Beery wrote I'm use to Observer's mod and the effects it has on ships. But a 32% or so difference is quite substantial, and certainly not one that I have ever encountered to date since this mod was incorporated in RUB.

Does the T3 still have an unaltered 11,355 tonnage in the base file?

When we moved over from the date-based to the cfg-based method of implementing the random tonnage mod, the tonnages in the mod were strictly defined by Observer, based on his investigations into wartime tonnage. He gave me specific upper and lower limits for each ship in his mod. As I recall, nothng was changed from what he gave me. In fact he was VERY determined that nothing should be changed, and I was very sure to stick to his requirements.

As for specifics, I have no idea what C3 tonnages were in real life or in the standard game. I'm a big picture kind of guy when it comes to peripheral stuff like this, so I leave that stuff to others who know better. :)

They existed, but they were rare. IIRC they looked a lot like C-2's.

I'd love to resolve the inflated tonnage problem by creating some medium-sized ships but I still haven't mastered Pack3d resizing. I wouldn't mind it if some of the 400-plus foot ships we're making were scaled down to maybe 4500 tons or so when they're released.

I was having trouble resizing objects too, but under wings3d - when I do so, each surface of the objects comes apart.

BTW - What is the best way to change the actual shape of a ship's hull? I would like to make my Ammunition Freighter flush-decked. If the textures get screwed up, maybe the developers will fix them.

I've PM Observer to get to the bottom of this. :)

You've got to use the "select adjacent vertices" function. Once I started using it I really managed to improve some of the ships I'd already created. What you do is click on the dotted pyramid in wings3d (should be on the left) and you'll see the model's vertices exposed. Drag a box around the deckhouse or whatever you want to modify, right click, and use the resize function. (You may want to move the object vertically so it's out of the way of the hull and doesn't mess up adjacent faces. For instance when I work on the NKGN I usually select the superstructure with the "adjacent faces" tab (pyramid #3), move it up, resize with the adjacent vetices pyramid (pyramid #1) and lower it back to the deck when I'm done. This allows resizing of ship parts without the faces shrinking away from one another. It's also a great way to reshape the hulls; I used it to give my old-fashioned merchants straight, WWI-era bows.

If it really bothers you, just change the values in the Ship displacements.cfg file. It's in plain English.

Hmm...must have missed this thread, but anyways.

I think the confusion might be based around the classes of ships chosen by the developers for SH3. Instead of generic classes of merchants, we are handicapped by specific classes of ships which are intended to represent the wide variety of merchants sailing the ocean during WWII.

Using the T2 tanker for example, this specific class of tankers, was built between 1942 and 1945 (also built after the war, but not relevant to the purpose of the discussion). If we used the T2 in it's absolute specific sense, we would have no medium sized tanker prior to 1942.

The random tonnage mod does not treat the specific classes of merchants included in SH3 as the class their name might represent. Instead, I use these classes to represent a variety of possible tankers sailing between 1939 and 1945.

The numbers used in the mod included with SH3 Commander uses data from about 3000 different ship sinkings to develop a range of possible tonnages for generic classes of ships. For the purpose of the random tonnage mod, the following are examples of rules I applied to ship classes (not all inclusive):

C3 Cargo - Represents a large sized dry cargo merchant
C2 Cargo - Represents a medium sized dry cargo merchant
Small Merchant - Represents a small sized dry cargo merchant
Coastal Merchant - Represents a class of tramp steamers
T3 Tanker - Represents a large sized class of tankers
T2 Tanker - Represents a medium sized class of tankers

The values for the tonnage variations are based upon some distribution curves for each class with a 2% increase per year in the seed tonnage value (the value used in the Ship displacements.cfg) and a possible plus or minus 15% variation in actual tonnage. This means it's possible to get some tonnage values at the low end, as well as the high end. In about 1000 different simulations of possible values (using Monte Carlo analysis) the average results were representative of each class ships using, for example, those classes above.

You are welcome to see the data, analysis and statistical basis for each seed value used in the Ship displacements.cfg. Let me know and I'll send you a link to the file.

If you are not satisfied by this answer and the low tonnage still bothers you I suggest:

1. Change the Ship displacements.cfg to tonnage values to stock and set the upper, lower and YearlyAdjust to 1.0. You could also tweak these down to provide a smaller variation, but I think variety is the spice of life, and I like not knowing how many torpedoes it's going to take to sink a big tanker/merchant and if it's going to be "worth" the effort.
2. Change the specific merchant class names to something more generic in the EnglishNames.cfg. If you don't want to make the changes I can post the version I use.

Observer

I have already sent a PM to you regarding this matter. Intrigued rather then dissatisfied is how I would say I feel about this matter. :hmm:

May I take you up on your offer of the link to the file?

Cheers. :up:

Yes, I got the PM, but thought I would reply here for everyone to see at least the rationale involved in case there are other questions.

I posted a mod like this a long time ago when I did the first version of random tonnage, but haven't updated it since with all of the new ships that have been added. This is an updated version.

http://rapidshare.de/files/7711549/G...Names.zip.html

Again, I am happy to share the data and analysis if anyone wants to see it.

:up: