[REL] Pre Pearl Harbor Career Start 4.2
 

Pre Pearl Harbor Career Start Version 4.3

This mod will allow you to begin an American Career before the Pearl Harbor attack in the stock game, Real Fleet Boat, Trigger Maru - Overhauled, Run Silent, Run Deep, the Campaign, the MidwayCareer mod, the Subsim.com Narwhal mod, or a combination of MidwayCareer and the Narwhal mod. The reason for creating this is because the game includes radio messages and radio station programing from December 7th, 8th, and so on, and users of my radio mods know I've included programing from those dates and before as well. But the Career menu in the stock game won't let you see or hear these as it starts no earlier than December 8th, you don't get into your office until the 9th, and your first patrol starts a day later. So I've created this mod to address that problem.


This update:

- Changes the American neutrality dates so the Japanese will now act as though the war has already begun, so now you have to be careful around them. You can now also send contact reports, and be ordered to ignore or attempt to shadow the contact.

- Changes the start dates for the Japanese airbases on Formosa and mainland China, so they won't begin operating before December 7th, 1941, and thus won't attack Manila based boats before then.

- Edited the 7 pre-war Asiatic Fleet missions to include orders to report Japanese movements, and removed that specific order from the old 7th mission.

- Tweaked the location and heading of the pre-attack battleships in Pearl to be more inline with the location of the wrecks later.

- Edited and added the files necessary to fix the sub upgrade bug in TMO 2.5 in the TMO standalone version. This means you will lose the "Terrible T" campaign, but it was the ONLY way to get it to work properly in 2.5.


The mod is set to start on November 30th, 1941. This will place you in your office on December 1st, and your first patrol will start the next day. The original career start dates are included. I've only added an extra one at the top of the CareerStart.upc, and renumbered the following ones. So if you choose, you can still select the original start dates, and see the movies associated with them.

This mod includes a new set of missions for before the war. This will prevent you being ordered to sink enemy shipping, do photo recons, etc., before the war actually begins. All the calls for the wartime missions have had their start dates modified so they won't appear until December 7th. This means you won't get them until the second patrol of your career, or you select the next start date instead of November 30th. There are seven Asiatic Fleet missions, and eight Pearl Harbor based missions (these are also used by the MidwayCareer mod). See the included prePH missions.txt for details on these missions, some of which have been updated.

It also includes in all the missions Admiral Stark's "Execute unrestricted warfare" order, and for the RSRDC users, those missions also include the "Air raid on Pearl Harbor" message they removed from their versions of the messages.txt file. Rather than add them to a new messages.txt I thought they were both important enough to display on screen rather than a notice in the Messages Log, which would then require you to open the Messages clipboard to read them. Note for users of Webster's Reduced Radio Traffic for v1.4 & v1.5 mod: This mod already has the Admiral Stark order in it. To avoid getting duplicate messages, before enabling, open the messages.txt in that mod and delete that line in it.

For those who like to start at the dock when based at Pearl Harbor, I've included a Pre-warPH_LOC.mis file which removes the wrecks of the battleships hit in the Pearl Harbor attack and replaces them with pre-attack versions as well as the other BBs present at the time. Only the battleships have been added by me. All others ships are from the original Campaign_LOC.mis file, which this is an edited version of. While Battleship Row now displays properly when you sail out of Pearl Harbor, it does not when you return. Because the air attack is not modeled in the game, no ships are hit or sunk when you return after the 7th. For this reason I suggest that for realism and historical accuracy, you use the "End patrol" feature outside rather than sailing into the harbor. The wrecks will return on your second patrol. You should be aware that adding the extra ships does slightly increase the lag using Pearl Harbor always has.

There's also a background image for the November 30th, 1941 date. This way you don't see the USS Arizona all blown up before it happens.

Install using the JoneSoft Generic Mod Enabler. You will have eight install options:


Stock and RFB Pre Pearl Harbor Career Start - Install this version if you're using the stock game, or any version of the standalone Real Fleet Boat.

TMO Pre Pearl Harbor Career Start - Install this version if you're using Trigger Maru - Overhauled 2.2 or 2.5.

RSRDC_SH15_Pre Pearl Harbor Career Start - Install this version if you're using the stock game and Run Silent, Run Deep, the Campaign.

RSRDC_RFB_Pre Pearl Harbor Career Start - Install this version if you're using Real Fleet Boat and Run Silent, Run Deep, the Campaign.

RSRDC_TMO_Pre Pearl Harbor Career Start - Install this version if you're using Trigger Maru - Overhauled and Run Silent, Run Deep, the Campaign.

MidwayCareer Pre Pearl Harbor Career Start - Install this version if you're using peabody's MidwayCareer campaign start mod.

New Narwhal K v 1.8 Pre Pearl Harbor Career Start - Install this version if you're using Subsim.com's Narwhal submarine mod.

