Uboot Marschwege / Sub routes
 

Ahoi,

while on translating the harbour-pilot-scripts into german I got an idea to extend them. As I am playing SH5, it is a very timeintensive game with timeslots where I do completly differnet things. While travelling to another patrol area I often read a book, do some work for my wife, etc. But if I play with real navigation I cant do anything next to the game. And if I'm in the south-western approaches, I always have to set up the same lanes for going home - thats boring ;-)

Ok and here my idea to mod:

I want to define some sub routes from Kiel, W.-Haven, etc. to the different patrol-areas, interesting places like the german autobahns.

In this pic below You will see what I mean:

http://www.mediafire.com/conv/031427...8e2366ae6g.jpg

Like the harbour pilot, I would define the waypoints along this lanes (or other we have to find out) and put them into the Autoscripts folder. I think, if I do it as a construction kit it is not so much work because many sections are the same.

http://www.mediafire.com/conv/979882...f6414e6a6g.jpg

Building some documentation around as a PDF with some maps and charts for finding the correct scriptname would be nice, because I don't want to name the scitps like "Kiel - Northsea". At the moment I'm thinking about something like the naming standards for the allied convoys or the KM grids as start and goal. But I have to see. Some additional informations around the lines like travelling times, real time by the suggested timecompression, etc.

What do You think about this? Not only for real navigation fans, also for those who are tired to set up the same courses all the time? :timeout:

I know it is some work but if You like this idea, I would do it.:up:

Cheers,
Paco.

Hi Paco - looks great:yeah:

I think this will work and I will use it:yep:
We now have the resume ability where if we where on the east coast of the UK and we selected and ran the "North sea inbound" the navigator will look for the nearest preset waypoint and head there.
So yes setting autobahns would get us close to where we would need to go.
:up:

Brilliant idea Paco! :up:

When your sub arrives at a waypoint it would be good if the script changed the next waypoint that you havnt reached yet using dead reckoning or celestial fix . So basically the same as real navigation works now for the next waypoint . The routes wouldnt be the same all the time . Dont know if this is possible .

A suggestion:

you can have a look at uboat.net for common routes followed by U-boats.

Historical position reports for most of the war patrols of individual U-boats are visually drawn on map in this website. :up:

that actually sounds very interesting and would be totally awesome

This would be great! :yeah:

Looks really good, i forward this :up:

Looks like a really good idea.:up:

It would be great if you had an 'end mission at sea' function maybe 100kms from port like in the other Silent Hunter games. This would also be good for those with older computers, who have problems with ctd's close to port.

Off topic: why the crashes occur going into port more than going out of port? I'm just curious.

Hello,

I've made a first test with a route from Wilhelmshaven to somewhere near the Faroe Islands.

I think it works fine, but I cannot travel with a TC above 512. The game misses the next waypoint and Your sub goes straight ahead until You will stop it. :timeout:

In the screenshot below You see, that I haven't started the route frome Wilhelmshaven. I have entered it from the Skagerrak. I went there with the Skagerrak-pilot from Kiel. I have activated the Marschweg-Autoscript and the sub found the nearest waypoint there and headed to NE.

http://www.mediafire.com/conv/1376d6...2d91fcf86g.jpg

Near Bergen, I have travelled with TC 1024 and the Pilot missed the next WP. So I deactivated and reactivated the scipt on a low TC and it found the next one and resumed the given route.

The parameters for th sha-file are:

In my opinion the values are working fine, but perhaps there are some suggestions from Your side. :yeah:

The testversion with this route: http://www.mediafire.com/?5a768oo2o45j6br

Because it is dull to work with the Mission-Editor for finding the needed waypoints, I'll need some help from You :D

The game messures from
x-achse -21 600 000 metres to -21 600 000 -> 43 200 000 metres=pixel
and
y-achse -10 800 000 metres to -10 800 000. -> 21 600 000 metres=pixel

I have converted the large map file into a bmp file. But I got an ugly picture where I cant distinguish land from water. Perhaps someone could convert this file for me. I want to draw the lines in this picture for getting the x- and y-position ingame. I think the resolution from 1 pixel = 2000 m is exactly enough for defining the sub-routes.

