiance, or replacing sounds which made my speakers screech or otherwise make an unpleasant racket (IE stock destroyer sounds were horrible!)

***SOUND_Level_adjustments
- I had issues with other sound level adjustment mods. For some reason it would cause wierd stuttering. So i took to making my own, adjusting only what i thought was the bare neccisity to maintain good ambiance. This file is tuned to the sounds in the above listed collection.

---------------------------
*** MY_SENSOR_MOD

1.) scene.dat - two versions.
One is from the 16K, unmodified by me. The other version is one that removes all wind changes from the game (all other weather continues to change as normal). If your sick of 15 kt winds, for the entire patrol, this file is for you.

You can, use this file in mid patrol as well. If your stuck with 15 kit winds, and finally get a break in the weather, save and exit the game, disable my_sensor_mod in JSGME, go to the mods directory and rename the existing scene.dat to 16K_STOCK_scene.dat and then rename
16K_WIND_NERF_scene.dat to scene.dat.

***BE WARNED*** The wind will stay exactly at the speed it was at when you renable this mod. So if its clear calm seas, while that maybe nice, if you run into an HK group your going to be in deep **** since those are perfect sonar conditions for the AI.


2.) Contacts.cfg
- *slighlty* enlarged radius that you will recieve contact reports. You can see whats around you a
a little more, and then decide if its worth pursuing.

3.) SIM.cfg
a.)A happy playground for fiddling with noisefactor and wave factor settings. Or in otherwords, how well an escort can hear you. Currently these values are at default. If your intrested in fine tuning this, if memory serves me correclty the direction/scale these these variables work is as follows:

Wave factor - seems to dictate how much waves HINDER AI passive sonar.
- default is 0.5 (0.6 lessens the hinderance , 0.4 increases it.)

Noisefactor - Im not entirely sure what exatly this variable does, only that it effects how well AI passive sonar can hear.
- default is 1. ( any value less then one seems in increase the AI's passiave ablity to hear. Any value greater then 1 seems to make them more deaf then they already are)

As an aside i was experimenting with 0.5 noise factor and 0.5 wave factor and had promising results with the AI with a 7kt wind at the time. Be advised the calmer the weather, the greater their ablity to hear is.

b.) adjusted lost contact time to 45
"Thank you sir, can i have another?!"

4.) Torpedo.sim & zon
- I think i adjusted the T-IIE torpedos to have a 4000 meter max distance instead of 3000.
- I also think i tried to adjust the power of the warhead of FAT and LUT torpedo's which didn't work.
Game still uses some hardcoded value. My idea was thinking of FATS or LUTS as sort of a "blockbuster" torpedo.

5.) GUNS_SUB.sim
- increased reloading delay in deck guns. Default i think is 4, i made mine 8. 15 delay in other mods i found agonizingly too long, the 4 default is too damn quick, 8 seemed just right to me.

6.) Shells.zon
- *Slightly* reduced HE round damage.

7.) Depthcharges settings i changed:
- Depth percision 20
- Explosion range 75
- max radius 15

8.) Hedge hogs (hang on to your butts!)
- Fall speed 6
- Det depth 200
- Depth precsion 50
- explosion range 60
- Min/max EF is now 60-110
- Min/max Radius is now 4-8

Result is, above 200 meters, they work as normal. At 200 meters to 250 meters they randomly detonate so if you can get deep, you can get under them, but your still not garunteed to survive. Theres always that one HH taht doesnt detonate or one that blows up just above your conning tower.

9.) Sensors.dat
( most of these settings were made with default 6K visual distance in mind at the time)

10.) Radar ranges. I made them get progressivly larger
- FUmo 29 starts at 6000 meters, other end of the scale FUMO64 is 9000 meters.
- I cheesed the fumo29, has same scan sweep radius as other radars. As long as were mounting ALL radar intenna's on the front of the conning tower, *shrug* why the hell not.

11.). RWR reciever - also progressivly larger with model.
- Metox starts at 6000, other end of the scale you have tunis with 10,000

*note my primary thinking was i should have *JUST* barely enough time to dive. I found other
RWR ranges in other mods so long in distance, that t me it totally removed aircraft as a danger in
the game. Needless to say im having issues with 16K visual distance.


12.) Visual distance
- currently 10,000 max range, and 8500 precise range. Im still fine tuning this, and this figure will
probably shrink as time goes on. That said, the lookouts arent 100% with these figures, which is
something i liek as it helps early war to find ships, but doesn't seem negate aircraft as a threat.

13.) AI_Sensors.dat (so many changes here, im not even sure whats stock anymore)

- All hydrophones can listen down to 500 meters, max range on any one hydrophone is 9500 meters, all hydrophones get progressevely larger, with the lower end one at around 6000 meters the max at 9500.

- Active Sonar has a min range of 175 meters.
- Active sonar cone is 70 degrees.
- Active sonar's max depth is 275 meters.

