There were a couple cases where this happened with boats out of Australia as I recall.

Sounds very cool. I have a moving refit that leaves Rabaul and goes down the slot and hides in a bay during the Invasion of Guadalcanal, but I never thought about the possibility of being able to call an SOS to get one. I will be very eager to see how you implemented this. Great thinking!!

The EvaluationReason on a normal mission is usually "First Objective" so I would assume this is the reason the mission took place, since yours says "Status Report", the reason the mission was generated.
As for exclusiveLayer, I thought it would be the only layer loaded, but I really do not know. Sorry I can't help on that one.

As for the docking icon, I have not found a setting for that one either.

Peabody

Just wondering why there should be such a high renown hit?
Lets say your sub takes damage and you loose fuel but save the sub. So you take on some fuel but no torps and it's time to get back to work or limp home. I think the idea around the mod is cool though.

That's part of the problem, you can't take just fuel, it gives you fuel, torps, gun ammo and repairs (but not hull repair). And your crew is back to full energy, no more fatigued crew members.
Unless he can find a way to change that, but I have not seen it anywhere.
Peabody

Just giving idea's, obvious two ways to go about it, historical and just gameplay for those that like it, but as I've modded some you're so limited to tools due to code to find that perfect balance.

The rescue sub would be cool, but with a refit not sure how you can do fuel only, although I think you could set it as a subtender would act unrealistic, may be no choice.

Interested to see how the SOS works, sounds like a heck of a job. Question is how will it work with supermods. Don't think it would be a problem if you stay away from certain settings. Would have to work with TMO and RFB to be a success and few play stock, so are you trying that.

Not beating you up, if you do it right could be a neat mod...however don't want to take fuel and get court sent to the brig...:haha:

No problem. I understand. I like realism too. That's why I don't want this mod to be a cheat. I really wish I could set rendezvous for refueling only, but seems like it isn't possible.

As far as supermods are concerned, I will try and make four versions: one for RFB, one for TMO, one for RSRDC, and one for stock SH4. The initial test release will probably be for RSRDC. Other versions will come later.

I need everyone's opinion regarding the player renown penalty for sending an SoS to call rescue ships/subs. How much penalty for each supermod?

RFB?

TMO?

RSRDC?

stock SH4?

I don't think it has to be a crazy amount, but I do have one question, because I never tried it. What would happen if you penalized them more than they have? Will a negative total crash the game? If he only has 1000 renown and you penalize 2000 that will leave -1000, will it cause problems? Also another thing that should be tested, if the -1000 works what happens when he goes out and earns 600 more, will it get the amount correct? I think those issues should be addressed before you waste time deciding on an amount.
If a negative total for renown does cause problems, you may be able to set a trigger for some other form of punishment rather than negative renown.
Just some thoughts.

Peabody

Peabody

I thin Pea is right, that a neg amount would crash the game. I know for a fact a few people have gone wild with these playable surface ships and stack points beyond the scale to where it tripped over 100,000 and crashed the game. It may be easier that no hit at all if the tenders are within friendly territory.

No need to worry about that. There are no problems regarding player renown going negative. I have play tested campaign games that hit negative renown- no crashes... nothing. The worst that happened to me after docking back at base was a court-martial. :D

Regarding renown going negative and then positive, I am guessing that the game keeps track of negative renown. But I will test it and report back.

Alright. I'm back from testing and this is what I have found:

I started out with 1000 renown. I rendezvoused with a repair ship for a -1500 renown penalty. Then I entered another test trigger zone that gave me 1000, so I should have ended up with 500 total. But I was court-marshalled upon returning. I am thinking that having 500 or less renown triggered that outcome. But the good news is that the game does seem to keep track of negative and positive renown during a mission. So I don't really see this as being a problem.

*edit*

I retested again. This time with starting out with 1000 renown. I rendezvoused with a repair ship for a -1500 renown penalty. Then I entered another test trigger zone that gave me 1500. I ended up with 1000 total. No court-marshal. 500 or less remaining renown seems to be the court-martial threshold.

sounds good !

I don't know about the US, but IJN subs on their way to occupied France did get refueled by german tankers off Madagascar, so refueling at sea was done.