Midway & Narwhal Pre Pearl Harbor Career Start - Install this version if you want to use the MidwayCareer and Narwhal mod together. Note that with this option you do NOT have to install the MidwayCareer mod itself first. Both files used by it have been modified here so they can include the Narwhal. You will need to install the Narwhal mod.


Install your chosen version AFTER installing the required mod(s) first.

If you don't want to use JSGME, extract to a temp area, then copy/move the Data folder of the appropriate version to your SH4 install. Click "Yes" when it asks if you want to overwrite. You may wish to make a backup copy of the original files before using this method, in case you want/need to restore them later.

This mod only affects the American Career when using the SH4 U-Boat Add-on.

Special thanks to Ducimus for letting me alter the TMO files, lurker_hlb3 for permission to do the RSRDC versions, to the RFB modders for using the stock game file so I didn't even have to ask them, and extra, extra special thanks to peabody, not only for his MidwayCareer mod and the permission to edit it entirely, but for his invaluable assistance in helping me figure out how to create and edit the files to use the pre-war missions.


Download from here on Subsim (under Gameplay Mods)

From Mediafire:
http://www.mediafire.com/?310mafdcqfg0q

Thanks Fred!

I edited the career upc file like you suggested on the other thread, and it worked great. But I have also snagged a copy of your upc file so I cut and paste if need be in the future.:up:

Of course, it will be a non combat campaign... until pearl harbor. It may be fun if we set a lot of "spy" and photo missions. Not combat of course.

Or be given a "new crew" shake down mission, and all h**l breaks loose, and you are orderred into combat with a green crew, that you have the honor of turning into veterans "overnight".

The photo ops missions would also be cool, as you could be close to enemy waters when the orders come in over the radio to start hostillities against Japan and her co-horts.

In facts, I was wondering about startin our career as commander 6-9 months before the outbreak of WW2 between US and Japan. This could give commanders the possibility of enjoying a few patrol in a "cold war" like atmosphere. I mean, the US are not at war with Japan, but the political situation is getting worse and worse every day. Suddently, in the morning of a day "which will live in infamy" the war begins...
...all the rest is known history, but since we are changing the starting date, why not make things this way?

I think andycaccia has the best idea. If you put to sea on December 1, you would likely when the attack came be ordered to scout the area of Hawaii for the Japanese ships. You would probably not be ordered to go directly to enemy territory without first returning to Pearl for a complete update and preparation.

Of course I'm saying this blindly, without first researching what the actual captains' orders were at that point, so I could be wrong, but I'm thinking probably not.

Nice addition. A couple of things you may want to add. In Roster/Defside.cfg is shows US neutral until Dec 8. I don't know if it is used, but if it is, Japan won't attack on Dec 7. Second to make it more realistic, you could edit the Campaign.LOC file and add it to your MOD and take out the destroyed ships. Of course that will mean they will never be there.

The other is the Attack Pearl Harbor mission was never completed. The task force is there but you would need to change the "evolve from entry date" so they move before Dec 7th and arrive in Hawaii on Dec 7 and then add some Bombing flights with a few added ships at Pearl. Then you could be there when they attack and 'man the flak guns'. If those missions even get loaded, would have to check that out.
Peabody

In reply to several of the comments:

I almost put a note in about how you shouldn't sink any Japanese ships until after the PH attack, but I didn't.

Truth is, in all the time I've been using pre PH starts, I don't remember ever coming across Japs until well after December 7th. Even using a Manila based boat, it's been a couple of days until they show up. Since the oppotunity has never presented itself, I don't know what would happen if you sank a Jap ship before the 7th.

As for patrol orders, my very first mission when testing this mod was an agent insertion in Japan. I looked at it this way: the military and the government pretty much knew war with Japan was inevitable. It was just a question of where and when it would start. So if you can, get your spies in place beforehand. You know, like the Japanese did do in Hawaii.

Any other patrols can be viewed as normal naval routine. I've never gotten a supply mission, so those must only be triggered after a certain date.

The reason I chose November 30th is because it puts you in your office on the 1st, with first patrol starting no earlier than the 2nd of December. Chances are, even in a Manila based boat, you'll be enroute to your assigned target on the 7th. After that, you play normally. I have tried sending status reports several times after the attack, and on the 8th, but have always been told to procede with my assigned mission.

It would be cool if one of the campaign mods would put in the Japanese Pearl Harbor attack force...

Those poor agents
 

Of course the US didn't have anything like the Kempi Tai either. Those poor guys. Talk about not being heard from ever again.

I've uploaded an updated version. See the first post in this thread for details.

I was incorrect on the wrecks of the BBs, I forgot to check the dates and the wrecks are not there until Dec 7 at 0900.

Another thing to remeber if you want to put it is, the US fired the first shot at Pearl Harbor sinking a Midget Sub.

Peabody

Very cool idea Fred. :up:

I've done a massive update. See the first post for details.

Really really nicely done fred.....but I don´t want to miss one of the best mods ever (imho) : RSRDC