- The ultimate in snorkel fixes for Time compression weenies like me.
*Ai visual min height is 1 meter.
*Airborne radar has a min height starting at 1.3 meters with the upper end at 0.9 meters (formerly 0.03)

------------------------------------

MY_BASIC_CFG

1.) Basic.cfg
(a very ROUGH and general outline rather then a point by point list, and is a hodgepodge of the gamey and the historical.) I had one simple philosphy here, and that is always having something to look forward to. So i impleneted what i called a "1 new toy per year" philosphy. For example,

- the FUMO 29 is avialable in 42. after that you get 1 new radar set per year.
- Metox is avialable in 42 with tunis in 44. 1 new RWR set per year.
- IXC, and VIIC are avialble 1 year earlier then stock.
- torpedos is something similar.

Now, i also made some more realistic changes.
- Snorkel is now aviable Dec of 1943. (just in case you happen to get in port before the new year)
Snorkels weren't really installed until 1944. The only subs that come with a snorkel now
are the VIIC/41, and the VIIC/42 in 1943. Everyone else has to crash dive alot until 44.

- IX/3 conning tower is not available until 1943. This is closer to historical accuracy.

- Heavy flak. the 2cm quad is avialble at the start of 43. The single barrled 3.7 cm automatic
flak gun is availble june of 1943, and the double barrled version being avilable in dec43 or early
44 i forget which.

I may as well at this point mention my idea of AA gun progression. heres how it works

* All subs first get /2 conning towers in 42
* in june of 42 i made the twin 2cm flak guns available (normaly avialable in 43)
* in 43 you get your first heavy flak gun with a conning tower upgrade
* in mid 43 you get a single barrled automatic flak gun,
* in late 43/early 44 you get the final flak gun, the double barrled automatic.

- Increased inport time for most upgrades
- Removed all renown costs
- GREATLY increased renown requirements for ranks and medals

*** Food as fatigue model - if you hate micromangament like i do.

( to get this to work you'll need to change your 3DRender=32 setting in the main.cfg
file in mydocuments/sh3)

crew changes i made:
CoefFatigue=0.2, 0.3, 0.4 becomes 0.02, 0.03, 0.04

Settings for FATIGUE_COEF are as follows:
//compartment
0.0001 = 31 days.
0.00007 = 44 days
0.00005 = 62 days
0.00004 = 77 days

Add or adjust to flavor. Im sure you can see how it scales. At the day i have listed, you'll get
the big red exclamation point meaning your crew is tired, or in this case, low on food and therefore
not functioning very well.

**Aditional notes:
- IXD2 torpedo reload bug fixed
- Increased ammo comparments for most subs so your total ammo display should not be truncated when viewing your inventory.


2.) Crew configuration files.
Basically what i usually use in a crew. Trim, and lean. Requires furbars sub crew skin mod to
work correctly. No heliem voices, fairly decent variety of crew to look at (although this needs work)
I made some of the certifications more logical incase i ever used more closer to default fatigue values.


3.) Gamplaysettings.cfg
- with changes i made to the freecam, i added freecam realism values to the "no stealth meter".
















Original post:
Before IUB, RUB, GW, or NYGM, ive slowly been tinkering with SH3, learning about various things as i go.

Orginally i used Improved Convoys as a base, later IC and HT, these days im using Unified Campagin as a base. Along the way id use other peoples mods, and often, tinkering with those mods, as well as the orginal game to adjust SH3 to my taste.

My goal has always been to create an engaging WW2 submarine experience, without sacraficing much in the way of historical fact - but not letting historical fact get in the way of what i thought would make good gameplay. In short Ive wanted a game that felt like "Das boot". Historically accurate yet, cinematic. Weather i have accomplished this i dont know but my primary focus has been to fix things that:
- were historicaly incorrect
OR
- made for sucky gameplay

Which in some cases makes for a contradition.


http://www.ducimus.net/sh3/mod_van.jpg

JScones
05-18-06, 05:46 PM
Depends if it crosses NYGM territory. If so, maybe save yourself the flaming.

Curiously, did you ever get your XXI working for the whole war without side effects?

Ducimus
05-18-06, 05:52 PM
Depends if it crosses NYGM territory. If so, maybe save yourself the flaming.

Curiously, did you ever get your XXI working for the whole war without side effects?

It crosses NYGM's territory in two respects:
1.) UC had a crash bug. I fixed it by using NYGM's flotilla.cfg. It made sense, since UC's base is really the same campaign layers. My assumptin is Rubini had a few dates wrong.

2.) I used the compartment crew reduction ILLUSION. Yes illusion. It looks like the engine/motor rooms only take 5 crewmen, but the crew spots are reallly still there.



As for the XXI, yup.