Germans had Milk Cows which gave fuel, ammo, food anf torpedoes to Uboots far from home.

did the US have similar tactics ? I don't think so.

keltos

Did the US have similar tactics? Not that I know of. :hmmm: But I'm no expert on the pacific sub war...

I'm thinking of placing one rescue ship SoS rendezvous point perhaps at a maximum of 300-500 miles from each sub base. I think that would be a fair distance. I might also add a couple of rescue sub SoS rendezvous points deep inside enemy territory- BUT with a higher renown penalty if used (due to the danger and farther distances involved). :|\\

That is very interesting. :hmmm: I am wondering why the court martial? I wonder if the minus makes the game think you either destroyed your sub or sank some friendlies.
Still a lot of little secrets in this strange game. That's great that it works anyway.
It looks like it may be a little more difficult to decide on a penalty though. I would think you may take a penalty hit for a damaged sub, and if you then have to call an SOS it may be enough to cause a court martial and that would defeat the purpose of the SOS.
I think the idea is great, maybe when you release it you could ask people to keep track of their situation when they use the SOS and whether they get a court martial or not, it may give enough information to decide what works and what doesn't.
Maybe even make a note of renown before you start a patrol and if you take any damage, make a note of how much and then use the SOS on purpose just to test what happens and how much renown you gained or lost.
Sinking ships should not be a problem keeping track of, each ship gives the renown points in the .cfg file for that ship. IF the game uses those numbers, I never tested it.

But as long as the negative amounts don't cause a problem the rest can be tested. For example, you started with 1000, but what if you bought some new radar, new gun etc and left with almost nothing. Then the SOS cost -500 but you earn back 400 by sinking a Nippon Tanker. You would only have 400+. Would it be the 500 that is the threshold or is it the difference between what you lost and what you gained?

I just did a test where I bought guns and spend all the renown, left port and just docked without even leaving port, so I entered with 0 renown and no court martial. So somehow it has to be taking into account the amount of minus versus the amount of Plus. Since in both of your tests the Minus was the same but the Plus amount was different.

To start putting it together:
1. In your first test you lost -1500 but gained back 1000 and had a loss of -500 (court martial)

2. In your second test you lost -1500 but you gained 1500, so had a loss of 0 (no court martial)

3. My test I lost nothing, I gained nothing (no court martial)

So if you only take into account the actual success or failure of the patrol then maybe any Loss may be a court martial, and anything in the 0 or better is no court martial.
So that could be like a double penalty. If you have to use an SOS, then you may have to sink more ships to even it out before you return to base or you will get court martialed. And add a bit of realism in having to know which ships are the "important' ships to sink to gain back the renown you need.

Sorry I was so long winded, I find things like this very interesting in trying to figure out how they operate.

Peabody

Great post, Peabody. Lots of info there. I'm still not sure how the negative renown works. Maybe a large negative renown hit triggers the court martial upon return to port, kind of the same as sinking a friendly ship. I'm really not sure. But it does seem that 0 renown is the threshold for court martial. Much to think about.

I think how much renown penalty in this mod will depend much on how much renown the player gets at the start of the campaign. I know these numbers vary widely depending on the the super mod.

Here are a few more screenshots showing some campaign messages from sub headquarters regarding SoS messages (in chronological order):

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3027/nonameqy.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7566/noname2a.jpg

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/849/noname3a.jpg

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/641/noname4m.jpg

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/5312/noname3y.jpg

Drifter, are there girls onboard ? :D

Oh hell yeah! Love Boat. Party, party, party while waiting for refueling and repairs to finish. :woot: I hope the hard-core players don't mind. ;)

How's this? http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/images/icons/icon10.gif

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/4192/noname2nk.jpg

Here are some more details so far:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SoS v1.0 for Silent Hunter 4 v1.5


- to reveal SoS transmission areas on map, player must first send one status report.

- player sub must be at periscope depth or surfaced to send SoS message once inside SoS transmission area.

- entering an SoS transmission area triggers an event, simulating the player sub sending an SoS message to headquarters. Sub headquarters will radio you back telling you they received your distress message, and give you further details regarding rescue task force rendezvous times and locations. The initial SoS message sent by player sub will transmit instantaneously upon entering the transmission areas. Avoid entering these marked transmission areas unless you intend to send an SoS message. Only one SoS message per transmission area per mission can be sent.