If needed, I have an 80 MB PSD File from this map. Please PM me for the link.

Thanks,
Paco.

Hi Paco - looking good so far:woot:
Some point to consider:-

[BUFFERZONE]
2000,0,2,3,1000,3,2,1

Here the first param is the detection radius for a warning message
You could use this as your lookout calling a contact. If you set this at say 5000 or 6000 and then set param 3 to 2 and param 4 to 9999 - the result would be:-

A ship within 5 to 6km will cause TC to drop to x1 and a message to display and speed to remain the same.
This could be a nice way to let us retake control of the boat if the ship is a target
:hmmm:


To get around this you can (and I have done this many times) just add extra waypoints in between so that they are smaller leg runs.

An easy way to get the coords is to run your script with the game in windowed mode. At the same time run dbview as it will give you lots of info anout what navigation is doing. So as each leg runs through - dbview will give you constant feedback as to how far to the next way point check (x4 for non precision). When you are at the halfway point - get a new fix from the nav officer and insert that into your script.

Do try to run dbview at the same time as it helps a lot:up:

Thanks Trevally, that helps me a lot. :salute:

What am I doing now? I'm writing a script in Python which is calculating the waypoints between, I called them, masterpoints. Masterpoints are waypoints where the heading of the sub will change.

I hope, that I will finish the work with this script in a few days. I want to have the following features:

• reading from a file within only the masterpoints
• calculate all needed waypoints between start and end over the complete sub route
• the calculation is based on the given value for the max. distance between two waypoints. For example 10,000 or 5,000 m. If the distance between two masterpoints is 100,000, we need 9 or 19 calculated waypoints
• all calculated waypoints draw straight lines between the masterpoints
• determine the angle of the course to add comments to the waypoints. For example" Heading NNE, Herr Kaleun" for an angle of 10 degree. ( I hope I'll get that to work :hmm2:)
• writing the whole SHN-File by executing the script

I know, that needs some time to do this, but I think, for later tests and modifications it makes sense. We are able to define the masterpoints in a textfile and the script will do the calculation for the needed SHN-file. After that, we are doing tests with different speeds and TCs and if we'll get in trouble, we'll change the Parameters for distances and will doing a recalculation for the files.


Over all, I think this method will decrease time to build new routes. It will be easy to define long-range routes with only a few given masterpoints and the scipt hopefully will do the rest for us. :D

Ah, the script does this calculation not ingame! Its only for building the files before releasing the mod or for building new routes befor activating them via JSGME.

Greetings,
Paco.

Hi Paco,

I like the method you have described below. :up:
If you don't mind, I have a couple of suggestions that hopefully might apply to your upcoming mod: since you know how to work in python...

1 - why don't you make the 'calculated waypoints' to be interpolated directly in game?

2 - what about adding some randomness to both masterpoints and calculated waypoints?

Last but not least, don't exitate to get in touch with me if you still need for help with that map. :up:

Ah - sounds great Paco, a script making script:D

This will add a great touch:yeah:

Thanks, gap. :D

I am scripting in perl and bash (but beware, I'm not a script-junky, I use it for my own needs), and I hope to get fast into python. It seems to me that it is an easy to learn language (the basic needs) and as You mentioned above, it is used ingame.

But I don't know how the game is starting and processing the scripts during the operating time. It would be a pity, if a bad designed script would make CTDs or some other missfunctions, and so I think it is better to build the routes outside of the game. Perhaps, at later time a member with more know-how could transfer the scripting into the game. :salute:


:hmmm: its difficult to add randomness to the masterpoints, because I cannot detect if I hit land :rotfl2:. But for the waypoints I could add a few hundred meters at both sides to simulate some meanderings. Or do You mean something different?

Thanks :salute: Here is the download-link for the map in psd-format: http://www.mediafire.com/?sydokzou4gzexjy


Greetings,
Paco.