Infact i even went as far enough with it I developed the Battery recharge fix Von Helshin uses for his mod. He asked me about it, i told him what i did, and he took it from there. Right now my sim/zon entries for that boat are screwed up , so im just gonna d/l von helsings whenever i get around to it. I think he spent much more time on it then i did. I got the rough concept, im sure he fine tuned it - and id rather use the fine tuned version.

gouldjg
05-18-06, 06:12 PM
I say yes

Release it. I know you have always played with it in your own way and it is like a little baby to you but you should share it man :up: :up:

Ducimus
05-18-06, 06:15 PM
Your hollywood damage mod.

Its one of the earlier ones. Not the one with the convertable uboat, but after that. I added the Improved air power entries to it with essentually doubles planes hitpoints/armor so shooting them down isnt like swatting flies, and is acutally a risky proposition.

EDIT:
I know you have always played with it in your own way and it is like a little baby to you but you should share it man :up:

yeah, for the most part im a closet modder. I don't come out of the closet very much with what im doing in there :hulk: Ive always done my own thing, modding in a bubble so to speak. Some things, while i honestly thought it up myself, someone else did first. For example slow crush subs from GW's. I thought it up.. but they thought it up first.

Kpt. Lehmann
05-18-06, 06:18 PM
I say yes

Release it. I know you have always played with it in your own way and it is like a little baby to you but you should share it man :up:

Definitely!!!

Modders should feel comfortable releasing their work here without fear of being slapped. Even if it has warts... releasing helps you find and correct them. You can test things until the cows come home and hope that you found everything... but eventually it comes time to surface and throw open the hatch.

Unruly trolls can be dealt with.

It is how the pool of knowledge becomes richer!

One discovery leads to another and so-forth.

Your mod has a right to exist.

JScones
05-18-06, 06:23 PM
As for the XXI, yup.
So, <puts on flak jacket> can I ask what you were doing wrong? Because IIRC you were getting quite heated with me at the time because you didn't believe that I had it working properly beyond three years (or something like that).

Ducimus
05-18-06, 06:26 PM
If i remember correcltly, You were right, it was the roster file.

Im a big enough man to admit when i didnt have my ducks in a row :D

JScones
05-18-06, 07:53 PM
Im a big enough man to admit when i didnt have my ducks in a row :D
And I'm a big enough man to let you. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

HEMISENT
05-18-06, 07:58 PM
Ducimus
Good Grief, release them. Your past thoughts and contributions have always been top notch. I would love to give your settings a try-especially if it includes Rubini's work.

Kpt. Lehmann
05-18-06, 09:19 PM
Ducimus
Good Grief, release them. Your past thoughts and contributions have always been top notch. I would love to give your settings a try-especially if it includes Rubini's work.

I agree entirely. :up: :up: :up:

Ducimus
05-18-06, 09:35 PM
Well i dont promise anything NEW, thats for sure.

Most of my work has been centered around:

- trying to find the right AI active sonar settings so i can get a good depth charging :88)

- Have targets in the RND layer that arent risk free.

- boat sim/zon files (nothing new just fine tuning in response to any changes made in the ai sensors)




See orginaly i was just focusing on getting rid of pin point drops, but not making them totally blind either. I want the depth charge coming close enough were i take damage, but not neccessarly sink me every time. The problem is the AI is so unpredictable its really hard to fine tune what i think of as "the depth charge experience"

Orginally i was using like a 75 meter min distance with the default 90 degree cone, with a depth percision of 25 on the dpeth charges.

Later on an idea hit me for something even more atmospheric... IE that slow crush modding i talked about in another thread. I implemented that about a month ago but havent really tested it that much.

n about that time i abandoned the AI sonar settings i had for a 175 meter min distance, 60 degree arch, and a i think i tightned up the depth percision too. Later still i loosed the arc up to 70 degrees. The primary reason is i set a lost contact time of 45.

Later still i made the min depth of active sonar 275 meters so you can go under the active sonar, but the crushing starts at about 240 meters.

One change ive yet to do is make all crew rating 3's to 4's, and then repalce all 0 through 2,s to crew rating 3's.

So im putting alot more elites in (not all, but ALOT), making the sonar cone a bit tighter, a min range alot more then what i had before, but tighter then other mods i noted at 200 min distance, a tigther depth percision. All of these im hoping will result in some good play. If it wasnt for the slow crush modding, the 45 min lost contact time, and crew rating changes, id bring those depth charges in alot closer with a more closer to stock AI active sonar.

Another thing im experimenting with is 0.5 noise factor with 0.5 wave factor. I was running a static 7 kt wind patrol. Needs more testing.. which im more then happy to do since i like playing more then modding, but i mod to get the challenge and experience im looking for. :D

oh ya, i also upped the explosion radius (not the kill radius, the other one) to like 70. So when a depth charge is close, you WILL feel it.

