Started in a porpoise. In a way, it's similar to the radio station's ability (or inability) to play random songs. Sometimes you'll get the same song played 2 or 3 times in a row or a certain song played every 3rd or 4th song for a period of time. It's just odd.

The thing is, if I just add more patrol options there's no guarantee that the same thing won't still happen. The best thing would be if we could track down the cause of the problem, but I don't see anything suspicious in the files, so I fear this is something that only the developers will be able to fix.

Other mods have added lots of extra patrol destinations, but given that this is happening here on a 1 in 92 chance I very much doubt that adding more stuff will fix the problem. I'll probably do it just based on hope, but I have grave doubts.

I agree, I don't think simply adding more patrol destinations will fix the issue. Only the devs could really fix it, not just band-aid the problem.

For my 2nd trip to recon Singapore harbor, I just rationalized it as I did such a good job the first time around, they sent me there again:damn:

If this only happens occasionally, I don't think there's anything to fix - I don't think it was that uncommon for a boat to be ordered back to the same patrol zone on consecutive patrols (I haven't done a lot of research, but in scanning the Batfish's patrol logs I noted that her second patrol was right back to the same area (6A) that her first patrol had been, and I think I've read about similar situations for other boats during the war). Even for harbor recons, I can see how, if they need another check of a particular harbor (maybe the Allied operation that they wanted the info for got delayed or something), the brass would see a lot of benefit to sending back the guy who had just proven he could get in there and was familiar with the layout, rather than sending someone who had never tried it before.

It does seem a little more unlikely that they would send you in to drop an agent in the same place twice in a row, unless maybe the first one got killed or wounded and needed a replacement, so even then if it only happens every once in a while I don't see it as a big deal.

Of course, if it starts happening for 3, 4 or 5 missions in a row, or repeats every other patrol or something, then that would be something worth trying to fix. What with the bugs, patches, RFB updates and testing/tweaking, I haven't been able to run enough patrols so far in a career for me to notice this problem myself (had to trash my latest career on patrol 2 last night when I ran into some weird graphics and TF/convoy behavior that I thought might have been attributable to being in mid-career during my last massive RFB update and tweakfest), but I've seen enough posts around here from folks that seem to be plagued with repeats for several patrols in a row (at least with stock) to think that there probably is some sort of problem with the stock game in this regard.

Hopefully Beery or the other modders who have been attacking this issue have come up with a workable solution. If RFB stays stable and the next patch doesn't come out for a bit, I might have a chance to find out for myself :)

Unless there's a big bug that pops up, or unless I find some great new feature I reckon version 1.24 (the current version) will be the final version for SH4 version 1.2.

LOL - don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to discourage you from pressing on with new RFB versions - no way I want to bring down the wrath of the community on me for suggesting any such slowdown in this great work :rotfl:

RE, "repeat patrol bug". I developed a workaround a few weeks ago. So, in the intrests of being neighborly, and my dislike to see someone try and reinvent the wheel, heres the gist on how missions work:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...7&postcount=40

A less "gamey" standalone here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=113739

Feel free to use that as a template for your own uses if you want. Hopefully ubi fixes it, if not, this extended format works quite well.

Hehe, no. It's just that the recent batch of changes I've made (post-1.24) are not all that Earth-shattering, and I see nothing very Earth-shattering on the horizon...

Hang on, that probably means I'm not seeking out new mods diligently enough.

Yeah. I've considered 'forcing' start and end dates for missions, but I worry that things get too scripted that way: i.e. if we do it for all missions we're essentially killing the entire random campaign in order to stamp out an intermittent (and relatively rare) bug. I fear this particular cure might be worse than the disease. It could work if the missions were split up so that they only covered a few days each, which would preserve some randomness, but modifying that Flotilla.upc file would be a real bitch.

Personally, I'm 100% with Panthercules on this. It's a relatively rare bug so I'm not convinced it needs fixing. Two or even three (or more) photo missions in a row to the same port could be reasonable (top brass could want a few months of data for what ships to expect in that port, and why choose different boats to do what one captain does really well?). Same with spy missions - spies get captured all the time. On the other hand, if you know a good place to land one spy, why not use it again to land another - two or three spies landed safely are better than one. The only mission that would seem odd if it repeated would be the insert commando mission - if it succeeded why do it again and if it failed why do it again?

I tend to agree with that and don't mind some repeating missions. As panthercules wrote, it wouldn't be that unrealisitc to be sent to the same area in consecutive patrols.

Well, from my experience the repeat patrol bug isnt all that rare, but fairly common. Forcing patrol area's in itself isnt all that bad when you consider the game has 5 or 6 different missions associated with most patrol areas. You say "honshu" and the game might throw spy, photo, patrol or sink in any location in that geographical area.

Where things start getting ugly is when you start scripting specific types of missions as opposed to just general locations. That's is an issue im going to be spending more time on, but is unrelated to the suggestion ive given to you. Anyway, just thought id save you some time.

Take the case of His Majesty's Submarine Seraph which became a specialist at "cloak and dagger" missions but still carried out her fair share of routine patrols.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Seraph_%28P219%29
Once the planning staff know that you are good at something the more likely they are to give you the job again.

I've never had a patrol repeated, I'm beginning to feel a bit left out..:D

Unlike in Sh3 where I seemed to get the same grid square time and time again.

I must admit I've never had a patrol repeated. Maybe that makes me a bit too casual about it.

Egan and I have been working on missions for a few weeks now. We've added new missions to the game and I've rewritten the flotilla files a couple of times, adding a whole new base of operations and all-new patrol objectives that we've created from scratch, so the mission set-ups, UPC files and campaign files are very well understood at this end.

But don't get me wrong, I appreciate the sentiment. Any info is helpful. :up: