So I was messing around in SH4 and coming up with ideas to have a extra friendly ship or possibly commanding a task force. I set an armed merchant cruiser to have a very large range. I had it follow me to my patrol zone in South Africa.

To my surprise the cruiser actually engaged aircraft and even the aircraft attacked it instead of me! I know how useful this could be to this mod. Here is some pictures from the voyage. :DL


Firing main guns with AA shells. 5.9 inch AA? Ouch! At closer range he uses machine guns. He also dodges. It's kind of scary how smart they made them. :o
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...200000_838.jpg

A torpedo bomber getting eaten alive.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...200216_578.jpg

My Walter U-Boat ganging up on the poor little plane
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...200231_842.jpg

Night fight. Merchant shining it's spotlights at the plane. A pretty sight.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...200657_152.jpg

Apparently the cruiser was more important than me! :rotfl2:
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...203344_878.jpg

He followed me from the middle of the Indian Ocean all the way to the tip of south Africa... Then a task force came and ate him. I got my revenge.

It actually wasn't that hard to do. I just met up with him and gave him the exact same waypoint as me. My only issue is that I couldn't get this working with the US campaign. Not even the scouter aircraft. The icons won't show up on the map even though the ability shows up in the "captains special abilities" area. I added all the required stuff to the UPC files. But still no go.

More info on my testing. The aircraft carriers you can control at higher ranks move about the sea randomly. You can launch scouts from them. What I'm wondering is if we can control the aircraft carrier... And launch bombers from them. :hmmm:

Just putting the idea out there. I know you guys have a lot on your plate already. Keep up the good work!

:o

I have this wonderful idea to sortie a task force and have the player follow it, as an escort. The patrol orders will give you the time the task force will arrive at certain checkpoints (think the waypoint system when moving from Lorient to your new port in the far east in Operation Monsun) give the base course and speed of the task force at this given waypoint and let that be that, the player can (and probably will) follow the task force, breaking off to engage a single merchant or something.
However this cruiser idea leaves a lot of possibilities open. it will be impossible to set up a complicated task force with search patterns and formations but if the friendly ships come follow you in a column, we can make a truly accurate (and, historically brutal) Channel Dash!

That's what I was thinking. :yep:

Althought it doesn't have to be a cruiser BTW. You gain access in later ranks to a Japanese Task Force consisting of DD's and BB's. I think a carrier too. They operate the same way.

To get them to work the lines in the mission editor have to look like this:

[RndGroup 7]
GroupName=Axis_TaskForce_004
Category=0
CommandEntry=0
Long=11077000.000000
Lat=-2412000.000000
Height=0.000000
DelayMin=60
DelayMinInterv=1440
SpawnProbability=100
RandStartRadius=0.000000
ReportPosMin=720
ReportPosProbability=75
HighPrioContact=false
Heading=33.978001
Speed=17.000000
ColumnsNo=1
Spacing=1200
DeleteOnLastWaypoint=false
CurrentInstanceID=0
GameEntryDate=19440301
GameEntryTime=0
GameExitDate=19441031
GameExitTime=0
MaxInst=1
MaxUnitsCreated=100
DockedShip=false
TacticalGroup=true <--- This must be enabled to have it a player controllable unit.
AvailStartDate=19440301
AvailEndDate=19440831
ControlZoneRadius=1000.000000 <---Max of around 6000. They can follow you pretty far with this.
NextWP=0

Overall it works really well. The only issue is that when you change it's waypoint they do a little circle and drive around for about an hour before resuming course. Like they're re-organizing.

But again I tried really hard to give these to the US Campaign but I guess there's a lot to it. But still. Even if you guys only release an Axis version of the mod it will still be epic with a player controlled task force.

supply
 

Well, since you guys do all the surface stuff, any idea why some ships can so supply missions and other CTD?

Peabody

it always depends on where it's CTD'ing. does it happen when you hit the "launch marines" button or when you start a supply mission?
It's not my field of expertise, so I don't know much about it, I may get us all started in the right direction though

SH427, you start working with Hellish yet? on thosse SHV ships? I can not wait to see those ships you guys are working on.

Peabody, This is my part of the mod. I can help you here, if you tell me the info Lurker asks for in his OM mod, Ship type, Date, Flotilla, etc

I can not get us to COMMAND a task force, but I have been able to get us to escort ships, and have ships escort us. By messaging the player a set course to follow if they like. This is the only way I can think of doing this. As for air cover, I have airbases appear in the ocean randomly. Darkfish figured how to make them follow your ship, but I have yet to add this. I am still waiting to download the latest version.

I have figured a way to do that,:yeah: will post my findings this weekend!

I don't know what you are talking about with Lurker and the OM mod. It isn't a MOD. I asked here since you guys are doing a lot of work on surface ships. Some ships, for example the Montana you can do a supply mission, others like the Asashio that I made you can not, it crashes when you click to launch the boat.
I thought it might be because the MC01-7 nodes were not there, but I added them and it still crashes when you click launch boat.
Just wondered if someone knew what is missing that causes it not to work.

Peabody

OH I miss understood, I am sorry.
While OM, he asks for your flotilla, sub type, date etc, when there is problem. I thought you were having a problem with the early version on this mod.

I have no idea what you ships are doing, I have not had this problem yet. I have had the ship no launch the raft, or have the raft show up inside the ship causing damage.

would all SWM members please check the website.
Anyone hear from Poly or ETR3 SS lately

Poly, no

ETR3 is still around but he's moved on to other projects.

Damn, anyway to get him back? We could really use him!
Have you seen the website?

That's too bad. Because I can command a task force with the stock game. :03:

They operate exactly the same as the escort cruiser just with more ships.

I'm not sure if you misunderstood what I was trying to show you or if there's a specific reason this cannot be done.

Using that function I can get a task force, but starting a patrol as the lead ship of a task force/convoy is what I meant

hmm

I was thinking about maybe making a way to have the player start alone, but having a base nearby (have the task forces available if you are a BB captain) so you can spawn your escorts shortly after you leave port. like, exit wilhelmshaven and stop at a certain point so many kilometers east of Heligoland, then spawn your escorts from a base nearby, who will then be attached to you... :hmmm: I don't know.

Ahh I see now. I like Ivan's idea. How easy is this "leader of a task force" to set up?

I know you guys have a lot to work on. So maybe a simple method would be better for now.

Just throwing the idea at you to see what you'd think. I really want to see this mod released and I want to help any way I can.

hey people.

i have been hovering around this forum for a few years now, all the time looking for a good surface warfare mod. And i have been redirected to this mod several times.

first of all, is this still being worked on? or has it been abandoned?

also, i have heard a couple times about a "site" for this mod but i have googled for 15 minutes with phrases about it and i cannot find a separate site anywhere...

finally, if this is still alive, i may be able to be of help. While i have not done almost any modding for SH4, i have done extensive script-type-modding for other games. (freelancer most extensively) If i could get a small tutorial for redundant tasks, i may be able to help...thanks.

This mod is currently a WIP

I will PM you later with a link to the teams site, the site is for members only, so you need to join. We are happy to have your help

Just wanted to throw this out there as an idea, since you can't command ships within the game etc. etc. would it make sense to use an interface a la "Total War" or "Great Naval Battles", where each unit (or its equivalent) is available in a certain amount at a certain date (minus losses), to each side on a separate campaign map where they can be moved from port to port used to patrol and used to attack enemy units and the SH4 engine will be used to "instance" the combat between the units.

Just an idea.