Hedge hogs are somethign entirely unrealistc. I gave the a depth of 200 meters and a percsion of i think 25 or 50. Meaning up until 200 meters the y funcition normaly after 200 meters they're all essentually depth charges. I increased the power and explosion radius of them as well.

Ducimus
05-18-06, 10:18 PM
Unless i get a negative reaction i think ill realease what i have in a week or two.

Theres a coupe other things i want to do, that im pretty sure i can get working but it will take me some time.

-rework indian ocean traffic a bit, and move the 12 flotilla to penang at some point i havent decided yet

- MAYBE rewrite the 10th flotilla to be the 30th and move it to the black sea.
Im not big on type 2's or short range patrols so i might not do it.

JScones
05-18-06, 10:28 PM
-rework indian ocean traffic a bit, and move the 12 flotilla to penang at some point i havent decided yet
Good. Saves me doing it (it was on my to-do list actually). :up:

Ducimus
05-18-06, 10:33 PM
Well that settles that.

If you or anyoense else doesnt already know how to move a flotillas homeport, somwhere on u-boot.realsimulations.net, theres a zip file named
GPLAY_MONSUN_BOATS.zip or something like that.

That was me, ripped straight off my hard drive, (see above pic, i have a naming convention for everything :roll: ). I didnt put my name in the readme, i think i did a pisspoor job on the RND layer, but i learned a few things. You can disect the files and see what was involved.

JScones
05-18-06, 10:36 PM
Yeah, I know how to do it, but hey, why reinvent the wheel! :up:

I've wanted 12 Flotilla in Penang with real Aussie and convoy traffic for a while (even though...shock horror...I realise it isn't overly realistic). Just never had the time to really sit down and do it, what with SH3Cmdr and all...

Ducimus
05-18-06, 10:46 PM
The RND layer, all i intend to do is increase spawn frequency, and group composition. Most of the existing groups i think are fine in location, and waypoints but everything characteristics about those random groups sucks.

Im not sure how im going to approach this one in reguard to ship protection.

Realsticaly i dont think the uboats got back there in any numbers tell 43, and shipping was relativly unprotected. So i think at 44 i might tighten thngs up.

A third happy time maybe? (2nd one being drumbeat in 42) or should it be tough from the word go?

JScones
05-18-06, 11:44 PM
:hmm: Interesting question.

Just going back a step, I'll clarify some assumptions I have...

1. Penang is only available for patrols from Aug 43 through to the end of the war as per history (although of course after Sep 44ish the boats were really just transports)?
2. Sub selection is limited to IXC and IXD2 as per history?
3. Convoys and ships have been added as per history?
4. Is the base moved to Batavia after Oct 1944?
5. Any Arados flying around (just thought I'd throw that one in ;))?

At least with these inclusions or thereabouts there can be some semblence of realism to such a campaign.

Have you read this... http://uboat.net/ops/monsun3.htm ? That's all I have to go by. It states that the "Indian Ocean was the only region with almost peace-time shipping arrangement and still with U-boats radius of action.".

The other interesting comment is "The Monsun boats were so short of torpedoes that U-532, U-188 and U-183 were ordered to embark strategic materials and come home via the patrol areas in the Indian Ocean.".

EDIT: Just found this...looks like a good read... http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ETO/Ultra/SRH-008/SRH008-14.html

Ducimus
05-19-06, 12:19 AM
Well if we wanted to be realistic about it, then penang never becomes a home port because that would allow you to upgrade your boat.. something which they didnt have the option of.

Tonnage yeild out of the indian ocean wasnt that high from what ive read, so you wont be sinking alot of ships. They were acutaly primarly functioning as cargo carriers.

So all that put together, im gonna toss reality right out the window in regards to shipping and home ports. As for shipping, i honsetly have no idea what is historically correct. All i feel capable of, is making the RND entries somewhat balanced to the rest of the game. Too much shipping to shoot at is as bad as too little. both of which are someting i try to avoid.

edit: oh ya, boats seem to be priamrly IXD2's with a sprinkeling of IXC/40's. They got sunk all over the place:

http://uboat.net/maps/indian_ocean.htm

JScones
05-19-06, 12:24 AM
Yes, I should have written "semblence of connection to such a campaign". I was just about to change it actually. I wouldn't hold any expectations on such a campaign being overly realistic because then it would be quite boring.

But I like 100% where you are heading. I don't want to be moving bananas around the ocean!

Ducimus
05-19-06, 03:16 AM
Yes, I should have written "semblence of connection to such a campaign". I was just about to change it actually. I wouldn't hold any expectations on such a campaign being overly realistic because then it would be quite boring.

But I like 100% where you are heading. I don't want to be moving bananas around the ocean!

Exactly.

Besides, i just changed the 12th around. Moves to penang from france in febuary, 1943 now. I also extended the milkcow ship blake to cover your logistical needs while the 12th exists. Just incase your nutty enough to go crusing a patrol grid in the south atlantic. Although the grid assigments are really wacky. *cough* BF42 for example. Ill either have to stare at a grid map and write down a bunch of coordinates and write them in the flotilla cfg file, or be cheesy and do a "find and replace" and just put in =0. Or i could just leave it alone :roll: You didnt really want to cruise a grid did you? ;)

JScones
05-19-06, 03:36 AM
Well, here's (http://www.geocities.com/germangrid/eindian.html) an MQK of the Indian Ocean (copy and paste to your graphics app to see better) and here's (http://www.geocities.com/germangrid/epacific.html) one of the Pacific. If you want I can write a very quick programme to replace all current 12 Flotilla grid locations in Flotilla.cfg (between x date and y date or whatever boundaries you say - pls confirm for me) with nice Indian/Pacific ones (Pacific being limited to around Australia and such).

Whilst I'm sure that SH3 will not recognise them (although it will be a good test), it will at least provide players with some framework.

VonHelsching
05-19-06, 07:38 AM
[quote=JScones]As for the XXI, yup.

Infact i even went as far enough with it I developed the Battery recharge fix Von Helshin uses for his mod. He asked me about it, i told him what i did, and he took it from there. Right now my sim/zon entries for that boat are screwed up , so im just gonna d/l von helsings whenever i get around to it. I think he spent much more time on it then i did. I got the rough concept, im sure he fine tuned it - and id rather use the fine tuned version.

As far as your mod is concerned, YES by all means!

The XXI bugs were the ones that made me start tweaking files. I made searches in old post to gather and integrate all XXI fixes, plus 1-2 minor tweaks of my own (like adjusting the snorkel depth). Our exchange of posts and by reading of your posts are some of the reasons for me to start modding, and I thank you for that.

BTW, the XXI recharge was the most irritating bug in the game and I also thank you for that.

Sadly, I hardly play anymore. I just mod. If you need anything on batteries, turning rates, dive times etc. at your service!

Ducimus
05-19-06, 12:31 PM
Well, here's (http://www.geocities.com/germangrid/eindian.html) an MQK of the Indian Ocean (copy and paste to your graphics app to see better) and here's (http://www.geocities.com/germangrid/epacific.html) one of the Pacific. If you want I can write a very quick programme to replace all current 12 Flotilla grid locations in Flotilla.cfg (between x date and y date or whatever boundaries you say - pls confirm for me) with nice Indian/Pacific ones (Pacific being limited to around Australia and such).

Whilst I'm sure that SH3 will not recognise them (although it will be a good test), it will at least provide players with some framework.

I havent started on the RND layer so yet so ill look at this a little later.

I jsut got done looking at everything or most everythign ive done and made a readme file. Posted it in orginal post that started this thread.

EDIT: just added some additonal notes to changes made in rubinis UC that i forgot to mention.

edit: wee a couple more notes on teh basic.cfg

Ducimus
05-19-06, 01:48 PM
Well, here's (http://www.geocities.com/germangrid/eindian.html) an MQK of the Indian Ocean (copy and paste to your graphics app to see better) and here's (http://www.geocities.com/germangrid/epacific.html) one of the Pacific. If you want I can write a very quick programme to replace all current 12 Flotilla grid locations in Flotilla.cfg (between x date and y date or whatever boundaries you say - pls confirm for me) with nice Indian/Pacific ones (Pacific being limited to around Australia and such).

Whilst I'm sure that SH3 will not recognise them (although it will be a good test), it will at least provide players with some framework.

My eyes must be bad. Those maps are barely legible, but i do see what you mean. What im wondering is how in the heck your gonig to make SH3 recognize grid coordinate in the indian ocean. All the locations given by the game there is in proper lat/long/ degree calcuatlions (The fact that the game does this amazed me acutally).

But, if your wanting to tinker with that, heres the new header for the 12th flotilla in the CFG file.

Flotilla6=908
TO6=944
NbStartingDate6=3
NbDate6=3
Emblem6=data/Emblems/SubEmblems/Flotillas/12th flotilla.tga
NbBases6=2
Base6_0=756;Bordeaux
Date6_0_0=1942
Month6_0_0=12
Date6_0_1=1943
Month6_0_1=1
DeparturePointLong6_0=-103545.000000
DeparturePointLat6_0=5447227.000000
Heading6_0=0.000000
Base6_1=760;Penang
Date6_1_0=1943
Month6_1_0=2
Date6_1_1=1944
Month6_1_1=8
DeparturePointLong6_1=12044663.000000
DeparturePointLat6_1=646065.000000
Heading6_1=270.000000
NbUboats6=1
Uboat6_0=2

