Thanks for this Beery:up::up:


RDP

Ayup! Hehe I never noticed tha wa' from Notts. I actually lived in Bingham for a couple of years when I were a nipper. Small world eh?

Ah'll si thi.

Well, I reckon since I'm so far out of the loop on RFB I should open it up completely to anyone else who wants to do further work on it. I may at some point come back to SH4 but it doesn't look like it's going to be soon.

Anyway, you folks probably all have your own individual setups and tweaks that you give to RFB so at least I've built a solid foundation for us realism nuts to build from.

But if anyone wants to take over work on RFB, you have my official 'go-ahead'. The only thing I ask of anyone who builds a bigger mod from RFB's base is that they give credit, as I've done, in the readme file and the credits.txt file to all the contributors.

By the way, speaking of the in-game credits, if you haven't checked out the credits file, look at it in-game (it's in the main menu as 'Roll of Honor') - it's easy to miss the fact that I've changed it quite a bit from its original state - I added a list of lost boats which, I think is quite atmospheric when it's set to the game's credits music.

Also, I have added a couple of new changes in 1.31 - all new ensigns and recognition book flags. Also, deck gun ROF is now (if I recall correctly) 23 seconds per round. Oh God I hope this doesn't start the deck gun discussion again - although on second thought it might get me into the game again.

I used to work in Bingham. I live in Grantham.

An even smaller world, hehe. Grantham... Isn't that where SHE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED came from? Our erstwhile Prime Ministress I mean.

Thanks Beery! Appreciate it, it's hard work doing something when you're not motivated by the subject anymore and not getting paid for it. Hell it's hard enough when you are getting paid! ;)

Thanks again!

Thanks for all your time and effort Beery!!! Looking forward to my first mission. Off to download it.

I prefer to think of it as Isaac Newton's home town. I've been to your Boston a few times but I work in the original Boston. I like your's better.

The update is working just fine for me. Thanks for all the work, it's not true what Yorkshire men say, "If thou does owt for nowt, do it for thissen!" is it.

Thanks again mate.

PS My Mum used to work for Thatcher's dad, she has all the dirt on the familly.:arrgh!:

Great job Beery, but I have a question: which files are responsible for standard green line in attack map? I would prefer to use a default version, but i don't know which files I'm supposed to protect through with replacing?

I apologise for possible mistakes, but my English is very average ;)

Ah love that sayin', and ah reckon it's reight enough. Anyrooad up, when all's said an' done, ah WERE doin' it fer missen. Soom day, sooner as like as later, ah s'l be playin' 't game ageean, an' ah s'l want ter play wi't latest version. :)

Although if truth be told, 'appen ah'd 'v done it later if it were really only for missen.

I love Broad Yorkshire. Thanks for reminding me of that saying - it's a good 'un.

I'm a Lincolnshire Yellow Belly myself, but my Dad is a Tyke reight enough, from Thurgoland, near Barnsley, and me Grandad were Regimental Sergeant Major o' East Yorkshire Regiment in 1916. Dad was RAF and he spent a lot of time trying to kill U-Boats.

RSM eh? That's quite an accomplishment! And in't Great War no less. I've just been waxing lyrical over at Amazon.com about a favourite movie of mine - Richard Attenborough in 'Guns at Batasi' - a really great film and a great character of a RSM played by Dickie. If you haven't seen it grab it if you can - wonderful movie and it's all about the character of the old-style British RSM. I'm usually well up on old army movies but I'd never heard of this one until recently and it's one of the best military films I've ever seen.

On the family in WW1 connections, it seems we both have a few family members who werein the forces. My Great Uncle and Great Grandad were both in the West Yorkshires during WW1 and my Grandad on my dad's side was in the North Staffordshire Regiment (even though he came from County Durham). Thanks to my dad being a Geordie I can do that dialect pretty well too. Anyway, my Great Grandad and my Great Uncle were both wounded on the Somme in 1916 - one was gassed and the other caught in an explosion, but both survived the war, although my Great Uncle died in the 1940s as a result of the gas. One of my uncles was killed in the Army in Cyprus in the '50s, another drove a tank at El Alamein and another flew Vulcan bombers in the RAF in the '60s. My dad was only a kid in WW2 but he joined the army and served as a sergeant in Berlin before the wall went up. Strange that, with my family's military background, I never got any pressure from the family to join up.

What adjustments have you made in the A.I. to bring it to a more historical level?

I've generally kept it the same as it was in RFB 1.2x. I've always been of the opinion that the game is too deadly. The chances of being sunk in the game are far higher than the chances of a real sub in WW2 being sunk and that's still the case in RFB. I'm fairly sure that RFB has the least chance of death of any mod or official patch, or of the original game, but it's still too deadly and could use some toning-down. The trick is to do it in a realistic way and I haven't completely figured that out yet as most of the problem is caused by AI that drops depth charges as if they're guided by a divine hand.

If I do more work on the mod in the future my main focus will be on making the game more interesting but less deadly. To me a game in which my crew dies too often is depressing. This is especially true in SH4 because US subs had a relatively low mortality rate when compared to U-boats in the Atlantic. We should be routinely finishing 5 to 8 patrols and retiring, but we're not. In my experience about 1/3rd of the historical-length careers I've played have ended in safe return and retirement. That's way more deadly than the reality. In my view the reality is deadly enough - there's no reason for a simulation to exaggerate it.

I think the developers caved to public pressure to make the sim more deadly in SH4 v1.3 and I believe it was the worst decision that they could have made. Not only is it historically inaccurate, but it's actually a bad decision in terms of gameplay. As well as being unrealistic, the excitement of getting horrifically depth-charged every time we go out is also superficial (especially if it all-too-often ends in death, as it does). The real thrill to be had from a game like this is the deeper satisfaction of getting a crew through a realistically dangerous career. I believe very strongly that players play a game for a longer period if they're rewarded by success. Failure and the death of one's crew (over and over again) leads to frustration and a game being consigned to the 'games I no longer enjoy' pile.

beery I agree with 100% of your post. Well Said.