I think I know what the cloudmask does now, I renamed it so the sim didn't use it, when I loaded a mission the clouds reflected on the water too much that it made it look peculiar.

I also started a career in 9/39 and ran into thunderstorms and
high waves on my way accross to England but went to complete
calm when I got there. The rest of the 1st Patrol was calm too.
My 2nd and 3rd Patrols were very calm and were a joy to hunt
merchants. Then on my 4th Patrol, all H broke loose. Heavy seas
but clear skys truned my patrol into a nightmare. Torps went
screwy and exploded agains waves before hitting. They went
under ships and just missed algether with the buffeting by the
large waves. I was very luncky to get any hits at all. Now on
my 5th Patrol. weather started clam but seems to be turning
worse every day. I save the game about every 24 to 48 hours
cause I am playing in small blocks of real time. (real life time)
I would like to get the weather to change faster either way.
Then I could just wait out the bad weather and patrol in the
good weather. Not realistic, of course, but much more FUN !!!


JIM

I'm not 100% sure now about the cloudtransition file, I'm still getting the cloud's reflections on the water, may be it was the light or something in my last test.
Any way I messed around with it but didn't notice anything dramatic if anything at all.

If the weather statis is reset to 0 when you do a saved game,
I wonder if the time acceleration also will affect it. I have had
about 5 days of straight thunder, rain and hi-waves with no
saves till my crew was completely worn out. NO CHANGE in the
weather during that time. I have gotten about 3 sound contacts
but can't find them in this rotten weather. No use even trying
again till I get some clear weather. This may be a very long
patrol.....


JIM

I looked in the EnvSim file using a HEX editor, I saw text in there referring to only 2 cloud types, I have put more than 2 types of cloud in the Misc folder, the clouds are named Nori00.tgs & Nori01.tga, I was hoping with the RND command it might also read other cloud tga's but it didn't.
I was wondering if anyone knows about HEX editing and if there is a way to tell the sim to accept more cloud types - OR - is there a way to randomize the cloud tga's withing the Misc folder?
Going off what I've seen there is only ever going to be 3 types sky conditions; Clear, Partial & Overcast. I know with added Fog or big waves it may look different but with different clouds we could have different conditions.

I'm sorry? Do players actually do that? :o

Well that's one way to change the subject. :o

:rotfl:

I wasn't trying to change the subject. Just a bit bemused, that's all. I mean I've never heard of that outside an FPS game.

I'm guilty of reloading once when I missed all 5 shots from perfect 300-400m range, but I just got the feeling I'd be relieved of command for that one when I got ashore or something :shifty:

Perhaps you should split this topic to general discussion, Beery?

Am on my third career in Nov 39 and my first patrol was to Am17 took out a few ship,but when I reached AM17 all I got was rain,heavy seas wind 17 and heavy fog and a large convoy sailing straight for me,took a few out but not all,tracked them all to AM52 but the weather didn't avail. and then lost the convoy.
Patrol 2 Feb 40 ordered to patrol grid AM51 reached the grid and heavy fog rain etc did 24hrs fog,rain still there wind was heading 225 so I sailed WSW towards AM17 got there still fog,rain the lot and yes a convoy comeing for me again. sank 4 ships before I had to reteat,my deck gun,flak gun destroyed attack periscope destroyed hull integrity finished at 44% .
If the weather is random !why did I enter a grid and got a duplicate game I played earlier?.
Even in my second career the war emded as I entered AN26 yes you guessed it in heavy fog.
There must be a way to tweek the weather I have read numerous of post on this topic some never encounter bad weather and some of use encounter the full force of mother nature.
Thank god that Hurricanes arn't modelled in the game.(don't think they are)

Interesting thread.

Just an observation, but it might help a lot if when people talk about the weather they're experiencing they mention what date or time of year it happened like Andy just did. After all, nasty weather that lasts for days or even weeks on end should be expected during the winter months.

Does anyone know if the game takes the time of the year or the location for that matter, into account when deciding on what weather to display?

Game does not take time of year in consideration of weather.

Regional area such as North Alantic (Artic) seems to have an extra wind and storm bonus.

You can get weeks of bad weather due to the random walk of the weather engine. logic is change state: Clouds, Fog, Wind, Direction, Rain. It is tied together also in Clear, Partial, Storm States.

You can get 50% the wind and storm stays going. 48 hours later it is checked again, another 50% roll to change, if change, then time passes for transistion.

I had once almost two weeks Storm from Hades in the North Alantic.

Give 2 days timer + 0.5 day transistion; 50% chance to have still bad weather after 4 to 6 days. 25% chance to have same stuff 7 to 9 days. 12.5% chance for still bad weather 8 to 12 days....

Random walk.

Pity. Thanks for the info though :up:

I got messing around a little with the weather settings, I just tried a few things to see what would happen. On these settings below I got weather that couldn't make it's mind up, it looked like it was going to rain but it didn't, there was intermittent fog banks and the sun was doing it's best to come out. Every now and again the sun did shine slightly but then an overcast came in and blanked it again, the effects were very good, at least on my PC any way, here are the settings:

[Mission]
Title=
MissionType=0
MissionDataType=0
Year=1941
Month=1
Day=1
Hour=9
Minute=0
Fog=2
FogRand=1
Clouds=3 *** I changed this
CloudsRand=1
Precip=0
PrecipRand=0
WindHeading=45
WindSpeed=7.000500 *** I added a value after the decimal.
WindRand=1
WeatherRndInterval=1 *** I changed this
SeaType=0
Briefing=

The crew were dressed in storm gear yet it never rained, but they looked right in the conditions as though ready for a storm that looked like it was brewing.