CB..
05-19-06, 02:10 PM
me and Col777 did some farting about with the idea od british subs in the pacific...never got anywhere really but i can happily report that the game did not crash when reporting contacts out side the krigsmarine grid system...it actually gave the lat long co-ordinates instead..i could never get the hang of the RND entrys especailly via the mission editor (tho by hand edit it works ok) but the mission editor seems to work reliably for the scripted layer...so i just bashed in a few jap convoys did the trick with the flottilla base and it worked..following up on the contact reports was a major task tho...real hard core navigation involved there!!! had to use a genuine map and plot the lat long onto that then transpose it to the game in order to find the convoys...kinda ineresting tho...it was only an experiment tho--nothing ever came out of it (others have done the same so no claim to fame etc etc for me )--

just the usefull knowledge that the game automatically gives lat long co-ordinates in contact reports if the shipping is not inside the krieg grid area...(it could have just crashed) how the heck you write the alloted patrol zones tho i have no idea..

JScones
05-19-06, 08:57 PM
My eyes must be bad. Those maps are barely legible, but i do see what you mean.
Copy and paste them into your favourite graphics app. Then you'll get them at full size (zoomable).

What im wondering is how in the heck your gonig to make SH3 recognize grid coordinate in the indian ocean. All the locations given by the game there is in proper lat/long/ degree calcuatlions (The fact that the game does this amazed me acutally).
It perplexes me due to the fact that the Kriegsmarine Grid system covered the entire globe. But then, if they were ever thinking of using the SH3 engine for a US/Pacific version of the game, well, that would explain it. Anyway, the obvious solution is to write lat/long instead of patrol grid. Can't see why it wouldn't work - SH3 doesn't seem to test or care about what values it is fed.

But, if your wanting to tinker with that, heres the new header for the 12th flotilla in the CFG file.
Thanks.

Ducimus
05-19-06, 09:34 PM
Anyway, the obvious solution is to write lat/long instead of patrol grid.

Truth be told, when i was in the service, i was an engineer......In the Air force. (somebodys gotta build those bases for the fly fly boys :roll:) In specific, i was a carpenter and a mason. Point is, while i can read a map grid/coordinate system just fine, the nautical lat/long/degree system perplexes me about as much as the US Navy's rank chart. Sort of like a monkey doing a math problem. So i have to ask, how the do you find said coordinates within the confines of the SH3 enviorment?

CB..
05-19-06, 09:40 PM
What im wondering is how in the heck your gonig to make SH3 recognize grid coordinate in the indian ocean. All the locations given by the game there is in proper lat/long/ degree calcuatlions (The fact that the game does this amazed me acutally).
It perplexes me due to the fact that the Kriegsmarine Grid system covered the entire globe. But then, if they were ever thinking of using the SH3 engine for a US/Pacific version of the game, well, that would explain it. Anyway, the obvious solution is to write lat/long instead of patrol grid. Can't see why it wouldn't work - SH3 doesn't seem to test or care about what values it is fed.


i wonder if here this might pose a problem .
only down to the way the game uses the patrol zone entrys to measure wether you have reached patrol zone and how long you have stayed there (for the renown points) only one of two things can happen really(?) either it will reject the lat long imput as imcompatible with the system (and possibly crash) or it will cope with the lat long entrys and just never give you the renown (it being nigh on impossible to get that precise navigation wise to actually reach the exact co-ordinates) whad ya reckon it's worth a try any way.. has to be...if the lat long co-ords show up on the mission objectives screen etc then job done...forget the renown points try an compensate with other factors..

i don't know if this is relevant or help full..but i have for my own fun made a type II campaign run from Wilm' where by you keep the Type II right thru out the war- remaining at wilm' untill 43 then transfering to bergen..as this gave me a campaign that was all about dodging Destroyers in shallow waters whilst picking of lone merchants...each patrol being relatively short due to the limited torps...and blimey the type II interior is just such a pleasure to look at..

i re wrote all the wilm/bergen patrol zone objectives (man that was a job and a half) and all went well..it's actually quite good fun as an alternative

some issues on the campaign start selection screen but i dare say they are not insurmountable..

dang it if only the krieg grid had covered the black sea i could have had some fun transfering to that area in the type II

if your short of available ship types for any nation that you need for the indian ocean pacific etc..then simply add all the ship cfg files from the roster folders to the nation that needs more ships and you can then add them via the mission editor...which is still the easiest way to work easpecially whne working out side the normal patrol areas--- just stick to working on the SCR layer as working on the RND layer with the editor seems to cause more crashes than is worth the effort...other wise it's a lot of work adding new shipping by hand getting the numbers sequentail etc etc..your gonna need some more as there virtually nothing down there as stock..

CB..
05-19-06, 09:41 PM
oops double post

whilst im here tho--So i have to ask, how the do you find said coordinates within the confines of the SH3 enviorment?


that's the trouble...you don't...you can get close but never really be spot on (how would you know even if you were) unless you were to set your patrol zone objective as a rendevous with a ship...then placed a stationary ship at exactly those co-ordinates could you be sure..did i hear some say they did some thing like this for the MIlch cow mod..? perhaps they would have some experience with this?

