How do you change uboat availability?
 

Hello all,

To clarify what I am trying to ask.. I would like to be able to change the availability of the uboats, not only the Flotilla but also the year. So say, for example.. you can sail out of Kiel on Sept. 1st 39 in a XXI.

The reason I ask is my brother and I often do 'competitive careers'. For example we will both start on the same date, in the same boat. See who lives longest, accumulates more tonnage, renown etc. We have done alot of these with the realistic configuration and thought it would be fun to try a few far fetched ones.

I realize that typing instructions for such a thing can take just as long as writing a mod for it yourself, but if someone can point me to a tutorial or something it would be much appreciated. I checked the sticky post but didn't find a tut for what I am asking.

*Edit - Also, I don't expect this for all the late war torps etc, we can use them as they come out. Just anything that would cause a conflict. Conning towers, guns and ammo that are not generic from early war etc.

1- open basic.cfg in notepad, scroll down about 3/4 of the way until you reach this header:
;[SUBMARINE_AMMO11];XXI
[SUBMARINE_AMMO10]
Type=3
Version=0
ForeTubes=6
AftTubes=0
ForeResIntern=17
ForeResExtern=0
ForeResExtra=0
AftResIntern=0
AftResExtern=0
ShellSlots=10
NbYears=3 <--------- I think you have to change this to 5
Renown=11
Year0=1943 <--------------change to 1939
ForeTube00=3 ;T1
ForeTube01=3
ForeTube02=3
ForeTube03=3

2- Save your changes and close notepad
3- open Flotilla.cfg in notepad and scroll to the desired flotilla. Using 2cd Flot as example:

Flotilla1=903
TO1=941
NbStartingDate1=6
NbDate1=6
Emblem1=data/Emblems/SubEmblems/Flotillas/2nd flotilla.tga
NbBases1=2
Base1_0=752;Wilhelmshaven
Date1_0_0=1939
Month1_0_0=9
Date1_0_1=1940
Month1_0_1=8
DeparturePointLong1_0=973144.000000
DeparturePointLat1_0=6420906.000000
Heading1_0=65.995003
Base1_1=753;Lorient
Date1_1_0=1940
Month1_1_0=9
Date1_1_1=1944
Month1_1_1=8
DeparturePointLong1_1=-399037.000000
DeparturePointLat1_1=5729694.000000
Heading1_1=135.000000
NbUboats1=2
Uboat1_0=1 <-------- change this to 3 (XXI is 3 in the program)
Uboat1_1=2
Date10=1939
Month10=9
Starting10=Yes
TypeSub10=1; VIIB <-------- change this to 3

I think that is all that's required. Someone else will probably be along shortly and correct any mistakes I've made so wait a bit. ;)

zz

You also need to change the availability date of the conning tower, otherwise your lovely big XXI will get a somewhat inadequatly small IIA conning tower...

[CONING_TYPE12] ;XXI/1
Idx=12
Year=1944 <-1939
Month=4 <-8 (any number <= 9)
SubNb=1
SubType0=3
SubVersion0=0
A01=6
A02=6
Renown=0

Basically scan through the lower half of Basic.cfg and change the availability date to 9/1939 for anything that takes your fancy. Review the file first though so that you get a bit of an understanding as to how it works. It's pretty straight forward.

Knew I'd forgotten something. Thanks. :)

zz

Thank you both for the responses!

Have been playing with it a bit (other boats, other Flotillas etc) and it seems pretty straight-forward when you know what you are looking for.

I do have 2 questions though, first... this value:

What exactly is that changing? Just so I know for other edits I may want to do.

Also, when playing a career with these edits I am being given a NULL patrol zone. I can easily get around this by just assigning my own in SH3 Cmdr but would prefer having the game select them if possible. If not I am happy with what you have enabled me to do so far.

Thank you again to you both.

The number of years the boat is available. Change it to 7 not 5. I just compare to other files and adjust accordinly(sp) after backing up the original first.

zz

Oops.....
 

I tried this with my SH3 To see how it would work out but everything just screwed up and was broken. What should I do? I don't have a backup either......:help:

Was just messing with this on my stock install and realized you have to change availability dates for equipment and torpedoes too. Or change the default load out in submarine_ammo10. Thanks for the hint, I'm still learning this stuff.

zz

Yep. Change *everything* to 8/39 and enjoy! ;)

It worked, took the boat out the harbor and ended the patrol. What a fantastic amount of torpedoes!!!!! :o Never upgraded past a VIIb before. Thinking now how to do this in my GW install without FUBARing it...... aww heck, I like my 4 merch/ 20,000 ton avg per patrol. Think I'll pass.

zz

I am doing it on GW 1.1a

All I did was make a "XXI 39 Mod" folder in my MODS folder. then data/Cfg. Put Flotilla.cfg and Basic.cfg in there (copied from the game folder after applying GW and patches.), edit them, then load them like a mod. I can the unload it and play stock GW.

Good idea, I'll do that.

zz

Would this process also apply to other subs?

Yeah I have done it with a few others. I had to look around the files a bit to make sure I had the right number for the sub (ie.. when zzsteven posted earlier "Uboat1_0=1 <-------- change this to 3 (XXI is 3 in the program)")

Also, besides the values that zzsteven and JScones point out, I also had to change:

[AMMO_TYPE9];2cm FK C/38 Flakzwiling XXI
Idx=9
Year=1939 <------ I changed to 1939
Month=4
AP=2000
Renown=0

Although it says AMMO_TYPE it didn't even give me the guns without that change lol :oops:

I opened up my Basic.cfg and just used the Find function and searched for XXI. I am sure you will find anything boat specific if you do the same with what you want changed. Just make sure you do it as a mod as I detailed above if you want to just do it for a 'fun' career.

Keep in mind though, like I posted above. For some reason after doing this I was never assigned a patrol grid, it was always NULL. If you use SH3 Commander you can set them yourself.

Good catch on the flak guns, didn't think to look in there. My patrol grid was 0 not null, think I messed up a date somwhere and it read from the prewar part of the grid files. Just finished my GW patrol and will mess with this some more over the weekend.

I like tweaking files! :D

zz