Ducimus
05-19-06, 09:50 PM
Honestly ive already brewed an alternate plan, but its on a back burner.

I extended supply ship brake's longevity for one reason, and one reason only. To be sure you can get back to penang after running your patrol grid. I figured worst case scenario, id start up SH3, pick alot of grid coordinates south of the equator, then go back in the flotilla file and fill them in.

(4 edits later, i think i have my wording right :roll: )

JScones
05-19-06, 09:57 PM
So i have to ask, how the do you find said coordinates within the confines of the SH3 enviorment?
Bloody hard? You'd need an auxillary map on your desk I'd think.

i wonder if here this might pose a problem .
only down to the way the game uses the patrol zone entrys to measure wether you have reached patrol zone and how long you have stayed there (for the renown points) only one of two things can happen really(?) either it will reject the lat long imput as imcompatible with the system (and possibly crash) or it will cope with the lat long entrys and just never give you the renown (it being nigh on impossible to get that precise navigation wise to actually reach the exact co-ordinates) whad ya reckon it's worth a try any way.. has to be...if the lat long co-ords show up on the mission objectives screen etc then job done...forget the renown points try an compensate with other factors..
I doubt, at least using MQK coordinates, that you'll get renown because I don't think they are modelled in the Indian. But lat/long may be interesting to check. I wouldn't be too surprised if it worked - again going back to my belief that the devs were thinking wider than just the German U-boat arm when they created SH3. If I get a chance today, I might have a play around. FYI, this may or may not work because it's within SH3's modelled MQK system, but AM54 is about 55N11W in lat/long (although I think it should be entered 5511). If anyone wants to try? I just don't have the Penang setup at the moment to try an Indian Ocean lat/long.

dang it if only the krieg grid had covered the black sea i could have had some fun transfering to that area in the type II
It did - the MQK was worldwide. http://www.geocities.com/germangrid/eblacksea.html

Again though, I dunno if SH3 will recognise them though (another test??) ;)

CB..
05-19-06, 10:08 PM
you might have a point --just because they didn't show the full krieg grid on the map doesn't mean that they didn't write it into the game code...!!
it might recognise the indian ocean pacific black sea grid codes--surely some ones tried it tho? :hmm: if i get in the mood i'll give it a go!! wouldn't it be a kick in the pots if it worked lol!!

JScones
05-19-06, 10:22 PM
I'd be impressed, and also annoyed with myself for not testing literally six months ago!

Ducimus
05-20-06, 12:39 PM
Ok i think im about done. Cleaned up readme file, its on the first post now.


Im gonna reenable everything over a clean install before i shove the whole lot minus fubars crew/sub skins and bordininstrumte into a couple RAR balls and hope rapidshare willl take em.

Tigrone
05-20-06, 02:50 PM
I thank you very much for your work. I've seen you contribute many times to this endeavor. I'm really looking forward to playing with your version. It seems very close to my idea of how to play--a rational balance of realism and ease of play.

Thank you,

Ducimus
05-20-06, 06:43 PM
D/L links posted in Orignal post.

bigboywooly
05-20-06, 08:35 PM
well these are original kreigsmarine maps - they have the " P " grids in but cant see no other differences from the game map

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/993/gridma10vb.th.jpg (http://img146.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gridma10vb.jpg) http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/4412/gridma76xu.th.gif (http://img132.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gridma76xu.gif)

and i am sure have seen " Q " grids on a map somewhere might have been at simhq

Dantes
05-21-06, 12:46 PM
This looks like an interesting mod indeed.

As for the additional mods listed in the read me:

1.) Fubar's crew skins
2.) Fubars Sub skins
3.) Bordinstrumente 1.1
4.) NYGM-Tonnage war terrain add in.

I have been able to locate mods 2,3 & 4. I cannot for the life of me find the Fubar's crew skins mod. Is it labelled something different and where is it located?

Thanks.

Ducimus
05-21-06, 12:55 PM
Fubars_crew_skins.rar

Dantes
05-21-06, 01:38 PM
Thanks. I searched the forum here and over at U-Boot Realsimulation.com and no trace of it.

Tried googling it but no dice.

Maybe it is not available anymore? Doh...

Just need to know where it is now. ;)

Ducimus
05-21-06, 01:44 PM
I cant find a link either. uploading it to rapidshare, should be up in 20 mins or so.

Dantes
05-21-06, 01:45 PM
Thank you!

Much appreciated.

S!

Ducimus
05-21-06, 02:06 PM
http://rapidshare.de/files/21040193/Fubars_crew_skins.rar.html

Stiebler
05-21-06, 03:04 PM
To return briefly to the subject of patrolling an area in the Indian Ocean (Ducimus/CB/JScones):

I tried a manual input of grid ref KR53 into my forthcoming SH3Patrol program, for a Type IXd2 off Cape Town. Then I ran the U-boat into the Indian Ocean, aiming at the tanker 'Brake'. Brake *should* be very close to KR53, but it's hard to be sure how close.

SH3 accepted the grid square KR53 quite happily - it showed on the screen for patrol orders - but it proved impossible to get the orders screen to indicate that the patrol grid had been reached. The U-boat went round and round Brake in widening circles, but the message that the patrol grid had been reached never appeared.

I believe, then, that this method will not work (although there is no way of telling for certain whether the boat really crossed the correct grid). It seems unlikely, too, that a lat/long reference will work, since the grid as used in SH3 is an area, not a position. But in any case, it will be impossible for the player to locate an exact position on the map in SH3.

Sorry to be so negative; if anyone could prove me wrong, I'd be glad to hear it.

Stiebler.

JScones
05-22-06, 02:04 AM
To return briefly to the subject of patrolling an area in the Indian Ocean (Ducimus/CB/JScones):

I tried a manual input of grid ref KR53 into my forthcoming SH3Patrol program, for a Type IXd2 off Cape Town. Then I ran the U-boat into the Indian Ocean, aiming at the tanker 'Brake'. Brake *should* be very close to KR53, but it's hard to be sure how close.

SH3 accepted the grid square KR53 quite happily - it showed on the screen for patrol orders - but it proved impossible to get the orders screen to indicate that the patrol grid had been reached. The U-boat went round and round Brake in widening circles, but the message that the patrol grid had been reached never appeared.

I believe, then, that this method will not work (although there is no way of telling for certain whether the boat really crossed the correct grid). It seems unlikely, too, that a lat/long reference will work, since the grid as used in SH3 is an area, not a position. But in any case, it will be impossible for the player to locate an exact position on the map in SH3.

Sorry to be so negative; if anyone could prove me wrong, I'd be glad to hear it.

Stiebler.
What's SH3Patrol?

Anyway, I did some basic testing yesterday. I knew SH3 would take whatever grid I fed it, but yeah, it wouldn't actually recognise when I got there.

I take your point re lat/long, which is why I want to test with something as broad as "5511".

I mean, surely the grid information wouldn't be hard-coded (it's really just data and I couldn't image it all being hard-coded)? Surely it is defined in a dat file somewhere?

Ducimus
05-25-06, 03:58 AM
I think ill be repackaging the first compressed file that contains the modified version of rubini's unfied campagin.

Two changes as so far.

1.) Mind fields surrounding britian are back in, but i reducded their density by 50%. If the mines were causing rendering issues before, im pretty certain that thinning them out will resolve htat. I didnt like removing them to begin with, but i was too busy to look at it more closely, so i just arbitarly removed them. Not so now.

2.) I got rid of that fifth wheel called the 10th flotilla, and put something else in its place. That "something else" is functioning right now, all i have to do is write in the grid assigments and its done.

Screenshots:
http://www.ducimus.net/sh3/3rd_flot_1.jpg
http://www.ducimus.net/sh3/3rd_flot_2.jpg

Coort
05-25-06, 08:38 AM
I think ill be repackaging the first compressed file that contains the modified version of rubini's unfied campagin.

Two changes as so far.

1.) Mind fields surrounding britian are back in, but i reducded their density by 50%. If the mines were causing rendering issues before, im pretty certain that thinning them out will resolve htat. I didnt like removing them to begin with, but i was too busy to look at it more closely, so i just arbitarly removed them. Not so now.

2.) I got rid of that fifth wheel called the 10th flotilla, and put something else in its place. That "something else" is functioning right now, all i have to do is write in the grid assigments and its done.

Screenshots:
http://www.ducimus.net/sh3/3rd_flot_1.jpg
http://www.ducimus.net/sh3/3rd_flot_2.jpg

Great work, actually i'm trying your UC for stock game (the basic version).
Thanks :D

Mush Martin
09-03-07, 09:27 PM
Excellence as always :up::up:

VipertheSniper
09-03-07, 10:02 PM
Huh? Did you just revive a year old thread to make your 2400th post?

Kpt. Lehmann
09-03-07, 10:07 PM
LOL, this thread is a bit errrmmm... decomposed.:rotfl:

However, Mush Martin didn't resuscitate it. I think Spruance M did when he apparently voted on the poll. Voting on polls bumps a thread.

dcb
09-04-07, 12:59 AM
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Last night when I went to sleep this thread wasn't here. When I woke up I thought "Well, these guys were able to write a 3-pages thread in just a few hours, with so much talk about modding... WOW. And Ducimus coming back in force???:o" I even read it thoroughly... only to reach the last posts, which explained it all. Silly me I didn't look at the posting dates.:oops:

Mush Martin
09-04-07, 01:20 AM
for my part I had slept hardly at all in 36 hrs.:shifty: